Time Flies
Tiffany Kromer (Tiffany’s sermons and other reflections are on her blog)
(If you listen to the audio, you’ll probably notice that it doesn’t sound much like Tiffany. She had laryngitis, so Marthame stepped in)
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26
Luke 2:41-52
I can’t help but read this passage and say to myself—“Time flies!” Wasn’t it just two days ago that we celebrated baby Jesus’ birth? Unfortunately, we do not have a lot of stories of Jesus’ childhood. However, Luke does tell us some key stories of Jesus as a baby. He tells the stories of Jesus’ conception, birth, circumcision, and goes on to tell us of Joseph and Mary presenting Jesus at the temple where he is blessed by Simeon and praised by the prophetess Anna. By highlighting Jesus’ circumcision and presentation at the temple, Luke is telling us that Jesus’ parents raised him according to Jewish ritual and law.
And then Luke jumps from Jesus as a baby to Jesus as a teenager. And in today’s passage, we find out that Jesus and his family went to the festival of the Passover in Jerusalem every year. By telling us this, Luke is saying that Jesus grew up in a devout Jewish family so much so that when he was twelve years old, the temple seemed like a second home to him. In this story we find a bright and curious young adolescent who is not afraid to ask questions and explore the many realms of faith in God.
And this story has a very human spin to it, one that many of us can relate to. If you are a parent, you might have had a very similar experience to that of Mary and Joseph. You turn your head for one minute and your child who was with you has now disappeared. Your heart rate immediately jumps and you frantically start searching only to be eternally grateful when you find your lost child, vowing to always hold your children tighter and closer. Or maybe as a child you’ve experienced the anxiety of losing your parents in a crowd or a store only to be reassured by a parent’s familiar face come toward you as you vow to never let go of your parent’s hand again.
These experiences, fraught with anxiety at the time, end up being the stories that are told at the dinner table years later, the stories that are treasured by parents once a child becomes an adult and no longer lives at home. My parents have many similar stories about their three kids. My middle brother was the explorer in the family, always wanting to be in the middle of fun and action. He is infamously known for his mischievous antics as a toddler. As a baby, he somehow found a way to open the screen door and crawl outside without my mother knowing. When my mother could not find my brother, she was frantic with worry. But then she heard music outside and kids giggling. When she peered out the door and looked at our neighbor’s house, she saw her little baby boy sitting in the grass bopping up and down and clapping his hands to the music. I’m sure he was thinking, “What, ma, don’t you know I belong where the fun is?” Years later, my mother tells this story with joy, treasuring this moment in her heart, saying she will always remember her little boy bouncing up and down and clapping his hands.
I have a feeling this might be what Mary might have felt like years later when Jesus was a man with his own life and didn’t need his mother’s supervision. The experience of a mother searching for her son, of finding him in the temple, wowing everyone with his knowledge and wisdom, only to look at his worried parents with a twinkle of innocence wondering why they were worried in the first place. This is an experience Mary would treasure in her old age, that she and Joseph would laugh about, that she would always share with Jesus’ friends when they came for dinner—she’d joyfully share the story of her curious boy who was so passionate for God that he forgot his parents had left the city or would even worry about him.
And I’m sure Mary and Joseph’s faith was tested that day. Their little boy that had such a miraculous birth and future foretold by angels—their little boy that they made sure they raised to be holy and pure—their little boy who was gone from their sight for the first time in his life. What if something awful had happened to him? What if something horrible happened to the son of God? Talk about a huge responsibility—knowing that you are raising the Messiah! Yet, when they found their little boy in his Father’s house I’m sure they must have been relieved and feeling a little embarrassed. Of course he’d be here! Why did we look anywhere else?
On that day, Mary and Joseph realized that their little boy was no longer a little boy any more. He was growing up and soon he wouldn’t be dependent on his parent’s care anymore. God gave them a gift of God’s son twelve years ago and they did everything they could to take care of this gift, and now they had to entrust this gift, their little boy, to God. They had to trust that what the angel of the Lord said to them twelve years ago was true and that their little boy was about to change the world forever. I imagine that they felt that those twelve precious years flew by too quickly, that it was only yesterday that Mary and Joseph were holding their miracle baby in their arms. I imagine that day in the temple was hard for these two parents. Letting go is bittersweet, painful yet freeing at the same time. They must have known that the life God called Jesus to would be hard and dangerous. Yet they knew they could not shelter him forever—it was time for Jesus to make his own decisions, to choose his own path. And so on that day they treasured all that God had promised them. They had seen God’s powerful love and grace in so many ways and they knew that God would take care of Jesus. And so they stepped out on faith and once again let go of their little boy so that he could become a man of God.
So while Mary and Joseph find themselves on an adventurous parenting journey, they also find themselves on an adventurous faith journey. Each experience in their life informs and grows their faith. And because they lived a vibrant faith journey, their son Jesus learned that faith is about exploration, adventure, always growing always learning. Jesus exemplified Mary and Joseph’s faith that day in the temple, a faith that takes risks in order to explore the depths of meaning and life.
Faith is not a noun, it is a verb—it is vibrant and always moving and growing. Our church’s vision statement envisions faith in this very same way. It says “As a people of faith in motion, we gather together so that the Spirit might shape and move us that our lives are empowered to serve God by serving others.”
As people called to emulate Jesus, today we look back at Jesus as a young teenager. We see his vibrant, growing faith that was nurtured his own parents’ growing and vibrant faith. And as Jesus entered a new phase in his own life, we read that he continued to increase in wisdom and divine and human favor. His own faith was never stagnant, but always moving and growing.
As we look at the year in front and back of us, I ask you to reflect on your faith journey—how has your faith moved and grown this past year? Did you encounter anything in a sermon, a book, a Connect group, or a song that sparked your curiosity, leaving you wanting to know more about how God works in our world? Maybe there was something that challenged your own perception of God, church or faith. Maybe there was someone or a situation you encountered that made you think about how you act as a person of faith. Maybe there was something that rocked your world in ways you still haven’t uncovered yet, but you know you will never be the same—a death in the family, a job lost, an illness, or a new addition to your family. All of life’s ups and downs and in-betweens open doors to newer, deeper, more meaningful ways of being a faithful believer in Jesus Christ. When we come together in a community, we can help each other grow in our faith from the experiences in our lives. Growing in our faith is a task that cannot be done alone.
In what ways would you like your faith to grow in the coming year? Maybe it’s learning how to pray in a new way, studying a book of the Bible you’ve never read before, learning how to talk about faith with your child, starting the process of forgiveness, or meeting someone from church for coffee regularly and talking about your life and faith and your prayer concerns. Or—maybe you don’t know what ways you want to grow in your faith. That is okay. Every day is another adventure with God, another opportunity to explore the ways God is moving and working in your life. Commit to that adventure and never give up the exploration and you will find yourself growing in your faith in ways you never thought possible. AMEN