Sermon on Luke 2:22-40 (Holocaust Memorial Day and Candlemas)
Originally given 29 January 2023 at St. Alban's Church, Coventry
On 27 January 1945, the Allied Forces of the Red Army liberated Auschwitz Concentration camp. It is for this reason that Holocaust Memorial Day is the 27th of January every year. This is before the living memory of most people alive today, so it is important that on this date, we remember the victims of the Holocaust, and we make promises to ensure such horrors will never happen again. Concerning this day, the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland website says:
The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2023 is 'ordinary people'. Through this theme, we are invited to think about all the millions of ordinary victims of Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides. We are also prompted to think about how easy it is for 'ordinary people' to become perpetrators. In this light, today ordinary people must be alert to the dangers of antisemitism, racism, and intolerance, and strive to combat the evil of genocide in our world.'
(https://ctbi.org.uk/holocaust-memorial-day-27-jan-2023/)
Holocaust Memorial Day is not only for remembering the 6 million Jews murdered under Nazi persecution, but also the millions of victims of genocide in subsequent years in places such as Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, and even today in Afghanistan with women and Myanmar with the Rohingya Muslim population. Although every year we say never again, it seems that the atrocity of genocide is far too deeply rooted in our society.
As a Christian priest, I feel it is my duty to recognise Holocaust Memorial Day every year. Not only because genocide goes against the commands of the Christian faith, but also because of the ways in which Christianity has contributed to genocide. The ways Christianity has been known to instill 'ordinary people' with antisemitic thoughts, leading to violence.
Today we celebrate the festival of Candlemas, which can be seen as the start of the transition from the crib to the cross. Even Simeon in verse 35 of today's Gospel reading tells Mary, 'a sword will pierce your own soul too' referring to the crucifixion of Jesus as she holds him as just a baby in her arms at that point. Very often, when we shift our focus from the uniting symbol of the crib, which saw visits from both Jewish shepherds and Gentile wise men, we sometimes view the cross as a dividing symbol, the place where our Messiah was crucified by a certain group of others. A symbol of us versus them. Now this is one of the points where Scripture can become dangerous when interpreted in a way that takes what is said out of context. And this is where I feel it my duty as a Christian priest to ensure this season we do not allow ourselves to become unconsciously antisemitic. Reverend Zoe and Reverend Barney and I have had these conversations, and as we walk with you on this journey from the crib to the cross, we will do our best to ensure our words do not contribute to the antisemitism that has so often been preached across the centuries around the world.
When thinking about genocide, it often starts with small actions. Something as simple as silencing people can be the foundation for more radical forms of abuse. In today's Gospel, we see silencing. After her moving proclamation of the Magnificat in the previous chapter, Mary, it seems, has nothing to say in response to Simeon's shocking canticles. And while Simeon has 11 verses dedicated to him, with two separate speeches, one of which is used often in services today, Anna only has three verses, and none of them involve the words she said from her own mouth. The fact that Anna is silenced although she evangelises to 'all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem', shows how women are so easily silenced, it shows how women's stories are so easily erased. Anna was an evangelist long before John the Baptist, but all we hear is about her long years of widowhood, and fasting, and prayer. We are only told about her relationship to others, how she served others, first her husband and then her God. We have no knowledge of what she said to all those people coming to the temple. We have no knowledge of this foundational story of proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.
This interpretation might seem like a bit of a stretch. Perhaps you recall that Luke is the Gospel that gives women a voice more than any of the others. But that's just not true. There are 10 women named in the entire Gospel, compared to 133 men. Even if you exclude the 76 men named in the genealogy in chapter 3, a genealogy with only men named, there are still almost 6 times more men named than women. If women are not named, then we do not hear their stories and only know their silence. So why does this matter for Holocaust Memorial Day? Because intolerance of any kind is an affront to all humankind, whether that be antisemitism, racism, sexism, or any other form of intolerance.
Although our Scriptures are indeed holy, we must still seek to read them within context and with the lens of our God-given human reason. Scriptures should not be held up as an excuse for antisemitism or a reason for sexism in the Church. Let us resolve when we say 'never again' we will also never again use the Bible as a text of terror against minority groups. In closing, I would like to share a prayer from the Council of Christians and Jews for Holocaust Memorial Day 2023:
Loving God, you care for each and every human life.
All people are cherished as your beloved children,
no matter how ordinary or extraordinary their stories are.
Today we come before you to remember the victims of the Holocaust.
We lament the loss of the six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust,
the millions of other victims of Nazi persecution,
And victims of all genocides.
May our minds be clear and attentive to their memory,
and our hearts be moved to bear witness to their lives.
Help us all to turn away from hatred and division,
and to build a world where genocide is no more.
Strengthen us so that we, in our own ordinary ways,
may show extraordinary love in the world today.
Amen
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