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Mothers' Treasures Luke 2:41 – 52; I Samuel 2:18 – 20 – 26 One of the most important lessons ministers learn is to ‘get out of the way’ of the Word of God. Do not let the emotions, experiences, travails of personal life conflict with presenting whatever needs to be proclaimed to a congregation or interpreted from scripture. Knowing that and being able to follow through with that is different, and the latter is so difficult at certain times. I have told you before that one of my favorite Biblical stories is about Hannah and Samuel. Whether it is that this story re-appears today in our lectionary — coupled with our Gospel text of Jesus provoking his mother by going ‘missing’ for three days — or whether it is that I have just had four glorious days with my own son and daughter-in-law and am now nursing my own heart from them leaving, I will tell you upfront that getting out of the way of the texts today has not been successful for this preacher! First of all, both Hannah and Mary are mothers of amazing sons. Does not your heart break picturing Hannah going to the temple each year to take her firstborn his clothing — clothing to help him live a pure life attending to the priests. She undoubtedly had made those tunics with loving stitches, remembering that she had promised God IF she could become pregnant she would give that child back to God and allow the priests of the temple to raise him. God fulfilled God’s part of the deal. Hannah fulfilled hers. And the son became one of the important leaders of the Jewish faith. How she did that I continue to wonder. At first glimpse we believe that the story of Samuel’s birth was about Hannah getting something she desperately wanted. In the end, however, we realize that she was merely a part of the unraveling of an incredible portion of God’s history and the building of the people of faith. How did Hannah go visit her growing son year after year and say good-bye, knowing she would not return for another year. How was she able to not watch him grow, change, develop; how was she able to forego listening to his stories, his joys and his pains? These feelings are certainly not restricted to women — fathers’ hearts break as well when their young children cannot be a part of their everyday life. Until recently, however, our western society has perpetuated a standard that indicated men could fill their emotional needs through professional life rather than familial ties. I am increasingly unconvinced this is a gender issue rather than a social standard. Years ago, when my husband and I had just moved to a new location — new church — and, in fact, the day of installation when there were great festivities in the congregation we lost our two year old son — both of us lost him. Both of us thought he was being cared for by his older half-sister. Neither of us was concerned about that care, but knew he was okay and went on getting to meet the new parishioners. Arriving home late in the afternoon to find my stepdaughter and her family and NO CHRISTOPHER I was terrified. Racing back to the church, little Christopher was quite happy with his new friends — parishioners who found him charming and were arranging all sorts of creative ways to entertain him. My emotions ranged from anger at my step-daughter to embarrassment in front of the new parishioners to shame of myself for not tending to my own child Mary and Joseph lost Jesus. They, too, were angry; perhaps embarrassed; and then ultimately shamed BY Jesus who asked why they wouldn’t have known what he would be doing. Well, these passages of Hannah and Mary’s heart wrenching times with their sons are not in our scriptures for sentimentality purposes and we are not served by staying focused on those aspects. This Gospel passage is an important transition piece for us. Though it is still the season of Christmas, we must shift our understanding of Jesus from sweet babe in a manger to the one who possessed amazing wisdom. The heart of Jesus’ life was attending to God’s concerns, and it began very early in his life. Jesus not only was attentive to God, but he also knew that he needed to be in the temple to learn, to discern, to dig deeper into the issues of his faith. I don’t believe he was with the priests to show off his wisdom, but was earnestly trying to find ways of expressing and expanding on it. This little passage is an indicator to us that Jesus was interested in learning and in coming closer to the community of faith in his time. That is far more important than getting caught in the emotion tugging at Mary’s heart in losing him, or having him disobey her, or even her embarrassment from what others might have thought. When we entered the season of Advent five weeks ago we entered the portion of the Christian year when we get serious about considering whom this Jesus is — really is. For weeks we heard prophet’s foretelling what a Messiah in Jewish terms would be; we told and re-told the story of Mary anticipating the birth of Jesus. Next week we will experience Epiphany — the moment in this seasonal story when the magi finally showed up led by that very bright star. They, too, had perplexing ideas about who this Jesus was. Our time as church — Advent through Easter — is really spent in having us consider Jesus: as one who was promised; as infant born in flesh among us; as 12-year-old able to ask important questions; as rabbi, healer, compassionate friend; and as resurrected Lord of Life and son of God My hope for us — as members and friends of Union Avenue — is that we can seriously explore together who Jesus Christ is for us; to share those understandings; to feel safe enough to challenge each other and dig deeper into why we claim ourselves as Christian. My hope is also that we consider how we not only pass our faith onto the generations following us, but how we create an environment in which our very own children will want to learn, question and discover for themselves who this Jesus is and why we gather each week to learn about and celebrate his life and ministry. One of the Disciples church educators I most admire has released a book, which I am reading. In the preface he begins: “As a young minister in the early 1960’s … I considered myself knowledgeable regarding children’s spiritual development, sensitive to their needs and an advocate for their well being. It therefore, came as a shock to discover that I was neither as knowledgeable, sensitive or advocating as I thought myself to be. As is often the case my rude awakening came in the midst of a real event. “It was Sunday morning in the family service at the National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C. I was presiding at the Lord’s Supper after having given the invitation for all who love Jesus and wish to remember him to share in the Supper. Apparently I was taken at my word for my wife, Eleyce, offered the bread and the cup to our two small children who I am sure loved Jesus in a way that our Lord would have cherished. There she was right down front where all could see doing what Disciples of Christ and Christians of all persuasions just don’t do. And what was my reaction? I quickly ran through the emotions of surprise, dismay, anger and embarrassment. To my shame my first thought was ‘What will people think?’ My second thought was how could Eleyce place me in this difficult situation where I would have to explain and apologize for their behavior? “When the service was over I confronted her as quickly as possible with the question ‘Why? Why did you serve the Lord’s Supper to our children?’ Her response went straight to the heart of the matter, ‘Why not?’ Somehow, ‘because Disciples just don’t commune children’ wasn’t an adequate answer to the question, ‘Why not?’ She went on to say that she was explaining the Lord’s Supper to them and echoing my invitation that we do this as a way of remembering Jesus and expressing our love to him to which my daughter said, ‘I remember Jesus,’ and my son said, ‘I love Jesus.’” ( J. Hinant. Children at the Lord’s Table. Indianapolis: Three Fountains Publishing. 2005. P. i.) Dr. Hinant has come a long way since those early days in his ministry. He was instrumental in my Christian nurture as a teenager, but he has continued to help Disciples question our traditions — especially as they relate to children — so that what we offer them in faith teaching is more than just form, but has the substance in which we can truly believe. Our Jesus at a young age already had his heart attached to the hopes and desires of God. Mary quickly saw that and kept that treasure in her heart. May our hearts also treasure what we know and believe about Jesus and what our children will know and believe about Jesus so that they, too, can be strengthened in faith, truth and love. Let us all grow in our wisdom and love of this Jesus whom we call Lord of Life. SW |
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