​Before the 1979 prayer book, you may remember that we used to call today Septuagesima. Next Sunday used to be Sexagesima. And the Sunday right before Lent was called Quinquagesima.

With the 1979 prayer book, all of that was dropped, and we carried the season after the Epiphany all the way through Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.

That’s unfortunate, because it’s so easy to come right up to Ash Wednesday without having prepared for Lent. So I urge you to take some time during the next few weeks to think about what you’re going to do for Lent. What will you take on? What small sacrifices will you make?

So in the old days we called today Septuagesima. But today we might call this Sunday Beatitude Sunday. We heard many beatitudes in the scripture readings today. Jeremiah said “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.”

And the Psalm for today is one big beatitude. “Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful!  Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and they meditate on his law day and night.

We’re right in the middle of our Adult Forum study of the Beatitudes of Jesus as found in Matthew, and now, lo and behold, the Gospel for today is the Beatitudes as they’re found in the Gospel according to St. Luke.

The Beatitudes in Luke are similar to those in Matthew, but not identical. In Luke, Jesus says “Blessed are you who are poor,” not poor in spirit. Likewise, in Luke, Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are hungry now,” whereas in Matthew, he says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”  Matthew has a greater list of Beatitudes, including the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and peacemakers. 

That there are two different sets of Beatitudes shouldn’t be a cause of concern, for they’re not in conflict with one another, and it’s likely that Jesus used the literary form of the beatitude frequently in his teaching. 

What is very different in Luke’s version is the section of woes. “Woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you...” This part of Jesus’ beatitudes echo what we heard in Jeremiah. “Thus says the Lord: cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength.”  Or again in the Psalm for today, “It is not so with the wicked; for they are like chaff which the wind blows away. Therefore, the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.”

Why would Jesus say that being poor, or hungry, or sad, or hated is a good thing?  These things are painful, not joyful. No one desires any of them, and when we’re in any of those conditions, we don’t say to ourselves, “How blessed I am to be poor, hungry, sad, or hated.”  No, when we’re in these conditions, we desire to get out of them.

Why does our Lord equate these conditions with blessedness?  It’s because when we lack any of the basic necessities of life, we know we’re in need, that we have an emptiness within us we’re unable to fill. The same is true emotionally when we’re sad or in mourning; there’s a lack of well-being and an emotional void. Likewise, when we don’t have the goodwill of others, it’s painful and we realize we lack their friendship and fellowship.

All of these conditions are needy conditions. All of them, therefore, point out that we’re not in control. For persons of faith, they can lead us to the knowledge of our need for God. Likewise, when we have great riches, when we’re full, content, we can get the idea that we have no need for God.

A very successful businessman decided he wanted to develop his spirituality. He went to a famous spiritual teacher to learn from him. The teacher lived as a hermit high upon a mountain, and the businessman had to spend a great deal of money and effort just to travel to see the teacher.

Finally, he arrived, and the teacher graciously invited him to tea. When the tea was ready, the teacher began to pour the tea into his visitor’s cup. He filled the cup, but continued to pour. The tea flowed over the cup and into the saucer, onto the table, and then onto the floor. Yet the teacher kept pouring.

The man at last shouted, “The cup is full, and the tea is everywhere. Why are you continuing to pour?”

The teacher stopped pouring, replaced the tea pot on the stove, and sat down. He said, “You’re that cup. You’re full to overflowing. Until your cup is empty, there’s nothing I can teach you.”

Are you in need in any way? As painful as that may be, you’re blessed, for that need can lead you to rely upon God. Do you feel an emptiness in your life?  You’re blessed, for that emptiness is a place God wants to fill. It’s not automatic, however. God will not fill that void if he’s not wanted. But if he is wanted, our gracious Lord wants nothing more than to enter our lives and make them whole.

True blessedness then is ours. For no matter what the need is, no matter how painful and basic it is, it’s bearable, for our Lord is with us and carries us through every trial. May he grant you and me the grace to recognize our need and fill that emptiness with his loving presence.

​Are you going to watch the Super Bowl today? A young man was very excited because he just won a ticket to the Super Bowl. His excitement lessened as he realized his seat was in the back of the stadium. As he searched the rows ahead of him for a better seat, he found an empty one right next to the field.


Approaching the man sitting next to the empty seat, he asked if it was taken. The man replied, "No.” Amazed, the young man asked, "How could someone pass up a seat like this?"


The older gentleman responded, "That's my wife's seat. We've been to every Super Bowl together since the day we were married, but she passed away."
 
"Oh, how sad," the man said. "I'm sorry to hear that, but couldn't you find a friend or relative to come with you?"
    
“No," the man said, "They're all at the funeral."
 
Some people can get a little obsessive about the Super Bowl!
 
This is an exciting time at Emmanuel. A call has been made to and accepted by Fr. Zack Guiliano. It’s been quite a process. First, the Vestry established a Search Committee and then the Committee had to put together a parish profile and register the position with the Office for Transition Ministry of the Episcopal Church. They began to gather names of people who were interested. The persons had to be priests in the Anglican Communion, which meant that they had to have gone through the extensive process of study and gaining approval from many people at the parish and diocesan levels, a process that takes several years; and some years of experience in ordained ministry was also necessary.

All of the candidates completed a detailed application, including what they believed about certain things. They sent the application to the diocese, and then the Bishop decided what candidates he would allow the Committee to look at. Then the committee went through all of the applications, and decided what candidates were close enough to our parish profile to warrant looking at.

There were Zoom interviews of the finalists with the Search Committee and Vestry, visits to the candidates in their own parishes, and then visits by the candidates and their spouses to Emmanuel. All of the references had to be called. Finally, when the Search Committee was finished with its work, it sent the finalists to the Vestry, and the Vestry had to decide what two candidates were at the top of their list and who their top choice was, take those names to the bishop, and then he gave his final approval. As you know, they actually went through this process twice.

At the end of the second process, the Senior Warden contacted Fr. Zack, told him that they would like to call him to be the next Rector, and he accepted. Then all the details had to be worked out, including background checks and so on.
 
It’s especially appropriate to talk about this today because the theme in all of the readings is God’s call. In the first reading, God calls Isaiah. “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up…” Isaiah’s response to that revelation was a total feeling of unworthiness. “Woe is me, for I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” To that response, a seraphim took a hot coal from the altar, touched Isaiah’s lips, and God told Isaiah that his guilt was taken away and his sins forgiven. Then the Lord said, “Whom shall I send?” And Isaiah responded, “Here I am, send me.”
 
In the Gospel, Jesus’ reputation as a great teacher and healer had spread among the people and a crowd had gathered to hear him. They were by a lake, and so to get a position where he could be heard he got into one of Peter’s boats and taught from the boat. After speaking, he told Peter to let down his nets for a catch. Peter expressed doubt about the wisdom of doing that because they had fished all night to no avail. But he went ahead and let down the nets and they had such a catch of fish that the boats could barely contain them. Peter then knew he was in the presence of God in some way through this man Jesus. And what was Peter’s response? Unworthiness – just like Isaiah. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” And then, also like Isaiah, the revelation was followed by a call: “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching people” Luke tells us that when they got “their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.”
 
Both the call of Isaiah and the call of Peter were pre-resurrection calls. The last one was post-resurrection: the call of Paul, which we heard about in I Corinthians. Paul tells how Jesus died for our sins, how he was buried, and how on the third day he was raised from the dead. He also recounted the fact that the resurrected Jesus appeared to Peter, whom he refers to as Cephas, then to the twelve, and finally to some 500 witnesses, then to James and the other apostles. Finally, he appeared to Paul. What was Paul’s response? Unworthiness to receive that revelation. “For I am the least of all the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God,” says Paul. As a result, Paul took up the cause of Christ and became an apostle. And what an apostle! Through his efforts, the Christian faith was spread throughout the Roman Empire. Paul became known for all time as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
 
Isaiah, Peter, Paul: All of them were unworthy recipients of divine favor, yet all felt a vocation, and it was God who gave them first forgiveness and then the ability to do what God called them to do. When Fr. Zack gets here, perhaps he will tell you how he has experienced God’s call, and without knowing the specifics, I imagine it will fit that pattern in one way or another.  
 
Does this call process happen only to a few select people—that is, to the ordained? No, it happens to all of the baptized, whether we recognize it or not. If you’ve been baptized, then you’ve been given the gift of God’s Spirit. When you come up to this altar to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, you’ll take into your bodies anew the presence of God. I’m fairly certain that if God becomes present in a person’s life, then he also gives that person a task to assist him in the work of his kingdom. What’s your vocation?    

You’ve seen pictures of the city of Jerusalem. Most all of them have a view of a building with a very large gold dome. It’s called the Dome of the Rock and is a Muslim mosque. It’s the oldest Muslim building on earth, having been built in the seventh century. It was built over the rock upon which it’s believed Abraham would have sacrificed Isaac if God hadn’t stopped him. It’s also the place by tradition where Adam was created, and before Adam, it was by tradition the place from which God created the earth. So it’s a very important location for all three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

I’ve actually seen the rock, for I took a group there in 1997. At that time non-Muslims were allowed to go down beneath the mosque and see the rock upon which Abraham was to have sacrificed Isaac. Now, only Moslems are allowed in and under the mosque.

The place on which the Dome of the Rock was built is the only place where the Temple can be in Judaism. So as long as there is a mosque there, there can be no Temple. The first Temple was built by Solomon, and the last Temple to have been on that location was built by Herod and was destroyed in AD 70. Anyway, it was the second Temple where today’s Gospel takes place.    

The baby Jesus is only 40 days old. The Holy Family travelled to Jerusalem in obedience to Mosaic law. In those days, if you wanted to be close to God, you had to go to Jerusalem—not just anywhere in Jerusalem either, but to the Temple. This  was the place where the glory of God dwelt. 

The Mosaic law required every firstborn male to be dedicated to God, in remembrance of how the angel of death passed over all of the firstborn of Israel in the exodus from Egypt. Likewise, the law also required that a woman, after giving birth to a son, should mark the end of her 40 day purification after giving birth by making a sacrifice at the Temple. 

It’s what happened at the Temple that names the Feast in the Greek Orthodox Church: Hypapante, which means “meeting." St. Luke tells us that living in Jerusalem was a man by the name of Simeon. It had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ." So, at the time when Mary, Joseph, and Jesus arrived at the Temple, the Holy Spirit moved Simeon to go there also. When Simeon saw Jesus, he knew that God’s promise had been fulfilled. He took Jesus up in his arms and said, “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, to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel.”

From the words of Simeon arise the other designation for this feast: Candlemas. All of these themes—the Presentation of Christ, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Hypapante, and Candlemas—are depicted in our stained-glass window above the altar. 

St. Luke tells us that Simeon was told he wouldn’t die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. He must have been an amazing man, for he lived his whole life in a hopeful way. Think about the political situation of Israel at that time. They were an occupied country. They could do no business without being taxed by Rome. There was a 1% income tax, import taxes, export taxes, property, grain, wine, olive oil, emergency taxes, and on and on. The polytheism and all of the immorality that went along with it had been introduced into Israel, which was an abomination to every Jew. The Scriptures were full of God’s promises that he would make Israel a great nation, and here they were groveling at the feet of the Romans. You can be assured that there was not a little groaning and moaning about their situation.

Simeon had seen it all. And yet he went to the Temple day after day, year after year, relying on the promise he had received from the Holy Spirit, that he wouldn’t die before he saw the Lord’s Christ. That’s a choice he made, a choice not to live in pessimistic despair, but to live trusting in the Lord’s promise.

Simeon wasn’t looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, either. He picked up the baby Jesus and uttered a sobering oracle to the blessed Virgin Mary: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul, also.”

We, on the other side of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection, know what Simeon was talking about. We know how the story ends. Oh yes, there are daily battles between good and evil, both in our own lives and in the larger society of which we’re a part, but we know already that God has won the war through our Lord Jesus Christ. Simeon should be the patron saint of all Christians because of his hopefulness. A pessimistic Christian is a contradiction in terms. I’m not saying we should wear rose-colored glasses. I’m certainly not saying we should tolerate evil in any of its myriad forms. But when it comes down to the final analysis, as St. Paul said, “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Therefore, how can we do anything ultimately but rejoice? 

Do you see yourself as basically a joyful person? Do others with whom you live and work and play see you as a joyful person? If so, that’s the proper attitude of the Christian. If not, I recommend a change. As St. Paul said, “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind."