“Wandering Off…”

Meditation on Luke 2:41-52

First Sunday After Christmas 2012

***

       Now every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.

         After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” And Jesus said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.  (Luke 2:41-52)

***

     It happens to every parent at some time.  You take your eyes off your child for only a moment, it seems, and your child wanders off. 

     And though it happens to every parent at some time, my mother was upset this week when I wanted to talk about when it happened to her.

      “Hey, Mom,” I asked. “Do you remember when Steve got lost in the grocery store?”

     Her response was emphatic denial.  “No!”

     “You know,” I prompted, “when we were in the Super Giant…”

     That stirred her memory, then, but she still tried to avoid the subject that brought back the old feelings of frustration, helplessness, anger, and fear.

     “Karen, that was a long time ago!” she said.

       Yes. It was more than 40 years ago.  But it was something she would always remember because of the strong emotions evoked by the experience.

     The Super Giant was a large grocery store chain in the Washington D.C. area.  It wasn’t as big as, say, today’s Super Walmart or Super Target.  But back then, the Super Giant was about as big and as crowded as they get.

     My mother did reluctantly retell the story of when my brother was 4 and wandered off while we were shopping. I was 2 and a half and probably riding in the front seat of the shopping cart.  My older sister was 5 and never went far from my mother.

     Mom can only recall certain details. Frantically calling his name and walking up and down the crowded aisles with the cart, my sister and me.  Asking for help from an employee, who announced over the loud speaker that a little boy was lost.

     My mother remembers that he was crying and holding tightly to the hand of the person who found him and led him to where we waited. He had gone to look at a toy and could not find his way back.

     The person who led my brother to us was not a store employee. She was a shopper who just happened to see my brother crying.  And she reached out and offered to help. 

     My mother knew by the time my brother was 4 that he was a handful and was prone to going his own way. 

***

    

    In our gospel today, we have this wonderful portrait of Jesus’ family—perhaps more special because these images are so rare.  The Bible tells little about Jesus’s life when he was a boy—not until this scene when he is 12—almost a man in his culture. 

     The family has made the 10-day journey by foot to Jerusalem from Nazareth for Passover.  Only adult males were required to make this pilgrimage to the Temple to be in Yahweh’s presence and make an offering. The entire family making this journey speaks to their extraordinary piety. 

     Joseph and Mary don’t think anything of it when they failed to see Jesus on the first day of the journey back home. This speaks of their trust in him. He was permitted to roam freely in the crowd of travelers, many of whom were relatives and friends. But at some point that first day, Mary and Joseph realize he isn’t with them or their relatives and friends. They turn back to Jerusalem to find him.

     Imagine the panic that Mary from tiny Nazareth felt when she and Joseph were looking for him in the big city of Jerusalem.  Nazareth was a village of around 400 people. What were Mary and Joseph thinking?  Had merchants kidnapped him? Sold him into slavery?  Had he been attacked? Left in some alley? 

     On the 3^rd day of their search, Mary and Joseph were startled to find Jesus in the Temple, listening and posing questions with the teachers, who were amazed by his understanding.

     Mary, in her panic, reacts like any other mother whose son has gone missing for several days in a big city. She scolds Jesus, addressing him not by his given name; she calls him “child”—as a parent might do to assert their authority over their wayward offspring.  “Child, why have you treated us like this?! Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety!”

      Jesus gently reminds Mary, without coming right out and saying it, that He is not Joseph’s son; he is not the son of any mortal man.

     “Why were you searching for me?” Jesus asks. “Didn’t you know that I would be in my Father’s house?”

      The significance of this story is that Jesus’s divine purpose was already evident at the young age of 12. He demonstrated wisdom beyond his years and was already choosing to follow and obey God rather than human beings.

      Mary, who did not understand Jesus’s behavior at the time, did come to believe that what happened was a fulfillment of the angel’s prophecy and affirmation of His true identity as the Son of God. 

     And she “treasured all these things in her heart.” 

***

     As we take in this scene in our gospel, some of us can imagine ourselves as Mary or Joseph. We can sympathize with them because we know they were just doing the best they could to raise up the one who wasn’t at all like other children.

     But more of us can identify with my mother’s story—and sympathize as she struggled to do the best she could with a strong willed child, prone to going his own way.

     Most of us, though, if we examine our hearts and are honest with ourselves, can also identify with the wayward 4-year-old—lured to wander by the promise of some worldly pleasure. All Christians, at some time in their faith journey, will be tempted to wander away from the Lord and what He calls us to do.

      We say we love God more than anyone or anything.  But we become distracted. Family, work, chores. So many activities can draw us away from worship each Sunday in our Father’s house.  So many things can lure us away from spending quiet time alone with our Heavenly Father each day.

      And here we are—about to embark on another New Year. And many of us with good intentions will vow to try harder, to be more faithful in our walk with God. To make our relationship with the Lord our highest priority.

       But it’s so easy to wander off….

       The danger of wandering is not that we won’t be forgiven. Our gracious God has already made the sacrifice for all our sins.  The danger is that when we wander, we might get lost and be unable to find our way back.  And we will experience the pain and misery of separation from God, a separation of our own choosing. 

       Sisters and brothers, God doesn’t wander away from us. He tries and tries to draw us nearer to Him.

        He sends his faithful to seek out and find us. To take us by the hand and lead us back to where we belong, like the gentle stranger in the Super Giant one day when my brother was 4.

       Our Creator knows us better than our parents!

       He knows that each one of us is a handful!

      All of us are prone to going our own way.     

Let us pray.

     Creator God, thank you for your patient love that tries and tries to draw us ever nearer to you.  Forgive us when we have made promises that we have not kept, when we have wandered off and failed to do what you call us to do.  Shape us into the faithful people you want us to be.  Give us strength to ignore the things that distract us from loving, serving, and worshiping You.  Empower us to be the ones who reach out to those who wander and those who are lost.  Give us courage and compassion to help a stranger in need.  In Christ we pray.  Amen!