A Word From Our Rector
Father Michael W. Goldberg

“Lord, you now have set your servant free* to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior…”

               —Book of Common Prayer

    Have you ever had a moment when you have been totally surprised by the clarity of a situation? It may have been something that happened at work, or a family event, but all of a sudden you see and understand with all knowledge that is the way you are to go, or to believe.

Such was the case for Simeon and the prophetess, Anna, as they received the Holy Family into the Temple in Jerusalem. The Hebrew scriptures were quite clear in the prescribing that once a male child had opened the womb, that the mother of the child was to appear in the Temple to be “purified” and to “redeem” her son, forty days after the birth. With this legal understanding of the Torah in mind, Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus, made the trip to Jerusalem to fulfill their obligations.

The rite of “redemption” was one that dated back to a time when Israel saw fit to sacrifice their first-born male children to the God Moloch, and it required that the infant was waved over the rising flames of an open fire. This symbolic gesture was a reminder of the pagan influences that had been allowed to creep into Israel’s religion, and to serve notice not to allow this practice to ever take place again. However, the people of Israel understood substitution sacrifice, and so in place of the child, an animal’s blood would be offered instead. The wealthier families might offer a lamb or a calf, but the poorer families simply could not afford this extravagance. Poorer families would offer either a pair of pigeons or a pair of turtledoves instead, as their part of the redemption ritual.