First Sunday of Christmas
Text: Luke 2:41-52
Pastor Jean M. Hansen
Time flies! Only five days have passed since we read that Mary, having welcomed a scruffy group of shepherds as her new born son’s first visitors, and hearing their story of being visited by an angelic choir announcing Jesus’ birth, “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” While it’s only five days in our time, it’s 12 years in the Biblical story assigned for today, and Mary is once again pondering/treasuring all these things in her heart. Both events are what I would call “Holy Spirit moments”, which is the theme at today’s Informal Worship, and a good topic for all of us to focus on.
However, today’s story is not, on the surface, a spiritual one (no angels), which often is the case with Holy Spirit moments. Instead, it’s a family drama. What began as a routine, yearly trip by Jesus’ family to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover took interesting turn. On the return trip to Nazareth, as they traveled with a large group of family and friends, Mary may have believed that Jesus was with Joseph and the men, and Joseph could have thought the opposite. Or perhaps they reasoned that their son was hanging out with other kids. But, when it was getting dark, as the first day of travel ended, and Jesus did not show up for supper, it became apparent that he was not among them. (I’m guessing that most parents and grandparents among us can imagine the combination of fear and frustration that seized Mary and Joseph.)
So, they, overwhelmed with worry, waited until morning light and made the day-long trip back to Jerusalem. Upon arriving, they probably checked the markets, the homes of acquaintances who lived there, the camps of other travelers, until it finally dawned on them to check out the Temple. Maybe they even said to one another, “I can’t imagine that he’d be there.” It turns out that the Temple was the first place they should have looked, which Jesus points out when Mary expresses her exasperation with him. Can’t you just hear the pre-teen attitude? “Come on, Mom, where else would I be?”
Now…why exactly do I call this a Holy Spirit moment? In this event, maybe for the first time since their sojourn in Bethlehem, the truth of who her son is – as announced by angels – became real for Mary. She began to understand fully that in the next 20 or so years there would be plenty of reason to ponder in her heart concerning Jesus. But this also is a Holy Spirit moment for Jesus himself; it’s a transitional moment in his life.
It’s interesting that in the account Jesus was 12 because at age 13 a boy would become a full member of the synagogue – “a son of the commandments” – an adult. Perhaps in preparation for this event, now called bar mitzvah, Jesus chose to spend his time sitting in Solomon’s portico, a covered porch in the temple, where rabbis gathered to hold discussions and teach Torah. In doing so his innate wisdom became apparent to the teachers and leaders there, and perhaps also to himself.
But, it’s his words, the first he speaks in the Gospel of Luke, that are important: “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” The first thing we notice is that he takes the title father from Joseph and gives it to God, a recognition of their unique relationship and that he is following a Divine mandate. Second, it’s interesting that the phrase is difficult to translate from the Greek, which does not specify to what it refers, but says something like, “Didn’t you know I had to be in the undefined plural something of my Father.” Quoting commentator Meda Stamper, “This has been understood as a place (the temple) or as a group of people (the teachers) or as an activity (the business or affairs of the Father.) But perhaps it is most helpful (although not helpful in a written translation) to leave it open, to think of it as all the somethings – places, people, doings – that advance the purposes of God’s love for the world.” (1) In other words, Jesus said something like, “I had to be doing whatever it takes to advance God’s love for the world.”
But it’s not quite time for that to fully unfold, so the account ends with Jesus returning to Nazareth with Joseph and Mary where he was a good son and matured as a person and in his faith. As it turned out, about 18 years later Jesus did devote himself to the people, places and doings of God in boundary-crossing ways.
Or, as Commentator Stamper said, “The somethings of the Father are not easy for everyone to accept. They do not conform to what the devil wants, and they do not conform to what many people imagine they want in a Savior, even now. They transgress societal and religious norms. They are the opposite of politically expedient because they are, as Mary proclaims in the Magnificat and the angel tells the shepherds, for all people, not primarily for the rich, the powerful, or the prominent. The somethings of God are peace on earth, not victory for a particular person, clan or nation. They are for Israel and the Gentiles, for friends and enemies – for anyone who most desperately needs a savior, which turns out to be everyone, in one way or another.” (2)
And I would add that the “somethings of God” are filled with, happen because of and reveal Holy Spirit moments. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that what was a Holy Spirit moment for Mary and Joseph led to Holy Spirit moments for us.
So…what are we pondering in our hearts that, if carefully examined, is a Holy Spirit moment in our lives? What might we see in the coming year, as we go about involving ourselves with the places, people and doings of God that, if we pause to consider it, qualify as Holy Spirit moments that merit pondering? It’s always true that Jesus can be found if we look in the right place … and, actually, in places that we may not know are “right”. AMEN
“Commentary on Luke 2:41-52” ny Meda Tamper, First Sunday of Christmas, www.workingpreacher.org
Same as #1