The coming of the Savior into the temple

Bishop Scott Bullock
The Presentation of the Lord
February 2, 2025

Raold Dahl, the English writer known for his children’s novels like James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, published a short novella in Collier’s Magazine in 1953 called Nunc Dimittis. But more about that title later.

In this story, Lionel Lampson, a wealthy middle-aged bachelor and art collector, learns from a gossipy widow, Gladys Ponsonby, that his younger girlfriend Janet de Pelagia thinks he’s, among other things, as a “crashing bore.” Lionel is scandalized and devises an elaborate revenge. He approaches a local artist, John Royden, and asks him to paint Janet’s portrait with the stipulation that she does not know who commissioned it. Gladys, that gossipy widow, had confided in Lionel that the artist had an unusual method of painting — he paints his female subjects first nude, and then repaints the canvas several times, adding a layer of clothing each time.

So when the portrait is completed, Lionel (who surprisingly is skilled at restoring and cleaning paintings) removes the additional layers of the painting, exposing Janet, his girlfriend, in her undergarments. Then he stages a dinner party for Janet and some of society’s elite, where, at the end of the candle-lit meal, the lights are suddenly turned on and the painting is revealed for all to see and his girlfriend in her undergarments. Lionel leaves the room unobserved after he sees the shocked look on Janet’s face. After hearing a guest roar for some water for Janet, he’s thinking she’s probably fainted, he slips away to his house in the country, basking in the success of his scheme of revenge until two days later when he receives a telephone call from Gladys telling him that all his friends don’t like him anymore because of what he did. Except she’s the one who remains. 

But things get worse in the story. A few days later, Lionel receives a container of excellent caviar along with a letter from his girlfriend Janet, saying that she forgives him and still loves him. He feels ashamed but not being able to resist his favorite food, he indulges himself and, by the end of the story, begins to feel violently ill. The implication is that Lionel has been poisoned, maybe even fatally, by Janet.

Pleasant little story, no? Capital sins abound in the story: contempt, vengeance, humiliation, and ultimately it seems, murder — a most wicked web woven indeed! 

So, why bring up such a story, particularly on this day when we observe the “Feast of the Presentation?” Well, the title of the story is key. Nunc dimittis. A Latin title. The traditional title of the so-called “Canticle of Simeon,” a poetic outburst of joy by Simeon in today’s Gospel which begins with the words, “Now let your servant go in peace …” 

Nunc dimittis. Now let your servant go. 

Simeon, in the Gospel, then goes on to explain the source of his peace:  “My own eyes have seen salvation.”  

So, back to the story — boy do those folks need salvation! Offense is piled on offense, revenge upon revenge, all of which seem to lead to murder. Sin is a contagion that seems uncontainable. It is the first and most deadly of world-wide, human-wide pandemics. Sinfulness.

Today, we celebrate the coming of the Savior into the temple, to bring peace and healing to the contagion of this world’s affliction that we simply cannot contain on our own. Jesus, who is the light of the world, brings life and light into a world that is darkened by its sin. A world that cannot rescue itself. That light, that salvation, is so obviously in need. All we have to do is look around. 

So, on this mid-winter Sunday, when light is increasing in the morning sky and Spring seems, maybe, on its way, we gather to proclaim Jesus the light of the world to a world, including each of our hearts, that is to overcome with darkness and needs to be saved from it. May the light of Christ, borne to the world through our lives, be a healing for others and for each human heart awaits that healing. 

It turns out we cannot heal ourselves, but we still proclaim with Simeon: nunc dimittis. Now you let your servant go in peace for your word has been fulfilled for we have seen your salvation. A light to the nations. A light the world needs. And that light is Jesus.