First United Methodist Church
January 5th, 2025
Rev. Lauren Hall
Growing in Wisdom
Invocation:
Nourish us, holy and loving God, that we may grow in wisdom as Jesus and the disciples before us. Clothe us with compassion and kindness, that we may grow in love and unity, through the power of your Holy Spirit, in whose name we pray. Amen.
Message:
Do you remember how old you were when you figured out what you wanted to do for the rest of your life? Were you twelve? In Luke’s Gospel today we meet Jesus at the age of twelve. It’s an awkward age for a lot of people, because in many ways twelve year olds are ready to be independent and on their own, and in many ways they need to be supervised and mentored because they don’t have enough life experience to make mature decisions.
Even in Jesus’ day, twelve was an in-between time. Our Scripture tells us that Joseph and Mary traveled to Jerusalem every year for the Passover festival, as many Jewish families did to fulfill their traditional obligations. At twelve, Jesus probably had a number of friends, and as his family traveled to and from Jerusalem, he probably spent quite a bit of time traveling with other families. So the fact that his parents didn’t know he was missing until the evening really isn’t very significant. Preteens like to do things away from their parents.
What is important, though, is that this story is the only story about Jesus’ adolescence that is found in the Bible, but in it we learn a lot about his upbringing. One of the things we learn is that before this event happened, he was healthy and filled with wisdom, and that after this event he continued to grow in wisdom and stature. Hang on to that.
The next time Luke will introduce Jesus is when he is a grown man, ready to be baptized and to begin his ministry. The structure of Luke is not accidental. Luke moves us through three very significant points in Jesus’ life before launching the narrative into his ministry and mission.
Up to this point, everything we know about Jesus comes to us from somebody else. Gabriel tells Mary that she will give birth to a son who
will be called the Son of God. John leaps for Joy in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary comes to visit her. On Christmas Eve we read the birth story when the angels announce Jesus’ birth. Later, when Jesus is presented in the Temple, Simeon and Anna declare who he is and what he will do. This time, however, Jesus himself is the one who is listening and asking the questions, not his parents. It is his understanding and his answers that amaze his teachers, not the pronouncements of angels or devout men. From this point on, Jesus will speak for himself.
This is an epiphany for him, and for everyone else.
And so, I return to the question I asked at the beginning of this sermon – how old were you when you figured out what you were supposed to do for the rest of your life? Now let’s change the question slightly. How old were you when you figured out how your faith would shape what you were supposed to do for the rest of your life?
If we look at Luke’s Gospel from the perspective of our faith, we see a journey that may look similar to our own as we understand ourselves growing daily into the fullness of God’s grace. Throughout the first two chapters, we read about Jesus’ birth and early childhood. Being God’s son, he is filled with wisdom and the grace of God is upon him.
When Wesley described the idea of prevenient grace, he determined that it is God’s action that begins the process of salvation. Our transformation occurs when we are justified, or when we have an epiphany about our faith and determine that we need to be “made right” with God. Christ’s death and resurrection changes the relationship between God and humans, and it is through this sacrificial act that we are able to be reconciled.
When we make the choice to repent of our sins, to accept that Christ, through the Holy Spirit, dwells within us, we can truly embrace God’s atoning love and experience the presence and power of God in our lives. This act of forgiveness, or justification, is one of the many ways that God’s grace can transform us from day to day.
For the rest of our lives, we experience God’s sanctifying grace as we live our lives in response to this love and are able to respond to others
with the love that God has for us. This is what Wesley would call a life of holiness.
We can see traces of this journey in Christ’s journey. God takes action in Christ’s birth. Christ takes action in the temple to live obedient to his parents and thus “increases in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.” When Jesus is baptized, he is affirmed in God’s grace and anointed by the Holy Spirit, an act that reminds us that his life is consistent with God’s will.
It is important that when we read this story about Jesus that we remember that he is still a child. At twelve, he is still developing into the person that God sent him to be. He knows the Torah, he knows Jewish tradition, and he is drawn to the Temple, his Father’s house, in a way that even he may not fully understand. Jesus doesn’t begin his ministry at the age of thirteen. He spends many more years learning from his parents, learning from the Scriptures and the teachers in the Synagogue, and learning the general life lessons that we all encounter at one time or another.
When his parents discover that he is missing, of course they are concerned. Even if they have heard from Gabriel, from Elizabeth, from Simeon, through dreams and who knows how many other times that Jesus is God’s son, they are concerned, because Jesus is a child and still needs guidance and protection. Jesus is hardly the obedient child when he responds to their question by saying, “Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know that I would be in my Father’s house?”
As a parent I would have grounded him.
What we have to remember is that following this experience, Jesus returned home with his parents, was obedient to them, and grew in wisdom and in divine and human favor. Jesus knew who he was, but now Jesus was asking the questions. Jesus was discerning how the Scriptures would inform and shape his life. Jesus sets a good example for us to follow.
Throughout Christ’s ministry, whenever he encountered adversity, he responded with the word of God. His dependence on the sustaining
power and presence of God and his dependence on God’s word didn’t come from some superhuman knowledge or physical ability. It came from years of study and obedience to Jewish Law and tradition. He knew who he was, and he knew what he was called to do, and he had the strength to do it because he refused to let anything or anyone other than God define him.
Christ encountered adversity because he continuously looked beyond the narrow-mindedness of common culture and worked to fulfill the vision of the Kingdom of God. He healed, he reconciled, he liberated people from the demons that consumed them, and he provided for individual and group needs. He rarely did what the people expected him to do, because his focus was on the salvation of the world, not on himself or a few select people.
Even on the cross, someone tempted him by calling out, “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Messiah, God’s chosen one!” He was God’s Son, but he was here to save others. He was obedient, and because he was obedient, we received salvation. As the church, we are called to continue Christ’s ministry. We are called and challenged to dedicate all that we do, and all that we say, in the name of Jesus, to the glory of God.
By being in his “Father’s house” as a young boy, Jesus was dedicating his life, words, and actions to God – even when it stressed out his parents. To answer our call, we must follow in Christ’s footsteps, allow God to dwell within us, and grow in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor. Amen.
Invitation to Discipleship:
As Paul reminds us in Colossians:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Amen.
