There’s nothing quite as frustrating as people who are criticising if you are doing your best to build something.

And Ezra’s heart must have sunk into his shoes when he has returned with a group from exile and Babylon, and finally things start to happen. The temple is being rebuilt. And there is a massive song of praise when the foundations of the temple are finished. But at the same time there is a large group of the older priests, Levites, and family heads who have seen the first temple, the temple built by Solomon, and they weep (Ezra 3:12-13).

This temple is nothing like the glorious temple in the past. It is nowhere near as grand.

And, even when the temple is finished, there is something lacking in this second temple. When the tabernacle and later the temple is built, it says on both occasions that the glory of God came to rest in it.

^‘Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle’ (Ex. 40:34-35).

And about the first temple: ‘As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire descended from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple. The priests could not enter into the Temple because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s Temple’ (2 Chron. 7:1-2)

This Glory of the Lord, also called Shekinah, is defined as ‘God’s visible presence’, and even though no one is quite sure what it looks like, it is obvious and awe-inspiring to everyone. God is here.

But in this second temple, it doesn’t happen. God’s glory does not dwell in the second temple in the way it did in the first or indeed in the tabernacle. And a whole series of prophets in the Old Testament is reflecting on this issue and looking forward to the time when God will come to his temple. 

Our reading from Malachi is prophesying that the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. He will come and purify, restore the worship, and bring judgement on those who defile the house by their sorcery, adultery or lying, and to those who oppress the vulnerable, dependent workers, widows, orphans, and aliens.

Another prophet, Haggai, takes it even further: ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty” (Haggai 2:9).

But the Glory of God did not return to the temple. And after Malachi’s prophesy, there was about 400 years of silence.

400 years of faithful Simeon’s and Anna’s, who passed on the baton of the faith, who kept on praying for the Lord to come to his temple. To see the presence and the glory of the Lord, and to see worship of God restored. Even to see Isaiah’s prophecy come true that all the nations of the world would come to worship the God of Israel. Simeon’s song later on even quotes from these prophecies.

And then, here in our Gospel reading, it finally happens. Jesus is brought into the temple, and Simeon and Anna both recognise Him as the Lord who has finally come to his Temple. God has not forgotten nor forsaken us. Here He is. This little baby is no one less than the Lord God Himself.

Whereas in many parts of the world the Church is growing and thriving, we ourselves seem to be in a place where the Church is struggling. Not only in the number of churchgoers, not only by being in a country that has wandered away from the Christian faith, but also the church itself is clearly struggling, and been getting in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. And don’t we long for that promise from Malachi to become true for us, for the Lord to come to his Church, to purify and cleanse it with his own presence, and to bring truth and justice.

Wouldn’t we love to be serving God in the heyday of Christianity in this country, wouldn’t we love to see full churches and people of all ages praising God together, and the candle of the Christian faith lighting up society? Instead, things are much harder. But, we don’t get to choose what times we live in, we only get to choose what we do with the time that is given to us. St Augustine once said about this: ‘Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.’

But of course our impact on changing the times is only limited. But there is reason to believe the times are changing, and here at St Nicolas we have seen people returning to Christianity, or coming to it for the first time.

And I hope and pray this will be the start of a great revival of the Christian faith in Cranleigh and this country, people recognising that life without God is only bleak and selfish, and ends in emptiness, loneliness and pain. Let’s pray that God will not leave our society to its own devices.

But whether this happens or not, our role may be that of Simeon and Anna. Of faithfully serving God. Of praying for his coming. And of watching and waiting, until those words of Malachi will be fulfilled and the Lord will come to sort things out.

I was recently talking to the grandchild of someone in this church. Her parents hadn’t brought her up as a Christian at all, but she and her brother both became Christians. And the reason she thought this happened was that strangely, even though she wasn’t Christian, she always had Christian friends, and they took her along to church, and she became a Christian. And she said, it was a strange coincidence that both my brother and I always had Christian friends, I think my granddad, who was a man of great faith, must have been praying for us.

I know a number of you carry the burden of children who left church and God behind, but let us be Simeon and Anna’s – I know many of you are – , let’s be people of faithful prayer, watching for the coming of the Lord, let’s continue to pray for God to work in the lives of our children, grandchildren, greatgrandchildren. Or let’s pray for our parents, grandparents or other relatives.

And may we see Simeon’s prayer answered in our own lives, let us pray:  

Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace According to thy word For mine eyes have seen thy salvation Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

Amen.