Sermon Sunday February 1, 2026
The Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple
A number of years ago, a book came out that made a big splash amongst counselors, psychologists, and priests alike. And it was called Quiet by Susan Kaine. It was a study, a psychological and sociological study which tried to show the value of introverts in a majority extroverted society.
For so many years, she claimed it was so important and almost impossible for quiet people to exist in a loud world. For introverts to see themselves as valuable in a world that required extroverts, required action seekers, the ones who were going to make things done. And so most extra introverts or quiet people had to learn how to exist in this loud world by pretending to be extroverts even though they were really quiet by nature. And her argument in the book which became really a very important movement in our society was that we need introverts in our society.
We need quiet people to help us learn important lessons. And I thought of this book when I read this gospel reading that is offered to us for the feast of the presentation of the Lord because Simeon and Anna, the two individuals who encounter the Holy Family on that important day. They belonged to a group of the Jewish of Jewish people in the day who were called the quiet people. See many people many Jewish people were waiting for the Messiah. But they all had a different idea of what that meant. For many of them waiting meant making things happen. Looking for some kind of a leader overthrower or action figure who would free them in all kinds of ways from bondage and
slavery and restore them back to what they were.
But this wasn’t the case for the quiet people of the day, the quiet Jewish people. They had a different vision. And their vision was that activity is not what is needed when we are waiting for the Messiah, but a quiet humble way of life rooted in prayer and faithfulness to the law of God. So you could say they were the contemporary or they were the contemplatives of the day. They believed that prayer was more powerful than action and that humility was more powerful and more important than strength of character and pride.
And it is those two individuals, Simeon and Anna, who are presented to us as the ones who were able to recognize when the Messiah came. And that’s because they were looking for him not in the powerful expressions that exist in this world, but in the humble, quiet ways to which they were accustomed. Where did they find the Messiah? How did they find him?
They found him in a humble poor family as a child who is brought to the temple to be dedicated to the Lord. Simeon is able to re offer this prophecy, this exaltation, and this beautiful encouragement, you could say, to Mary and Joseph because already in a quiet, silent, humble child, he is able to see something that most are not able to see. And then Anna, the prophetess of the day, a woman who was considered of not much value because she was a widow and widows of those days were seen as not very valuable.
So in her quiet way, she is able to not only recognize the Messiah but also announce him, announce him to others. This to me is, you know, I always try to go to practical applications when it comes to scripture because we can we can stay within scripture and think about what it means to the day of to the people of the day. But I’m always asking what is the Lord saying to me through this scripture? That’s what we call in our Anglican tradition practical theology. How does it apply to me?
If scripture is the word of God, then this gospel reading means God is speaking to me, speaking to you. What is God saying to me and you? When we look at this passage, when we look at the example of these quiet people who by the standards of their society are seen as not very helpful and yet the gospel, the word of God elevates them as the only ones who are important in this moment in the life of Jesus. The only ones who recognize what is truly important, who is truly important. I think as much as we continue in our present day and age to solve all kinds of world’s problems and church’s
problems and our own individual problems. I think what I am sensing from this scripture is that contemplative approach is as important or even more important than activity
because we do not know what to do until it is revealed to us by God. until we have a sense of conviction, clarity and vision.
And so contemplative approach, in other words, choosing to be amongst the quiet people, allows us to seek the wisdom of God to help us know what to do next. You know, there’s all kinds of things we have to fix in this world, but ultimately God is the one who is going to show us the way. And so, we do not lead with these approaches to fixing our lives or the situation in the world. We simply present ourselves to the Lord to the word of God and in a quiet way seek the coming of God’s wisdom. Just as nothing could have been fixed until the Messiah came, until Jesus came. Even though many Jewish people tried to fix the reality of their day, it wasn’t until God acted first and then was recognized by those who had the eyes to see the spiritual life to recognize what is truly important.
So that to me is the first principle to live with this desire for quiet openness to God’s wisdom and not the wisdom of the world. You know, I could go and write into chat GPT all kinds of problems and ask for solutions. I could say, “How do we fix a broken marriage? How do we fix a broken country? How do we do we fix a broken church? How do we fix all kinds of things? And you know what? When you type it into artificial intelligence, it actually gives pretty good ideas of what we could do. But I could also approach the word of God and say, “God, what would you have me do? How can I participate in what you want to do with my life with my family with my church community with my country? How do I participate in your work rather than how do I invite you to do to participate in my work? Do you see the difference?
God is the one who leads. I think it’s so important to recognize that our life as Christians, as followers of Jesus, is really a life of witnessing to what God is doing rather than doing something and trying to fit God into my activity. It’s a big difference.
I am not the initiator of great things. I am a witness to God’s great things, what God has done and what God continues to do.
And as a witness, I am a quiet follower, always discerning what God’s will is for me and for you, for all of us. That is why it’s so important that we continually stay as a community of prayer connected to a life of faith, a life of prayer, a life of church community because it allows us to in a prayerful and ritual way to take on this posture of quiet listening and paying attention to what God is doing and where God is leading us. The tradition of the presentation of the Lord is one of lighting candles and blessing candles and saying God is the true light. God is the one who has the best ideas. God is the one who leads the way and illuminates the dark places within our lives, our hearts and our minds. God is the one who leads.
And so as we remember that beautiful ritual of blessing candles as a sign of God leading the way, God illuminating the darkness that sometimes is part of my life. I may not know what to do, what the next steps are, how to change my life, how to uh move forward in my life. What do I do? Well, first I don’t do anything except for seek the Lord. Wait quietly for the one who will reveal what the next steps are. How can I participate in God’s activity rather than create my own? And so that’s my prayer for me, for this community, for my life, that I may recognize the importance of this quiet attitude of recognizing that God is the one who leads. And I follow and witness to God’s great work.
Amen.
Father Wojtek Kuzma