A Disjointed, Free-Associative Reflection: The Feast of the Presentation, plus Hannah and Mary, plus a beautiful anthem

AM: Psalm 42, 43; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; John 8:31-36
PM: Psalm 48, 87; Haggai 2:1-9; 1 John 3:1-8

Honest to goodness, sometimes my response to the appointed readings for the day reminds me of the silver ball, pinging around the inside of a ringing, dinging pinball machine. This is going to be one of those seemingly random, but ultimately connected, reflections.

Today the church celebrates the presentation of Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem. According to the Torah, specifically Leviticus 12, faithful parents were expected to bring their firstborn to the temple forty days after the birth in order to complete the ceremonial purification of the mother and to redeem the child through a ritual of sacrifice. The story of Mary and Joseph’s enactment of this rite of passage is told in Luke 2:22-40, which curiously is not part of the readings appointed for today. While they are at the temple, Joseph and Mary encounter the aged Simeon, who, upon seeing the infant Jesus, utters the prayer we know as the Nunc Dimittis, which is usually sung in an Anglican Evensong service: “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.”

Now, when I think of the Nunc Dimittis, I also think of the canticle that the Nunc Dimittis is traditionally paired with in the Evensong service: the Magnificat, the prayer uttered by Mary when she visits her cousin Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist, who leaps in his mother’s womb in the presence of Mary. We don’t have the Magnificat (found in Luke 1: 46-55) either in today’s readings, but we do have the Old Testament “type,” or foreshadowing of it, in Hannah’s Prayer in 1 Samuel 2-10. I urge you to read the two songs of praise together: We have two miraculous conceptions, two revelations of God’s will and plan, two faithful responses, and two sons consecrated to God’s service.

And I would be remiss if I ended this mish-mash of a reflection without calling attention to one of the most sublimely beautiful of all twentieth-century anthems, Herbert Howell’s setting of Psalm 42, which we do have in today’s readings, “Like as the hart.” Fix yourself a cup of your favorite beverage, turn on your speakers, close your eyes, and listen:

Written by David Jolliffe

...who promises to be more coherent in the future.