Sermon for 29 December 2024, Christmas 1C, Luke 2.41-52

Let us pray:  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Are there any Christmas films that you like to rewatch each year? I think ‘ Home Alone and ‘Elf’ are favorites in my family.

Our reading today of Jesus, the missing child, reminds me of the moment when the mum in Home Alone realises she has left her son Kevin behind as the rest of the family travelled overseas for Christmas.
Although, the poor child is obviously very forgettable as there are 3 Home Alone films. My favourite ‘realisation’ moment is when the family are lined up along the side of an airport baggage carousel. The mum picks up a bag and hands it to a family member standing next to her. ‘Give this to Kevin’. she says and the phrase is repeated down the line. When the smallest child realises that Kevin is not present, the bag is passed back along the seven siblings, multiple cousins and relatives.. ‘Kevin’s not here’ , they casually say until the bag is back with Mum. What?? Kevin’s not here?! Eek!

In each film, the mum then begins her frustrating and comedic road trip to forge her way through delays and detours to get back to her child. As the delays mount up, she begins to look more defeated as her mind is swamped with all the terrible things that could happen to her defenceless child in this dangerous world. What she doesn’t know is that her son is actually a juvenile homicidal manic. He spends his solitude creating a living nightmare for potential thieves, but that is another story….

I wonder what happened when Mary realised that Jesus was missing as they travelled back home from the Passover celebrations in Jerusalem. You can recognise the thought process that his parents went through. He wasn’t ‘just being rather quiet’, nor was he walking with others in the group, but by the end of the day’s travel, Mary realised that her boy was not with them. That her precious gift from God was lost.

There was nothing else for Mary and Joseph to do but to leave the group and head back for a full day’s walk before they could even start searching, with their minds whirring with disaster scenarios. Unlike Home Alone, theirs probably involved Roman soldiers, knife wielding zealots or being crushed by a camel.

What happens when we search for Jesus? How would you begin? Praying sounds like a good starting place, and reading the gospels will help you away to connect with Jesus, his actions and his teaching.
But using the weekly readings as a continuous guide through the gospels can cause confusion. Particularly at this time of year, when the stories are somewhat out of sync. Last week, we learned of his birth; and yesterday, on the feast of the Holy Innocents, we remembered the moment when Herod killed all the baby and toddler boys in Bethlehem, but it gets worse. This week Jesus is on the cusp of adulthood at 12 years old; next week the Wise men will find Jesus, probably as a toddler, and the week after that, we follow Mary and Joseph into the temple as they present their first born for circumcision. It was in the temple with her tiny baby boy where Mary met the prophet Simeon, who gave thanks to God for letting him finally see the Messiah. Simeon then told Mary that Jesus would be a sword to pierce her own soul too.

You can imagine those ominous words running through her head as the panic of losing a child began to build. It is so well described with a minimum of words. It reminds us that no word in the gospel is just to fill space and that almost every word in the Gospels does its own heavy lifting. Each of the gospels points the reader towards the resurrection. This story in Luke achieves that purpose. So pay attention and anticipate when we hear that Jesus went missing in Jerusalem for three days.

Why did Luke put this account in his gospel? It’s the only account of Jesus between the nativity and when he is baptised at the start of his ministry. The place and the age are important points. Jesus talks about spending time in the temple, in his Father’s house. Think of all the key moments in Luke’s gospel where the Temple is more than just a backdrop. It is a place where Jesus can teach, where he reveals the hypocrisy of the temple teachers, and where he is questioned rather than welcomed.

And consider his age. In modern Judaism, 12 years old is when a teenage boy has becomes a Bar Mitzvah, a Son of the Law, although that particular tradition only started in the Middle Ages, long after Jesus lingered in the temple to ask questions of the teachers. There were other coming of age ceremonies in ancient Jewish culture, but not much is known.

It was a turning point between being a dependent child doing what his parents told him to do, and becoming an independent young man who was aware of his thoughts and desires. Perhaps it revealed the moment when Jesus was beginning to grapple with his twin identity; fully human and fully divine. He certainly felt an imperative to be in the temple. He was drawn to learn and to be more aware of how God works in the world.

Rushing around that city, before finally entering the temple, Mary and Joseph were clearly in great distress-three days is a long time to misplace a child. So to eventually find him in the temple, blissfully unaware of the drama around his absence, calmly listening and even debating with the teacher must have driven them wild with frustration. It is such a curious mix of emotions when we are reunited with a precious lost person or creature. There is joy, relief, anxiety , confusion, even shame, all bundled together. It is no wonder we often respond with misplaced anger, when what we really want to do is hug them and promise never to let go again. Ever.

Upon reflection though , we have a faith in Jesus that was not yet known to Mary. We believe that Jesus is never lost to us.

This is the message in today’s gospel, that Jesus is never completely lost to us. Even if we sometimes persuade ourselves that we are all alone in this unpredictable world. And when you do feel lost and alone, I want to promise you that you will be truly never alone.

God, and yes, Jesus will find you. You don’t need to fight the scary baddies on your own.

All you have to do is call on Him. The Lord be with you.