Sermon preached at St Mary Garsington 29th Dec Love is proven in the letting go!

 Garsington Sunday 29^th December

 

 

Christian children all must be mild, obedient good as he.

A well-known but not terribly realistic couplet from Once in Royal City, curry can be mild, weather can be mild, the boy Jesus the boy Jesus is anything but mild! Our gospel reading today is a supremely important reading.  It is a story only seen in Luke’s gospel and a reading which gives us a sole glimpse of Jesus growing up, so here he is a 12-year-old boy, who has given his exasperated parents the slip!

 

John Bell member of the Iona Community and writer of many hymns suggests an adaption to Once in Royal with the following couplet.

 

Christian children must abscond if of God they’re truly fond.

 

Mary and Joseph appear to have lost Jesus; we can probably easily imagine those feelings of cold-blooded panic.  Have you ever lost a child, grandchild or someone you were looking after even for a few moments on a supermarket visit or a walk on the beach?  If so, you can probably still remember those feelings in the immediate aftermath.  How much more so after 3 days?  It is probably not quite as absent minded as it sounds to us in our culture. 

 

This was an annual trip to Jerusalem, they would have travelled together as a community, men in front, women behind.  Mary probably assumed Jesus was with Joseph and vice versa.  However, 3 days is a long time, Jesus then turned up in the temple.  How many 12-year-old boys would run away to church? 

Perhaps there is foreshadowing here.  3 days is the length of time Jesus was in the tomb for, a hint perhaps of what lies ahead.  It is also reminiscent perhaps of another Lucan story, the walk to Emmaus where Jesus walked unrecognised alongside the disciples who spoke of Jesus being gone three days.  He was then recognised in the breaking of the bread.

 

It is not surprising that Mary panics when she discovers that Jesus is not with the group of travellers. Imagine the stress and anxiety they must feel as they both search for him. Mary’s first words are, “Child, why have you treated us like this?” What I hear is the edge in Mary’s voice, the sub text is “Where have you been young man? Your father and I did not survive angel visits, birth in a stable, and wise men visiting only for you get lost in Jerusalem.” 

 

Once found Jesus’ response is telling too, it is as if he says ‘Oh were you looking for me?  Perhaps the sub text here is ‘don’t stress, it’s cool you should have known where I was. When I was 18, I went away without my parents for the first time. It was long before mobiles, WhatsApp emails or any other instant form of communications. 

 

I hadn’t realised quite how anxiety inducing it was to my parents; I had taken their ‘keep in touch’ request with a pinch of salt.  What I heard was send us a postcard! What they meant was phone us, we are worried sick! Even in the early 80’s there were telephones.  So, I was away having a great time on my first holiday without parents, they were imagining that anything could have happened.  When I returned home the welcoming committee was not as welcoming as they might have been!

 

My parents are no longer with us, and I don’t think I truly empathised with them until I became a parent, with the benefit of hindsight I remember it as a seminal moment.  I was growing up and that meant them in a painful letting go.  Parenting and nurturing children is a privilege it is also a series of painful but necessary letting goes. Out of the Taizé incident I learned to be more considerate and that my parents had feelings!  They learned to let go and perhaps trust me a little bit more, the jury is out on whether I was worthy of that trust! 

 

Back to the text! When Jesus responds to his parents, He simply says, “Why were you searching for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?”  Mary and Joseph like all parents experience the pain of letting go as a necessary path to growth and change. Michael K Marsh blogging on this passage says ‘Instead of staying confined to Mary’s expectations of who he was supposed to be, Jesus reminded her who he really was.  

 

This is not easy for Mary to grasp.  She loves Jesus.  He’s, her baby.  She doesn’t want anything bad to happen to him.  But for her to really appreciate who Jesus is, she must allow him to do things that go beyond her expectation of him.  She must trust that when she can’t find him, he’s still doing the work of His Father.  And ultimately, this is always where Jesus can be found—in His Father’s house…in and among those in whom God dwells.

 

"The message of Christmas Eve remains true—God has taken on human form." (“Growing Up and Letting Go (Luke 2:41-52) - Reflections”) The promise of Epiphany that God will be made manifest awaits us.  God lives among us in the person of Jesus.  Today, God lives among us through the Spirit of Christ in the people around us.  It is a force that propels us forward and out of our comfort zones.  Know though that we will find God in surprising places if we are willing to let our expectations of God ‘grow up’ and surprise us. (“Growing Up and Letting Go (Luke 2:41-52) - Reflections”)

 

To close the final verse of the poem

 

Walking Away

by C Day-Lewis

I have had worse partings, but none that so
Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
Saying what God alone could perfectly show –
How selfhood begins with a walking away,
And love is proved in the letting go.