There are a number of commemorations and special foci around today. Today is Candlemas when we remember the events we heard in our gospel reading (Luke 2:22-40) and Jesus being described as a light to enlighten all people. It is also Homelessness Sunday. Friday was Holocaust Memorial Day and it was also 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. So I have set myself a challenge to see if I can combine all 4 of those in one sermon and do it in around 10 minutes!

Later on today, in my role as Lord Mayor’s Chaplain, I will join Bill and representatives of other faiths in the Town Hall for a commemoration to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. This is a recent commemoration, the first such day being held in 2001. It was started with the clear intention that we never forget what happened and so remembering will avoid repeating it. The actual day falls on 27th January, which as I said was on Friday, and this date was picked because it is the anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. It beggars belief that some try to deny that these events took place because the evidence is just so overwhelming.

Sadly other acts of genocide have taken place since the atrocities of the Second World War. We only have to think of Rwanda and Burundi, the worst excesses of Bosnia to see that there is something horribly pervasive about genocide. What makes the Holocaust still stand out, though, is the systematic and spin-chilling efficiency employed to execute death on an industrial scale.

In the act of commemorating we stand with both pride and shame. As a country we have welcomed strangers and given them the asylum they have needed. This spirit of hospitality goes back centuries and it has given us a rich cultural heritage. There is much of what we might regard as Englishness or Britishness that actually owes a debt to those who have brought fresh ideas to our shores.

That said we have also shown breath-taking barbarity to the stranger in our midst. Jews were persecuted in the middle ages and the churches have not always been the champions of justice they should have been. From time to time heart-wrenching cases hit the headlines, like the man from Leeds who hung himself to save his son from deportation. We will have an opportunity to explore more of this in one of our Lent talks this year. Our theme will be ‘Behind the headlines’. One of the speakers who will help us go behind the headlines is from Christ Church Armley and he will talk about their work with asylum seekers and help us explore the issues more deeply. So we commemorate the Holocaust with both pride and shame.

Interestingly today is Homelessness Sunday. A bit of coordination would perhaps avoid such a clash, but homelessness and holocaust falling on the same day does offer an interesting mix of ideas. The homeless are another group who receive both our compassion and hatred. No one can buy a copy of The Big Issue from every seller, but I always acknowledge the request and try to decline politely as I carry on my way. It seems to me to be important to treat those selling The Big Issue with dignity even if we don’t want to buy what they are offering.

Of course it is easy to romanticise about poverty and be patronising in the process. Beyond benign smiles someone has to make the hard choices that welfare requires. But I think dignity and respect are crucial in the process, which is what St George’s Crypt aims to offer. Respect is in danger of becoming the latest buzz word, but it is a good one and one worth holding on to.

When we look into the gas chambers of the Holocaust, we find that it is those who didn’t match certain distorted ideals that are crowded in. Ideals have mutated into something vile when they become a justification for murder on industrial scales. When we start looking at whole groups of people with disgust and hatred we are not as far away from the concentration camp guards as we might like to think.

The trouble with prejudice is that it operates at that sub-layer of our consciousness so most of the time we don’t even know we have got it. That’s the theory behind phrases like ‘institutionalised racism’ or ‘sexism’. Those of us who think we are not prejudiced against anyone are probably the ones who need to search more deeply. It lurks in the shadows and just jumps up when we are not looking. It feeds on all the past experiences that can be distorted, on our raw nerves that go very deep.

While I was preparing this I was interrupted by a man at the door wanting a hot drink and some food. Callers to the door can be a mixed lot. Some concoct elaborate stories and it is easy to write them off for this. I don’t give out money but I do give a drink - a hot one at this time of year - and if I can something to keep them going. But if they want something more substantial I direct them to St George’s Crypt because they are geared up to cope with them properly, in ways I can’t.

Today we are keeping the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple; Candlemas to give it its popular name. This could be a cute and cuddly day. It has all the ingredients necessary. Jesus’ parents take this 40 day old baby for a special ceremony at the Temple. While they are there an elderly man says something special about Jesus and an elderly woman comes up to them and starts praising God for him. Some people are like that; they have a knack of seeing deep qualities the rest of us can’t quite see. What looks like just another couple bringing their infant son to church for what is expected, to have him done, is actually something much more profound.

No one can tell what incredible gifts a child will have. The background doesn’t even give us this clue. The series on BBC2 looking at the family histories of some well known names shows that they all have come from very unpredictable backgrounds. Within a couple of generations what looks unimaginable comes about. Simeon and Anna are able to spot this, because the offering brought for Jesus is the poor person’s offering and yet they still say remarkable things about Jesus and about how special he is.

Friday was also the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. What produces a Mozart? How many Mozart’s or people of similar genius died in the Holocaust? We will never know. How many homeless people have gifts that can inspire if we could just connect with them or unlock them? Behind the concept of dignity is the notion that special qualities can be found in surprising places. This is also in the heart of the Candlemas story, our gospel today. Anna and Simeon remind us that no one is just another write-off coming through the doors. They remind us that far from being worthless, each child can become a light to enlighten, has extraordinary gifts that we don’t even see most of the time.

So we have in Candlemas the key to hold together Mozart’s 250th birthday, Holocaust Memorial Day and Homelessness Sunday. Candlemas proclaims Jesus to be special but it is in the purpose that he came that we find human beings are give their full dignity as God’s much-loved children. Christ came to show how much God loves us and that we are made for life with him for ever. This joy sings out in Mozart’s music and requires us to show true respect for all - the respect we receive in the gift from God of his Son.

© Ian Black 2006

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