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
