Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
And even with the obscurity, you see this fundamental shift. Jesus flips the term father from Joseph to God. And you have to wonder, when did Jesus know who he really was? In our Advent series so far, we've been talking about Jesus' approach to becoming the savior and teacher that we know him to be. As we said in the journal, this series looks at old testament passages that point to Jesus and the formative years of Jesus's life to explore what shaped him as he grew.
Speaker 1:And in the series, one of my favorite favorite frameworks so far is this idea that the gospels repurpose Old Testament stories and make them new. And Jeremy did a great job showing us how the writers used the prophet Isaiah, or shall we say prophets? Isaiah? However many people worked on Isaiah, I simply love how literary good news can be. And if you're like, Ugh, Bobby, it's boring.
Speaker 1:No, really. Beauty is never boring. The old can be made new. And last week, Yelena marched us through both Mary and Elizabeth's pregnancies, and it's so good to go back to those beginnings, Jesus and John in utero. And Yelena reminded us that God's arrival is not one of force or deception.
Speaker 1:God arrived, she said, with profound divine vulnerability. Today, we are getting trippy with the advent timeline. Remember, this series is about Jesus before Jesus. So we'll look at Luke's story of the boy Jesus in the temple. You may have never thought about that story at Christmas, but there is a case to be made for it.
Speaker 1:But before we get there, let us pray. Loving God, this is a week of great turning. We turn from the darkest part of the year toward increasing light. We turn from Advent waiting toward anticipation of Jesus' arrival. We turn from distraction to focus a little more on what this season means.
Speaker 1:So in this moment, remind us that we are here, and we are safe, and we are at least a little less alone. For the heavy things that we carry, and there are many, won't you remind us that you are near to all who suffer and no pain? Together, we practice just a simple breath prayer with our advent themes so far. So we breathe in hope, and we breathe out defeat that overwhelms us. We breathe in peace.
Speaker 1:We breathe out the stress of the season. We breathe in joy. And we breathe out pessimism of a future we simply do not know. Come, Advent God. Remind us that you are near and getting nearer.
Speaker 1:Amen. Alright. Today is about Jesus as a boy in the temple, and his whole family and community will be with us. We'll talk about typical 12 year old little boy lost, always found, and growing up at Christmas. Now, last week, when I was probably should have been sitting in the 7PM service, I was actually standing in the foyer making jokes with my colleague and friend, Kevin Borst, if you know the guy.
Speaker 1:He's always good for a joke. And I don't know why it came up, but we got talking about strange moments from childhood that we weren't really sure happened or not. Well, I got talking about that. So I told Kevin a story about something that happened to me at summer camp, and in my mind, it was just no big deal, just a weird little memory I wasn't sure really happened. And Kevin was like, woah, Bobby.
Speaker 1:You should maybe talk to someone about that. Now, it's fine. I'm fine. But I do wanna say, when we're talking about being like 12 or 13, we don't always know the extent of a moment that may shape us. And because we believe in the full divinity and the full humanity of Jesus, the same is true when we talk about God.
Speaker 1:There might be a formative experience in his childhood that forever shaped him and those around him too. So let's take this story just child sized bites. It begins, every year, Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. When he was 12 years old, they went up to the festival according to the custom. Now in Eloquence of Luke, we have this perfect setup, except the story is part of the whole.
Speaker 1:It gives us this stepping stone between the baby and the grown up Jesus in the gospel. It sort of smooths out the story and allows for this progression. Storytelling matters when it comes to good news. Now, the way Luke has been divided into chapters, which interestingly didn't happen until the thirteenth century. Chapter two is very much a part of what we call the infancy narrative.
Speaker 1:It runs from Luke one five to the end of two. So you see the story of Jesus is a boy in the temple. It does belong at Christmas. Now, for context, let's do a little more thinking about the details of this community ritual and what it meant to be 12 and Jewish in the ancient world. Passover.
Speaker 1:What a party. It was one of three pilgrimage festivals celebrated in Jerusalem. It took place in the spring for seven or eight days, and for a while only men were expected to keep Pas over. But by the time of Jesus, women were in on it too. Passover, if you remember, revolves around the way ritual keeps a community's memory alive.
Speaker 1:The point was to never ever forget that the people were liberated from slavery in Egypt. So slay the sacrificial lamb, roast it and eat it in a family circle at sundown, Eat unleavened bread all seven days. That's your Passover. Now Jesus is 12 here. Just stop and picture that.
Speaker 1:My nieces are like nine and my nephews are six and seven. And all of that is awfully close to Jesus at 12. Can you imagine like his shoulders aren't broad yet? And maybe he trips over his still growing feet and he hasn't quite realized how loud his laugh is yet. And the thing about being 12 here is that it's when Jewish boys become men.
Speaker 1:The rabbis later put it like this, a boy is fit for the Mishnah or oral tradition of Jewish law at 10. They are responsible for the vows that they take at twelve, and they have bar mitzvah at thirteen. And then off they go, observers of Mosaic law for themselves. So everything at the start of this story, which by the way is only in Luke, is telling us that the life is going along just fine for Jesus, just like you'd expect. Families, devoted member of their community, they take part in this holiday every year, and Jesus, he's growing up.
Speaker 1:Look at him. He's 12. The rituals of his community are becoming his own. And being that this is a story at the start of like a 100 stories still to come in Luke, you have to wonder, if everything is as it usually is, what's about to change? So after the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.
Speaker 1:Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. So Mary and Joseph, we have a situation. Now, two details stand out to me.
Speaker 1:One is the fact that Jesus is called boy Jesus here, which is helpful because soon as the problem of his absence arises, my imagination kind of grows Jesus up. But no, he's still a boy. We're meant to hold on to his youth. And the second detail is that the life of the family exists in a larger network. Like, it would be one thing if his parents couldn't find him, but no one can find him.
Speaker 1:And you need to know that there's this flexibility of family in pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Women often set out first thing in the morning, then the men would catch up by nighttime, and the kids would be somewhere in between. So both Jesus' boyhood and his lostness highlight what the story is here to do. This story shows that paths are parting. Now, there is a temptation to pick paths when it comes to our Christology.
Speaker 1:Do you have a Christology from above or below? From above, you are synced up to Christ's divinity. You have no trouble with Christ existing and participating in the very creation of the world. You're like, Jesus came to save my soul, and that's what matters to me. For a Christology from below, you're in touch with Jesus' humanity.
Speaker 1:You have no trouble with his earthly, embodied existence in the world. You're like, Jesus shows me how to be human. That's what matters to me. Now, obviously, the best Christology balances the two. But traditions get stuck in a rut of one or the other.
Speaker 1:We see it in our songs. We see it in our denominations, even in our very own prayers. Jesus is Lord of it all or a friend of sinners. Jesus is crowned king or a servant in rags. When we pick one path, we lose something of the paradox of Christ.
Speaker 1:We disregard the mystery of both and. And then we find ourselves like Jesus' boyhood community spinning around in circle circles wondering where on earth he's gone. I mean, who wants a Jesus that you can contain anyway? I prefer the one who wanders off. So after three days, they find Jesus in the temple course sitting among the teachers listening to them and asking questions.
Speaker 1:Everyone who heard Jesus was amazed at what he understood and with his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. Mary said to him, son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you. And then we get Jesus' first spoken words in the gospel.
Speaker 1:He asked, why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my father's house? But no, they did not understand what Jesus was saying to them. So what is he saying and why the attitude, little buddy? Well, let's unpack it.
Speaker 1:We need to keep in mind that Jesus is not pulling rank. He's simply a good student. It's the posture of a good student to sit at the rabbi's feet and ask questions to keep the conversation going. And Jesus plays that part, and still, it seems like he he kinda can't help himself. For strangers, they're amazed.
Speaker 1:Then his parents are astonished. The verbs here mean everyone has this deep emotional response to the conversation Jesus has with the teachers. It's like, wow, can you believe this kid? And, what did he just ask? And he said that part out loud.
Speaker 1:Now, the story of the boy in the temple takes a profound turn with the word father. Mary uses it first. Hey, your father and I, we've been looking for you for days. And then I imagine Jesus' response sounding like, that's funny because I have been in my father's house. And the Greek here is, as Luke Timothy Johnson says, frustratingly obscure.
Speaker 1:Is Jesus talking about the temple? The business of God? God's associates as in the teachers in Jewish life? And the literal translation is, and this won't make any sense, I have been in the, plural, things understood of my father. What now?
Speaker 1:And even with the obscurity, you see this fundamental shift. Jesus flips the term father from Joseph to God, and you have to wonder, when did Jesus know who he really was? Well, given that this is the only story like it in the gospels in which we have the first recorded words of Jesus, it might just be he knows who he really is right here, looking at his worried mom and his regular old dad. After three days apart, Jesus senses a shift. Oh, I have a bigger loyalty.
Speaker 1:They told me my arrival was unusual, but now I know it for myself. I came from God. I am who I am, and I will return to God. I used to find it so easy to skip past the story of Jesus as a boy in the temple. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. The boy gets distracted and stays in one place too long. He's found and all is fine. But this story is about so much more than how precocious Jesus was. This story is about pronouncement.
Speaker 1:The most fundamental relationship Jesus has in his life is with the living God. In fact, something of him is the living God. How much? When he's 12 and becoming a man? Well, not nothing.
Speaker 1:The story is pronouncement. Luke is saying that Jesus doesn't belong to one family and he can't help it. But he will do circles around religious teachers, so much so it's gonna get him into trouble, like the worst kind of trouble. Luke's own pen will write later in chapter 19. Every day, Jesus was teaching in the temple.
Speaker 1:The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard. I love that translation from the NRSVUE, spellbound by what they heard, like there's twinkle lights all around it. Christmas is a great time to come home from any search you've been on for God. You can ask yourself, if I can see God in Jesus as a promise made to Mary as a baby born in humble circumstances to Joseph and as a boy locked into the wonder of what it means to grow in faith and action then maybe growing up and getting lost and being found is what my humanity shot through with divinity is about. Growing up is about finding out who you are, no matter how old you might be.
Speaker 1:So here's the ending. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them, and his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. And through this last installment of the infancy narrative, we are following the action and emotion of Mary and Joseph. We are with them when they discover that they've lost Jesus.
Speaker 1:We are with them When they turn around and go back to Jerusalem, we are with them. When they finally spot the boy three days later sitting with teachers and asking questions. But at the very end, we get the swing. It's time to let Mary and Joseph recede. Jesus has become the subject of the verbs.
Speaker 1:Jesus goes home to Nazareth. Jesus obeys his parents. Jesus grows in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and the people. But of course, Mary is still here in this pretty happy ending, isn't she? And while the story is meant to bridge the narrative from baby Jesus to his baptism, Mary shows us that we can stay open to all of the ways that our perception of Jesus can and will change.
Speaker 1:So before we go, I'm curious. Who do you identify with most in the story? Are you the frantic parents frantically parenting? Is your maturity so established that you can't hear the wisdom of youth? Are you an independent child, content to do your own thing and make your own way?
Speaker 1:I relate. We're in a season that surfaces all kinds of conflict, misunderstandings, and expectations. There is nothing quite like Christmas to remind you of estrangement, unhealed relationship dynamics, and things that you carry with you even though you thought you left them behind. Let the boy in the temple story teach you this. Jesus was God, and still there was room for him to grow.
Speaker 1:It's a mystery and something that we marvel at every Advent. Jesus was a baby and then a boy, and that particular experience forever shapes how we imagine the divine. So inspired by the story of the boy in the temple, I leave you with three ways to grow up this Christmas. It was like, pew pew pew. I wanted those, but I have to bring them myself.
Speaker 1:So here it is, three ways to grow up at Christmas. Number one, if you've been avoiding a hard conversation, plan to have it. Maybe not right on Christmas morning, but soon. Mary and Joseph, during their Jewish holiday, move toward what they don't understand. They engage in a conversation with Jesus imperfectly.
Speaker 1:They reveal how much they don't know. But isn't that the point? Moving toward what you don't understand so that you can begin to. A second way to grow up at Christmas, learn something new. Pick something, anything, and expand your humanity.
Speaker 1:It can be cosmic or organic, about conflict or ways to calm your nervous system. It can be a new board game or a cookie recipe. Nudge your humanity forward with a little knowledge about something new. Let your curiosity lead you like it let the boy in the temple. Number three, practice this Christmas affirmation no matter how lost or found you feel.
Speaker 1:Let your heart follow what your mouth professes. You know it. Emmanuel, God is with us. God is with us. God is with us.
Speaker 1:Start and end every day of the holidays with it. Mutter it under your breath like a blessing. God is with her. God is with them. God is with us.
Speaker 1:You are growing up at Christmas. Try to be glad, maybe joyful about that. Let us pray. Loving God, before we rush off into another week, one closer to Christmas and likely so full of things to do, we remember what is essential about this season. That there is a story that speaks to us about who you are.
Speaker 1:That darkness can be full of your patient and affirming presence. We are not finished growing into our humanity and discovering what is divine about every inch of it. Like how we are connected in infinite ways. We are capable of so much beauty and love. And we are every day able to become more of who we are.
Speaker 1:So spirit of the living God, present with us in the dark, enter the places of our waiting and longing and heal us of all that harms us. Amen.
Speaker 2:Hey. Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at Commons, you can head to our website, commons.church, for more information. You can find us on all of the socials commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community.
Speaker 2:You can also join our Discord server. Head to commons.churchdiscord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week.
Speaker 2:We'll talk to you soon.