December 27, 2009 at Saint Mark in Norman, OK
Sirach 3: 2-6, 12-14 + Psalm 128 + Colossians 3: 12-21 + Luke 2: 41-52
There are two strong themes that weave their way through the whole of Luke’s Gospel. One is a place the other is a person. This is unique to Luke, and as we now settle into the coming year with Luke’s Gospel, these themes stand out clearly in today’s verses and prepare us for more to come.
The place is the Temple. This place is prominent. It only takes Luke 8 verses in the first chapter to bring us to the temple. That is where Zechariah is conducting his rituals when he experiences the presence of God. After the story of the birth of Jesus, the next thing we hear is that Jesus is being brought to the Temple to be presented to the Lord. It is there that the ultimate theme of Luke’s Gospel begins to unfold: The Holy Spirit. Chapters 9 through 19 form a journey narrative we shall explore this coming summer, and the whole purpose of the journey is to get to the Temple. Luke’s Gospel ends where it begins: in the Temple. It is the first meeting place of the disciples after Pentecost, and there Peter works his first miracle.
So today’s Gospel is not an isolated story. We must hear it and listen to it in the context of the whole Gospel. Our imaginations must be inspired by this Gospel so that the Holy Spirit may lead and teach us when we gather together here. It is Luke’s Gospel that tells that the veil of the Temple was torn in two at the death of Jesus. Imagine that veil which separated the Holy of Holies, the Divine dwelling, from the human side being taken down, torn away so that the Divine plan which begins with the child Jesus could be fulfilled in the union between us and the Holy One. In Jesus a new Temple has come: a new place to meet, to encounter, and to discover the presence of God. In fact, the old one can be torn down for after three days, the new temple will rise.
The action in today’s verses is in the Temple. The first clue to the identity of Jesus is given to us in the Temple. Do not be led by popular misunderstandings to believe that Jesus is teaching the teachers. It never says that. The astonishment of the rabbis in the Temple is simply a preview of the astonishment others will have at the authority of his teaching when be begins to teach in the Synagogues. The disciple who learns from Jesus is not those teachers in the Temple. It is the other figure; the other person so important in Luke’s Gospel.
Here we get the other theme of Luke’s Gospel, the person. It is his mother. She is constantly emerging in Luke’s Gospel as the ultimate disciple. With her, and through her, Luke will put before us the model disciple. She will show us how to be a faithful disciple, and today, Luke tells how a disciple takes in what Jesus teaches.
She is the ideal believer.
Augustine said that Mary conceived Christ first in her heart before she conceived Christ in her womb. In her response to the Angel, she set in motion the Divine plan for us all. “Let it be done to me according to your will.” is the heart of the prayer her Son will teach his disciples: “Thy Will be done.” She hears God’s word, holds it fast in an honest and good heart and brings forth fruit with patience. This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. She listens, and ponders. When she does not understand, she takes in the word and rather than refuse what she may not understand, she waits, ponders, listens, and remains open.
We are almost left to wonder who it is that is lost in this story. It does not seem to be Jesus. He knew where he was and was beginning to discover who he was. He was finding his identity as a child of God, a Jewish man who kept and lived his faith. He was finding that in the Temple and in the Prophets and the Law. This was not a discovery that made him proud or led him to think he was special or excused from all the experiences of life. In fact, it made him humble; humble enough to go to Nazareth and be obedient to Mary and Joseph. He was not lost. It seems to me that Mary and Joseph are the ones who were lost, and so they do the seeking. Pay attention to where the lost go: to the Temple and to Jesus. Seems like good a good plan. The Boy Scouts taught me that when I was lost I should stand still and stay put. This Gospel suggests that when lost we should head for the Temple and for Jesus.
There are many times in my life when I feel lost, and I look out from here and into your lives, and recognize that I am not the only one lost. We come to this place to seek out the wisdom, the Spirit, the Word and the plan of God for us. This place is both our Temple and our Nazareth. This is the place where we can grow in wisdom and grace and find favor. The good disciple may not always understand. Sometimes there is anxiety like that of Mary and Joseph. Sometimes what we find is not always what we are looking for, not always perfectly clear to us, but we can learn from Mary how to make that work.
What she teaches she learns from her son: discernment follows commitment. Understanding God’s will only comes from doing it. You first will and decide to be obedient to God, and then you will understand God’s plan. It is not the other way around. We can never understand God’s plan until we have become obedient. Jesus never understood or knew what the Will of his Father was until he became obedient and surrendered to it. Mary had already done that before she conceived him. We must learn from this wise, prudent, faithful, and perfect disciple.