[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]

This Week's Sermon THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS 03 January 2010 "Not What You'd Expect" Luke 2:40-52 LSB Series C Vicar Jeffrey M. Dock Soli Deo Gloria!

In the name of Jesus + Amen.

God never seems to do what we expect Him to do. We expect some sort of majestic display of God's power when He saved mankind, and instead we get a man suffering upon a cross as the world ridicules Him. We might expect some sort of grand light show complete with angelic choirs when someone becomes a Christian, and instead all we get is some water poured onto a child's head and a few words spoken. Mary and Joseph expected Jesus to be with them when they started home from Jerusalem, but instead Jesus was to be found in the temple sitting among the teachers, and amazing them with his understanding.

For the longest time I grappled with the question of whether or not this was a sin on Jesus' part. It seems that He is disobeying His parents, and causing them unnecessary worry. But obviously Jesus does not sin- so this reading always stood out in my mind as an oddity. Eventually the answer came to me when I was reading the book of Acts. Peter and some other apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin, accused of preaching about Christ even after they were commanded not to. To which Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men!¹" We must obey God, rather than men. Here is a verse that has been used time and again to justify any number of odd, dangerous, and sometimes illegal actions by Christians over the centuries. It seems Christians often have a hard time deciding what precisely God commands, and how that relates to governmental authority.

But not Jesus. That was one problem He never had. He knew perfectly what His Father's will was. He was the perfect Son of God who knew no sin. So it is not sinful that Jesus stays in Jerusalem at the Holy temple, but it certainly is surprising. It is not what we expect. It certainly wasn't what Christ's earthly parents expected. You can almost hear the anguish in Mary's words when she finds Jesus (after a day of surely frantic searching) and cries out "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your Father and I have been searching for you in great distress." And so Jesus replies "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?"

He must be in His Father's house. I've talked in past sermons about all the things which society and the church has tried to make Jesus into. A politician, a moral lawgiver, a peaceful hippie, etc. ad nauseum. The list never seems to end. But perhaps it is time to ask a question which strikes closer to home. What do we attempt to make Jesus into? How often have we seen Christianity as useful when it suits us? When things are going well, we tend to drift away from Divine Service. Our daily devotions and prayer falter. We don't dwell on those pesky sins we have. But then something bad happens. A crisis occurs. Suddenly, our prayers are much more often and much more fervent. Suddenly we once again 'need' God. Surely He hasn't forsaken us, so where is He?! We need our child healed. We need our loved one brought safely home. We need another job. We need financial security. Whatever the situation may be.

So we look for Jesus. We call upon His name, searching for Him to show us His will in our lives… and too often we cannot find Him. It is not that He is not there. He most certainly is. The real issue is that He's not doing what we expect of Him. We want these problems taken away. We want our sicknesses healed. We want this war to end. Whatever the trouble may be, we want it resolved now. We are rarely content with suffering, or with hardship. We do not like sitting and waiting for the Lord to answer. Patience is a virtue which we all seem to have until things start going really wrong… then we learn we never had as much as we'd thought.

C.S. Lewis wrote a series of novels called "The Chronicles of Narnia." They're worth reading if you ever get the chance. Anyway, this series of novels set up another world similar to our own in regards its theology, but very different regarding the form it takes. Talking animals, ancient magic, unicorns and centaurs all make appearances. In this other world, Jesus is a great Lion named Aslan. Aslan is ever active on His people's behalf, putting an end to evil, forgiving sins, saving those who follow Him from danger, etc. But there's a saying about Aslan in the books. Often repeated whenever people seem to need Aslan, or want something from Him, and He doesn't immediately appear (or at least doesn't appear in the way they expect). "Aslan is not a tame lion." Not a tame lion. To be tamed implies that someone has authority over Him, and is able to tell Him what to do and where to go. But that is not the case with Aslan.

Nor with the true Jesus. For Jesus is not a 'tame' God. We cannot make Him do what we want. We cannot make Him remove suffering from us. We cannot make Him change doctrine to fit our whims. We cannot make Him put an end to things we dislike. God doesn't work like that. He is the creator and ruler over us, and not the other way around. The history of the world is full of people who've tried to make God in their own image. People who have used Jesus and Christianity as a tool for accomplishing their own agenda. It never ends well. God will not be bound. He will not allow Himself to be placed into a box. He cannot be made into something He is not. He is not tame. He is the ruler, not the ruled.

Mary and Joseph wanted Jesus with them to put an end to their distress, but Jesus was in His Father's house. We want an end to our problems and suffering, but Jesus tells us to wait and bear them patiently whilst trusting in Him. Jesus is not at our beck and call. God is not one to do whatever we say. When we say "My Lord and my God" we do not mean the same thing as when we say "My hat and my dog." We belong to God, not vice versa.

It's easy to fall into the trap. It's become more and more common to respond to the doctrine of Hell and eternal damnation with a statement like "Oh no! My God would never allow that!" Any sin supposedly conceived out of 'love' also finds such a phrase used. A monogamous homosexual relationship between two people who love each other? "My God would never consider something like that a sin." Finding a new woman who just seems so much more caring and attentive and nicer than your wife? "My God wouldn't care if I left my wife- He wants me to be happy after all." Original sin? "My God would never hold anything against those cute innocent little babies- they've done nothing wrong!" We try to redefine God as we like- to make Him into something that sounds good to us. Mankind has always tried to remake God in their own image, from the beginning.

But He is not a tame God. His words and revelations are not given to us to mold and shape as we see fit. He speaks, and we listen. He commands and we obey. That is the Christian life. And at this point, it becomes easy to see God as rather… mean. One who keeps making demands out of us that we must obey- or else. He becomes an all powerful sovereign Lord who may, or may not, care for us. But take heart. For Jesus is in His Father's house. He is doing His Father's will. And God is love. Free, endless, eternal love. He loves you. He cares for you. Jesus left His parents because He was already doing His Heavenly Father's will. This just foreshadows when He would truly leave His parents and go to the cross to do there His Father's will. To bear your sins. To be your savior.

It is true that God is not a tame God. But He is good. He desires only the best for His creation. He desires good things for you. That won't always seem clear. As I said before, you will have suffering. You will have hardship. There will be things that happen which you cannot explain or find any rhyme or reason to. But we don't see the whole picture. We don't see our life and all lives laid out in their entirety. God does. He knows everything that has happened, and that will happen. He calls us to patiently bear our trials because He knows we will come through those trials by trusting in Him. Perhaps things will improve in our earthly lives, and perhaps not. But our eternal reward is assured. Who would expect that God would care for poor sinners like us? Who would have expected that He will listen and respond to every single one of your prayers? Who would have expected that Jesus would feed us with himself in the greatest communion mankind will ever know? God does things we would not expect.

Our reading ends with the statement "And his mother (Mary) treasured up all these things in her heart." Here Mary presents a model for the entire church, and for all Christians, to follow. Will we understand everything God does? Can we explain why some have simple lives and others are complicated? Why some get cancer and others do not? Why some die young and others live long lives? We can point to the effects of sin, and speak of God's divine providence- but we kid ourselves if we think we can fully understand it. I doubt Mary understood everything Jesus said either. But she treasured all these things in her heart. She trusted the words of Jesus. She had faith even if she didn't completely understand. Even as we should. Even as we do here, as we celebrate His feast once more in remembrance of Him.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

¹ Acts 5:29