Candlemas

Today is when we celebrate the Presentation of Our Lord, when Jesus was a baby and his parents brought him to the temple in Jerusalem for the first time, to give him a blessing, forty days after he was born, which was their religious tradition.  At the temple, they met Anna and Simeon, and Simeon was so excited to see the baby Jesus that he called Jesus a “light for the nations” or as we just read: “a light for revelation to the gentiles,” which means the people who are not Jewish. 

This celebration of baby Jesus being presented in the temple is an ancient festival, and we used to read Scripture from the prophet Zephaniah, where there’s a line: “I will search Jerusalem with candles.”  So people got the idea to make candles part of the celebration and to bless the candles that we use in worship throughout the year. 

Today is also called “CANDLEMAS”—what words do you see within this word?  CANDLE and MAS, like Christmas, which is a shorter way to say “mass” which is the ancient word for worship whenever Christians gather to celebrate Holy Communion. 

Jesus is the light of the world, so we have special lights around here in our worship space. Do you see some candles?  Well the candles are not just thrown around up here without any purpose.  They all have a purpose and some even have special names! 

Why would candles be important?  Let’s go on a treasure hunt through Scripture!  Let’s find out: what is the big deal about light? 

I looked up an article about why Jews light candles—because we share the same Scripture in the Hebrew Bible, what Christians will call the “Old Testament”—and a professor from Jewish Theological Seminary, Ismar Schorsch, said about this first reading from Scripture “The process of imposing order on chaos begins with the divine command.”[1] 

Genesis 1:3—"Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.”

Then just after Genesis comes the next book of the Torah—Exodus.  This is where Schorsch says “Moses first experiences God’s compassion in the form of a random bush aflame yet unconsumed.” 

Exodus 3:2—"There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.”

That same compassion of God is manifest when the Israelites are traveling through the desert—what does the light sound like in these next readings from Scripture? 

Exodus 13:20-21—"They set out from Succoth, and camped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. The LORD went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night.”

Exodus 19:18—"Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.”

Also the poets speak of light, and we find the poetry of Scripture in the Psalms. 

Psalm 36:9—"For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”

Psalm 119:105—"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

So we don’t have candles in worship just to entertain us, but because we are remembering and we are carrying the light of God.  So let’s look around. 

Altar candles: Every week, we light all these tall candles up here at the front of the sanctuary—there are eight candles.  Why are they where they are?  They highlight the altar where we celebrate communion, highlight the pulpit where we read from God’s Word in the Bible, and highlight the cross that reminds us of Jesus and his death and resurrection.  These altar candles are not made of wax—they are cylinder-shaped containers that hold liquid paraffin, which is a type of liquid wax.  Do you know who takes care of the candles?  That’s the job of the altar guild.  Is there anyone here who has serves on the altar guild?  They set the table for Holy Communion every week, they take care of the candles to fill them with the liquid paraffin or clean them up when they get sooty, and they change the numbers on the hymn board. 

Advent candles: when members of the altar guild need to refill the candles, they put them in this holder, where you see the candles we use at what time of the year?  We have blue Advent candles for Advent, and one pink candle for 3rd Sunday of Advent when we celebrate the joy that Christmas has almost arrived.  These candles usually go into an Advent wreath, a big circle surrounded with green to remind us that God’s love is evergreen like the evergreen plants, and there is always life.  We also have a Christmas candle made of wax, which we light on Christmas Eve. 

Handheld candles: we use these on Christmas Eve, small handheld candles that all sit in a special plastic holder.  Do you know what the candle’s holder is called?  It has a name!  Bobeche (boBESH).  The bobeche is there to catch any drips of wax so they don’t burn your hand or so hot wax doesn’t burn somebody else. 

We’re very careful when we have so much fire in the church!  We have a fire extinguisher up at the front in case the fire goes where we don’t want it to go, and the ushers know how to use fire extinguishers too.  Safety is important!  And because it isn’t good to have fire in the balcony where the choir sits, everyone in the choir gets a battery-operated candle on Christmas Eve, so they also get to hold a light but the light cannot hurt them. 

Luminarias for Christmas Eve—and also guess what!  Lights are not only for inside the church, either!  I read in my “Altar Guild and Sacristy Handbook”:

“For Christmas Eve, luminaria (paper bags weighted with sand and each containing a lighted white candle) may be placed along the entryways to the church building.  It is a lovely Mexican tradition that can be used in any climate unless there is hard rain or heavy snow.”[2]

I have a couple of our luminaria here, or sometimes we call them luminaries.  Have you ever seen these on Christmas Eve?  We have a couple of people in our congregation who set these out every year on Christmas Eve, to be a sign to everyone outside that Jesus is the light of the world!  And God is lighting our path, just like the Psalmist said too. 

Baptism candles: Everyone who gets baptized gets their own baptism candle!  These are the lights we have whenever a person is baptized, we light it and remember how Jesus said “I am the light of the world” and also “you are the light of the world—let your light shine before others so that they may see the good things God is doing in the world.” 

The other candle we light at baptisms is the Christ candle—that’s the very big white candle up here.  When it’s up here closer to the people, it is lit because the time of the year is the time of telling Jesus’s story, from Advent through Easter.  Then after Easter, the Christ candle is moved back under the cross, against the back wall, where it is still visible, but that time of the year is the time of the Holy Spirit, when the flame of the Holy Spirit is in all of us. 

Last week, something funny happened.  During worship, while we were singing the hymn of the day, the assisting minister looked up and saw the Christ candle was unlit.  She told me, “I lit that candle twice already!”  I said, “We’re just going to have to let our own lights shine!”  Sometimes it takes some work to keep our lights lit. 

Small tealight candles for Good Friday: and some of our candles that we use during the year are important because we un-light them.  On Good Friday, we often gather here for worship to hear the story of Jesus’s death.  It’s a sad story and there are many parts to the story, so we’ll have a candle on the altar for each section of the story, usually seven sections so seven candles.  And after each part of the story is read, one more candle is extinguished, because the world is getting darker.  Sometimes that happens, that the light goes out. 

Or in the language of Godly Play, the light never really goes out, it just changes.  What does the light from a candle change into?  Smoke!  And you can see the smoke spreading out until it isn’t visible anymore.  And you can smell the smoke.  This is how you take the light with you wherever you go, even if the light isn’t visible. 

“Eternal flame” or sanctuary lamp—Finally, in the sanctuary we have a light that never goes out.  Do you know where it is?  I saved this one for last because it’s off to the side and maybe you don’t notice it.  Also, not all Christian sanctuaries have one of these, but our sanctuary does.  The red glass lamp on the wall is called the sanctuary lamp, and because it is always lit sometimes we call it the “eternal flame.” 

I always wondered about this light in the red glass candle holder because I have visited Jewish worship spaces, and I have seen the very same kind of candle there, a lit pillar candle inside a red glass holder.  It made me wonder, does this connect us with Judaism?  So I looked it up and yes it DOES. 

My “Altar Guild and Sacristy Handbook” identifies important parts of the chancel, which is the front of the worship space, like the raised-up part that is carpeted at the front.  And here’s what it says about the sanctuary lamp:

“Some churches have a sanctuary lamp in which a candle burns continuously through the year.  The lamp is suspended from the ceiling or mounted on the chancel wall; it is never properly placed on the altar itself.  In general, sanctuary lamps follow the ancient Jewish custom of always having a light burning at the altar and have come to symbolize God’s living presence among us.  As such, they are not extinguished following a service.”[3]

In the article about “Why Jews Light Candles,” Ismar Schorsch explains that the holy space of God, which the ancient people of God called the Tabernacle, always had some kind of light.  There was a very special place in the worship area called the Holy of Holies and priests took turns caring for the space, and someone always lit the 7-branched menorah every evening to dispel the darkness.  It became a tradition and when the temple was built, they kept the tradition of “nightly kindling” so that someone was always keeping watch. 

So having a sanctuary lamp is something that is very ancient, even older than Christianity, way before Jesus was born—God’s light was always with the people of God. 

And even though we sometimes call this an “eternal light,” it’s actually just a regular candle.  It looks like this pillar candle. We have a bunch of them in the sacristy back behind the chancel because these candles only last about a week before they burn down.  So it’s not magic that it stays lit.  Do you know where the real miracle is? 

The miracle is the people of God who work together to keep it lit.  Each person who hears God’s call and answers God’s call to care for the people of God by caring for the worship space.  We are the ones who need the light, who need to remember God.  That’s the real miracle, that we take care of each other. 

Because even if one person gets sick or can’t light the candle or replace the candle when it burns down every week, someone else will notice and light it again—together we are keeping the light of God alive in the world!  Every time we offer ourselves to God’s will, every time we say “Your will be done, O God.” 

Where are you shining your light in the world?  Where are you tending the light and protecting your own precious light?  There is so much darkness in the world, so much fear—the world needs this light.  The world needs YOUR light, reflecting God’s light. 

Amen. 

Pastor Cheryl

[1] Ismar Schorsch, “Why Jews Light Candles,” JTS Torah Commentary, https://www.jtsa.edu/torah/why-jews-light-candles/

[2] S. Anita Stauffer, Altar Guild and Sacristy Handbook, Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2000, page 85. 

[3] Altar Guild and Sacristy Handbook, page 20.

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