Sunday, January 5, 2014

A New Year's Resolution



A Sermon Preached at Ascension, Munich on the Second Sunday of Christmas (Jan. 5, 2014)

Psalm 84, Jeremiah 31:7-14, Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a, Luke 2:41-52

Christmas is the shortest season in the Church year. It lasts only 12 days, as we know from the carol, and includes, at the most only two Sundays after Christmas Day. So I was a little surprised, even shocked when a colleague recently told me that she was planning on celebrating Epiphany this Sunday, so shortening the Christmas season by one day. What will the poor 12 drummers do I thought – unlike the pipers, lords, ladies, maids, swans, geese, gold rings, calling birds, French hens, turtle doves and the partridge they only have just this one appearance? And more seriously, what a shame to miss the Gospel story of how Jesus’ parents manage to lose or forget him in Jerusalem!

Isn’t it amazing how little has changed over the last two thousand years in how parents and children interact? First Jesus’ parents make the mistake of not making sure Jesus is with them when they depart for home. If we imagine that the group of travelers are all friends, relatives, and acquaintances from Nazareth then this is not that unlikely. Once when we spent a long weekend with three couples we knew very well, and who all had children of the same age as ours, we managed to leave one child behind at the farm we were staying at – not one of mine I want to add. The children often swapped places to be with their friends of the same age. And the parents therefore assumed that the boy was in one of the other cars, as had happened before. It sounds to me as if the same thing happened to Mary and Joseph, only we weren’t a day’s journey away – the boy was spotted in the rear-view mirror of the last car when he came round the corner from having visited the rabbits on the farm we stayed at, and so they turned back to get him! 

In the Gospel story we can only imagine the agony of the parents once they discover that their son, Jesus is missing and they cannot find him for three whole days! And when they finally find Jesus his parents react with a very typical mixture of guilt, combined with relief, and expressed as an accusation: “Where have you been?” What were you thinking of?” or in the words of Mary: “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” (Luke 2:48) Jesus’ answer is however not typical. Instead of shouting back: “It’s not my fault, you left me behind,” his reply is a gentle rebuke. These are his first words by the way. Well not his very first words, I’m certain they were the Aramaic equivalent of ‘Mama” or ‘Papa,’ but his first recorded words in this Gospel: Mum, I don’t know why you were worried; you should have known where to find me – in my Father’s House. 

On a theological level this is Jesus confirming, indirectly, what others have already said about him. The Angel Gabriel, Zechariah, and Mary have all identified Jesus as the Savior and the Son of God earlier in the Gospel. And as Mary will find out later, at the foot of the cross, with much sadness, Jesus’ relationship to God and Jesus’ mission will always take precedence over his relationship to his earthly parents and over any personal interests. 

Then on a personal level we have a child talking back to his parents and parents who do not understand their son – so no surprises there! I have heard the next verse (Matthew 2:51) “Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them” described as meaning that Jesus was seriously grounded, so much so in fact that we do not hear from him for another 18 years!

But this passage is not just about practical parenting and growing up in 1st century Palestine. Interestingly the Youth Group program we use at Ascension, Journey to Adulthood, uses this story from Luke’s Gospel as its theological and scriptural underpinning. Jesus is the model for this journey, for becoming adults, for personal and spiritual growth and they base the topics covered in the program, self-awareness, relationships and sexuality, spirituality and society, on the four areas in which Jesus developed or increased: “in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.” (2:52) 

But I want to suggest that we can use these four areas of growth not just as a model for teenagers and their development, but also for ours. After all in God’s eyes we are all children. So where can we grow and how?

Firstly we are supposed to increase in wisdom. The word translated here as wisdom is in Greek Σοφία (sophia) – the root of the word philosophy, which means literally the love of knowledge. Sophia also stands for insight, skill, and intelligence and is not just or mainly theoretical knowledge but knowledge acquired by experience, knowledge with application. Elsewhere in Scripture we find the author of the Epistle of James using the word sophia to describe both the knowledge and practice of how to live a godly and upright life. And in Paul's Epistles it often stands for the knowledge of the divine plan of salvation for the world.

And how can you increase in this sort of knowledge or wisdom? By reading and studying: the Bible of course but also other devotional or spiritual books. And you can get to get to know God and God’s purposes better not just through reading religious literature. Poetry, science, novels, social sciences etc. are equally important: All of creation is God’s and God acts in the world, not just in church, so it is in the world where we can often learn more about how to live a godly life and more about God’s goodness and love. What we need is what Paul prayed for in his letter to the Ephesians: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ … may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him.” (Ephesians 1:17)  And we must never assume that we already know or understand everything there is to know about God, and God’s plans. I certainly don’t, I know that increasing in wisdom is an ongoing and never-ending process of lifelong learning.

Secondly we are to increase in years or, as the word ἡλικίᾳ (helikia) can also be translated in age, in maturity or in stature. But doesn’t that happen automatically? When we are young we cannot get older quick enough. And when we are older we are no longer so enthusiastic about the aging process! For me increasing in years stands for making use of and learning from our experience, which of course includes not just the joyful moments, but also our setbacks, suffering, questions and doubts: the ones that leave scars behind. We need these experiences too. One of the prayers in the BCP – an alternative General Thanksgiving (on page 836 if you want to look it up) contains the line: “We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.” We also need to deal with doubts and questions to grow in faith. It will be a much more robust and mature faith than one that is just based on received doctrines or a faith that  expects everything to go well all the time. 

Thirdly we are supposed to increase in divine favor: χάριτι παρὰ θεῷ (chariti para theo). The word charis, the root of our word charity, can also be translated as love, kindness, gratitude, or grace so this is a call to grow in the grace of God. On the one hand this is impossible. Surely we can’t grow in God’s grace because we already have it, all of it! Grace is not earned it is a free gift for as Paul writes, “God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” (Eph. 1:4) On the other hand regular prayer and worship, and partaking of God’s sacraments do no harm at all as they enable us to experience God and God’s love and power. God still takes pleasure in these interactions. It’s why God created us in the first place – to be in relationship and to have something and someone to love and to be loved by. In that sense we can increase in God’s favor.

And finally there is the call to increase in human favor: χάριτι παρὰ ἀνθρώποις (chariti para anthropois) – which we might also translate as to increase in the gratitude of humanity. Well, it is clear why humanity should be grateful to Jesus: he gave himself for whole world. But how can we increase in human favor or gratitude? We can do so by following Jesus’ example and command. By our acts of love, by the respect we show others, by our engagement for the world, by the way we live our lives as people of faith. Paul is grateful to the Ephesians because he has heard both of their faith in the Lord Jesus and of their “love towards all the saints.” (1:15)

Today is our first service since New Year’s Day and so it is definitely not too late for New Year’s resolutions. Might I suggest that one of your resolutions be your personal plan on how you intend to grow this year in “wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor?” Your church is also here to help you put that resolution into effect with opportunities for study and formation, with a listening ear for any struggles or questions, with worship, prayer and retreats, and with our outreach programs or, to put it more simply, to help you live a full life in Christ.
Amen