Sunday, December 30, 2012

Sermon: Christmas 1C

...what if you were Mary or Joseph? What would you have done when you finally caught up with Jesus and found him lecturing the finest religious minds of your generation about the intricacies of the Almighty?

While I’m sure that Mary and Joseph were used to strange things happening since this boy came into their lives. I also think they wondered what their jobs as parents were.

How do they guide a child into adulthood who has God’s wisdom living inside of him? How do they prepare him for a future that is so different from anyone else’s and nothing like they’d ever seen?

The story says that “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.” Jesus said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

I’m sure that their frustration was aimed both at this runaway kid and at their own feelings of inadequacy as parents. And while they were relieved to have him back, they probably looked at what was happening at the Temple and quietly asked each other, “What do we do now? Where do we go from here?”

And what kind of glib answer was that that Jesus gave his frantic parents? “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

How would you have answered that question? It’s not as clear an answer as it first appears.

Yes, he was...(whole thing here)