(I forgot to upload it last week)
Gospel: Luke 2:41-52
Grace and Peace to you from God our Loving Creator, and from the Savior born in a manger, Jesus the Christ, Amen
Merry Christmas!
Yep. Of the 12 days of Christmas, we are currently on the day that involves geese laying eggs, or just laying around, I never can tell. How was your Christmas? Lots of food? Merriment? Presents? Christmas movies galore?
For the first year in a while, I didn’t have to travel very far. My in-laws’ place is just down the road, and the traffic was pretty easy on Christmas Eve in Bemidji. We had a lovely night at the in-laws with plenty of food to go around, my wife Tiffany made tons of cookies, and presents for all the grandkids were handed out to the awaiting eyes. Then we got home, went to bed, and waited for ol Saint Nick. Only to be spurred awake by a sick kid and then said sick kid had all the attention for the night. Until the other one woke up and we saw what Santa had brought and all was better in the Rundquist household.
Ah, kids. Love knows no bounds, even as they share their sickness with you throughout the night. And yet, all those sick sharing memories go out the window when you lose them, even momentarily. On Monday, Christians around the world gathered to hear the birth narrative of their Savior. How a young mother gave birth to the Savior of the World, in the humblest of places. Then we know the young family left their home for refuge in a foreign country. Twelve years later, the young family had been in the temple of Jerusalem for Passover. Mary and Joseph had left the temple at the end of the festival, but Jesus stayed behind, without his parents noticing.
A whole day had passed, and his parents could not find Jesus. A whole day, a few minutes, or a few hours… That love that you share for your sick kid is the same love that holds the bond between you and them when they’re missing. I’ve only misplaced either of my children for a few minutes at a time, I cannot imagine the heartbreak of a whole day or even much longer. I cannot imagine the heartbreak of a parent that loses their child forever.
Jesus was not where Mary and Joseph had thought he was. Where was Jesus? When they finally retraced their steps and three days later, found Jesus in the temple. Upon finally seeing her son, she asks him why he would just hang out there and not follow them. And twelve-year-old Jesus just plainly says to Mary and Joseph, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But his parents did not understand. And he traveled to Nazareth with his parents and was obedient to them and he went on to grow in years and that is the only passage of Jesus we have in the bible between his infancy and his baptism by John. His parents misplace him for three days and Jesus shows little empathy for the pain of his parents by asking them why they would be worried about him in the first place. Of course he would be in his Father’s house. Of course they should have known that. Why would they worry?
Why would they worry? Because Mary knew exactly how important Jesus was. Mary knew exactly how much Jesus’s birth and life and future ministry meant to the entire world. She followed him the rest of his days, even through his death and resurrection. Mary knew Jesus. Of course she was worried for him. But what was he doing? Exactly what he would be doing the rest of his life. Learning and teaching. Spending time with the people. Because maybe somewhere deep inside, Jesus knew how important Jesus was.
“Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?”
When I was first on my pastoral internship in rural Otter Tail County, Tiffany was pregnant with Bridget, and Samuel was a bold three-year-old who was experienced with adults. Zion Lutheran of Amor is a church about this size, with a bunch of doors to the outside, but surrounded by farm fields. We were used to small communities, and Sam was comfortable in the church, so as long as he stayed in the church and didn’t go outside, we weren’t too concerned about where he went. Beyond the nursery and my office, where else would a three year old want to go?
Where else indeed. One Sunday after church, Tiffany and I were talking with folks at coffee time, and noticed Sam hadn’t checked-in in a while. Looking around, we couldn’t find him. Again, a church about this size with a bunch of doors, surrounded by farm fields, he could be anywhere and nowhere at the same time. Not in the nursery, or my office, or any of the bathrooms or Sunday School rooms. Nowhere to be found. On a third or fourth walk-through of the church, we happened to walk through the kitchen, where it would be too busy and loud for a three-year-old to be… to find Sam, washing the dishes right next to the old folks. Tiffany asked him where he’d been the whole time we were looking for him. Sam said that he was of course helping out, in the best way he knew how.
Samuel isn’t Jesus. But I’m sure many of you can relate to misplacing a child at least once. The blood rushes to your head, you enter fight or flight mode, but it’s mostly fight AND flight mode. Flight to your child, fight for whoever took them from you. So when Mary showed up and Jesus was not the least bit concerned for any feelings of his mother, and Mary was very worried and mostly confused why Jesus was not… but… what if I’ve been looking at this from my own parenting view for too long…
What if we dared look at it from the 12-yr-old’s point of view. Jesus was living his own truth, doing what he felt called to do. From a parent’s point of view, yeah, he’s twelve and certainly not able to make the kinds of decisions like staying with a bunch of people away from his parents for days at a time without his parents knowing. Surely. But in his mind, perhaps he knew what he was doing, because that’s what he was called to do in that moment in time, as much as it would be the rest of his life, as we know it in the biblical narrative. Perhaps he knew that these people were wise and so he listened to them, but also taught them as well. A 12-yr-old. How bold and daring to knowingly teach these wise teachers, staying in his heavenly father’s house, because this was his calling. How strong a call that call must have been.
How strong a call that would take him through the rest of his life, teaching and preaching and healing and feeding when and where he wasn’t supposed to, for the good of the people. Jesus the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, born where a king wasn’t supposed to be born, brought to a country he wasn’t supposed to be raised in, raised by a young mother, who probably wasn’t supposed to be a mother yet.
Jesus the 12-yr-old who wasn’t supposed to be at the temple without his parents. Jesus the man who wasn’t supposed to be preaching and teaching and feeding and healing those that society deemed unworthy of attention, on days he wasn’t supposed to, in places he probably shouldn’t have been. To save humanity from ourselves. Because that is what our Savior was called to do. Through the unwinnable unshakable Loving Grace of God, we are saved from ourselves by the birth, life, death and resurrection of a Savior born in a manger to the unlikeliest parents in the most unlikeliest of places.
In this snowy Christmastide, with six more days to go, I invite you to think on the children of the world, especially those born in the most unwelcome places, and the parents that go to terrific lengths to keep them safe. One of the promises of Christmas is that such great potential lies in these children who wake us up with their sick, get lost in church, or stay away too long. Such great potential lies in children who deserve a better life than to be lost, thrown in cages or killed because of government mismanagement, racism, or classism. Remember the thousands of children in this state alone, or the hundreds in this area, who live without enough food on their plate, or clothes on their backs.
Mary knew how important Jesus was to the rest of the world. Jesus knew how important Jesus was to the rest of the world. We know how important our children are to the rest of the world. Remember that every child is important to the rest of the world. In them, we see the face of God.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Amen
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