Sunday, December 30, 2012
The letter of Paul to the Colossians, chapter 3:12-17
12. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
13. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you have a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
14. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
16. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
17. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The Gospel of St. Luke, chapter 2: 41-52
41. Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover.
42. When he was twelve years old, they went to the festival, according to the custom.
43. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it.
44. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.
45. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.
46. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
47. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
48. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
49. “Why were you searching for me? He asked. “Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?”
50. But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51. Then he went down to Nazareth with then and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.
52. And as Jesus grew up, he increased in wisdom and in favor with God and people.
Three days, Mary and Joseph searched Jerusalem for three days before they found the twelve year old Jesus. The three days may not have included the one day they traveled away from the city, so there may have been as many as five days in which Jesus was missing. If this search were in our time, the police would be involved, the freeway signs would light up issuing an alert, and the radio and TV news broadcasts would raise public awareness of the missing child. The Scripture for this Sunday mildly understates the situation by describing Mary and Joseph’s efforts as an anxious search. If it were my son, panic would be a more appropriate word. How would you feel if your twelve year old were missing for five days?
It is dangerous to compare times and places but this situation is strange, so strange that charges of parental neglect seem appropriate. Jerusalem was the center of the population of the land but three days walking around the city, asking everyone if they had seen Jesus, seems like a highly questionable search. Where were they looking for the search to have taken three days? Did they look in the city park? Did they check out the teen hangouts? Did they check out the backwaters of the city? Were they searching the red light district? One would have to ask, did they know their son? The three day fruitless search says no.
Every one of us, everyone who has ever lived is unique, our individual person hood is a good predictor of behavior. Are we followers or leaders? Are we easily influenced by others or do we act upon our own beliefs? At our core are we a sensual person, money motivated, fun motivated or do we value our person hood as others may judge us? Any one who has been a parent recognizes these personal characters in their children and if we are honest, recognize their influence in our own lives. This being the case, why is the Temple, the center of the religious and spiritual life of the nation, the last place that Mary looks for her son?
Mary who sang the praises of the God who would do great things through her son. Mary who was visited by an angel to convince her of the divine intentions relating to the birth of Jesus. Twelve years after the fact, her actions seems to say that she was convinced to a greater extent with his normality, convinced that her son was just another Jewish boy about to reach spiritual maturity. It is all so confusing. Yet, there is only one place to go to try to untangle these events. The story fails to directly account for the spiritually deflating power of the every day.
Life’s demands are a consumer of personal energy. Regardless of the era in which we live, so much of our energy is required to satisfy the routine of life. We all know the truth of this energy equation. One day upon another requires so much time, money and personal space that we get numb and loose sight of the truly important life experiences or priorities like family and spiritual things. Mary and Joseph suffered under this routine of life deflator just as we do today. This does not excuse their lack of spiritual perception about their son but it is a real life mitigating circumstance.
Where does this unavoidable deflation factor leave you and I? Will the routine of life leave us with no clue as to the identity of those we love or even the identity of ourselves? Will the day to day routine of life lead us to settle for a religious identification instead of an alive personal spiritual faith? When and if we read the Bible, do we read out of some sense of obligation, or goal or search for knowledge or do we read to search for some increased level of spiritual wisdom and understanding. Jesus at twelve was about gaining wisdom, by listening and questioning his spiritual leaders. These two characters are missing from the program of the modern church that assumes it knows best, except there are thousands of “bests”, differing “bests”, promoted every Sunday.
Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossians what the alive fellowship of believers should be about. This lofty look at the church at work is probably practical but it is a least a goal going forward. If and when it does exist, it is what we all really need but it seems to be so rare. A community of believers so unaffected by the routine of life that the forever normal is alive and taking action in their midst. Such a spiritual experience in this world would, indeed, be a miracle to behold.
What can we do in the meantime? Follow the clues, they are there!
G.Goslaw
Landers, Ca
