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Psalm 148
1
Praise the Lord!
Praise
the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
2
Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his host!
3
Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars!
4
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
5
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he commanded and they were created.
6 He
established them forever and ever;
he fixed their bounds, which cannot be
passed.
7
Praise the Lord from the earth,
you sea monsters and all deeps,
8
fire and hail, snow and frost,
stormy wind fulfilling his command!
9
Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
10
Wild animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds!
11
Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
12
Young men and women alike,
old and young together!
13
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his glory is above earth and heaven.
14
He has raised up a horn for his people,
praise for all his faithful,
for the people of Israel who are close to
him.
Praise
the Lord!
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Luke 2:41-52
41
Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover.
42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43
When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed
behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Assuming that he was
in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look
for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they
returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days they found him in
the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them
questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his
answers. 48 When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said
to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have
been searching for you in great anxiety.” 49 He said to them, “Why were you
searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 But
they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then he went down with them
and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these
things in her heart.
52
And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.
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I
have a confession to make.
I haven’t been in church the Sunday after Christmas Day in… well, I’m not sure how many years. It has been so long that I’ve been in church the Sunday after Christmas that I can’t even remember that last time I was.
I haven’t been in church the Sunday after Christmas Day in… well, I’m not sure how many years. It has been so long that I’ve been in church the Sunday after Christmas that I can’t even remember that last time I was.
And
in my defense, or in the defense of all pastors, the Sunday after Christmas is
notably one of the best Sundays for a pastor to be away. We had just worked on
Christmas, organizing and leading two or three or even four or five services
within a span of a few days. And as I’m sure you all agree, pastors deserve
Sabbath too; that sacred time of rest after an extended time of ministry and
preparation.
But
I’m here this Sunday, and I am thankful that I am.
I
actually had a personal mantra this holiday season. If you spent more than five
minutes in a conversation with me the week before Christmas, you probably heard
it. I dramatically kept saying, “We will survive Christmas.”
And
the reason I kept saying it, besides that I thought it was funny, was I had a
lot going on in my personal and professional life this year during this year.
I’m not going to bore you with all the mundane things they were, but know that
I, like many of you, have in a busy time in my own life. I still actually have
a lot going on and will have a lot going on until the week of January 8th.
I have the word REST in all capital letters in my electronic calendar on that
day because that’s when things will slow down. Maybe. Hopefully.
We will survive Christmas.
We will survive Christmas.
According
to our liturgical calendar, we are still in the season of Christmas. Our
sanctuaries should still remind us of Christmas, which they do, and we should
still be singing Christmas hymns, which we are, because Christmas isn’t over
yet. Although we might forget that.
It's
why Psalm 148 is a beautiful Psalm for today. We’re still celebrating
Christmas, we still see Christ as the baby in the manger, but our minds are
elsewhere.
At
home, the memories of food and family and fun are starting to fade. My parents
who came to visit for Christmas left earlier in the week, I’ve been eating
leftovers nonstop, and I’m now looking at my Christmas tree not as something
beautiful and joyous but now as something that needs to be put away and
returned to its corner of the closet until next year. You all know what I’m
talking about, right?
We’re
moving on.. we’re already forgetting what we are called to do during the Christmas season.
We are already packing baby Jesus away and returning our houses and our lives
into that post-holiday slump. We’re failing to see that all of creation is still
celebrating the birth the Christ. As the Psalmist writes: the heavens and the
angels, the sun and the moon, the stars, the seas, fire and hail, snow and
frost, wind—all weather, the trees and the mountains, all the animals and the
birds—all are praising the Lord. Then the psalmist writes kings and rulers are
praising the Lord… and then at the way end of this Psalm, it’s young and old
people alike praising the Lord. It’s us. It’s almost we’re the last ones
invited to the Praise the Lord party.. but we’ve not the last ones invited,
we’re just the last ones who accepted the invitation. We’re just the last ones
that remembered why we are here in the first place.
We’re
so distracted the week after Christmas because unlike the rest of creation, we
are already moving on to whatever is next. This is especially true on this
Sunday.
But
as I said, today I am thankful to be here.
And
the reason I am thankful to be here is because, as corny or as cliché as it
sounds, I am thankful to be here because I am here in a place of worship with
all of you. Cue the “awww”s.
It’s
a biblical practice to be together. The Greek word for it is koinonia, it’s a divine fellowship or
community. Eve was created so Adam wouldn’t be alone. Abraham was given as many
descendants as stars in the sky. David had Jonathan, his best friend. In the
New Testament, adult Jesus walked the countryside with his twelve disciples,
saying that whenever two or three gather together, they do so in the name of
Christ. We’re called to be together with people.
This
is also true for child Jesus and his earthly parents. Jesus, coming from the
faithful Jewish family that he did, would travel every year in a group to
Jerusalem for the Passover festival. The reason they would travel in a group
was a practical one. With relatives and friends, the Jews would travel together
in a group to Jerusalem to avoid dangers on the road. This could include
bandits or thieves, animals or weather. The entire group had to watch over each
other.
So
when Mary and Joseph were returning to their homes from the Passover, they did
so in the same group that that traveled with them to Jerusalem. They went a
full day’s journey without checking on their son assuming he was somewhere with
someone in the group of travelers. It was then after that full day they
realized their son was missing. But the Gospel of Luke, and I think this is
important, doesn’t criticize Mary and Joseph for leaving Jerusalem without
their twelve-year-old son. They, after all, followed through with the plan of
traveling back to their home as a group like have done so year-after-year. It
was Jesus who stayed in Jerusalem. No, the Gospel of Luke doesn’t focus on Mary
or Joseph losing their son. The Gospel of Luke focuses on Jesus staying and
heading to the temple to be with the religious leaders and teachers as a
demonstration of intellect.
It
took Mary and Joseph three days to find Jesus. He was missing for four days,
one day while they were traveling and three days while they were searching.
When they finally find him in the temple, Mary asks, “Child, why have you
treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in
great anxiety.” I don’t see a meek or mild Mary here. This is the same strong woman
who sang the courageous Magnificat while she was pregnant. No, I see a woman
with an angry voice and face. I see a mother.
One
time, when I was seven or eight, my mother thought I had gone missing. I was at
swim practice and apparently she told me that she had an errand to run. She
told me if I finished before she was back, my clothes were up in the stands and
that she would be back shortly. Well, apparently none of this registered with
me because when I finished swim practice that day, I couldn’t find her nor could
I find my clothes. So I did what every kid would do when they think their
mother has abandoned them at swim practice. I decided to walk home in my swim
trunks. That walk was about two-and-a-half miles. I made it home about halfway,
maybe about twenty or so minutes of walking, before my mother found me. I can’t
imagine what she must have felt when she first got to the pool and I wasn’t
there; when I was gone… but I’m sure it wasn’t a good feeling. I imagine it’s
any parent’s greatest fear. But when she had finally found me, I do remember
her grabbing me and hugging me fiercely. It was almost like she was saying
through that hug she would never lose me again.
So
Mary’s reaction of fierce anger makes sense to me. But what surprises me is
Jesus’ answer to his mother. When Mary asks him, “Child, why have you treated
us like this?” Jesus replies, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know
that I must be in my Father’s house?”
Eugene
Peterson’s The Message translation of this passages states that Jesus said,
“Didn’t you know that I had to be here?”
“I had to be here.”
Jesus
said, “Didn’t you know I had to be here?”
I
think this is powerful statement. I think this is even more powerful because
this is the only thing recorded in any of the four gospels of what Jesus says
or does in between his infancy and the beginning of his ministry. The one story
of Jesus as a child or as a teenager has him in a temple, surrounded by
religious leaders and teachers, saying he had to be here.
Jesus
assumed his parents would know where he would be because this was his Father’s
house. He assumed they would know this because he was supposed to here in his
Father’s house.
And
although Mary and Joseph didn’t understand what Jesus was saying to them, we as
readers of this passage understand that here, Jesus at the age of twelve, is
understanding his calling. He is understanding his role as the Son of God and as
God incarnate.
Now
many people today are confused about identity and vocation, about who they are,
and what their purpose or mission in life is. This is particularly true in
younger generations. This is not, of course, exclusive to younger people
because many of us cry out to God with the “What?”s and the “Why?”s.
And
yet when we do, we don’t always seek the answers to these questions.
Following
a religious holiday, the Passover, Jesus went to the temple and asked questions
and engaged in teaching and learned for the sake of understanding. He went
seeking answers. When Jesus wanted to understand his role in the world, he
surrounded himself with people in a community of faith.
Is
this different then why we go to church today? See if you recognize this
question I’m about to ask:
Do
you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ, promise to guide and nurture this
person by word and deed, with love and prayer, encouraging them to know and
follow Christ and to be a faithful member of the church?
Have
you heard this question before? Have you been asked this question before?
Sure
you have! When a person is baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ, this
question is asked to all of us.
The
same reason Jesus had to be in the house of his Father so many years ago is
still true today for us. We have to be here.
We
surround ourselves and we surround each other with the faithful. We give a place
for people to come, to bring themselves, their questions, their doubts, to be
free. We offer an opportunity to teach and to learn; to grow together. We offer
companionship and community. We offer a home for all to be in relationship with
Christ.
We
make this promise to every child that has been baptized. And so we have also
made this promise to you.
When
I look around and see that Christmas is ending; when I look at my Christmas
tree and see it as something else that needs to be put away; as just another
thing to do; when I think to myself, “We will survive Christmas!”… I will
remember this passage. And I hope you remember it too: The only thing we have
to do.. is be here.
And
here I am. And here you are. We are here. Praise the Lord. Amen.
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