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| A Song for Simeon - by Edward McKnight Kauffer to accompany T.S.Eliot's poem, 1928 |
Good Morning and welcome to Start Stop. Our reading this morning can be found on page 63 of the New Testament if you would like to follow along.
Bible Reading - Luke 2.25-38
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”
And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Reflection
Forty days after Christmas, many parts of the church celebrate the Feast of the Presentation. The origin of the feast lies in the reading we have just heard, in which Luke describes how Mary and Joseph came to present Jesus to God in the temple and make a sacrificial offering to redeem his life, as was customary in Jewish tradition for the parents of all first-born sons. Inside the Temple, the Holy Family meet Simeon, led there by the Holy Spirit, through whom he learns that he will not be able to die until he has seen the Messiah. Simeon recognises the forty day old baby as the Messiah and sings his great song, which forms part of the daily liturgy of the church to this day - "Lord now let test thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes hath seen thy salvation." Simeon's prayer goes on to describe Jesus as the light to the Gentiles - a reference that led to the feast being known as Candlemas from the fourth century onwards - a day when Christians would bring candles to church to be blessed, lit and processed, bringing light to the darkness.
Candlemas, which in the northern hemisphere falls at the midpoint between Midwinter and the Vernal Equinox of Spring - a seasonal staging post celebrated since pagan times - also marks the end of the season of Christmas and Epiphanytide (which is why our nativity scene and tree are still in church). During this time we have remembered the revelation of the birth of Christ to humanity; witnessed first by the shepherds who were instructed by the angel, then by the Magi, guided by the star and finally by Simeon and Anna, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit.
With all the focus on Simeon and the legacy of his great song it is not often we hear much about the devout widow Anna, the only woman in the New Testament to be described as a prophet. In many of the great works of art depicting this scene, including those by Rembrandt, Anna is either not shown at all, or painted as if in half shadow, almost as an afterthought. A few weeks ago Reverend Stephen used The Journey of the Magi – a poem by T.S.Eliot to aid our reflection on the Epiphany. Eliot, who worked here in the City for some time, also wrote a lesser-known poem inspired by the Presentation in the Temple; but while he addresses all the Magi in verse, this time he titles his poem A Song for Simeon - not A Song for Simeon and Anna. There is a copy of the poem attached to the pewsheet for you to take away.
The absence of Anna in the art and much of our liturgy that celebrates Candlemas seems to me to be contrary to the spirit of Luke's self proclaimed "orderly account" of the Gospel, which is characterised by its pairings of men and women; with parables focussing on a man coupled with parables focussing on a woman; the story of Mary and Martha, in which Mary controversially sits at Jesus's feet - as male students would sit at the feet of a rabbi; as well as, famous pairings such as Zechariah and Elizabeth and, here at the Presentation - Simeon and Anna.
To seek to redress this Anna-deficit I thought it might be interesting to use Eliot's Song for Simeon as a lens through which to look at Luke's text and imagine what 'A Song for Anna' might sound like?
Written in 1927, shortly after Eliot was received into the Church of England from Unitarianism, the first verse of Eliot's poem echoes Simeon's wait for eternal rest. Even the signs of Spring - the blooming Roman hyacinths - are cheating the season, their roots captive in the warmth of their bowls. His life is described as a feather - but unlike the song of the medieval polymath St Hildegard of Bingen who described her life as like a feather floating on the breath of God, Simeon's feather is motionless "waiting for the death wind."
Whilst tradition assumes Simeon's age, St Luke tells us how old Anna is - and at eighty four, she is old, by anyone’s measure. But as we imagine writing Anna's song, while we may choose to reference her senior years, I don’t think she is sitting and waiting for the end. Anna had not been bound to earthly life until she had seen the Messiah - as Simeon had been. Before meeting the infant Jesus, she spent day and night in the temple, fasting and praying - which, as anyone who has tried something similar will know, requires great personal strength. Anna sounds to me like a very strong and active eighty-four year old! The feather of her life seems very much to be still floating on the breath of God.
In the second verse Eliot suggests something of Simeon's life of good works in the city. This outward expression of faith contrasts with Anna's interior life of prayer in the temple; postures which seem to be reversed in the response of each on encountering the Messiah. But Simeon's good deeds, imagined by Eliot, are what one would expect from someone that Luke describes as a "righteous and devout" man of the time. I think Anna's song would need a different focus. As a widow from a young age, she would have probably been expected to marry again - not to devote the rest of her life to prayer in the temple. Unlike Simeon, Anna seems to have taken an unexpected path to God, in spite of societal pressure to do something different.
In this second stanza Eliot also references Simeon's family and his legacy. St Luke tells us that Anna is the daughter of Phanuel - which means "Face of God" - a portent of her future role as a witness to the birth of the Messiah – something, I feel, we must not overlook in our imagined Song for Anna.
In the third verse of Eliot's text that prophetic theme comes to the fore, as Simeon meets the "still unspeaking and unspoken word" of God and in the final verse, Simeon's role in the prophecy is personally fulfilled, as he departs in peace. Eliot describes Simeon as having "no to-morrow" - at least here on earth. However St Luke hints that in Anna, this prophecy is fulfilled in a very different way – just as fulfilling but in her case, the transformative power of the revelation of the Messiah is expressed not by departing in peace, but in an outburst of the most bounteous joy, which Luke described as "praising God and speaking to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem." This doesn't sound to me like a final flourish before death – I think Anna might have kept on singing her song for many years to come. But hey, that’s just my take on A Song for Anna – please take a copy of Eliot’s poem away and think up your own!
Together, guided by the Holy Spirit, I think Simeon and Anna reveal to us the transformative power of the light of Christ - and our call to share that light in the darkest corners of the world every day of our lives.
A few moments of silence before we pray.
Prayers
In our prayers, the response to Lord Jesus Christ, the true Light is : help us to be your light-bearers, in the darkness of this world.
Lord Jesus Christ, the true Light
Help us to be your light-bearers, in the darkness of this world.
Lord Jesus Christ, as this season of Epiphanytide ends, we pray that we may continue to be inspired by the Spirit.
That we, like Simeon and Anna, recognise you as the true light and share this light in the world.
Grant us the courage to do so each in our own way – either silently and peacefully or with a public outpouring of joy
Even if this means going against the grain and doing the unexpected.
Lord Jesus Christ, the true Light
Help us to be your light-bearers, in the darkness of this world.
Lord, we pray for all who feel trapped in darkness; whose hearts have been pierced and all whose lives feel like feathers waiting for the death wind to blow.
May they, like Simeon, wait patiently.
May they come to see the transforming power of your light, finding perfect peace.
Lord Jesus Christ, the true Light
Help us to be your light-bearers, in the darkness of this world.
Lord, we give thanks for all those you hold in your perpetual light;
Those we love but see no longer.
May we, like Anna, spread their light – your light – in all we do this day and forever more.
Lord Jesus Christ, the true Light
Help us to be your light-bearers, in the darkness of this world.
Blessing
May the blessing of God Almighty,
May the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,
be among us and remain with us always.
Amen
Thank you for joining us for Start Stop. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.
A Song for Simeon
Thank you for joining us for Start Stop. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead.
A Song for Simeon
T.S. Eliot (1927)
Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and
The winter sun creeps by the snow hills;
The stubborn season has made stand.
My life is light, waiting for the death wind,
Like a feather on the back of my hand.
Dust in sunlight and memory in corners
Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land.
Grant us thy peace.
I have walked many years in this city,
Kept faith and fast, provided for the poor,
Have taken and given honour and ease.
There went never any rejected from my door.
Who shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children
When the time of sorrow is come?
They will take to the goat’s path, and the fox’s home,
Fleeing from the foreign faces and the foreign swords.
Before the time of cords and scourges and lamentation
Grant us thy peace.
Before the stations of the mountain of desolation,
Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow,
Now at this birth season of decease,
Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken Word,
Grant Israel’s consolation
To one who has eighty years and no to-morrow.
According to thy word,
They shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation
With glory and derision,
Light upon light, mounting the saints’ stair.
Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer,
Not for me the ultimate vision.
Grant me thy peace.
(And a sword shall pierce thy heart,
Thine also).
I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me,
I am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me.
Let thy servant depart,
Having seen thy salvation.
Links
More beautiful images that accompanied the Poems of T.S.Eliot and others can be found in this fascinating blog post.
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