The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord Service

The Feast of the Purification and Presentation in the Temple

She was a big ol' stuff.

She was so big.

What they were, had holes in them. Bins. Bigger than a go-kart hole. Kind of like a bigger hole. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No.

They were bins? They were bins, yeah. With the green bins. I think they took the green bins. It doesn't kill rats.

It doesn't? No.

Oh my gosh. They had the long bars. Right in the hole! If we weren't right there, it would have killed the whole thing. It would have killed the whole thing.

Actually, I don't know why.

You should try this stuff.

Sure.

You never know.

You never know.

Good job.

Two.

Both of that.

Okay, this is so much.

I totally understand. How's school for you?

Something around.

Is your teacher always coming?

No. Her teacher?

Yeah, my sister.

I mean, does she miss school?

Well, just put it on the back of your shoulder right there. Just go down. Not like this.

Yeah.

And I really need to travel a lot of places.

That's Gino's son.

He's flying home. Do you know how long he's going to be gone? Oh, I love your dress.

You know.

Oh, you have a short trip. Oh, you should check her out.

It's down there.

Check her out.

Thank you. Now the Kongsvinger Lutheran Church.

A little bit of a note today. Today is a feast day. It's the purification of Mary and the presentation of our Lord. This is 40 days since Christmas. So you'll note this is kind of one of those real-time feasts.

It falls when the right number of days are according to the Mosaic Covenant. Very fascinating stuff. Today we'll be following the order of Divine Service Setting 1. And if you are physically... We lost a candle.

Hang on a second here.

Unalived itself.

Political challenge. We're calling in the first responders now. Performing surgery in a different county now.

Test for surgery.

Patient made it. There we go.

Yeah, if that candle was out, everyone would be looking at the whole service. I know how you guys are. Okay, if you are physically present here at Kongsvinger and you are able, please rise for the opening hymn.

And you'll notice it's an Advent hymn because we have a little Christmas in this feast.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Our sins cleanse us from all...

Let us then confess our sins to God our Father. Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.

Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways. To the glory of your holy name. Amen. Almighty God, in his mercy, has given his Son to die for you, and for his sake he forgives you all of your sins.

As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority, I therefore forgive you all of your sins, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth. Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king. With her six citadels, God has made himself known as a fortress.

As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, which God will establish forever. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.

Amen. We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. In peace let us pray to the Lord. For the peace from above and for our salvation, let us pray to the Lord. For the peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the church of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord.

For this holy house and for all who offer here their worship and praise, let us pray to the Lord. Help, save, comfort and defend us, gracious Lord.

The Lord be with you. Let us pray.

Almighty and ever-living God, as your only begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in the substance of our flesh, grant that we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

You may be seated.

Hannah, Samuel, and the Child Dedicated to the Lord

The Old Testament reading for the feast of the purification, the presentation of our Lord, is taken from the book of 1 Samuel chapter 1. The man Elkanah and all of his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.

But Hannah did not go up, for she had said to her husband, as soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever. Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Do what seems best to you.

Wait until you have weaned him. Only may the Lord establish his word. So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh, and the child was young.

Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli, and she said, O my Lord, as you live, my Lord, I am the woman who is standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him.

Therefore, I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Let's speak the gradual together.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.

In the city of our Lord.

As we have heard, so we have seen.

In the city of the Lord of hosts.

We have thought on your steadfast love, O God. Our epistle is taken from Hebrews chapter 2. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and a faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the second chapter. When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.

As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel. This is the gospel of the Lord.

You may be seated.

Christ Our High Priest in the Order of Melchizedek

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Have you ever been asked a question and then given an answer which proves that you didn't know what you were talking about? I've done that more times than I can number, by the way, but there's one really kind of notable one that stands out.

When I was a teenager, let me explain. My mother grew up in Wiesbaden, Germany. So we have family members in Germany. We have friends of the family in Germany. And when I was growing up, from time to time, those friends of the family from Germany and family members from Germany would come to the States for the purpose of visiting us.

Sounds kosher, right? Well, here's the thing. They speak German in Germany, and all of the Germans speak English. I speak not a word of German. But from time to time, my German family members or friends of our family would ask questions like, Why do you guys say this thing?

Or why do you say that other thing? And one of our friends was visiting us and asked me the question, What's with this thing that you say having a leg up on somebody? Well, not knowing the actual answer to the question.

I just thought I could figure it out because I'm so smart. And so I said, Well, you've got to understand that when a dog urinates, a male dog, it lifts its leg. And so when you have a leg up on somebody, it means that you're kind of just peeing all over them.

It was a great answer, by the way. Completely wrong. I later learned it had something to do with climbing a ladder, but that's a whole other story. Now, with this in mind, the word priest, I would know it's a highly charged word.

When I was visiting Norway and lectured in Norway back in the fall, one of the fellows there came up to me and said, Pastor Rose, bro, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think of you as a pastor.

I think of you as a priest.

Wait, what?

Okay, and here's the funny thing. He's right, but here's the thing. It causes confusion because when we hear the word priest, we think of the Levitical priesthood. We think of guys who offer sacrifices and stuff like this.

And if you were to ask kind of the everyday garden variety Christian or Lutheran and ask him, Why does Rome call their pastors priests? And why do the Anglicans call their pastors priests? And you sit there and go, because they're apostate.

They believe that they're offering sacrifices to God like the Levitical priesthood. It shows their apostasy. And you know what? You'd be as wrong as talking about what it means to have a leg up on somebody.

If you said that.

The reality is this. The word priest is used in the Christian context, and watch this, in the English language. Here's the reason why it exists. Because the Greek word that we translate for pastor in our New Testament text is presbyteros.

They are referred to in the ancient world as the presbyters. Well, presbyteros is a Greek word. And so when Christianity reaches English, they translated presbyteros as priest. That's the actual historical reason.

Now, am I saying that you should call me a priest? No, I think it would cause too much confusion in our context. That's not what I'm saying at all. But when we think about Christ as priest, and that's really what's going on today.

This feast, ah man, I'm absolutely just praising the ancient church fathers for putting this one together on the actual day when Jesus would have been presented after his birth. It's brilliant. But the Old Testament text that they chose for us sets the stage for what the real theme is all about.

And you kind of have to put the pieces together to get how it works. So let me walk you through this. So if you look at our Old Testament text, it says that the man Elkanah and all of his house went up to offer to Yahweh the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.

Well, we're in the middle of a story. If you remember, Hannah was one of the wives of Elkanah. The other wife was Penahah. Hannah couldn't get pregnant to save her life. Penahah, on the other hand, I mean, she would just look lovingly at her husband and she would get pregnant and out would pop another child.

And what she did is she tormented Hannah and made her feel awful and less than worthy to even be a wife to Elkanah because she was unable to bear children. And so in her anguish, in her suffering from the one who was tormenting her, I would note something here.

My immediate question every time I read this text is why didn't Elkanah put an end to this nonsense? Huh? You'll note sometimes wives misbehave because husbands allow them. He should have put a stop to that.

Instead, he tries to console Hannah rather than stop the torment that's coming from Penahah.

Interesting.

So we'll note then, she goes to the tabernacle. They didn't have a temple back then. She goes to the tabernacle and she pours out her heart to God, begging God, even to the point of bargaining with God that he would grant her the ability to conceive and have a child and to remove that shame from her.

And while she's praying, she's praying in her heart. Her lips are moving. There's nothing coming out. And Eli, the high priest, looks at her and goes, Woman, put your wine away. Now think of it, she's a drunken woman.

And she stands her ground. She actually gets right into Eli's face. I am not a worthless woman. I'm a woman in torment and anguish. And I'm asking God for something here. And Eli backs down and says, Well, may God grant you what you've asked for.

And God does. That's the beauty of the story. She conceives. And not only does she conceive a child, you'll note there's a kind of a theme in Scripture, barren women burying children. This goes all the way back to Sarai.

And then we got it with Hannah. You'll note this is a big theme because I would note that the wombs of virgins are very barren. They don't get any more barren than that. That's kind of the point. It's all pointing to Christ and his birth.

So now after the child is born, and here we have to understand something else. In the ancient world, children nursed. They breastfed until they were about four or five. Now in our society, you ask a woman, How long do you plan on nursing your child?

Oh, maybe six weeks. This is how people talk. No, it was unthinkable that you would nurse a child for six weeks. You're going to nurse this child all the way up until about the age of kindergarten. So don't think that she's going to be bringing a toddler in diapers to serve in the temple.

That's not what's going on. So it says this. The man out on all of his house went up to offer to Yahweh the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him up so that he may appear in the presence of Yahweh and dwell there forever.

I love this statement on the part of Hannah because she doesn't have an eye on just this temporal world. She also has an eye on the world to come. She knows that bringing her son into the presence of Yahweh at the tabernacle is only the beginning.

That Samuel, who is going to be the first prophet of his kind, right? Samuel is going to dwell in the presence of Yahweh forever. And here's the note here. Y 'all are doing the same. Scripture says where two or more are gathered in Christ's name, Christ is truly present.

We are in the presence of Christ, in the presence of God now. And because of what Christ has done for us, each and every one of you, and me included, we also will dwell in the presence of God forever.

Now we do so by faith, trusting in the words of Christ, knowing that He doesn't lie. But there's a day coming when we will visibly see our Christ, our Savior, our God, and we will dwell in His presence for eternity.

Beautiful statement. So Elkanah, her husband, said to her, you do what seems best to you. Wait till you've weaned Him. Only may Yahweh establish His word. So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned Him.

And when she had weaned Him, she took Him up with her along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine.

Bread and wine.

And a priest? Huh. You starting to see the connections? It's all on purpose. God knows what He's doing. So she brought up a skin of wine, ephah of flour, bull, and she brought Him to the house of Yahweh at Shiloh.

The child was young. And then they slaughtered the bull and they brought the child to Eli, and she said, oh my Lord, as You live, my Lord, I am the woman who was standing here in Your presence praying to Yahweh.

For this child I prayed, and Yahweh has granted me my petition that I made to Him. Therefore, I have lent Him to Yahweh as long as He lives, and He is lent to Yahweh, and He worshipped Yahweh there. The child worshipped Yahweh there.

And the text goes on to say that He even served in the tabernacle wearing a little ephah. His mom would show up every year and have him made him a new one because he kept growing. You know, kids do that.

When you grow out of last year's ephah, you have to go into the next one. But note the theme here. Here we have a child priest serving in the temple. And this is where Samuel, at least in this part of the story, is a type and shadow of Christ pointing us to what is going on with Christ being presented in the temple.

This day. And so with that, consider, we'll kind of crack the theme open a little bit, what our epistle text says. In Hebrews 2, the inspired author of Hebrews writes, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and to deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

That's each and every one of us. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. And I would note,.

Do not fear.

Sit there and go, but I'm not an offspring of Abraham. Yes you are, because Galatians 3 says that those who trust in Christ are counted as the offspring of Abraham. Y 'all are part of his family. Therefore, Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

And here you can see the inspired author of Hebrews makes it very clear that Christ is our high priest in the service of God. He makes propitiation for the sins of the people, but it describes him as merciful and faithful.

And here's where we're going to do just a little excursus because we can and we should. We're going to take a look at what this author of Hebrews also has to say with regard to Christ because you're going to note that when it comes to members of the tribe of Judah, the scriptures are very clear.

In order to be a priest, you've got to be a Levite. You have to be one of the sons of Aaron. It's called the order of Aaron or the Aaronic priesthood. And Jesus is not that. He's from the tribe of Judah.

And when King Uzziah tried to offer up incense in the temple, God struck him down with leprosy. And you'll note, no one's allowed to serve that way. So how then is Jesus our priest? And the answer is this.

Jesus is our high priest not because he's the descendant of Aaron because he isn't, but because God has placed him in a priesthood that you can literally describe as a priesthood of one. And the qualifications given by God to fill this priestly office, this priestly order, are really interesting and tell us a lot and give us comfort.

So in Hebrews 7, starting at verse 11, the inspired author writes, if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise in the order of Melchizedek rather than the one named after the order of Aaron?

And here you begin to see that what is going on here is talking about Christ in his priestly office. Christ in this feast is presented in the temple. And the idea is this, that with Christ being presented in the temple, with the offering being offered that was required because he was the one who first opened up the womb, it is very appropriate for us to begin to think that Jesus now is beginning his priestly work.

And it's important to note, in doing his priestly work, this is also going to require him to live sinlessly,.

Perfectly,.

And do so for us. Because you'll note, the text says that the Levitical priesthood didn't really bring perfection to anybody. But Christ is perfection and he is something different. And so Christ now is obeying the Mosaic laws perfectly for us in this text.

And here's what we have to understand. When it comes to obeying God's law, people think it's no big deal, it's really easy. And people who think that way.

Are delusional.

Because there are commandments that you must obey and obey them actively. Let me give you an example,.

Or a few.

Honor your father and mother, that's the fourth commandment. You must do that actively. You must obey that command actively, of your own volition. You must not murder, that is also actively obeyed. You must not commit adultery.

You must not steal. You must not bear false witness against your neighbor. And you must not, under any circumstances, covet your neighbor's house, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

All of these commands must be obeyed actively. But God also commanded that this young child, the infants, be presented before the Lord. And that a sacrifice be offered on their behalf. These infants who first opened the womb, the male ones.

How's Jesus supposed to do that?

Passively.

It has to be done for him. And it's also credited to him that he has done it. And so you'll note, when we talk about the righteousness of Christ, the sinless, perfect righteousness of Christ, understand this, that at no point did Jesus fail in obeying God's law, actively and passively.

How are you all doing.

On the active bids? Okay, let alone the passive bids. This is why we confess that we have sinned against God and thought, word, deed by what we've done and by what we've even left undone. We're basically saying we completely have messed up.

So here in our text, it's very clear that the Levitical priesthood, that the Mosaic Covenant, doesn't bring perfection. In fact, a good way to think about it is using the language that Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 3.

That the Mosaic Covenant,.

The law,.

Is the ministry of death. Okay, I want you to think about this for a second. In our epistle text, it says about Jesus that he is a high priest and that he is merciful and faithful. Let me ask you about the high priest at the time when Jesus.

Was crucified.

Would you describe Caiaphas as merciful? Faithful?

No.

Okay, and you're gonna know it. He's like the high priest of the ministry of death because Levitical priesthood is all about death. The sacrificing of animals, blood flowing, all of this stuff. And I would note that Caiaphas, well, kind of fulfilled his duties.

Perfectly.

He wasn't merciful. Can the law be merciful?

Not at all. Not at all.

And so you'll note that Christ was sentenced to death. And here's the thing, you sit there and go,.

But he was sentenced.

To death wrongly. He didn't do anything wrong. Oh, hold your horses here for a second here. Isaiah 53 says that God has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. Jesus wasn't found guilty for any sin that he committed.

He was found guilty.

For yours, for mine.

Since God had laid on him all of our sins, it was appropriate that he be put to death. And that's kind of the point because he needed to make propitiation for the sins of the people. And here's kind of the great mystery of Jesus's priesthood.

Because you'll note that the priests of the Levitical priesthood, they didn't offer themselves as the sacrifice. They offered up bulls and rams and sheep and pigeons and turtle doves and things like this.

But Christ, our high priest in the order of Melchizedek, offers up himself. He is our high priest and he is the sacrifice. And it is not the Mosaic Covenant or God's law that brings perfection. It's the gospel.

It's the new covenant.

That does these things.

And so the author of Hebrews continues. For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. How many priests are serving in the temple today, by the way? Zero.

There's been a change in the priesthood. There is only one high priest and that's Christ. For the one of whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe from which no one has ever served.

At the altar.

For it is evident.

That our Lord was descended from Judah and in connection with the tribe of Moses, with that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests. Now this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life.

And here's where it comes. This is where it gets really interesting because Jesus is not a priest in the order of Melchizedek because he's the king of Judah. He is. He's not in the order of Melchizedek because he's the prophet prophesied by Moses in Deuteronomy 18 when he said, a prophet like me will arise and to him you must listen.

Nope, that's not the reason. The reason why Christ.

Is the only one.

Who can fill this office and does fill it is by virtue of the fact that he has an indestructible life. He's risen from the dead. You'll note that they tried to kill him and it looked like.

They succeeded.

But on the third day Jesus said, I'm back. Okay, just popped right out of the grave. And so death no longer has mastery over him and here the author of Hebrews exegetes for us Psalm 110 verse 4 where Yahweh says of the Messiah, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Zooming in then on God's promise that the one who would fill this priesthood would do so forever. And there's only one who can and that's Christ himself. For on the one hand a former commandment is then set aside because of its weakness and its uselessness.

This is why I describe the Mosaic Covenant as kaput. It's done. It's been done away with. Nobody's keeping it and its weakness is evident and its uselessness is evident as well. For the law made nothing, not one thing perfect but on the other hand a better hope is introduced through which we now draw near to God.

And here's where we got to think about this. Christ is our priest. He's our prophet. He's our king but he is our high priest and it was not without an oath for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath but this one was made a priest with an oath.