Sermon: “Shaped for Faith”
January 3rd, 2021 Rev. Betsy Perkins
Scripture passage: Luke 2:39-52 First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
In this new year we will be following the story of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke from now until the Sunday after Easter. Last week, Luke 2, we left Baby Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple where Simeon and Anna had recognized him as the Lord’s Messiah, and Mary and Joseph were marveling at the things said about him. This week, still in ch. 2, we pick up a couple verses from the close of the Infant Jesus story and then fast-forwarded 12 years to when Jesus is a pre-teen, and back in the Jerusalem Temple again. (Luke 2:39-52)
What are some of the formative things, the events and traditions, from your childhood that have shaped your life? One of the things that I’ve found interesting is that even as we age, even as we gather decades of life experiences as adults, often it’s our childhood memories that remain most clear. Our childhood experiences, things we did, things people said to us, retain a powerful influence throughout our lives. Consider for a moment the formative experiences from your childhood that have shaped your life… Let me share a few of the things I thought of:
- For sure, the regular practice of going to church every week, attending Sunday school, with only rare exceptions, was a formative part of my childhood. I learned the broad biblical story of God’s people. I learned of God’s love. I was immersed in the sounds of worship even before I understood the meaning.
- Another family ritual that shaped my life was an annual camping trip, often with extended family and friends. There would be a trunkful of bread to make sandwiches for about 20 people for at least a week; campfires and singing and card games and collecting wildflowers. A time for shared adventures.
- Then I remember the first real bible study I was a part of, at the boarding school I attended as a missionary kid in India. I was middle school age; the teacher was a man named Jerry Nichol. It was held before breakfast and we got to meet in the Teachers’ Lounge – a place normally off limits for kids to even enter. We felt so grown up, sitting where teachers sit, talking seriously about the Bible, growing in our wisdom, discovering for ourselves what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
As we hear about the one event from Jesus’ childhood that Luke felt was important enough to include in his Gospel (in fact the only story in any of the four gospel accounts between Jesus’ infancy and the start of his public ministry when he is about 30 years old), let’s think about the clues it offers to the things that shaped Jesus’ life. The first thing we can glean is that Jesus’ life was shaped by the faithful religious practice of Judaism. We already noted last week that Joseph and Mary observed all the required rituals after Jesus’ birth – the circumcision, the naming, the dedication at the Temple in Jerusalem – marking him clearly as a member of God’s people and a child of the Lord God Almighty. Today, we hear that Joseph and Mary made the trip to Jerusalem for the Passover festival every year, taking the family with them. The sights and sounds and story of God’s deliverance of the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, God’s protection of them from Pharaoh and his armies as they entered into a life of freedom, would have filled Jesus’ senses, his memories, even before he could understand. Jesus was raised fully Jewish – it shaped who he was. His later ministry was not a rejection of Judaism, Jesus’ work was to fulfill the Jewish hopes in God’s promises and open it up so all people could enter in.
The annual family pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Festival of Passover must have been one of the highlights of Jesus’ growing up years – packing for the trip, the adventures along the way, the celebrations in the big city. For safety and companionship, Joseph and Mary would have traveled with a group of relatives, or a company of folks from Nazareth. The trip was about 75 miles. It would have taken at least 4 long days of walking, more like 7-10 days for those traveling with children and with donkeys to carry some of the load. I learned that often the women and children would start out first in the mornings, since they moved slower. The men would pack up camp and catch up with them in the course of the day. This explains why Mary and Joseph didn’t notice that Jesus was missing till they had traveled homeward for a full day. Joseph assumed Jesus was with Mary and the children. Mary assumed that at 12 years old, Jesus had chosen to walk with the men. There is no indication that they were negligent parents.
Jesus’ experience of this annual journey would have shaped his sense of community and his sense of identity. Along the way the pilgrims told stories around campfires in the evenings. Along the path they sang or chanted. Psalms 120-134 are titled Psalms of Ascents, songs for climbing, songs for the journey, songs for pilgrims. The sound track of Jesus’ annual childhood holiday included things like Ps.121: “I lift my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” And Ps.122: “Let us go to the house of the Lord; our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem.” Ps.128: “Blessed are all who revere the Lord, who walk in obedience to Him.” And Ps.133: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in harmony.”
These are the things that shaped Jesus, the boy, as he made his final childhood journey to Jerusalem for the Passover. At 12 years old, Jesus was at the end of what was considered his childhood years. The age of 13 marked the start of the age of manhood, when a boy would begin to learn a trade, enter an apprenticeship. Matthew and Mark’s gospels record Jesus being referred to as “the carpenter” or as “the carpenter’s son”(Mk.6:3, Mt.13:55), so we assume he learned the carpentry trade from Joseph. At 13, a boy would also begin more serious study of the Torah with his father or with a teacher of the Law. The Torah is the first five books of the Jewish scriptures (our Old Testament) – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. From today’s story of Jesus listening and asking questions of his elders, of the teachers and scholars of scripture and of the Law of God, we see that Jesus was shaped by opportunities to study the Word of God, and to learn and gain wisdom from mentors in his community of faith – whether it happened in a formal setting in the Temple or the synagogue, or whether it happened while he and his father were together in the workshop. I especially like the image on the front of our bulletin this morning showing Jesus learning from his father about his Father.
All the events and traditions that shaped Jesus’ childhood – the faith and committed religious practice of his parents, the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem with family and friends to celebrate God’s saving work, the apprenticeship and study of God’s Word, all come together in this moment in Jerusalem when Jesus, and all of us as we hear about it, come to new realization of Jesus’ identity. Mary, in her anxiety, confronts Jesus, saying, “Your father and I have been searching for you!” And Jesus replies, “Why were you searching? Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” All of his formative experiences have shaped Jesus so he would know who he really is as God’s Son.
As we think about the things that shaped Jesus’ life and identity and the things that shaped our lives and identities, it has made me wonder about the things that are shaping the lives and identities of children, teens and young adults today – especially those in our church, in our families, and in our community. Research by Barna during this past pandemic year showed worship attendance initially increase as churches went online or into parking lots. But in the months that followed, attendance dropped off. 1 in 3 Christians stopped attending church in any format, with an even higher rate of 50% for millennials. A generation of teens and young adults that were experiencing a crisis of loneliness and anxiety prior to pandemic only got worse! You may remember that last year I shared the statistic that only 1 in 3 teenagers feel there is an adult who believes in them. I was blown away this past week when a news story on the increase of suicides among teens during the pandemic said three-quarters of teens now report symptoms of depression. As we think about the experiences that are shaping the lives of our young people, this should be a wake-up call for all of us and for the church in particular. Barna studies have also shown that the most important factors in formation of resilient disciples is meaningful relationships with a spiritual mentor and a sense of belonging in a spiritual community with a network of trusted friends, parents and mentors.
A highlight of the Advent season for me was being able to see all of our church kids for a brief time as they came in to record the advent candle lighting. As I spoke to them I wanted them to know that as a church, we have not forgotten them. We love them, we care for them, we are concerned about how they are doing. I know some of them feel that love each week as they receive a piece of mail with their name on it, with Sunday school materials inside. But I wonder, is that enough? In this time when kids are more isolated, away from church, some away from classrooms, they long for meaningful connections, to know someone believes in them, to be grounded in the knowledge of a Heavenly Father who loves them. Just as we have reimagined how to worship outside the walls of the church, we need to reimagine how to mentor our children in a resilient faith outside the church building. In this new year I would ask each of you to pray for the Holy Spirit to lead you to the child who needs you to be a formative, shaping presence in their life. Ask the Spirit for creative ideas for how to be present to that child, to teach, to mentor, to love them and help them grow in wisdom and stature. In recent years we have typically served perhaps 10 children in Sunday school – but if each of you begin to intentionally and consistently connect with 1 child to pray together, to talk about Bible stories together, to help make those connections between their lives and faith in Jesus, then we can touch 30-40 children! May God give us a renewed vision for discipleship in 2021, as we are shaped and help shape one another in faith!
Communion Song: “Be Thou My Vision”
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