Luke 2: 41-52
Midnight mass – Church on Christmas Day – Presents all opened before 6am – No presents until after Christmas lunch – Turkey with all the trimmings – A family walk in the afternoon – A football match on Boxing Day – Turkey sandwiches for a week – New Year resolutions – A special diet during lent – A special time and a place to pray – A family get together for Mother’s Day.
What family customs do you have? What family routines are you thinking of? Are they empty rituals or are they helpful routines?
This week’s reading from the Bible is 12 years after the birth of Jesus. So if you are a fan of Doctor Who – travelling in time – then since Christmas two weeks ago we have travelled 12 years into the future. Mary is no longer a teenager; and although I have no proof Joseph is perhaps starting to go a little grey on top.
The family are on holiday together. They have travelled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Festival ‘according to the custom’ (v42). Jesus is aged 12 and the family has made its customary trip to the Feast. It was part of their family routine to do so (2:41-42). However, they did not just do it because it was an expected tradition for the ‘Holy Family’ to visit Jerusalem! It was a custom associated with being Jewish. It was to do with being a part of the community; it was an Annual remembrance of the time when God (Yahweh) rescued The Nation from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12).
As I’ve studied this event in the life of Jesus I’ve been challenged. Are my customs empty rituals or are they helpful routines? For Jesus and his family the Feast of Passover was no empty ritual. It was a helpful, meaningful routine. When we come to Church is it a helpful routine or is it an empty ritual? Jesus shared bread and wine and said, “Do this and remember me”!
Remembering Jesus as I receive bread and wine is a wonderful, healing, helpful routine!
For many people in our community the Christingle Services were a very helpful routine on Christmas Eve. About 550 people came through our doors, many of them for the first time, and several people told me that it helps them to remember what Christmas is really all about; and if that is what it does for people then it’s no empty ritual it’s a helpful routine!
For Jesus at the age of 12 being at the Passover Festival was a very helpful annual routine to be in; and it led to a deep desire within him to ask questions and to search his heart. I wonder if he had any inkling that 21 years later – again at Passover – the sacrificial lambs would be joined be The Sacrificial Lamb; and that He himself (Jesus) would be that sacrificial lamb.
Later we learn that Jesus developed another helpful routine. It was his custom (6: 12) to regularly withdraw from public ministry to pray. In Luke 21:37-38 we read that in the days leading up to Passover when Jesus was 33, he spent the days teaching at the Temple, and evenings were spent on the Mount of Olives – the place where Jesus prayed before his arrest a few days later (22:39).
We heard in our Bible reading that when he was 12 Mary and Joseph searched for Jesus until they found him in the Temple. He was getting to know God better and when they returned home “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men” (2:52).
What helpful routines do you have for getting to know God better? What helpful routines do we have for getting to know one another better? What helpful routines do we have for serving our community together? Good News! We’ve got several!
At the start of this New Year God is calling us to remember and practice the helpful routines of our faith; and if you are here this morning and you are not really sure about your faith then I would like to encourage you to believe that God wants you to know Jesus better this year; and he wants us to make Jesus better known.
God is calling us to remember and practice the routines of our faith; and there are four things we can do this year in order to help us:
• Praying Together: We won’t all be able to make all of them, but there are five opportunities this week for prayer. Monday 9am for 45 mins, Monday from 8pm, Friday after school & from 8pm also; then 4pm Saturday afternoon. Acts 2:42 describes the first Church like this: “They devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching, the fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.”
• Eating Together: Acts 2:46, “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” I know that life is busy, and I know that family commitments and family pressures can be very time consuming, but perhaps we could ask ourselves a question; perhaps I could ask myself a question: When was the last time I had someone other than family over for a meal? When was the last time I had a meal at home with someone other than family or close friends? When did I last invite someone over who I don’t know very well, or don’t even know at all? Jesus often got into very deep and meaningful conversations with people over food, and that’s been my experience too.
• Worship Together: Praying and eating are both part of worship. Worshipping God together on Sundays and other days and in Home Groups is the best way to know Jesus better and to make him better known.
• Serving Together: I love the fact that many things happen through Christ Church to meet needs in our community. Doing things together as a church, doing things together with the other churches to serve the community is a big part of our calling. Our Youth Worker is in conversation with Mayflower School about how he and others can serve the Art and Music departments. Christ Church is also partnering Buttsbury Junior School in setting up a link with a school in Kenya; and in the meantime Christ Church Toddlers continue to see 70 children a week plus parents and carers. Tomorrow sees the start of a new monthly venture – a support group for people who have been bereaved; and these are in addition to the many other opportunities we have as a Church to serve together.
The Church that Prays, Eats, Worships and Serves Together is the Church that stays together. Amen.
