Rite Of Passage Series

Title: Rite of Passage

Theme: To help the church to understand the importance of having rites of passage in a family’s life.

Text: Luke 2:21 - 49

Introduction

Last Sunday

12 Stones of Heritage. Joshua crosses the Jordan. Told to place stones on the shore so that the next generations could see them.

God is always looking out for the next generation. He understands that if we can’t do it right we can raise up another generation to do it.

These stones were an opportunity to share with the children about what happened.

I mentioned last week that we are expected to follow Proverbs

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.

- Original: חנך - Transliteration: Chanak - Phonetic: khaw-nak'

- Definition: 1. to train, dedicate, inaugurate a. (Qal) 1. to train, train up 2. to dedicate

How?

In the values and beliefs that God has given you

Helping them to understand the giftings and callings that the Lord has for them

How?

1. Time

2. Taking interests in their interests

Third Generation God

Exodus_3:16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, 'The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, "I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt;

The Lord is interested in all the generations. He does not want us to focus just on our times and help the next generation.

Rites of Passage

Rites of passage. First day of school. 13th/16th/21st birthdays. It’s one’s graduation from high school, perhaps college. It’s that 50th wedding anniversary. First prom, first driver’s license, first car, first ticket, first accident. Perhaps boot camp.

And of course there also was the church: baptisms, confirmations, ordinations.

Defined: (from the Internet) Rites of passage, formal or not, are life’s markers, life’s road signs for helping us to find our place and our time in the cycle of life events to help establish or formulate our identity and all the different venues and experiences of our living. Because of rites of passage we learn to celebrate as well as to accept the end of things, including life. Rites of passage become the experiential and even organic phases for us where we learn how to wait our turn, how to find our part.

Marriage as a Rite of Passage Genesis 2:22 – 25, Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:7

Genesis 2:22-25 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. (23) And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." (24) Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (25) And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Jesus: Rite of Passage

As an infant - Circumcise (Initiation and Family connection)

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child. He was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every first- born male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’) and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.’—Luke 2:21-24

Making Jesus a part of the covenant, a relationship that connected him to his past. Here also he is named. This is an important rite of passage as many times this sets the destiny of the child. By this time the parents had been praying and seeking God about what to name their child.

As a young boy (Introducing to Manhood, life)

Luke 2:39-43 So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. (40) And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, [15] filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. (41) His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. (42) And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. (43) When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother [16] did not know it;

Connecting them to God

Psalms_127:1 A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.