1st Sunday after Christmas Day

December 26, 2021

“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” Colossians 3:16

The Rev. Rod Sprang 

            I really miss the procession into worship and out - another casualty of COVID.  I miss seeing the Cross processing down the centre aisle leading the Gospel, representing Christ leading us in taking the Good News into the world.  Look in your mind’s eye, and see the Gospel is followed by the choir, representing the heavenly host.   Look, then come the lay and ordained worship leaders of the day, and the whole congregation is singing a hymn of praise as the procession enters the sanctuary.   Those in the procession are processing as representatives of all of us, of the whole church, the people of God - pilgrims walking together to the house of God to give our thanks and praise.  

            As pilgrims we come to be attentive to the Word of God and be inspired, to make our common prayers to God, to publicly confess our sinfulness and to know and receive God’s forgiveness and encouragement. Then we share the Peace of Christ.  As the table of our Lord is prepared for Communion, we make an offering of ourselves and our lives to Christ and Christ’s mission.  We come to be gathered at the table to share in the precious body and blood of Christ; and finally we come so we can be be sent out again, refreshed, renewed, and energized to serve God in the world, processing out to the sound of music praising God. A procession, no longer of pilgrims but of disciples.  We came to be made new.

            Our processions into worship recall the multitude of long ago pilgrims making their way to the City of David and the Holy place of God.   That’s what was happening when Jesus was 12 going up to Jerusalem for the festival, for passover.  Jews: men, women and children made their way each year from throughout Israel to gather in great numbers in the Holy City of Jerusalem, so they could celebrate the memory of God’s great act of setting the Israelites free from bondage to the Egyptians.  Our celebration is in memory of God’s great act of setting us free from the bondage of sin and death, through the death and resurrection of Christ.  For us every Sunday is a celebration of the Easter miracle.

            In Jesus’s timeVillagers would travel together, for safety, and as community, walking the dusty roads and joining up with other groups of villagers.  Imagine groups of them meeting at the junction of the roads and gradually becoming one great company of pilgrims.  As they neared Jerusalem people would be coming from every direction, joining together as they climbed up the hill to the Holy city - singing psalms in praise of God - the very same psalms we sing to this day.

            It was a journey like this that Jesus, Joseph and Mary took when he was 12, and joined the other pilgrims in celebrating the passover and worshipping God in the temple.  You can imagine the excitement of the children, the noise and confusion of so many people filling the city and the temple.   But notice too, all the Roman soldiers, lining the streets and warily looking on.  Ready to  brutally keep the Pax Romana.  

            Teachers and scholars would gather in groups in the temple precincts to study and debate the meaning of scripture.  At 12, Jesus was full of curiosity and driven by a desire for knowledge of scripture - and what scripture had to say about God who he knew as Father.  Jesus went into the temple as a pilgrim, but soon became a disciple, a student amongst the scholars.  He already had knowledge beyond his years.

            Mary and Joseph were unaware that Jesus had stayed behind in Jerusalem, assuming he was with the group of village children.  They realized he was missing in the evening after their group had walked a whole day from the city.   I have real empathy for Mary and Joseph in this story. 

            In 1984 Susan and I had just returned to Winnipeg after two years of living outside of Victoria B.C.  We were in a large, crowded store.  Susan had gone to find things on our list, and I was looking for other provisions with our daughter Jen, who was about four.    She was standing beside me as I searched the shelves for something, I found the item, looked down and she was gone.  I felt a stab of fear.  I called out her name. This was a store with rows of high shelving units - I raced around to the end of the aisle and looked hopefully down the next aisle - no sign of her.  I kept calling out her name as the sense of panic grew.   

            Just then some neighbours from when we previously lived in Winnipeg came up and said hello and wanted to get reacquainted.  I anxiously told them what had happened and enlisted them in the search. I felt a cold lump in my stomach and was becoming frantic.  Eventually I found her - calmly looking at a shelf full of toys.  I can’t describe the sense of relief and gratitude I felt at that moment.  I hugged her and told her never, ever to wander off like that again.

            So I can imagine the fear in Mary and Joseph’s hearts when, after a day’s walk from Jerusalem they couldn’t find their 12 year old son, Jesus, among all the people in their group.  He wasn’t with the other children of their village.  Imagine that awful time of waiting for daylight before they could rush back to Jerusalem in desperate hope of finding him.   Jerusalem was a huge city, overwhelming for small town people. For three days they searched the city, getting more and more desperate - apparently not thinking to look for him in the temple.  But eventually they did, and to their relief and amazement he was sitting with the biblical scholars asking very perceptive questions and showing his understanding by giving intelligent answers to their questions. 

            Jesus was surprised by his parents’ concern, and that they wouldn’t think to find him in the temple - which he referred to as ‘my Father’s house’.    He said to them, “did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  Another translation says “that I must be about my father’s business”, which must have been confusing to them as Joseph was a carpenter.  

            Mary still did not yet know or understand just who her son was.  In one sense she had found him, but in another sense she still had not.  That’s something for each of us to ponder.  Do we know the real Jesus?  Or do we see the Jesus we would like him to be?

            At Christmas, it is easy to think we have found the meaning of the baby Jesus lying in a manger, but do we really see the much larger picture?  It is so easy to get caught up in the sentimentality of the dear, perfect little child, born in the stable, and the nice visit of the shepherds and wise men.  We can easily fail to see this as the final chapter in the cosmic battle between God and the evil powers that will be fought over the next 30 odd years.

            Mary and Joseph spent three days looking for Jesus in all the wrong places.  They finally discovered where he was, but still not who he is.  We are lucky we have the four Gospels and the letters of the New Testament as well as the Hebrew Scriptures to tell us about Jesus the Christ. That’s where we will find the real Jesus, in the Bible.  

            Our first job, as Christian disciples, is to learn who he is, why he had to come and die and what he achieved.  We need to understand what he started.  then we will know how to follow him.  Jesus, at 12 years of age, knew that the starting point and key to his mission was in the study of scripture.  We study scripture by asking questions, by immersing ourselves in the story of God and God’s people.  We can never learn enough.

            Anything we want to be in life, requires the study of that discipline - to be a doctor we need to study science and medicine, to be a lawyer we need to study the law, to be a Christian we need to study the Bible.  Try saying that at home now We need to study the Bible - we need to study the bible.

            The great gift of Christmas is the gift of God’s Son.  Let us really get to know who he is so we can find Christ residing in our hearts.  Let’s follow Paul’s guidance that he gave to the church in Colossi.  Let’s focus on each phrase; Paul wrote:  “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him”. 

May we all be blessed in knowing Christ and through him be a blessing this day and always .

Amen