Jan 3

Written by: Paster Larry Griffin
1/3/2010 3:31 PM

The Father’s Business
Second Sunday after Christmas, 2010
Luke 2:41-52
41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. 43 And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 45 and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” 49 And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” 50 And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Dear Christian Friends,
There are at least three ways to live your life, in terms of “business”. You can mind your own business or you can stick your nose in other people’s business, or you can be about the business of your Father in heaven. Or you can spend your days doing various combinations of all three. My earthly father was a huge fan of minding your own business and staying out of other people’s business. At an extended family holiday, I remember a great uncle of mine telling me that there were three topics that should not be talked about – politics, religion, and sex. And whereas there is a lot of wisdom in what my dad and great uncle said, our Gospel lesson for today teaches us that there is a sense in which every Christian is to be about THE FATHER’S BUSINESS every day. Three truths I invite you to learn today about the business of our Father in heaven.
First, the Father’s business often sets the ordinary next to the miraculous. Second, the Father’s business begins with listening and asking questions. Third, the Father’s business involves submitting to authority and increasing in wisdom as we do so.
First, the Father’s business often sets the ordinary next to the miraculous. In today’s Gospel lesson, we find a young man of 12 from the hinterlands of Galilee stunning the Jewish rabbis in the temple of Jerusalem with His wisdom. The ordinary set next to the miraculous. In the Christmas story we find the holy God of the universe using a teenage girl named Mary and a carpenter man named Joseph to bring into this world His only begotten Son and then we find the angels singing the Glory in Excelsis first of all to a lowly and not so impressive group of shepherds. The ordinary set next to the miraculous. Yesterday as I read Matthew chapter 1, I noted again three sinful women in the genealogy of the sinless Jesus – Tamar noted for her incest with her father in law Judah and then Rahab noted for her prostitution and then Bathsheba the wife of Uriah noted for her adultery with King David. The ordinary et next to the miraculous.
The first 30 years of Jesus are known as the silent years. This account of Jesus in the Temple at age 12 is the only recorded story of those years. You should know that a Jewish boy reaches manhood at age 13, and it was the responsibility of the boy’s father to introduce him to his religious obligations before he comes of age. Jesus was taken by his parents to the most important of the Jewish religious festivals, the Passover. Actually, Jewish families were to go to Jerusalem three times a year, also at the Feasts of Pentecost and Tabernacles, but the Jews of Galilee, due to distance, tended to attend Passover only. A pilgrimage was usually undertaken in a large group of family, relatives, neighbors and friends. Parents and children would not necessarily travel together but would agree on a resting place for each night and meet each other there.
At the end of an ordinary and their first day of traveling, Mary and Joseph discover Jesus missing. On the second day they return to Jerusalem, and on the third day they found Jesus in the temple. Many scholars find a parallel with them finding Jesus on the third day with resurrection. Luke identifies being lost with being dead, and being found with coming back to life. We also find Luke recording that after this incident with their son Jesus at age 12 in the temple Mary treasured up all these things in her heart. From Mary we learn to treasure up God’s Word in the midst of all of life’s circumstances, even when and especially when we do not fully understand God’s ways and works in our lives. Or to say it another way – to remember that God reveals the holy and the miraculous and the supernatural to us through the very ordinary events or substances in life – especially the ordinary substances of water and bread and wine.
Secondly, the Father’ business begins with listening and asking questions. Jesus was famous for listening. In this case He was listening to the official teachers of the Church at age 12, much as we ask 12 year olds in our Lutheran tradition to come into Confirmation Class with the official teachers of the local church, also called pastors. To this very day we use the catechism, which is defined as a book of questions and answers.
Jesus was also famous for listening to the stories of hurting and sick and dying and outcast people and then helping them in the way that He determined would be best for them. The Bible teaches us very clearly that God is always anxious to hear our prayers and that He will answer every proper prayer offered by every one of His sons and daughters in a way that will be best for us in the long run.
To love God with all of our heart and soul and mind begins with listening. In Luke 10 Martha chose to be hospitable and prepare a fine meal for Jesus, and her sister Mary chose to listen closely to the words of Jesus. Although both were choosing a good thing, Mary had chosen the one thing needful. Jesus often ended His parables and teachings with an invitation for people to use their ears to hear. The Bible says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The most important resolution any of us can make in this New Year is to more carefully listen to God’s Word and to the stories of hurting people.
I read a little story about girls who ended up as prostitutes in San Francisco. They were surveyed and asked what they needed most and didn’t get as they were growing up. Almost unanimously they answered with tears in their eyes, “What we needed most and didn’t get was someone who cared enough about us to listen to us.”
One author wrote this three part formula for helping and encouraging people. #1) Listen to the other person’s story. #2)Listen to the other person’s full story. #3 Listen to the other person’s full story first. At our elders’ meeting this past week, we talked about and were encouraged to do more active listening in this New Year. Especially we want to care about and listen to the many members of this Church who have become less active or inactive in this congregation. Folks who have stopped listening in a careful or regular way to God’s Word. Oh that the pastoral staff and the elders and the members of this congregation would be famous in this New Year for listening in a humble way and asking good questions in a caring sort of way to people in our families and in our circles of friends and in our neighborhoods and in our workplaces! The Father’s business starts with listening and asking good questions.
Finally, the Father’s business continues involves submitting to the proper authorities in our lives and increasing in wisdom as we do so. The end result of the story of Jesus in the temple at age 12 is that Jesus went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them….And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. To submit to proper authority in life is absolutely essential for living in a way that gives glory to God. Children are to submit to their parents and employees are to submit to their employers and military personnel are to submit to their superiors and students are to submit to their teachers and citizens are to submit to their governing authorities and Christians are to submit to the ultimate authority in life – the written and inspired and inerrant and life-changing and holy scriptures. Scriptures recorded by the apostles and prophets and evangelists verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit and centering from beginning to end on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ Who has all authority in heaven and earth and both commands us and invites us to listen to and live under both the Law and the Gospel as it is taught and preached.
Jesus submitted to His parents and to His Father in heaven and ultimately to Pilate and the Roman government as He went the way of suffering to His death by crucifixion. You and I will do well in this New Year to submit to the Ten Commandments not only because we have to but more importantly because we are free to do so with the joy and the peace that only God can give.
There are times when we should mind our own business and there are many times when we should stay out of other peoples’ business, but we learn again that it is always time to be about our Father’s business. If you know people who have stopped listening to God’s Word, it’s time for you to get involved in their lives. If you know people who have drifted from the Church for one reason or another, it’s time to listen more carefully to their story and to ask good questions as a way of inviting them back into the fellowship. The Gospel light within each one of us is not meant to be hidden under a bushel basket but shined in such a way as to glorify our Father in heaven. In this very place we are invited not only to be forgiven but to forgive one another. Not only to be loved but to love one another in a thousand different ways. Not only to be served by Word and Sacrament, but to serve one another with good works ordained by God for us to do before we were ever conceived and born. We are to be about the Father’s business whether we are 12 years old or22 or 52 or 92 or 102 and every age in between. Sometimes that means that we speak up and often it means that we listen. Sometimes it means that we admonish and often it means that we encourages. Regularly it means that we come into God’s house and listen and every day it means that we go into the real world and do what we can do and say what we can say with every confidence that God is with us blessing as only He can bless. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

A Happy New Year to you!

Pastor Larry J. Griffin

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