Luke 2:41-52
Whew, Christmas is over for another year.
As always there is a big buildup and in the period of 24 hours all the spending, giving and receiving are suddenly over. Except for the ones that need to exchange things or received gift cards. Their receiving is extended just a bit.
So Friday night at midnight the cycle starts over. We reset our standard calendars and start ticking off the days until Christmas again. Today , We are 362 days away from Christmas. We have plenty of time to get ready for next year if for some reason we failed to get things ready this year.
There are a lot of things that happen in cycles, we get checks and bills in cycles. Traffic lights cycle. We tend to have about 3 meals a day. We come to church on Sundays. April 15th comes around every year.
I guess we live in cycles because we like to have a basic plan or tradition or pattern. For the most part we are creatures of habit.
In our scripture today we have jumped 12 years to Passover when the family is keeping one of their traditions.
Jewish Law required adult males to go the Jerusalem to celebrate three feasts each year. (Passover, Tabernacles and Pentecost) There were exceptions which exempted some or even most men; age, health and if they lived a distance of over 15 or so miles away. No women or children were required to go; however they were welcome to participate.
Joseph, Mary and Jesus live in Nazareth which is 70 miles as the crow flies however, much farther by ground as the terrain is down a range of mountains. The main point is that neither Joseph nor Jesus was required to make the trip because they lived well outside the required distance.
But, the general idea is that the trip to worship in Jerusalem was something that everyone wanted to do.
Think about it. Living in the hill country of Judea, where nothing ever happened or a trip to the big city. A trip with spiritual connections to a place with interesting people and things to see and do. This was a trip that families planned and save for all year long.
Our scripture sez: “Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom.”
So, this was an ongoing tradition for at least Joseph and Mary. I am not sure that Jesus made the trip before this particular year. As a child Jesus may have stayed at home with relatives while mom and step-dad made this religious trip.
But now that he is 12 he joins the tradition and will go down to personally experience the temple worship and the excitement of going to Jerusalem for the biggest festival of the year. The traditions that he has celebrated in his home town will take on new meaning as he sees what has been described to him.
For Jesus, this event would have been a right of passage as he was soon to be of and age when he would be considered accountable to the Law.
Bar Mitzvah literally translates to "son of commandment" and implies "responsible male." Which according to the Law of Moses happens at age 13.
The family will be away from home for about 3 weeks. The festival itself last 8 days and add the time to walk from Nazareth to Jerusalem and back.
The scripture brings us to a human moment that many parents experience at some point.
It says, (44-45) “After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.”
-- I thought He was with you! Can’t you just hear one or both of the parents saying that as they came to the camping spot on the first evening?
That first moment of realization that their son was nowhere to be seen.
Do you think the either of them considered that fact that this was God’s son that they lost?
Or were they reacting like any parent that realizes that their child is missing?
-- When James was 3 or 4 we were at the mall shopping. At some point Renee called to me and asked if James was with me. No, I thought he was with you….
I can’t tell you what Renee felt, but My heart started pounding and she and I zipped around in the clothing racks calling his name and we saw and heard nothing. The time he was missing was probably less than 5 minutes but, it felt like an hour.
In our situation, James was playing a game. He was hiding. He found a rack where he could move to the middle and climb up on a low platform and we could not see him. At 3 or 4, he was totally our responsibility. We only found him because we finally heard the little giggles when we called his name.
From the scripture we can tell that the family was not really traveling alone. They were a part of a larger group of friends and family that had all made their way to the festival.
The group traveled and camped together. They probably shared the cooking and carrying of supplies and cookware. They probably even brought along animals and other foods. From my reading, I learned that the men and women traveled separately, the women and children left first with older men. The majority of men followed carrying the materials for the trip.
It would be easy to lose track of a son that was right in the middle of the age range.
When the feast is over, all the visitors to town head out on the main roads at about he same time. Like leaving a baseball or football game. The roads are full of people walking at different speeds. The roads leading out of Jerusalem are filled with pilgrims, bumper to bumper. The groups spread out in the confusion.
So, the family and friends are making their way toward home and everyone is watching out after the group’s interest and stuff.
I wonder how much like a normal 12 year old of today Jesus was? It sounds like he was fairly typical.
The scripture is specific, the boy Jesus stayed behind.
In the confusion, the family did not forget or lose Him. They had a plan to leave when the event was finished, probably first thing in the morning. And either Jesus went to the temple as the passed near by or he went directly.
Jesus was old enough to have responsibility to work with Joseph in the carpentry trade. He would be responsible to care for animals and get water. He was almost of the age to be considered a man with personal responsibility to the Law.
It seems like Jesus would have known better than to get caught up in the excitement of the city and remain behind.
I don’t think that He is intending to be disobedient to his parents. He just had a special opportunity to talk with several great teachers\ Rabbis and He went.
But, Joseph and Mary made a mistake. They thought that their son was with the group. He was old enough to follow instructions. I imagine he was normally a responsible and trustworthy boy.
However, they never directly checked to make sure that Jesus was in the crowd as they started their journey home. They “assumed” that they were all on the same path.
Now that we are done with Christmas, it is a good time to evaluate our actions.
Are there times in our journey in this last year where we may have left Jesus behind?
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you totally forgot about Jesus.
I am not suggesting that you lost him on purpose.
What I want you to consider is have you made sure that he is on your journey with you.
-- When he was 88, the Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes found himself on a train. The conductor called for tickets, but Justice Holmes couldn’t find his and seemed terribly upset. He searched his pockets and fumbled through his wallet without success. The conductor was sympathetic. “Don’t worry, Mr. Holmes,” he said. “The Pennsylvania Railroad will be happy to trust you. When you reach your destination you’ll probably find the ticket and you can mail it to us.” The conductor’s kindness did not put Holmes at ease.
He said, “My dear man, my problem is not ‘Where is my ticket?’ It is ‘Where am I going?’
With the cycles of our lives we can feel like we are traveling without rest.
We go from season to season, holiday to holiday and year to year.
But are we going any where?
Are we making any progress or are we just running in circles?
In all the cycles and business are we evaluating who is with us on our journey and where are we headed.
Joseph and Mary and thousands of others were totally clear on their direction.
Just like other years, when the feast was over they headed home.
While they knew that Jesus was special they had no idea that his journey would be so different at 12.
The destinations would be different.
Jesus was also headed home but it was to His Fathers house.
Our culture is on a journey that includes no direct thought of Jesus but they live in a tradition which has roots in the Jesus story.
But they leave Him out of the story as the giving and receiving of luxury over rides the simple beginning of a child in the stable or a boy listening and questioning in the temple.
As Christians we really need to be clear on the journey because of we are going our own way then we have a problem. As Christians we are supposed to be on the journey with Jesus.
-- If not then we must back track and join him where he is.
So how do we know?
It all comes down to being clear of the destination that Jesus leads us too.
The problem is that we get really comfortable with our movement, in the cycle, of our lives. We mistake movement for progress.
-- A merry-go-round offers a pleasant and consistent trip but it goes no place.
I285 around Atlanta can give us a lot of danger, speed and excitement but, in reality it is a 2 hour trip to no where.
If we are traveling with Jesus we will end up with a real direction, a real destination and will find that our movement is less about movement and more about progress.
When we are headed the same direction as Jesus we can expect several things.
1. The path is not necessarily the easiest
2. The trip will never really end in this life time
3. Our progress will be slow
4. We will meet people along the way and will be expected to invite them to join the group.
5. Ultimately we will find the value in the journey
6. As we make progress in the journey we will stop just living for cycles and start to make progress.
Our Story continues: “After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."
Do you think Mary had her hands on her hips and waved her arms as she spoke?
Pointing to herself and Joseph.
Did she grab his ear and start to drag him out of the temple for a little “discussion” in private?
Three days, in today’s culture three days would mean something very bad probably happened to our child.
At 12 my kids would starve because of their lack of survival skills.
Child protective services – DEFACS would be all over us, accusing us of abuse. And the only amazement we would have would be expressed that we did not wear the child out when we actually found them.
I see Joseph and Mary’s reaction to be very typical. A combination of joy mixed in with disappointment.
I wonder where Jesus slept for 2 or 3 nights. I wonder where he found a meal. I wonder if that culture was actually a lot more careful and caring for street children that we are today.
Jesus reacts:
"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Folks, if we are paying attention to Jesus, our journey is going to lead to the path that God wants us to travel.
There is going to be some education in the house of God and there is going to be some sharing outside in the market place and on the road.
There is going to be some taking care of things, people and situation that other people should do.
There is going to be some doing things for the right reasons and not because they help us in any way.
There are going to be cost that we take on, Because we claim to be his children. And Because we are full recipients in the inheritance offered by God, by following Jesus.
Those are part of the burdens we are asked to bear because of who our father is.
That is what family is about.
Do you think that when Joseph and Mary realized Jesus was missing that the group just decided to move forward or is there a chance that they contemplated all returning to Jerusalem to look for him.
Do you think that they pooled their resources and gave the couple some cash as they headed off the find their child?
As a church we are a part of a bigger family. We are to help each other on our common journeys and help with the loads and the troubles.
The baptism of Emma last Sunday was a sacramental reminder of the requirements of the community to care for Emma and her family. That is physically and spiritually, we help the family to stay on the journey with Jesus.
As a church this last year we have helped a couple of our church families to make ends meet when their finances fell a little short of their needs.
Through our financial support of other organizations as a church we have touched the lives of children and adults in their journey to better health and stability.
We have supported retired pastors in foreign countries that have no means of support not allowing them to literally starve because they are no longer able to work and support themselves.
Even our church apportionment giving goes to support causes local and worldwide with the education of pastors, and Methodist students. Missions domestic and foreign.
Disabled and homeless, Methodist colleges, church development,
A lot of this giving and support is done in cycles and is automatic. While we participate in the church community and support local causes…
-- The question is where is Jesus in all of this?
Here is my thought; we tend to take the idea that Jesus is present as something automatic.
We live through cycles/ events throughout the year because we have done them in the past and we know the steps. They were and are done because of our love of Jesus even if they are a bit of a pain to do.
-- In some ways we may hold a small resentment for some of the work much like some of the things we resent about Christmas.
But the process is automatic and it does not seem too hard. Eventually, we get good enough with taking care of each other within the church that we really don’t need Jesus to help anymore.
And we don’t invite him to join our situations, the bumps on the road and after a while we may not even notice that Jesus and our paths are different.
I know I may have lost you with that thought. So let me say it another way.
When our spiritual life becomes automatic and routine we are probably just going through them motions. We prefer movement over actual progress.
When our church life is center around our comfort and our schedules them we are probably not walking directly with Jesus.
Let me just put the facts on the table this morning.
As a church we are living a lit like the world.
Just moving through cycles.
Making a trip through circular goals.
We are circling around I 285 waiting to run out of gas.
What we absolutely have to do is realize what is happening and look for where Jesus is moving and pick the right ramp to join him.
Here we are just days before the start of a new year. A time when most people in our country put aside their past failures and tuck in their shirt, tie their shoe laces and get a fresh start.
As a church community we can use the biblical phrase “gird up our loins.”
This is a word picture that described when people of Jesus day, tied their long robes in a way that freed their legs for mobility and speed. It put the material into a manageable fashion so as to be less likely to snag on limbs. It was a description that prophets and disciples used to tell people to get ready to move, work or defend themselves.
I am not suggesting that we discontinue anything we already do for Jesus as a church.
I am suggesting that we each need to look for Jesus in our actions, our traditions and join him in the details of the work out of love and passion and not out of any automatic mindless idea that this is what we have always done.
Folks, We already started this kind of girding in this last year. 2010 is the next time slot for another step or two on our journey to join Christ in our work in the community.
There are some small projects that We have been considering for about a year that seem to be the direction that a small church can make a strong impact on behalf of Jesus. It is about getting and giving educational opportunities. It is about helping families to learn to fish instead of just giving temporary comfort.
The only way to really do that is to recognize that perhaps we have forgotten to make sure Jesus is really in our caravan as we move along the road.
The question you need to consider for yourself, are you satisfied with doing laps on 285 and just burning time and energy or are you ready to renew your journey with jesus?
All Glory be to God.
