December 30, 2012
Sitting Among the Teachers
Preface to the Word
On the last four Sundays leading up to Christmas, I’ve been preaching a sermon series on
themes raised by Rev. Mike Slaughter in his book: Christmas Is Not Your Birthday. I’ll
finish off the series next Sunday, which happens to be Epiphany Day. But today I want
to say a few words about the scripture reading from Luke that is assigned to this Sunday
by the lectionary.
Before I do, I think you should know that preaching on this Sunday after Christmas is a
really strange thing for me. I was curious about something, so this week I pulled up on
my computer a chart I’ve kept of all the sermons I’ve preached from that first Sunday in
my first church on June 12, 1977 until last Sunday, December 23, 2012. It appears that
somehow I’ve managed to avoid preaching on this Sunday after Christmas for most of
my 35 years in the ministry!
The other strange thing about today is that in all those years of preaching, I’ve preached
only twice before on this story from Luke 2 of Jesus with the scholars in the temple.
Luke is the only book in the Bible that tells this wonderful story of Jesus getting left
behind and later being found in the temple sitting among the teachers.
After the event of Jesus’ birth, after the shepherds have gone back to their fields and the
wise men returned to their distant lands, after the infant Jesus was taken to the temple to
be purified and was recognized by Simeon and Anna as the anticipated Messiah… after
all this surrounding Jesus’ birth, we have only one story from his childhood. And this is
it!
Let’s listen to the story now from Luke 2…
Scripture Reading: Luke 2:41-52
Sermon:
I.
A. We don’t know much about Jesus’ childhood. We don’t know if Jesus helped Joseph
in the carpenter shop. We don’t know if he accompanied his mother Mary to the
market. The only thing we know of Jesus as a boy comes from this story in Luke
[Slide] where he is was in the temple astonishing the scholars with his understanding
of Hebrew Scripture. He dared to debate them, dared to interpret Scripture to the
interpreters.
B. Luke tells us Jesus was 12 years old when he was found in the temple with the
religious scholars. Can you imagine as a sixth grader meeting with the professors of a
religion department of a University, say the professors at Willamette University, to
“exegete” the Scriptures? (By the way, the Greek word [Slide] “exegesis,” literally
means 'to lead out,' and is defined as a critical explanation or interpretation of a text,
especially a religious text. In other words, “exegesis” means [Slide] to get out of the
text what the text is actually saying rather than reading into it what you want it to
say)!
Well, there Jesus is and there are the scholars, and they are amazed. [Black]
C. Now, I know its still Christmas time and I know that there may be some in the
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congregation today who are on Christmas break from school and the last thing you
want to hear is something about school. After all, you’re here to forget school, right?
D. But I want everyone to think about this story with me for a few moments. Why is it
that all we know about Jesus between his birth and the beginning of ministry around
age thirty is that he was a spectacular student, that he amazed the teachers, that he
could stand his ground and argue Scripture with the scholars?
E. Today’s gospel story this Sunday after Christmas is a story about Jesus in school. He
is a little boy from a poor family in a backwater town up north standing before the big
scholars in the temple, going toe-to-toe with them, instructing them as much as being
instructed by them. What’s the moral of the story?
a. That Jesus is showing signs of being the Messiah at a very young age? Yes,
that’s likely.
b. That this is an early indication of the arguments and confrontations Jesus was
going to have with the religious establishment of his day? Yes. This, too.
c. And it shouldn’t escape our notice that Jesus was missing for “three days”
before his mom and dad finally found him in the temple interpreting God’s
word to the scholars who thought they had the corner on that market. Three
days. What does this remind you of? Well, at the end of Luke’s gospel, Jesus
is dead and buried for three days when suddenly he is discovered by some
forlorn disciples walking the road back to their village of Emmaus, and what
did Jesus do with them? That’s right, he explained the essential message of
the Hebrew scripture to them as well!
F. We could explore each one of those interpretations of this story from Jesus’ boyhood.
But I want to try another angle to the story because there is something else here,
something that we “big” people may not be able to see very clearly, but if you’re a
little person you may see just fine.
I see a childlike quality to this story, almost like a folk story told about Jesus the boy.
It’s a children’s story told and retold to and by children. Jesus amazes the important
scholars in the temple. Jack outsmarts the big giant. Little Red Riding Hood puts one
over on the big bad wolf. The little shepherd boy David gets the best of great big
Goliath. It’s a story like that. It’s uncomplicated, playful, and easy to remember.
G. And, in a way, it’s a story that can bring delight to people who don’t do so well on
their SAT tests, and to those who don’t have access to the great literature of the
Western world, and to those who don’t even try to fill out the admissions application
to college because they can’t endure yet another rejection; people who, when they
hear “university,” picture a place they will never go, or when they hear the word
“school” get a knot in their stomach.
H. I enjoyed school, but there are those for whom school is an experience that makes
them feel the smallest they will ever feel in life… a place of pressure, judgment,
expectation, performance, and conformity. Makes me think of the little boy who was
sent home one day with a note pinned to his coat. It read, “Thomas is too dumb to
learn. School is a waste for him.” [Slide] His name was Thomas Alva Edison.
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In some ways this story of Jesus in the temple talking religion with the erudite
scholars is for those of us who, like Thomas Edison, wear judgmental notes like his,
pinned not on their lapels but to their minds, hearts and souls. This little story Luke
tells can “electrify” the little, the weak, the vulnerable, the knocked-down souls by
reminding them whose side God is on and who God’s advent meant to astonish.
[Black]
I. When his mother, Mary, was told she would have a baby, she sang; “God is going to
bring down the proud and lift up the lowly.” Little Jesus debating the mighty scholars
in the temple… well here’s Mary’s song being played out before our eyes.
J. Is it possible that Luke included this story in his accounting of Jesus life to unnerve
the assured scholars, to make uneasy those of us who rest comfortably in our proud
knowledge of Scripture and always have just the right Bible verse or phrase on the tip
of our tongue? I wonder what Luke was up to, because it seems to me that he is
drawing a picture of a new world where deliverance is at hand for those who are
always relegated to the back corner, who get to go to the head of the class, and where
little Jesus knows more of God’s dream for the world than important people with their
Ph.D’s.
II.
A. But you know, in a way, this little story of little Jesus astonishing the big people up at
the temple is everyone’s story because in a funny way every one of us as we’re trying
to grow up and figure out all the answers to everything… [Slide] every one of us gets
to be small sometimes, to feel like we’ve been sent to the back of the class.
Everyone.
B. I wish I could tell the little ones in our church that the bigger they get, the more
grown-up they become, the more they will know all the right answers for every
occasion... but I can’t. No matter how big and adult we get, there are going to be
times when we feel really small. Maybe it will be in school. But maybe it will be in a
hospital, or when something has gone wrong in our family, or when we’ve lost our
job.
Everybody gets to be small, sometimes. And this little story in Luke tells us that Jesus
has been in those shoes and he reminds us whose side God is on, and whom God’s
advent meant to astonish. [Black]
C. Luke says that after amazing these scholars in the temple, Jesus obediently went back
home with his parents…back home to where he “increased in wisdom and stature,”
which is the fancy Bible-way of saying that Jesus grew up.
D. But if I read the gospels correctly, it appears to me that Jesus never forgot what it was
like to stand as a boy before the intellectual, the educational, and the theological
powers of his time and be made to answer. And as he grew “in wisdom and stature,”
Jesus often found himself standing before the educational, political, religious and
economic powers of his world to ask them the tough questions and to remind them of
God’s preferential care for the “little” people who are relegated to the back of the
class.
E. Later on in Luke, in chapter 12, Jesus said to those who followed him as disciples:
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“They will bring you before rulers and law courts, they will test you, quiz you, and
force you to answer. Don’t be afraid! The Holy Spirit will tell you what to say. I’ll
give you the answer you need. I’ve been there. They are just the sort of big wigs I
love to amaze and astonish.”
III.
A. Just five days ago we celebrated the birth of baby Jesus. As Christians see it, when
the great, powerful God of the universe came among us in Jesus, God approached the
world as a baby. Imagine that. In Jesus, God came to us weak, vulnerable, small. As
he grew, he introduced us to a realm where God rules and told us that we can enter it
by becoming like a child.
B. That can be bad news when you’re big and important and powerful, but it’s great
news when you’re not.
C. And there are times each one of us gets to be small!
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