Holding a Candle for Candlemas
And why the Sun was not created for the reason you think
What did you do on Wednesday? Did you enjoy writing the date as 2/2/22? What did you do at 2.22? Maybe you lit a candle.
No, of course you didn’t. Who would light a candle on 2nd February?
In years gone by, virtually everyone.
Wednesday 2nd February was Candlemas. But what is Candlemas? For most of us it slips past like St Swithun’s day, or Michaelmas. Why don’t we tend to celebrate it?
Candlemas is the point at which the church calendar emerges out of Epiphany and starts tacking towards Lent. This throws up the added challenge that the date of Candlemas is set in stone – or wax – on 2nd February. The date of Easter, however, and therefore Lent, lurches all over the spring calendar, tossed around by the phases of the moon. So now we have a month of Ordinary Time.
In Praise of Ordinary
I find the phrase ‘Ordinary Time’ oddly reassuring. It generally means you don’t need to do anything, which suits me just fine. I’m not meant to be preparing for a new season. That comes in early March, as Ash Wednesday kicks off Lent, preparing us for Good Friday, and then Easter Sunday.
Those who’ve known me for twenty years might find it surprising that I’m talking about high days and holidays in the liturgical calendar. I have undoubtedly become more Anglican in recent years, and not just because I’m a member of the General Synod. Like many in the hyper-connected, global village of the early 21st century, I’ve become hungry for roots and rhythm. Time passes. We have a calendar. But who decides and determines it?
The Calendar
These days, our calendars are based around school terms, retail events and sporting fixtures. Give me one based around a historic Reformed church anyway. And even more fundamental are the seasons, a building block of creation itself. In the fourteenth verse of the Bible we read:
And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” (Genesis 1:14)
What are the lights in the sky for? Light? Hold on. It says “As signs to mark sacred times.” Ever noticed that before? Their purpose as calendars comes before their giving of light to the earth.
Conclusion: seasons and sacred times are woven into the fabric of creation.
Action point: get with the programme.
Cancel Christmas
Reformed Evangelicals tend to be suspicious of sacred times, seasons and feast days. One immediately thinks of the Puritan Parliament which banned Christmas, Easter and Whitsun festivities, services and celebrations. Why?
It was partly because these festivals gave licence to heavy drinking and cruelty to animals. But the main reason to object to these festivals is because they are not in the Bible. That is to say that a day called Christmas that is marked with various traditions is not in the Bible. And we are not told to celebrate it. So we don’t.
The Puritans would have argued that you have a sacred Lord’s Day every seven days. How many more days of feasting and resting and dwelling on the Word of God do you want? Well, touché. (This is one of the key reasons for the English Civil War: how you spend your Sundays, partially triggered by The Book of Sports, issued by King James in 1618. But people don’t really believe you when you say this).
So, do we do Candlemas?
There are two things about it which make the conservative evangelical a little twitchy. Firstly, Candlemas relates to the Purification of Mary, forty days after giving birth to Jesus. The Cult of Mary was very strong in pre-Reformation England, which explains why there are 2368 Church of England churches dedicated to St Mary. That’s 900 more than the next most common dedication, being All Saints. I have sympathy with this reluctance to celebrate Mary’s purification. Despite being more Anglican than before, and understanding that Jesus’s mother should be honoured, I find the prominence of Mary in worship rather troubling.
Some Candles
Secondly, there is the candle element. Candlemas traditionally involves a procession with candles, the blessing of candles for both sacred and domestic use, since before electricity and gas, candles were the only game in town for lighting a dark place. Again, candles don’t feature heavily in a post-industrial, reformed Evangelical world view. Lighting candles feels like a ritual that is not commanded or commended by Scripture.
A Light at the End of the Tunnel
But maybe there is ground to light a candle. The Purification of Mary coincides with the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. We read in the second chapter of Luke how Simeon took Jesus into his arms and praised God, saying:
Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.
Or, as Jesus himself says in the Gospel of John, “I AM the Light of the World”. And whilst his great commission at the end of Matthew to make disciples of all nations looked absurdly impossible, you know what? With hundreds of millions, maybe billions, of Christians around the world, it’s going surprisingly well.
Also, by Candlemas, your Christmas decorations really do need to be down, or you have to leave them up all year and you will be haunted by the Ghost of St Nicholas – or even Old Nick – who will arrive in your bedroom and dump hot coals at your feet. And the Archangel Michael will visit you thereafter, reading you Christmas cracker jokes. Okay, I just made all that up. Happy Candlemas.
Water into Wine
My Water into Wine show in Cambridge last weekend went well, thanks for asking. I’d love to come to a church near you - or even your church - if you’ll have me. Do get in touch HERE if you think you might be able to make that happen. Here’s a one minute explanation of the show: