2nd Sunday after Christmas, 2010 Immanuel Chapel
Luke 2:48b – 49, 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.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
The song, “I’ll be home for Christmas,” written in 1943, expressed a yearning of a nation whose troops were abroad in Europe and the Pacific, fighting on two fronts. That song still catches a longing in nearly everyone for a place to call home.
Today, the Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, goes home, not for Christmas, but for Passover. It was in the season of spring that the group from Nazareth made pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate God’s great act of salvation in freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt more than thousand years before. Within that contingent, were Joseph, Mary and twelve – year- old Jesus. It was during this journey that Jesus came home to the temple in Jerusalem, His Father’s house.
In the weeks ahead we will move forward in our Mission Revitalization Initiate toward providing God’s house as a home. What does it means for God’s house to be a home?
God’s House is for all people. Thursday, the twelfth day of Christmas, is Epiphany. We remember God’s providing a star to lead wise men from the east to worship the child Jesus. They fulfilled the word of Isaiah that “nations shall come to your light.” Like the Wise Men, we are Gentiles. We are among the nations upon whom the light of Christ has shined and the glory of the Lord has dawned. Isaiah adds, “Look around and see…Nations are assembling.” The nations are assembling right here in north St. Louis County from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia and from around the world. We don’t even have to go outside our community.
We only need to heed Jesus words from later in this epiphany season, “You are the light of the world…don’t put your light under a bushel.” Another week our Lord will call disciples to, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” On Trinity Sunday Jesus command us, “Go…and make disciples of all nations.” Everyone, no matter what age, color, nationality, economic or social status is a candidate for finding a home in God’s House. After all, you and I are not natural born citizens of God’s household. We were adopted into God’s family that we might be at home in the house of God and make God’s house a home for others.
People in our society are searching for something or someone upon which to build their lives. On a foggy Christmas Eve one year a man showed up at a pastor’s office. The pastor and the man talked for awhile. Not long after the visitor left, the police appeared asking the pastor if he had seen any strangers. A man claiming to be Jesus had escaped from a mental hospital. The pastor related his experience and the police left. That evening while the congregation celebrated the birth of Jesus, Son of God and Savior, the police were out in the fog searching for Jesus.
People are searching in a fog for meaning to life. Some are even searching for a church home. Such searching does not easily find success. It certainly didn’t for Mary and Joseph. Think of the advantages they had. The angel of the lord had appeared to both Mary and Joseph telling of their Savior son. Elizabeth had stood in awe that the mother of her Lord would visit her. Shepherds visited them and told them of the angel’s message, that a Savior, Christ the Lord had been born to Joseph and Mary. Wise Men worshiped him. When at about forty days of age Jesus made his first visit to his Father’s house Simeon took Jesus in his arms blessing God and saying, “My eyes have seen your salvation.” Anna appeared and began praising God telling everyone of the redeemer. How could it be that after living with Jesus for twelve years Mary and Jospeh did not know where to look for him? They didn’t know where to look because they didn’t understand, even when he told them.
We too, have this great gift of God’s love in Jesus Christ. We were assured once again this morning that through his death and resurrection our sins are wiped out. We bear the name as a congregation of Immanuel, a constant reminder that God in Jesus Christ is always with us. We have the assurance of his presence in our baptism. We dine with him and of him in Holy Communion. We carry the hope in faith that one day in the resurrection we will be in His presence forever and eat at the banquet table of his eternal feast. We have found that in this house, God has provided us a home. As St. Paul wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”
Our calling is to discover through prayer, discussion, planning and taking action, how to provide this house of God as a home where people of the community are welcomed into the household of God. God’s word guides us.
How old was Jesus in our text? Yes, 12 years old. God’s house and God’s family is a place where young people are welcome to come, ask questions and find answers. It’s a place where young people are welcome to worship, learn, listen, and have their voice heard.
It’s a place where infants and children are welcomed, finding a home in this house, washed in baptism and received into God’s family. It’s a place to begin life in Christ and to grow in that life throughout the years.
When Simeon took the infant Jesus in his arms he sang, “Now let your servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen your salvation.” Immanuel carries the promise in its name that God is with us from the cradle to the grave. What better place to be brought when we have departed this life, than to the place where life in Christ began, at the baptism font. What a great memory and comfort it was at my Dad’s funeral in March when children, grandchildren and great grandchildren gathered around his coffin in our little country church and sang in four part harmony, “I know that My Redeemer Lives.” We had also gathered around the baptism font at which my parents and many of their descendants have been baptized.
It’s here in God’s house that Jesus is welcomed by the faithful as Jesus was at his first comings to His Father’s house. It’s here in God’s house that we come for prayer and thanksgiving, for Jesus declared his Father’s House was a house of prayer, not a Wal-Mart or Walgreens. It’s here in God’s House that the Holy Spirit works through God’s word and his sacraments. It’s here in God’s House from which we go to tell of God’s redemption in Jesus, carrying out Jesus command to love our neighbor as our self in word, thought and deed.
The challenge before us is to focus on “Providing God’s House as a home” a place of welcome to the world assembled around us where they can say, “Come and see,” Jesus. “Find a home here.”
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