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VISALIA FIRST CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 27, 2009
Sunday After Christmas 2009
Sermon: Rev. George G. Vink
Scripture: I Samuel 2:18-20,26, Luke 2:41-52
Sermon: JESUS—FROM MANGER TO MANAGER!
Call: Ps. 84- JL
· “Better is One Day”
· God’s Greeting and Welcome
· “God Himself is With Us” PH 244 & “Lord Reign in Me”
Prayer of Confession - GV
“We Fall Down” & Assurance of Pardon –GV
Congregational Prayer
Children Dismissed
· “Away in a Manger” PH 349
Dear Followers of Jesus Christ,
Dr. Paul Ruskin, teaching on the Stages of Aging, described a case study he presented to his students in medical school. He described the study patient under his care like this:
“The patient neither speaks nor comprehends the spoken word. Sometimes she babbles incoherently for hours on end. She is disoriented about person, place, and time. She does, however respond to her name. I have worked with her for the past six months, but she still shows complete disregard for her physical appearance and makes no effort to assist her own care. She must be fed, bathed and clothed by others. Her food must be pureed. Her shirt is usually soiled from almost incessant drooling. She does not walk. Her sleep pattern is erratic. Often she wakes in the middle of the night and her screaming awakens others. Most of the time she is friendly and happy, but several times a day she gets quite agitated without apparent cause. Then she wails until someone comes to comfort her.”
After presenting this challenging case, Dr. Ruskin asked his students if any of them would like to volunteer to take care of this person. No one volunteered. He responded with: “I’m surprised that none of you offered to help, because actually she is my favorite patient. I get immense pleasure from taking care of her and I am learning so much from her. She has taught me a depth of gratitude I never knew before. She has taught me the spirit of unwavering trust. And she has taught me the power of unconditional love.”
Dr. Ruskin concluded with, “Let me show you her picture.” He pulled out the picture. It was the photo of his six-month-old baby daughter. Our perspective makes a big difference, doesn’t it?
Our picture of baby Jesus often makes him look like a sweet cherub, just a little angel. No drooling, no crying when the cattle make scary noises! Jesus in the manger—was he really human? How old was he before he responded to his name? Did he ever babble incoherently? Did he ever get agitated without apparent cause? Did he ever need comforting, wailing until Mary came? Let’s not even talk about the soiling business!
Jesus began in a womb, but unlike us had his birth announced by angels and later by shepherds. The gospels give little detail regarding his youth or growing up. But, Luke records that Jesus was a Jewish boy, nurtured in typical ways. He’s circumcised on the 8th day and presented to the Lord “according to the Law of the Lord.” (vs 23) The customs were kept and Simeon sang! Luke sums it up in vss 39,40: “When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.”
Only Luke gives us the account of Jesus’ Jerusalem experience at age 12. Joseph and Mary went faithfully every year to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. Jesus’ getting “lost” becomes a transition time. The baby in the manger had become a boy like other boys, although folks have wondered. The gospel says simply, “he was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him.” Our account reveals a transition from a manger baby to someone aware of his responsibilities, of his first loyalty. Jesus reveals a self-understanding of his life’s purpose, his calling in life.
It comes by way of a very human story, an easily understandable one. Becoming a man and increasingly responsible for his actions, Jesus stayed behind without telling Mom and “Dad.” Parents can understand and appreciate Mary’s, “Why have you treated us like this?” They’d been beside themselves! The “anxiously searching for you,” uses a word that Luke uses only twice more. It’s in the account of the rich-man- in-hell’s being in “agony” and in Acts describing the deep anguish of the Ephesian elders’ crying over Paul’s departure. (Luke16:25&ActS20:38)
Our lesson is in Jesus’ reply and in Luke’s summation of what happened. Picture it! Jesus looks up at his mother’s troubled face, eyes red from crying, and he asks another question. Not a question as he’d been asking those in the circle of learning, but a question that puts distance between him and his parents: “Why were you searching for me?” We may suggest an answer that Joseph and Mary could’ve given. When a twelve-year-old son stays behind on his own, has them back searching for a day, and then calmly asks, “Why…?”, the average parent might have “lost it.”
But, there’s something about Jesus’ response and his reference to a Father that silences their anxiety, if not anger. He “had to be,” no option, in his Father’s house, “had to be” about his Father’s business. A house that later, Luke tells us, an angry, adult Jesus clears with a whip. It was supposed to be a house of prayer, a place to learn God’s ways.
Anxious parents grow silent. Is Mary experiencing the sword piercing her soul as Simeon had prophesied? Luke states, “…they did not understand.” Once again, Mary “treasured all these things in her heart.” The parent-child relationship is changing. Jesus isn’t the baby to be nursed, the boy to have a bruised knee kissed. His loyalty, his destiny is different!
Yet, Jesus goes home with them, and “was obedient to them.” He waits to begin his ministry. He waits until the time set by the Father. He chooses to obey Joseph and Mary, but as he does so, “…Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Using these words, Luke echoes the words describing Samuel. A little boy dedicated to God’s service by Hannah, a previously-barren woman. “Listen up, readers. God’s at work!”
We need to know that Jesus is not just another great religious figure from whom we learn moral teachings. He’s the unique, the only Son of God who subjected himself to obeying parents who really did not understand. He makes the claim to be “the way, the truth and the life.” Do we accept that as truth, it’s our Lord speaking, or dismiss him as a liar or lunatic? C. S. Lewis stated those as our options. For the most part, society also finds a baby in the manger innocent and acceptable enough. But, Jesus as Lord, the one to be followed, well, that’s another matter.
Jesus surprised his parents, causing them to be greatly troubled. If we really listen, he still does it. “He grew in wisdom and stature.” But, ultimately it was not always in favor with men as he pleased his Father! He upset the applecart often enough as he taught “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” He invited himself to places that rabbis didn’t go and he ate with “sinners,” causing the ever-so righteous religious establishment to grumble and seek ways to kill him.
Does that say something about how we do things as “followers of Jesus Christ?” Are we “growing in grace and knowledge of Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” as Peter commanded us? (II Peter 3:18) Are we wiling to surprise fellow followers as we find fresh ways of doing things, not right or wrong, just different as we obey Christ’s command to “Go and make disciples?” Are we willing to ask the probing, difficult questions about what we’re doing and make out-of-my-comfort-zone changes?
Jesus subjected himself to being obedient to earthly, less-than-perfect parents. Are we willing to be obedient and move out of our comfort zone as we “grow in grace and knowledge?” Do we have any desire at all to be described as those who, like Jesus, “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men?”
Seems to me that being a follower of Jesus means being more Christ-like! It means treating people as he did, being obedient to the heavenly Father. It means “seeking first the Kingdom” and not my many wants. It means growing in grace and knowing that God’s grace is meant to be shared. It means singing and showing “Joy to the world, the Savior reigns.” Not in a manger, “He rules the world with truth and grace.” at God’s right hand.
The message we have is a message of the wonder of the Father’s love shown in the Son, laid in a manger, but now the Manager. He’s the righteous one. He’s about his Father’s business in his Father’s house.
Let’s ask, “Who is your Father? Are you minding His business, living in His house?” It’s a family business. We’re in it as brothers and sisters with Jesus.
Amen!
· “Joy to the World” PH 337:2,3,4
Offering- John & Jude
· “Never Let Go”
Parting Blessing
THE LORD WHO RULES THE WORLD, BLESS YOU!
THE SAVIOR WHO REDEEMED YOU, KEEP YOU IN HIS CARE.
GO IN HIS PEACE, NOW & ALWAYS!
***SHALOM! ***
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