December 27, 2009

 

Scripture:         Luke 2:41-52

 

Sermon:           “Missing Child”

 

            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2 where we will read together verses 42 through 52.  You can find that easily on page 80 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.

            Have you ever wondered what Jesus was like as a boy or a teenager?  We have great stories about his birth, you know.  We just celebrated Christmas, so that’s all pretty fresh in our minds.  And we know a great deal about the last three years of his life as a man in his early 30s.  But, the Bible is pretty quiet when it comes to the years in between.

            Maybe it’s not that important.  But, haven’t you ever wondered?  What was Jesus like as a boy?  The Bible doesn’t give us much to go on.

            Well, we’re not the only ones to wonder about it.  Did you know that there are some stories floating around out there?  There are.  There are some stories that try to describe some of those missing years—those important years of life.  And some of them are quite old.  Some of them are quite odd.

            When our faithful ancestors made important decisions about just what would be and what would not be included in our Bible, they did not buy these childhood stories as authentic.  So, they aren’t in what we call Scripture.  And they were probably right.  But, within two centuries of Jesus’ life, these stories started making their way around.

            What was Jesus like as a boy?  I don’t know.  I don’t think we’ll ever really know.  But, here is one idea…

 

            “One day Jesus was playing with older boys upon the top of a house of two stories.  And one child was pushed down by another and thrown down the ground and died.  And the boys who were playing with him, when they saw it, fled, and Jesus was left alone standing upon the roof whence the boy was thrown down.  And when the parents of the boy that was dead heard of it they ran weeping, and when they found the boy lying dead upon the earth and Jesus standing alone, they supposed that the boy had been thrown down by him, and they looked upon him and reviled him.  But Jesus, seeing that, leaped down straightway from the upper story and stood at the head of him that was dead and said to him:  Zeno, did I cast thee down?  Arise and tell.  For so was the boy called.  And with the word the boy arose up and worshiped Jesus and said:  Lord, thou didst not cast me down, but when I was dead thou didst make me alive.”

 

            This story is from a book called the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.  And there are some other stories in there as well.  They tell these tales of a young Jesus with powers to do all sorts of miraculous things.  They also paint a picture that Jesus was not always mature enough to use these powers wisely.

            They are interesting fantasies, I think.  After all, what would it be like to be a boy with the power of God?

            The Bible itself does not say much at all.  Maybe it’s not that important.  But, there is one story that we do have.  It’s the only one.  Jesus was twelve years old at the time.  It is our scripture lesson for the day.  Let us listen for the word of the Lord…

 

            Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover.  And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival.  When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.  Assuming 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.  When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.  After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.  When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this?  Look, you father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.”  He said to them, “Why were you searching for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  But they did not understand what he said to them.  Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them.  His mother treasured all these things in her heart.  And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

 

            Luke is right.  Moments like that are full of anxiety for parents.  A missing child is a frightening thing.  “Why have you treated us like this?” they asked.  “We’ve been looking high and low for you and we’ve been very worried about you.”  Anxiety.

            I saw this very thing just the other night.  We had a Christmas concert here at the church, which was really a wonderful night.  But, after the concert when everyone was leaving the church there was a frantic mother in the hallway looking for her daughter.  She asked everyone if we’d seen her.  And none of us were paying enough attention.

            Now, here’s the anxiety.  What if this little girl had gone outside?  The mind starts to wander.  That’s a busy street out front.  We hear these terrible stories all the time of what some folks do to children.  It’s getting late and it’s dark outside.  There’s no sign of her anywhere.

            The worried mother did soon find her daughter.  The girl was playfully hiding somewhere here in the sanctuary.  I’m guessing it was under the pews somewhere.  When we play hide and seek around here, the pews are favorite places to disappear.  But, in those moments of fear and trembling, the mind starts to wander.

            I heard that mother expressing her own frustration.  I know that she was relieved to find the girl.  But, there was already great fear built up inside.  And it sounded something like what we just read in Luke’s gospel.

            Now, wouldn’t it have been something if this little girl had said, “Why were you looking all over for me?  Didn’t you know that I would be in church like the angel that I am?”  I’m guessing, however, that her mother would not have treasured all these things in her heart!

            There are times when we turn around and notice that the children we’ve been raising have all the sudden become something else.  We think that they’ve grown up all over night.  They do something to surprise us with great knowledge and amazing skill.  We see suddenly that they are not just completely dependent little people, but that they are, in fact, their own person heading off to start doing their own thing for the rest of their lives.

            My own daughter was taking swimming lessons this past fall.  I was completely terrified of the whole thing.  I wondered how in the world her little body was going to take to swimming without trying to cling on to me or her Mommy for dear life.  We weren’t even in the water with her.  She was there all by herself with three other little boys and one instructor.

            And then this man stood out in the water a few yards away from her.  She was standing waist deep on the steps.  And he called for her to lunge out into the water on her own, reassuring her that he’d be there on the other end.  And she just pushed out there towards him, legs and arms flailing about as she dipped under the water for just the briefest of moments.  The instructor grabbed her and pulled her up and she had this look of complete pride on her face.  She did it!  She did it on her own.  And suddenly that wasn’t my baby girl anymore.  She was going to be going to college, or getting married, or starting her own life before I knew it!

            But, then, there are moments to come when children begin to show you something of what they are capable of becoming as adults.  Sometimes they just do things that make you take notice.  A young boy stops scribbling on his paper and begins to draw with incredible artistry.  A teenage girl takes her first algebra class in high school and finds that she is really, really good at working with numbers.  And then the future starts to break right into your midst as you realize that children actually are growing up and becoming adults.

            It’s like when Jesus was all of twelve years old.  He was in the temple just like every other year of his life before that.  Only this year it was different.  It was that moment when you knew.  You knew by watching him that he was in his element.  He was made for this stuff.  Hobnobbing there with the scholars, asking them questions, amazing them with his answers.  This was where he belonged.  And his parents just sort of stood there with their mouths hanging down towards the floor as their boy just sort of held court.

            He was still a boy, of course.  Only the mischief of adolescence could cause him to skip out on the trip back home.  It’s like he was hiding there in the sanctuary.  But, he wasn’t just a boy anymore.  He was twelve going on thirty.  Suddenly the meaning of his life, the calling of his life was emerging.  As he sat there in the temple with the teachers and religious leaders and such, everything that he was going to become came bursting out of him.  It happens in the blink of an eye.  Whatever it is that God created us to be is suddenly so obvious.  We have gifts, unique gifts, wonderful gifts.

            And you know that if you start to discover those things, you ought to hang on to them.  You ought to spend the rest of your life giving those gifts away.  Call it purpose.  Call it vocation.  Call it happiness.  You’ve got to go with those things you discover inside of yourself.  When you figure out what it is that God has in mind for you, you’ve got to go with it.

            It happens in the blink of an eye.  You’re in your groove.  You’re in your element.  You’re making a difference as only you can.  Those are defining moments in life because whatever it is that you are doing is strangely fulfilling you.

            Psychiatrist Carl Jung would call these moments in life encounters with the unconscious.  Stick with me here.  Jung would tell us that we, unfortunately, live our conscious lives based mostly upon the fears that dwell within us.  We make most of our decisions based upon what we think is expected of us, you know?  We make a lot of decisions based upon what we think will be the safest thing.  We spend a lot of time worrying about what others think and so on.  And our spirits have been so bruised by our past experiences that fear often dominates our very existence.

            But, underneath all of that is this deeply formed creation.  We have moments when we actually connect to that.  Like the Apostle Paul said, “Now I see in a mirror dimly, but then I will see face to face.”  There are moments when we can peel away all of the hurts that cloud our vision of ourselves, we can see underneath the sins we’ve lived in, and glimpse something of our creation in the very image of God!

            In those moments we can discover this stuff inside that just seems to make sense.  And we ought to pay attention to it.  It’s what God created.  You’ve got to go with that.

            We don’t always.

            But, I think that is what this story of Jesus is really about.  He’s in his groove.  He’s in his element.  He’s making a difference as only he can.  It’s a defining moment in life.  It is touching the very God that created him and the stuff his creation is made of.

            I think that Jesus held on to it.  I wish that we could all do that, too.  But, I think that he held on to it.

            He was only twelve years old and he was asking questions of these older, seemingly wiser men, and they are all just taken aback.  Amazed is the word that Luke used.  Amazed.

            It reminds that that you can get away with a lot when you’re twelve years old.  When you’re twelve you can ask things that an adult could never get away with.  A twelve year old can stand there in the courtyard of the temple and ask questions about the people outside there who are making money off of pilgrims who have come to worship.  A twelve year old can get away with that.  A twelve year old can look at this situation where people are taking advantage of God and taking advantage of people who have come a very long way just to worship.

            Oh, that’s what they used to do, you know.  These poor folks would come to the temple from far away, just like Jesus and his family.  And many of them didn’t have enough money to bring an animal for the sacrifices.  They couldn’t afford that.  And some opportunistic entrepreneur would sell them an over-priced pigeon.  They could afford a pigeon.  Couldn’t afford a lamb or a fatted calf, but they could afford a pigeon.  And these guys would sell them a pigeon for whatever they had left in their pockets.  He had them in a desperate situation.

            Or they’d want to give an offering.  But, you’ve got to used money that wasn’t printed in Rome with a picture of the emperor’s head engraved on it.  You don’t give a blasphemous coin to the temple.  So, someone else will gladly exchange the money you’ve got for the right kind of coins to use.  And in the process, they’ll rip you off, a dollar for a dime.

            A twelve year old can stand there and say, “That’s not fair.  That’s not right.  How can they get away with that?”  It’s cute when you’re twelve.  It’s precocious.  But, it’s entirely acceptable.

            But, when you’re thirty-something years old and those people are still in the courtyard of the temple taking advantage of the poor during the festival of the Passover, not too many people are going to be fond of your questions.  It’s not precocious.  It’s dangerous.

            So, yes, I think that Jesus held on to what he discovered in himself.  He quit asking questions one day and drove those people right out of the temple.  And you know what they did to him.

            Maybe that is why we don’t hold on so tight to those moments.  Maybe we let go because we see that there may also be a cross waiting for us as well if we truly live out this calling in our lives.  We may have these gifts from God inside us, but we’re called to give them away.

            But, Jesus held on.  He had one of those defining moments, and he held on—all the way to the cross.

 

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)