Sermon: "Easter People"

1 Corinthians 15:1–11 - Intro

In Paul’s time, the city of Corinth was the largest and most influential city in southern Greece.

Its key geographical position on the east-west sea route between Italy and Asia Minor made it not just a thriving commercial center but also a hub of missionary activity.

While the church in Corinth struggled to contend with the influences of multiple religious and cultural traditions and beliefs,

it was also experiencing infighting amongst competing factions of Christians,

each of which promoted different beliefs and practices within the church.

The letters we have from Paul give us only one side of a conversation.

But given Paul’s words to the church in Corinth we can deduce that the people there were having a serious issue with competing beliefs about the resurrection.

In fact, Paul spends more time on this topic than any other topic in the letter.

The people in Corinth were wrestling with some of the same questions that we have.   

Is it possible for a human being to return from the dead?

Why would God choose to raise one person over all others?

Couldn’t we just follow Jesus’ teaching without talking about resurrection?

Belief in God’s ability to raise people from the dead was a core belief for some Jewish sects in Paul’s time, but they believed God would raise everyone, at the same time, on the Day of Judgment, at the coming of the Messiah.

Why raise just Jesus? 

And why at that time, when clearly the last days had not arrived?

For Paul, there is no Christian faith unless God has raised Jesus from the dead.

You can almost hear the pleading in his voice in this letter as he makes his case for belief.

We are a people of the resurrection. An Easter People.

If God has not raised Jesus, if God has not claimed victory over death,

writes Paul, then why believe in the gospel at all?

What is the Good News if Jesus does not live?

 

The Rev. Maureen R. Frescott

Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC

February 10, 2019 – Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

“Easter People”

What does it mean to be a people of the Resurrection?

What does it mean to believe in restoration and renewal?

What does it mean to believe in redemption – to have faith in second chances – or even third, fourth and fifth chances at new life?

Those of us who live in New England know a thing or two about restoration, renewal, and redemption.

We live in a climate where every year the trees and plants and flowers die off, shed their leaves, or go dormant, plunging us into a frozen and bleak landscape colored only in shades of white, black, grey, and brown for six months at a time.

Our Puritan and Pilgrim forbearers had no choice but to learn how to survive under these conditions – as they strived to make food, supplies, and resources stretch through the cold dark days of winter –

and waited for the world to restore itself with the coming of spring.

A few years back, the editors of Yankee Magazine devoted an entire issue to "Yankee frugality"- the strong cultural drive handed down by our forbearers that compels us to hold onto resources, recycling and repurposing them as needed, in an effort to eek out every last bit of usefulness.

The magazine asked its readers to send in tips, stories, and anecdotes about personal or family thriftiness or prudence and offered a free subscription to whoever had the best tale to tell.

The editors received hundreds of responses – many of which were written on the back of envelopes, on brown paper bags, or on recycled computer paper.

People sent in tips on what to do with worn-out socks and panty hose,

how to continuously reuse tea bags,

and creative ways to repurpose dryer lint and the little balls of cotton that come in pill bottles.

We New Englanders are experts in making things last.

One woman wrote, “I’m so frugal I’ve even kept the same husband for 48 years!”

One reader said before going to bed each night he stopped every clock in his house and then restarted them in the morning, to make the internal workings last longer.

Another wrote about the shoeshine rag he bought for 15¢ the day he joined the army — October 12, 1948.

He used the rag every morning for 15,638 consecutive days.

He wrote: “According to my calculations, my cost is approximately $.0000095 cents per day — a fair return on my investment.”

But the winner of the Yankee Magazine frugality contest was a man who shared a story told by his wife’s grandmother.

While attending a church supper near her home in Massachusetts, she saw an older woman seated near her slap her knee with both hands, and then firmly squeeze her hands together.

After a few moments the woman reached discreetly under her dress and pulled out a dead mouse.

She looked at it thoughtfully for a moment,

then retrieved a used napkin and wrapped the mouse in it saying,

“I’ll take that home for my cat.”

It may be a sign of Yankee frugality to show a reluctance to throw away or let go of something that we feel still has value, purpose, or life left in it.

Might we then say it’s a sign of spiritual frugality to be reluctant to throw away or let go of a belief, a dream, a relationship, or a human life that still has value, purpose, and vitality left in it?

Tales of spiritual frugality are all around us.

Take Jermaine Wilson, the Mayor of Leavenworth, Kansas.

Before he became Mayor, Wilson started a free legal program for those who’ve served time in prison for petty crimes and drug offenses,

to help them have their records expunged,

to make it easier for them to get jobs, rent apartments, and get a fresh start in life.

Jermaine Wilson knows what it means to be given a new life.

As a young man, he had spent 3 years in prison himself for a drug conviction.

After turning his life around he found there weren’t many doors open for young black men who have criminal records.

While it is possible to have minor offenses expunged it can cost thousands of dollars in legal fees to do so,

which means once again, those who have the least amongst us are denied the opportunities that those with money and means are given –

even when what is being offered is restoration and redemption.

I suspect that the reason why Paul was so insistent that his fellow Christians believe in the possibility of resurrection was because he had experienced it himself.

Not only because he claimed to have witnessed it,

in the vision he had of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus,

but also because Paul himself was living proof that restoration and NEW LIFE in Christ was possible, for those who believed it to be true.

When we read these ancient letters that were sent to the early churches it helps to know something about the community Paul was writing to,

but it also helps to know something about Paul.

Paul was not one of the early adopters of the Christian message.

He was not there at the beginning walking side-by-side with Jesus’ disciples putting in the sweat equity to get the fledgling faith off the ground by recruiting followers and building churches.

For the first few years after Jesus’ death he did the exact opposite.

Paul was a Pharisee, and he loathed the followers of Jesus and everything they stood for.

He thought they were unnecessarily dividing the Jewish community by promoting a false messiah.

And he went out of his way to spread misinformation and propaganda,

painting this new sect of fellow Jews as backwards and barbaric.

We might imagine him whispering in the ears of those he knew could be counted upon to spread doubt and fear:

Did you hear that the followers of Jesus believe they are EATING the body of their messiah, and DRINKING his blood? 

Do you see the way they gather in insular communities, pooling their resources, and ignoring the social and religious customs and structures that we all hold dear?

Do you hear how they talk about their messiah being raised from the dead,

as if that were actually possible and as if they expect educated and devout people of the true faith to actually believe it?

But Paul went beyond spreading distrust and misinformation about the Christian communities forming in his midst.

He openly persecuted them.

He sent spies into the catacombs and backroom gatherings of those who claimed to be following The Way of Jesus. 

He intercepted personal letters and gathered names, making lists of those who belonged to this cultish community or professed its beliefs.

He had them dragged out of their homes, beaten, and thrown in jail.

The Book of Acts tells us that Paul was not only present at the stoning of Stephen, the first follower of Jesus to be killed for his beliefs,

but Paul was the one who ordered it.

To go from stoning Jesus’ followers to building churches in Jesus’ name was a huge shift in Paul’s life trajectory.

To go from devoting one’s life to perpetuating fear and discord to devoting one’s life to spreading a message of love and peace is a true example of restoration and redemption.

One might even say it’s a true example of resurrection.

Paul DID believe that Jesus rose from the dead and he based his entire system of faith upon it.  How could he not?

Given what he had seen, and what he had experienced with his own change of heart.

Nothing short of a miraculous resurrection could have done that.

Paul counters the disbelief of the people of Corinth by reciting a lengthy list of witnesses, including the disciples themselves and 500 additional people 

(many of whom were still alive by the way if anyone wanted to go ask them themselves) – but Paul recites this list with a sense of frustration in his voice.

As if he’d grown tired of having to do it,

as he’d likely done many times before.

If the people of Corinth, and the other early Christian communities,

had trouble accepting the resurrection as truth, when they lived amongst those who claimed to have seen it with their own eyes,

what hope do we have?

We have no choice but to take it on faith – that 2000+ years ago, a man named Jesus walked the earth, took a lot of risks in the name of love,

ended up being killed for his efforts, and then rose from the dead –

as living proof that love cannot be conquered by fear –

that life is stronger than death…

And that every life – no matter how broken, misused, or abused –

brings with it the possibility of renewal, restoration, and redemption.

Presbyterian minister, the Rev. Lewis Galloway writes:

Whenever Christ turns a life around, heals a relationship,

transforms a bitter heart, forgives a wrongdoing, teaches a fearful person to love, or shows a self-centered person how to give, there is a witness ready to take the stand to tell the good news of God’s grace.

Paul was just such a witness, as are we.

Think about a transformation you’ve experienced

or witnessed in your own life.

How has the GOOD NEWS of the possibility of such a resurrection changed you? 

And how does it continue to change you?

We are witnesses of the power of restoration, renewal, and redemption.

We are an Easter People.

Thanks be to God, and Amen.

Sermon: "Jesus Justice"

The Rev. Maureen R. Frescott

The Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC

January 27, 2019 – Third Sunday after Epiphany

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-9;  Luke 4:14-21

“Jesus Justice”

What does the Lord require of us?

According to the prophet Micah, we are to love kindness, do justice,

and walk humbly with our God.

Micah echoes the words of Isaiah.

Isaiah speaks of a God who LOVES justice, and compels us to love it as well.

But what does it mean to love justice?

What does it mean to do justice?

What is it that comes to your mind when you hear the word justice?

Language can be a tricky thing.

The same word can have several different meanings depending on the context.

The context in which it is used, the context in which it is heard,

and the context that we all bring with us given our varied backgrounds and biases, experiences and expectations.

There are numerous words in our English language that mean different things depending on the context.

The word “present” is just one example. 

As in: “There is no time like the present to present a friend with a present.”

Words can also shift in meaning over time.

The word “awful” used to mean worthy of awe.

The word “silly” used to mean lucky or blessed.

And the word “nice” used to mean foolish or simple minded. 

Which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Have a nice day!"

Culture and location also play a role.

If you walked into a super market in England looking for chips, biscuits, and crackers, your shopping cart would look very different than if you took the same list into a market here in America.

In the UK, chips are fries, a biscuit is a cookie, and a cracker is something you pull apart at Christmas dinner, and find a paper hat and a joke inside.

This same word, different meaning trickiness applies to adjectives as well.

One of my favorite British TV shows is “Escape to the Country.”

It’s like a British version of House Hunters, where people looking to move to the country tour several homes and share what they like and dislike about each one.

During the first few episodes I watched, it took me by surprise whenever someone walked into a room and exclaimed,

“Oh I love this  – it’s so homely.”

Apparently in the UK, “homely” is a good thing. 

It means cozy or comfortable – or “homey” as we might say.

So the next time someone calls your decorating style homely – you can say, “Why, thank you!”

Justice is one of those words that can shift in meaning depending on the context.

It can refer to retribution, restitution, or restoration.

Its motivating impulse could be a desire to enact judgment and punishment for a crime.

Or it can come from a desire to right a wrong, through reciprocal offerings of remorse and forgiveness.

Or it may be rooted in a desire to create balance where there is imbalance, equity where there is inequity.

When we link the name of God with the word justice,

with all the varied understandings of each that we bring to the mix,

we muddy the waters of meaning even further still.

Ask any Christian what they think of when they hear the phrase “God loves justice” and you may get very different answers.

Is the God who loves justice one who wishes to punish sinners for their transgressions by enacting eternal judgment,

while also rewarding those who’ve demonstrated righteousness and repentance? 

Is the God who loves justice one who commands us to seek harmony and fairness in our relationships, to treat others as we wish to be treated, and offer one another mercy, grace, and forgiveness when we are wronged?

Is the God who loves justice one who weeps over the injustice in our world – economic injustice, racial injustice, social injustice – any imbalance or inequity created and perpetuated by systems that favor the rich over the poor, the privileged over the oppressed, the powerful over the powerless?

What comes to mind for you when you hear Isaiah speak about our God who loves justice?

Isaiah speaks of a God who brings a message of hope to those who lacked hope – to the poor, the oppressed, the imprisoned, and the brokenhearted.

And Jesus uses those same words to describe his mission in this world:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”

This is the heart of the gospel.

Of all the texts that Jesus could have read from the Hebrew scriptures to launch his ministry, he chose the one centered on liberation, healing, and justice.

He chose the one that inspired his mother Mary to sing about their God who would bring down the powerful and the proud and lift up the lowly and the meek.

In the first few centuries of the church formed in Jesus’ name this was the mission Christians followed, this was the gospel they preached.

As Christian historian Diane Butler Bass writes:

“Throughout the first five centuries people understood Christianity primarily as a way of life in the present, not as a doctrinal system, esoteric belief, or promise of eternal salvation. By followers enacting Jesus’ teachings, Christianity changed and improved the lives of its adherents.”

One of the prominent voices in the early church, Justin Martyr, argued that following the way of Christ “mended lives."

He wrote:

We who formerly . . . valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock, and communicate to everyone in need; we who hated and destroyed one another, and on account of their different manners would not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the coming of Christ, live with them as if they were family, and we pray for our enemies.”

Sharing wealth, caring for everyone in need,

living as if tribal boundaries no longer existed,

praying for enemies rather than destroying them.

That’s a radical understanding of the gospel right there. 

And it may not quite sit right with our modern understanding of personal liberty, responsibility, and fairness.

It didn’t sit right with Justin Martyr’s second century contemporaries,

which is why he was killed for refusing to play by the rules of the empire.

It didn’t sit right with Jesus’ first century followers either.

Which is why so many walked away from him when he said the poor and the meek will be the first to enter God’s Kingdom, while the wealthy and mighty will be last.

What is it about this understanding of justice that makes us so uneasy?

For centuries, the Catholic Church has been one of the biggest proponents of justice for the poor, the oppressed, and the imprisoned –

from St. Francis of Assisi to the Jesuits and Franciscans to the modern day Nuns on the Bus who travel the country speaking out about social inequalities, to the official Catechism of the Catholic Church - which has an entire section labeled “Social Justice” which states:

“The equal dignity of human persons (as created by God) requires the effort to reduce excessive social and economic inequalities (and) gives urgency to the elimination of such sinful inequities.”

Now I just said something there that brings us back to the subject of language, and context, and changing meanings over time.

I used the phrase “social justice” – which has in recent years been politicized and been used to drive a wedge between opposing ideologies in the political arena and in the church.

In fact, one prominent political pundit warned his followers that if you find the term “social justice” or "economic justice" on your church website, run as fast as you can, because it’s a code word for socialism and Marxism.

That would include just about every Catholic parish, as the Church and numerous Popes have been using both terms for over a century.

Most of the mainline Christian churches would be found guilty as well, including Congregationalists, who have historically been on the forefront of justice movements such as the abolition of slavery, the plight of the poor, women’s suffrage, and the recognition of civil rights for all.

But mainline Christians and Catholics are not the only ones lamenting that issues relating to injustice in our social systems have become politicized and polarized.

Lamar Vest, a Pentecostal Pastor, noted Evangelical leader, and former President of the conservative leaning American Bible Society, recently appeared on The 700 Club to discuss the new Poverty and Justice Bible—a Bible that highlights more than 2000 verses that talk about poverty and justice.

Vest described a survey in which people were asked to identify the sources of several quotes that talked about the Christian responsibility to care for the poor and address issues of social injustice.

All of the quotes were from the Bible.

Several were from Jesus himself.

Yet 54 percent of the respondents attributed the quotes to Hollywood celebrities or liberal politicians.

Only 13 percent recognized them as being from the Bible.

This says as much about Biblical literacy as it does about our current political climate.

But given this shift in understanding of what it means to address issues of inequality and justice in our society from a position of faith,

perhaps we should stop calling it social justice

and start calling it Jesus Justice.

To make it clear who it is God anointed to bring good news to poor,

to proclaim release to the captives, to set the oppressed free.

And who it is that commissioned us to follow in his footsteps and do the same.

Which brings us back to our original question.

What does it mean to LOVE justice and DO justice?

We may disagree on how we DO justice.

We may believe charity begins at home, and it’s the responsibility of individuals or the church to care for the least among us.

Or we may believe it’s the responsibility of the people as a whole, and that we can’t truly address social injustice without reforming the systems that produce and perpetuate it.

The reality is, we may never agree on how to best DO justice.

But what we can do is DO JUSTICE in whatever way rings true for us. 

Whether it’s volunteering our time at a community supper,

supporting our church’s mission work through charitable giving,

or working within the system or pushing from outside the system to enact reform and change people’s lives for the better.

The important thing is that we LOVE justice, as God LOVES justice.

That we are not hesitant or ashamed to admit that the good news of Jesus Christ was meant to liberate us all –

because as long as some of us are held captive by poverty, oppression, and extreme imbalances of privilege and power,

none of us is truly free.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us  – 
what Good News shall we bring to those who are joyously waiting to hear it?      

Thanks be to God, and Amen

 

Sermon: "Tween Jesus"

Scripture Intro - Luke 2:41-52

Earlier this week, on Christmas Eve, we heard the story of Jesus’ birth.

Next Sunday, on Epiphany Sunday, we’ll hear the story of the arrival of the Magi  – who, despite how we present it in Christmas pageants,

likely didn’t complete their long journey to Bethlehem until several months or years after Jesus was born.

But here on this first Sunday after Christmas, the lectionary jumps even further ahead and gives us a story about Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy getting separated from his parents before finally being found in the Temple in Jerusalem.

The placement of these stories in the lectionary may irk us because it upsets our desire to hear stories told in a chronological or linear fashion,

but this placement is a function of having two Nativity stories in our Gospels, written by two different writers who have two different ways of bridging the story of Jesus’ birth with the story of Jesus’ adult ministry.

Matthew gives us the story of the traveling Magi who followed a star from their home in the East searching for the child King born beneath it.

Matthew then tells us that the arrival of the Magi prompted King Herod to order the death of all children under the age of two, causing the Holy Family to flee to Egypt and not return to Nazareth until long after Herod had died.

Luke’s gospel, in comparison, has no mention of the Magi, no slaughter of the innocents, no fleeing to Egypt.

Instead, the Holy Family returns to Nazareth eight days after Mary gives birth, and the next time we encounter Jesus he’s 12-years-old.

Matthew, who was writing for a Jewish audience, used his bridge story to equate Jesus’ early life to the story of another great Jewish prophet, Moses – who also escaped death at the age of two, and came up out of Egypt to begin his ministry.

Luke, who was writing for a Greek and Roman audience, had no need for such a story.

Instead, Luke gives us a story of an adolescent Jesus matching wits with the Temple scholars. A story meant to appeal to readers who had heard similar stories of early greatness about Emperor Augustus and other great leaders.

Our Gospel writers may have had different reasons for including the stories that they did, but the readings that we’ll hear over the next two Sundays serve a similar purpose of providing us with a bridge – a transition - between the story of the birth of a miraculous infant, and the man that infant would become.

The Rev. Maureen R. Frescott

Congregational Church of Amherst, UCC

December 30, 2018 – First Sunday after Christmas

Luke 2:41-52

“Tween Jesus”

This is a time of transition.

On the church calendar it’s the Christmas season – the 12 days between Jesus’ birth on December 25^th and the season of Epiphany, which begins on January 6^th.

On our secular calendar it’s the time between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day – the time where many of us pack away the Christmas decorations and start getting our homes, routines, and eating habits back to what they were before the 'Holiday Season' descended upon us in November.

But as we transition back to the way things were, there’s also a natural taking stock of the way things could be.

There are only two more days to go until we leave 2018 behind and enter 2019.    Two more days until a New Year and possibly a New You!

For many of us, the turning over of the calendar year has us thinking about how we might change our experience of the year ahead for the better –

by changing something about ourselves.

This is the year when we will lose 20 lbs., cut sugar out of our diet,

cut back on watching cable news, cut down on the amount of stuff we own,

be more grateful for what we have, and finally get our lives organized.

If you’re a New Year’s resolution traditionalist,

and set a goal every year to lose weight, eat better, or get in better shape, technology has made achieving that goal easier than ever.

You can get a wearable fitness tracker like a Fitbit or an iWatch that will count your steps, track your heart rate, and even vibrate on your wrist at regular intervals to remind you to move, drink water, and go to bed on time.

When I first got mine, I followed its commands religiously.

Now when I'm sitting at my desk and I feel the tingling on my wrist I end up shaking my arm because I think it must be falling asleep.

If you need more of prodding than a buzzing watch to reach your goal of a new you, there are fitness apps you can download to your tablet or smart phone that come with virtual coaches who monitor your progress in real time.

So when you’re exercising at home you can call up the image of a real trainer who will sweat right along side you and tell you to walk faster or pedal harder or do just one more set of lunges – “C’mon, you can do it!

Having a virtual coach only costs $15 a month or $150 for the year.

They’ve finally figured out how to get people to pay for a gym membership that they’re never going to use without having to actually build and staff a gym.

If your New Year’s goal is to be better organized, there are a multitude of interactive journals, planners, and calendars out there that promise to get you on track and on the road to a new you. 

Going far beyond a traditional day-planner, these life organizers include pages meant for journaling, doodling, and listing daily goals, gratitude’s and joys.

Millions of these kinds of organizers are sold every year, and some people swear by them – insisting that having a structured system to keep them focused and on track has transformed their lives.

But as with the fitness trackers and gym membership cards, many of these life organizers will be used for only a short period of time,

and then will sit for months on a nightstand or wind up tucked in drawer,

as a reminder of one more thing on the “To Do List” left undone,

yet another failed attempt to change ourselves for the better.

Only 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions end up keeping them.

Which is why many of us have given up on making resolutions in the first place. 

But there is something about turning over the page from one year to the next that pulls us to think about how we might make the coming year different than the previous one.

Especially if the previous year had more than it’s fair share of challenges, losses, and disappointments.

When we feel as if we don’t have the power to change much of what happens in the world around us, we naturally gravitate towards changing what we do have the power to change - ourselves.

The story from the Gospel of Luke that the lectionary gives us on this Sunday after Christmas is a story about change and transition.
 

It’s about Jesus as a youthful messiah who hints at his destiny when he is drawn to his “Father’s House” – the Temple in Jerusalem.

It’s about the continuing journey of the Holy Family and the worry the adolescent Jesus caused his parents as they anxiously searched for him for 3 days.

It’s about the theological foreshadowing of the events of Holy Week,

when Mary would once again believe she had lost her son,

only to find him alive and well 3 days later, on Easter morning.

It’s also about Jesus’ coming of age as a 12-year-old boy and the commonalities we find between his story and our own story.

Adolescence is a time of transition.

A time when we have one foot in the world of childhood and the other in the world of adulthood.

When we feel like our bodies are maturing faster than our minds or vice versa.

Where our skin breaks out and feels like it doesn’t fit anymore.

It’s the time where we move from running freely through life and not caring much about how others perceive us to suddenly feeling as if all eyes are upon us – teachers, parents, peers, strangers – studying, quantifying, judging.

Nowadays, we call kids who are between 9 and 12-years-old “tweens” – in recognition that they’re not yet teenagers, but not really children either.

Writer Mia Geiger, who rose to fame with her parenting blog called “Scary Mommy,” offers these Five Signs You’re Living with a Tween:

1.   Your child no longer refers to broccoli as trees, or raisins on celery sticks as “ants on a log” and will no longer eat either of them.

2.   Toys become a lot more expensive. You thought those big Lego sets (cost) a fortune? Wait until you shop for a family data plan.

3.   You suddenly don’t know anything. Before, you seemed to be the keeper of the world’s secrets. Now, your kids do the opposite of whatever you suggest.

4.   Their bedroom door only opens a few times a day, primarily 1) when you are not around, 2) it’s time to get something to eat, or 3) they need the cell phone charger. On the plus side, if the door is closed, you don’t have to see the week’s worth of laundry balled up in the corner.

5.   Their usual response to any comment you make is an eye roll, sometimes combined with a “whatever.”

We may say that today’s tweens are forced to grow up too fast and are experiencing the pangs of adolescence at an earlier age,

but the concept of being a teenager - spending the years between age 13 and 18 still living under the roof and guidance of one’s parents without the full responsibilities of adulthood - is a relatively modern invention.

It wasn’t too long ago that the societal norm was for “teenagers” to be working and married by the age of 14 or 15.

As soon as you were old enough to bear children of your own you were considered to be an adult - not an adolescent.

For Jesus, as a 12-year-old boy growing up in first century Palestine,

this also would be the time where he was expected to transition from the world of women to the world of men.

As he no longer spent most of his time in the company of his mother and female relatives who served as his caretakers, nurturers, and general teachers,

and instead moved to spending his time with his father, male relatives, and rabbis, who would serve as his religious instructors, teach him a trade, and hone his skills as a scholar and public debater.

This is likely how Jesus become lost in the first place.

Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph were on their way home after the Passover celebration and they had traveled a full day away from Jerusalem before they realized Jesus was no longer with them.

For a Passover pilgrimage, this was not unusual.

They were likely traveling in a large group of family and friends, with the woman walking separately from the men.

Mary probably assumed that Joseph had Jesus, and Joseph assumed that he was with Mary.

It was only when they stopped along the way that they realized that no one had seen the boy since they left Jerusalem.

As a tween, Jesus’ presence was both expected and unexpected in both his mother’s world and his father’s world.

The transition – the shift in place and providence came the moment they found him in the Temple, skillfully asking and answering questions of the religious teachers.

This is where Mary rushed in, likely flushed and shaking, and said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.”

We might imagine that tween Jesus responded first with an eye roll and a “whatever.”

Then he said, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

Spoken by a 12-year-old in our time, we might say this was a smart-mouth answer given by someone too young to realize how much worry he had caused his parents and too immature to recognize that actions have consequences and that we can’t just run off and do what we feel like doing without giving thought to how those around us are affected.

Spoken by a 12-year-old in Jesus’ time, this was a welcome sign that the child was seeking the company and challenging questions of his elders,

and would soon make the transition into the world of adulthood.

Spoken by 12-year-old Jesus in particular, this was Jesus’ first demonstrable act of being Emmanuel – God with us.

For here he demonstrates that we are drawn to live in relationship with God – whether we see God as Father, Mother, or other –

and that we are never lost when we seek the company of God – in God’s house, in our house, in the brightest or bleakest place we can imagine.

But for Jesus’ mother in particular, this moment in the Temple meant that a much more personal transition had taken place.

It was a sign that the events that God had set in motion when the Angel Gabriel first appeared to her, were moving forward into the next stage.

The preparation for Jesus’ ministry of teaching, healing, and ultimately, turning the status quo upside down, was under way.

Recognizing this likely added to Mary’s anxiety when she discovered Jesus was missing.

Perhaps she knew all along where she would find him,

and that this would be the first painful step towards the day when she would have no choice but to let him go.

But that time, at this point in the story, is yet to come.

In this in-between time, this time of transition, the ending of the story is still unknown.

Mary, like us, is imagining a future that could be different,

if enough people embrace the idea that change is possible and feel empowered to make that change.

And the change starts in ourselves – 
in our hopes and expectations,

in the way we interact with and treat others,

in the trust we place in God that we’re not doing this all on our own.

Here’s a New Year’s resolution you might consider keeping.

Follow the example of 12-year-old Jesus and trust that God is longing to be in your company just as you are longing to be in God’s company. 

Trust that whatever change you’d like to make in your life is completely doable if it comes from a place rooted in joy,

and the desire to create a bigger space for love, compassion, and grace.

And trust that Emmanuel – God with us – will be with you every step of the way.

Thanks be to God, and Amen.