The Saga Continues
A Sermon by Brent J. Eelman
December 31, 2006
Abington Presbyterian Church

Luke 2: 41-52
    Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. ⁴²And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. ⁴³When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. ⁴⁴Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. ⁴⁵When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. ⁴⁶After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ ⁴⁹He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ ⁵⁰But they did not understand what he said to them. ⁵¹Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
    52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.*

I can still remember the first few weeks of fatherhood. I would look at the little life that was entrusted to Karen and me and wonder. She would cry and make all the little baby noises, and I wondered would what her voice sound like as she matured. I wondered what her favorite expressions would be. I wondered what she would like, and what she would dislike. I thought about the times that I would disappoint her, and vice versa. I wondered what type of music she would enjoy. I wondered what her dreams would be, and what she would feel called to do when she matured as an adult. Children cause us to wonder that way….

It was no different for Mary and Joseph. Luke tells us that after the shepherds left, Mary pondered all the things that she had heard in her heart. She must have looked at the child in her arms and wondered about all the promise that her child held. She, too, must have wondered about what his voice would sound like. What would he regard as important? What would be the trials and troubles that this child would bring? Mary pondered all these things in her heart…

Most of us love the season of Christmas. It is not just the festive nature of the season, it includes the songs and carols that speak of the promise of the child born in a manger. The temptation for most of us though, is to leave that child there in the manger. Too often, we do not follow Mary’s lead and ponder in our hearts the promise of this child. Too often we forget that the child, born in the manger, soon learned to walk and to talk. We forget that the baby Jesus, became the teenager, the young adult and finally the adult Jesus. It is easier to respond to children. They are helpless and though they make demands upon us, they are not the demands of a mature relationship. I believe that is the challenge of today’s text from the Gospel of Luke.

Luke is the one who tells us the Christmas story in all its beauty. It is the story that we love to hear again and again. Of the four gospels, Luke spends the most time writing about the birth of Jesus. Yet as important as the birth of Jesus was, Luke does not dwell on it. Quickly, in a few words, we jump to the 12 year old Jesus. This is no longer the child who was in the manger. The shepherds are no longer mentioned. Prophets and heavenly hosts are no longer present. Instead we get down to the business of raising a young man. We also get a brief glimpse of Jesus home life. It is very brief, and yet it is telling… it is also challenging to our faith and our understanding of who Jesus was.

Luke narrates that Jesus and his family were in Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. This was Mary and Joseph’s practice. Jesus was raised in a devout Jewish household. The holidays and celebrations were part of his life. It came time to leave and so Joseph and Mary departed, most likely with other friends, neighbors and relatives. They realized that Jesus was not among them. Perhaps Mary thought that he was with Joseph. Joseph might have thought that he was walking with friends…. But they realized that he was not with them and so, in a panic, they hurried back to Jerusalem and there they found him, talking with the teachers, and impressing those who were gathered around with his knowledge, insight and understanding. It was a typical parent-adolescent encounter… “How can you do this to me?” “Do you know the stress and anxiety you are causing?” Jesus replied..”but this is where I am supposed to be.” With that statement Luke drew the childhood of Jesus to a conclusion.

This is the most important lesson in parenting, and is perhaps the hardest to learn. Our children are not an extension of us. They are individuals in their own right. They will make choices, (even mistakes) and though it is important to guide them and give them values and direction, they are totally separate from us. Soon they leave the home. Soon they make their way in the world. Soon they affirm the things that are important to them. All of this involves cutting the tie with parents and family. Jesus was beginning the process of cutting the ties. This is never pleasant, and is often trying and anxiety producing. But the only way that a child matures… the only way that she or he begins to understand his or her calling in life is by separating from the parent. Psychologists call this “individuating”: becoming an individual. Jesus, fully human, went through this very human process of becoming an adult. The saga of Jesus’ life continued past the manger. This process would continue until it concluded at the cross.

What does this have to do with life and faith in the 21^st century? What does all this have to do with you and me and living in this world? What does this have to do with our own spiritual journey in life? I believe that we are challenged to mature in our faith, just as the child Jesus grew and matured. At least once a year, I hear it said, “Wouldn’t it be great to have Christmas every day of the year?” I suppose… but that would keep Jesus in the crib forever. Perhaps that is where we want him. Maybe that is all our spirit can handle. God became flesh in a little baby. That baby demands so little of us. Mary and Joseph will take care of him… we can just stand their and gawk with shepherds and angels. “Isn’t he cute.” It is the adult Jesus that challenges us. It is the adult Jesus who causes discomfort. It is the adult Jesus who teaches and challenges us to follow. It is the adult Jesus who challenges the hypocrisy of Pharisees…and also our hypocrisy. It is the adult Jesus who speaks not merely of externals and appearances, but of the matters of the heart.

The last time we were together, the lights were dimmed and we were holding candles and singing about “heavenly peace”. It is one of those magic moments that has a way of causing the lip to quiver just a bit and the unexpected tear to well in the eye. But here we are again… fewer of us… but we are here because the child grew up, lived among us, taught us, died for us and rose again for us.

The challenge that Luke presents to us in this text of the temple is precisely the challenge that Mary and Joseph faced.. precisely the challenge that every parent faces… can we allow the baby to mature and grow into adult. Can our faith mature from one that merely adores the baby in the manger, to one that follows the adult Christ? Can we follow this Jesus… not merely with verbal affirmations, but with acts of faith and moral courage?

As much as I like Christmas and believe in its importance, the world this day needs mature disciples of Jesus. Jesus does not need more gawkers at the manger. Christ needs women and men who will follow him. Men and women who will hear the teaching of Jesus, and his promise life and hope with the same seriousness and joy with which we celebrate his birth. This world needs women and me who interact not with a passive baby, but ones who will respond to and follow a challenging adult Christ.

In today’s text, Jesus told his parents that he needed to be in his father’s house. Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph did not understand…. I think they did understand what was happening and what he said… but they didn’t want to let go of their little boy and allow him to be a person in his own right.. that is the challenge of parenting..

The challenge of discipleship is letting go of the little child in the manger.. and allowing that child to grow and mature into the adult: a man who calls us to follow; a man who demands obedience; a man who exposes our sins; a man who forgives our shortcomings… a man who challenges us to take up our cross and who carries his.. a man who died for us and for our sins. The good news of the gospel challenges us, as it did Mary and Joseph.. let child in the manger become an adult! Amen.

 
*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania,  www.apcusa.org