Malachi 3.1-15; Hebrews 2.14-18; Luke 2.22-4o
Luke is very keen to make it clear to us how Mary and Joseph were fufilling the Jewish law in how they brought up Jesus.
If we go back to Leviticus, we learn that 40 days after the birth of a boy and 80 days after the birth of a girl, a mother must go to the priest with a lamb and a turtle-dove or pigeon, so that she may be purified following childbirth. A concession was made in the case of those who could not afford a lamb - they might bring two doves or two pigeons instead. Which is what, we are told, Mary and Joseph did.

It’s a ritual, part of Jewish law, and it may not seem that relevant to us today. But I want us to think a little this morning about what ritual of this kind is about.

I think at the heart of religious ritual is the idea of the presence of God in the ordinary, in our day-to-day lives. Giving birth, as Mary had done, though the circumstances of Jesus’s birth we all know could hardly be called ordinary, was a normal thing to do. And the Jewish laws, in all their complexity were more than anything about bringing God into daily life.

They were about acknowledging that God cannot be detached from anything that goes on in our lives.
Alan Culpepper who has written much about Luke’s Gospel says this: “The observance of religious requirements and rituals has fallen on hard times. Essential to Judaism is the praise of God in all of life. The Jewish law taught that God was to be honoured in one’s rising up and lying down, in going out and coming in, in how one dressed and what one ate.
“The pressures of secularism and modern life have reduced the significance of ritual observances in the lives of most Christians. Busy schedules, dual-career marriages, and after-school activities mean that families eat fewer meals together. Prayer before meals and family Bible-study are observed in fewer homes today than just a generation ago.

“For many, religious rituals are reduced to church attendance at Christmas and Easter and to socially required ceremonies at births, weddings, and funerals.

“The marking of both daily and special events with rituals that recognize the sacredness of life and the presence of God in the everyday is practically extinct. In the minds of many it is associated either with superstitions and cultic practices of the past or the peculiar excesses of religious fanatics.
“The result has been that God has receded from the awareness and experience of everyday life. Many assume that God is found only in certain places, in sacred buildings, in holy books, or in observances led by holy persons. Their lives, on the other hand, move in a secular realm devoid of the presence of the holy.

“Daily experiences are reduced and impoverished. They have no meaning beyond themselves, no opening to transcendence. Little room for mystery remains in the everyday as it becomes increasingly subject to secularism and technology. What have we lost by removing ritual observances from our daily experience?”

“The challenge to modern Christians, therefore, is to find effective rituals for celebrating the presence of God in the ordinary.
“We need to learn to greet the morning with gratitude; to celebrate the goodness of food, family, and friendship at meals; to recognize mystery in beauty; and to mark rites of passage. Rituals are not restrictive; they celebrate the goodness and mystery of life.”

If we keep at the heart of any ritual why we are performing it, then it has meaning. If a ritual is carried out without thought or with hearts not attuned to God, then it loses meaning.

How can we bring God more into our daily lives? Simeon and Anna were people who had managed this. Simeon is described as “righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him”. He was a righteous and devout man - that can only be said of someone who has brought God into his daily life.

And Anna “never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day”.
Two different people in different situations but both had made God an important part of daily life.
What does this mean for us, I wonder? Few of us will be able to spend every minute of our day in church as Anna did in the temple. And nor would that be right. Anna’s calling was specific to her.

There are some who are called to separate themselves from the kind of daily life that most of us lead and dedicate themselves to the religious life - monks and nuns and others who live in communities dedicated to prayer and worship. That is a specific calling.
But those of us here in church today have other vocations. We have been called, in our different and various ways, to live in the world. Our challenge is to live lives dedicated to God in the contexts in which we find ourselves.

It is easy to push God out from our daily lives, especially when we are so busy. And rituals carried out for rituals’ sake are useless. But rituals that can help us increase our awareness of God can be very helpful.

They needn’t be complicated. And we needn’t be put off by the formal word ritual. Our daily lives are full of rituals - brushing our teeth morning and evening for instance, maybe going to (Barley) shop for a paper each day, walking the dog, going to and from work or school. A dictionary definition is “a set of fixed actions and sometimes words performed regularly”.

We all have things that we do in a fixed manner. Many people, without realising it, create rituals in their lives.

So what rituals could we bring into our lives to help us be more aware of God’s presence?

How about a prayer on waking, acknowledging the new day, that gift of God that greets us each morning? How about a prayer at mealtimes thanking God for all our blessings? Or a prayer as we go to bed, reflecting on the past day, its joys and struggles and offering both to God?

None of these need take up much time but all of them bring an acknowledgment of God into our lives.

How about consciously becoming aware of God’s creation as we walk or drive around the countryside? Or taking an hour each month - written into the diary - to go for a prayer walk?

How about finding ways to celebrate Christian festivals not only in church but at home? And I don’t just mean Christmas, but what about acknowledging other festivals at home too? Part of my childhood always contained a Candlemas party, organised by friends.

Lent is coming up. Why not try and find out more about the Love life, live Lent campaign, which is being endorsed by the Archbishops’ Council?

It’s an initiative that started in the diocese of Birmingham last year. A booklet, website and text messages, depending on which you opt for, give you something to do for each day of Lent.

The idea is that doing something positive can be as helpful and can communicate far more about God’s love than giving something up.

This is what the Bishop of Birmingham has said: “Doing something positive or generous can be as transforming as giving something up. It helps us to reflect on how we normally behave, and how we can make changes to our lifestyles that reflect God’s love more fully.”

None of the ideas are difficult. Some of them include giving up your place in a queue to someone else or letting someone into a traffic queue, watching the news and praying about what you see, saying something kind about someone behind their back, ring a loved one and so on. But they are all ways in which the love of God can be shown.

Simeon and Anna were devout people who were in tune with God and aware of God’s presence in all their life. That is all that rituals are aiming to do - to bring God into the everyday.

And we will find that as we begin to do that, we then begin to recognise God in places we might never have expected. Simeon and Anna recognised God in  the little boy brought to the Temple. Would they have done so if they had not been so in tune with God?

So, two final questions to ponder: What place does the holy have in our daily lives? How can we be more aware of God in our day-to-day living?