December 26, 2021
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Colossians 3:12-17; Luke 2:41-52 [1]
Whew! Finally! The waiting is over. The big day has come and
gone and we can all let out a big sigh of relief. Hopefully your festival went
as usual, all the houseguests have left, no one was left behind, and it’s time
to relax, recover, and rest up for the New Year. Unless, that is, you have
children to take care of. The angels left, the shepherds went back to work, and
Mary and Joseph are faced with the challenges that come with raising a
teenager. No, I don’t think they did much relaxing.
I imagine they were scared, hoping they’ll do a good job as
parents. If what we have heard is to be believed, God has big plans for this
kid. We haven’t heard much about the childhood of Jesus. Luke has this one
brief tale of the twelve-year-old Jesus ditching his parents and visiting the
temple in Jerusalem to ask questions of the teachers. And then we jump ahead to
adulthood. Jesus has increased in wisdom and in years and is ready now to begin
the work, to answer the call.
When we see this adolescent Jesus, he is quite precocious.
Sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, he
demonstrates amazing understanding and wisdom. When his parents finally find
him, to take him home, he’s a little snarky when he says “Why were you
searching for me?” Gosh, mom, didn’t you KNOW where I was? OF COURSE I would be
in God’s house. But then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was
obedient to them. What a nice boy, so well behaved. At least for this quite
short segment about Jesus as a child.
My children are not quite so well
behaved. I would not describe them as disobedient, though probably snarky would
fit. They don’t show a lot of understanding when we tell them it’s time to get
of their phones, or how silly behavior might not be appropriate for a given
situation. And so, it helps me to think that a more authentic description of
Jesus as a child would be a little less perfect. Did Jesus talk back to his
mother? Did he ruin his nice clothes by playing in the mud? Did he have a party
in the house when his parents were gone, spill the wine on the carpet, then try
to clean it up with dish soap?
We only get this one glimpse at the
young Jesus. And perhaps that’s all we need. After all, Jesus was a real person
just like us, and so probably had an upbringing that was fairly typical, though
maybe just a little exceptional. And his parents did their best with what they
had.
Fortunately, Mary and Joseph raised
Jesus as a member of a community. When they travelled to Jerusalem for the
festival, they went with a caravan, and assumed Jesus would be safe with the
group. It was a community committed to the covenants, the promises between God
and Israel through Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets.
We also raise our children as
members of a covenant community, this church community, committed to the new
covenant in Jesus Christ. And as our children increase in wisdom and in years,
and in divine and human favor, we will set them free to face their destiny. We
hope and pray that that destiny will be filled with light and peace. They are
not outsiders, but members of the community committed to Christ. As Jesus was
welcomed into the group listening to the teachers in the temple, we welcome our
younger members to ask questions and seek answers in the safety of this group
of travelers. And if we have prepared them well, our young folk will continue
the work and the calling of this congregation seeking to fulfill God’s Word.
It is a lot of responsibility. None
of our children will grow up to be Jesus Christ. And yet, each of them, and
each of us, contains the Spirit of God in our hearts. We are all children of
God. We are all capable of bringing some measure of redemption, some of the
light of God’s glory to the world around us.
Sometimes we don’t. When the waiting is over, the Christ has come, we are
supposed to be changed – and change is scary. The moment comes and we let
it pass us by. The big day arrives and we’re afraid to move, to act, to change,
to stop waiting.
Waiting is comfortable. We know
what to expect. But when what we’ve been waiting for happens, everything gets
upended and we have to get moving.
When Mary and Joseph brought the
infant Jesus to be blessed at the Temple in Jerusalem, they met some people who
had been waiting, unchanging, for a long time. The prophet Anna had been
waiting there in the temple for eighty-four years. She probably had a routine
of fasting and prayers, the same each day and night, a comfortable rhythm. She
never left the temple and perhaps feared the dangerous and troubled world
outside its walls. But Jesus came to the temple. The waiting was over. “At that
moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all
who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Anna got moving.
Simeon had been waiting, we don’t
know how long, to see the Messiah, knowing that he would not die until he did.
The end of waiting means a very big change for him. But the Messiah came. The
waiting was over. “Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when
the parents brought in the child Jesus… Simeon took him in his arms and praised
God, saying, ‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace.’” Simeon
moved on.
After college I took a job at a
bank. Just something to pay the bills while I waited to figure out what I
really wanted to do with my life. It was nine years before my waiting was over,
and by then I had grown pretty comfortable with my routine. But I got moving. I
applied to seminary and accepted the call to serve God in ministry. Change for
me meant leaving my hometown, moving to a tiny apartment in Chicago, and
starting school again. It was very hard to leave that old life behind. I left
my family, my friends, and many things I loved. I fell to a low point of
loneliness and sadness in that time. But with the help of my new community, the
strength and wisdom I had gained as I waited, and with some faith in the calling
I had received, I began to rise from that low point and in my new life I began
to shine.
The change that comes at the end of
the waiting is usually hard. There is loss. Moving in a new direction takes a
lot of energy. There are those who will oppose the change, and will reveal
their inner thoughts. You may feel as though a sword has pierced your soul. It
did mine. I remember thinking, “What have I done?” and I cried out to God. But
with the help of those around you, with faith in the strength of God to see you
through, and with the knowledge that the light of the world has come into your
heart, you can face the end of waiting and the beginning of something new.
When the waiting is over, a
decision must be made. Which way shall I go, which choice shall I choose? Maybe
it is facing a decision, choosing one thing and losing another, that causes us
to keep waiting. We fear making the wrong choice, or losing out on one thing
because we have chosen something else. My favorite songwriter, David Wilcox,
puts it succinctly:[2]
I was dead with deciding - afraid
to choose,
I was mourning the loss of the choices I'd lose,
But there's no choice at all if I don't make my move,
And trust that the timing is right,
Yes, and hold it up to the light.
When the waiting is over, start
moving. If you hold your choice up to the light, you’ll
be moving in the direction that leads toward God. The change may mean that
you fall, but don’t despair, for after the fall comes a rising. Jesus was
destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel. We are a
resurrection people, and though we fall, we rise again to new life, and to the
fulfillment of our calling to seek the realm of God.
Jesus, the child of Mary, has come
to us. Rejoice! Emmanuel has come to thee, O Israel. God is with us, residing
in our hearts. He died, but see: He has risen! Alleluia! The waiting is over.
The light has come. Our eyes have seen the salvation of God, prepared in the
presence of all peoples. We are ready, as children of God, to face the changes
that are before us. We are ready, as people of God, to answer the challenges of
our time. We are ready, as beloved of God, to arise and seek the redemption of
our community and our world. Amen.
[1] The
scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2]
David Wilcox, “Hold It Up To The Light” on Big
Horizon copyright © 1994 A&M Records.
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