All right… how many of you made new year’s resolutions? How many of you… have broken your new year’s resolutions? They, whoever they are, say that to break a habit, not an addiction, but a habit, takes 3 days. To establish a habit takes 30 days, which doesn’t mean that to do something good will require only 30 days of discipline, only that after 30 days the new habit will feel comfortable. So what’s it going to be? Are you going to: quit smoking… lose weight… gain weight… exercise… spend more time with your family?
There are some things that I want to accomplish but I’m not sure I’m calling them resolutions. I’m going to try again to minimize the coca-cola. I’m going to try to exercise three to five times a week. And if any of you great cooks would like to help me gain a few pounds feel free to invite me over for supper. I guess Tasha and the kids could come too.
But the only thing I would call a resolution this year, is not going to be so containable. By that I mean that I’m not sure that I will be able to quantify it so easily. If I only drink a couple of cokes a week, then that is going to be pretty easy to measure. If I do exercise for half an hour three to five times a week, that will be duly noted. And if I put on a few pounds this year, in the right places well I have a scale to give me a precise measurement. But what I really want to do this year is going to be hard to measure, maybe even hard to see. I can’t really plan for it. It will require discipline and integrity. It may not make me popular. It may not help my ministry… institutionally speaking. But if I’m successful, I may just breathe a bit easier and even sleep sounder….
I do have a resolution this year. And I’ll tell you about it, in just a moment. But right now I want to read to you a story about the young man Jesus. It’s the only story we have of Jesus as a child or young man. But it’s not just a cute story, included by Luke to lighten the load. There is purpose here. There is intent. There is a glimpse into the nature of Christ. There is a foreshadowing of just how far ahead of the game Jesus is, and still how far he will have to go… and to grow.
When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. 40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. 41 Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. 43 After the Feast 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 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 them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Luke returns the family to Nazareth and there Jesus grows. In fact Luke says he grows strong, that Jesus even at a young age is filled with wisdom, and that the grace of God is on him. Now don’t get me wrong. Wisdom and grace are worth noting and in doing so Luke seems to indicate something is special about Jesus. But it just seems so subtle, so plain. Its almost like you want Luke to tell us that Mary had to tie Jesus to his bed every night to keep him from floating away, or that Joseph wouldn’t let him wear his halo at the table. This story is the last we hear of Joseph and so we presume sometime between hear and Jesus’ ministry, Joseph died. And I think we all would love to read of the awe-inspiring story of how Jesus at 15 or 17 or whenever healed his father. I mean after all he healed Peter’s mother-in-law, a blessing I’m not sure Peter asked for. Don’t you want to read about how Jesus on the playground at his rabbinical school was rubbing some clay in his hands and accidentally or even purposefully made a snake? But Luke doesn’t take us there. He just tells us that Jesus grew strong, and with wisdom and grace.
So do you ever wonder, if he and his brother James wrestled just for fun, or if when pinched his finger in a door, he cried and then tried not to cry? Do you ever imagine that Jesus ate too much dessert at a family wedding or reunion, and his stomach hurt? Do you ever wonder if he made James laugh so hard that milk came out James’ nose? Can you imagine our lord, who made the heavens and the earth moved to tears by grief, by laughter, …by life?
He grows strong, with wisdom and grace. And every year the family goes to Jerusalem for the Passover and the year that Jesus was 12 something special happened. Aha! Now we’re going to get to something supernatural, something miraculous, and something bigger than the circus, the zoo, and Disneyworld combined. Jesus is going to Jerusalem and he’s going to levitate to the top of the temple and on the way just for fun, part the Jordan…. That’s got to be it!
So they go to Jerusalem and they are faithful in their sacrifice and service to God and they return home. But Jesus stays behind. Now he doesn’t get lost. He’s not fallen prey to a momentary distraction and gotten lost like you and I did as kids. He chooses to stay behind. And his parents don’t realize it for an entire day. They think he’s with the family, a cousin, and aunt, grandma even.
You know every time I see “Home Alone”, the scene where the mom is on the airplane relaxing for the flight, and suddenly her eyes pop open… and she realizes he’s not there, every time I see that scene I think of Mary and Joseph at the end of that long day. They just forgot. Now that picture in the movie is kind of cute because, you know that the boy is Ok, but Jesus parents didn’t think it was cute. Bad things can happen in the city. And a strong boy like Jesus might find himself kidnapped and sold into slavery.
And so they return to Jerusalem and look for him, for three days, three days he’s lost… hmm I wonder if Luke is preparing us for something else… Well they find him, at church, more specifically in the temple… and with the teachers, sitting and listening, and answering and asking. And everyone is amazed. You get the idea that Jesus had been longing for this all along. When his parents challenge his obedience, (and by the way it was not Jesus’ disobedience that left him in Jerusalem, remember his parents forgot him), when they challenge Jesus he responds again with what must have been another awe inspiring answer to all who heard it. "Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?" They don’t understand. They seldom do and again, as Mary has done time after time according to Luke, she ponders these things in her heart.
This is a great story… but its not a miracle, not in the technical sense of the word and certainly not compared to what Jesus will do. I mean Jesus goes to the temple instead of getting in trouble. As a 12 year old boy that may be out of the ordinary but it’s not a miracle. And yes they do find him perplexing the teachers of the law, which may seem remarkable until I ask you if you’ve ever been spiritually stumped by the question of a child. And so maybe Jesus is a prodigy… but this is not a miracle. It’s not even a magic trick… not even “pick a card any card.”
I need to tell you that many scholars question the authenticity of this story. How did Luke get this information? Was it a reliable account all these years later? Why do the other gospels not speak of it or any part of Jesus as a youngster? It will likely not surprise you that I disagree with them. Not only because of my faith in the Bible, but well, let me be real a second…. This story isn’t worth making up? Not if you’re making it up to prove that Jesus is a great miracle worker, or religious zealot, or the Son of God.
You’ll have to decide if you believe whether or not this is story is authentic. I believe it is, but more than that… this story is real. It’s real. These are real people in a real family with a real son who did laugh, who did cry, who did succeed and yes who did struggle, which by the way is no sin. Jesus is… real. And just so were sure about that Luke closes this section by noting that Jesus grew, that’s right he grew and not just in stature but Luke says in wisdom and in favor with God and men.
Not two weeks into our celebration of the incarnation and we’ve hit a snag. How could God grow? What could he learn that he didn’t already know? What wisdom could he really attain? It’s a pretty strong argument when you think about it. The Gnostics in the first century argued from that point. Jesus was God they said but he wasn’t really human. He was disguised. It was only a trick. He just lived with us a little while, pretending to feel all those things we feel. And the early church replied back, no… and strongly so. Jesus was and is God they replied, but to echo the words of Paul, he emptied himself of glory and became a man, a bondservant Paul says in Philippians, which is not to deny the divinity of Christ but to note that he laid it aside its advantages to be real. And the power for miracles and discernment and foreknowledge, came not from his divinity, but from his faith, because, he was led by the Spirit, the same spirit that will lead you and me.
Now this is both wonderful and terrible news. It is wonderful news because it means that you and I have in the Spirit the power to walk with Jesus. And it is terrible news because it means that you and I have in the Spirit the power to walk with Jesus. It is both because it is an opportunity… that leaves us without excuse. And I suspect that if we are going to find such an opportunity we’ll have to follow the model of Jesus, and you and I will have to become… real.
We’ll have to lay aside pretend piety. We’ll have to forsake superficial religion. We’ll have resist “Candy-apple Christianity”. We’ll have to admit that sometimes we don’t have it all together. We’ll have to acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers, spiritually or otherwise. We’ll have to laugh and we’ll have to cry… together. We’ll have to succeed together… and together, we can struggle… real with each other and with Christ. And although it can take some getting used too, I believe we’ll be glad for it.
I mean what if you really could say in church, that you’re struggling with anger, or lust, or fear, or doubt? What if you could admit to your Sunday School teacher or your deacon that you really need their prayers and not just token pity? So as pastor of a congregationally governed church, which means I really have no power to decree anything, let me decree this. If you are on your way to Sunday School, or church, or a fellowship, or choir practice or whatever and someone ask you to pray for them about something, stop what your doing right there and do it, pray with them, let them be real and you be real… and watch and see… if Jesus is not real in that very moment.
Margery William Bianco is not a Biblical author. Nor is the greatest children’s fable ever, The Velveteen Rabbit, on par with scripture. Still, would it be OK, if I shared with you just a few paragraphs of insight on being real?
“What is real?” asked the Rabbit when he and the skin horse were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made, “ said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you’re real, you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints… and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real, you can’t be ugly, except to people… who don’t understand.”
You know, I’ve been in ministry for more than 12 years. And the greatest costume seamstress I’ve ever known is the institutional church. But this year, for my New Year’s resolution… I think more than anything, not to wear any costume. This year I’d like to be like Jesus. I’d like to become… real. How about you?
