Sermon Archives

December 27, 2009
Pastor Jim Bangsund

"God Has Broken In"
Luke 2:41-52

Well, there it went. Christmas is now two days behind us, and some of us are already having a bit of a Christmas letdown. But don't. Because actually there are 12 days of Christmas - it's not just a song - and we should be celebrating Jesus' birth until January 6. And then there's this: Today is that Sunday of the year that falls between two births, the birth of Jesus and the birth of the new year. A time still to celebrate what the first birth brought us even as we start to think about what the second one is going to bring.

And Jesus is already 12 years old! At least that's what we read in our Gospel lesson. A seventh grader, half way through middle school - or so he would be if the events of Luke 2 were set in San Jose. But they're not, of course. Rather, years have now passed, and Mary and Joseph and 12-year-old Jesus have left the small village of Nazareth and gone south about 65 miles, traveling in a group of families going down to Jerusalem for the Passover. When we pick up the story, they're returning to Nazareth, and Mary and Joseph were probably relaxing a bit, what with Jesus traveling with others in the group. Except that he wasn't, of course. At some point, they realized he was missing; they had assumed he was with others but he had gotten left behind.

Ever done that with a child? Be honest now! Or maybe don't, if your kids have forgotten and are sitting next to you. But I remember doing something like that. We, and my brother and his wife and their kids, were visiting my parents who were living in Beaverton, Oregon, at the time. It was a Sunday morning, and we had all gone to St Andrew Lutheran Church. After the service we loaded up our cars and headed back to my parents' place. When our car arrived, the place was already alive with a bunch of conversations.

Twenty minutes or so passed, and then my mother, who had been looking around the room, turned to me and asked, "Where's Judy?" I said, "I thought she was going to ride back with you." "No," Mom said, "when Judy got to our car it was full, and so she said, 'No problem, I'll go back and ride with Jim and the kids'." Except as Judy was saying that, the kids and I were pulling out the other side of the parking lot. And then my parents took off a few moments later as Judy headed over to where she thought our car still was, only to find us gone.

Well, Mom and I looked at each other for a moment, then we took a quick straw poll of the family, and all were of the opinion that I should probably go back to the church and pick up Judy. And that sooner would be a whole lot better than later. It was one of those Garrison Keillor moments when I wished either that the trip were shorter, so as to get there immediately, or longer, so as to have time to figure out what to say.

Well, it happens. And it happened to Mary and Joseph, so I took some small comfort in being in rather good company.

Mary and Joseph hurried back to Jerusalem and eventually found Jesus in the temple. As I said, by our counting Jesus would have been in the seventh grade. Half way through confirmation if he were here. And what a student! When they found him, he was "sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions." And "everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers." And then, when all was said and done, we read in verse 52 that "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men."

Why this story? Why this single story from Jesus' youth and no others? Because Luke wants to tell us something. Luke wants us to notice something. There are places in the Old Testament that point us ahead to what God had in mind - to God's intent to enter the world in the flesh at Christmas. And it's not just the Old Testament prophets that do this. There are places where God used people in ways that pointed ahead to what Jesus later would do. Moses feeding of the thousands with bread in the wilderness, and his bringing God's sermon on the mount from Mt Sinai. His lifting up the bronze serpent on the pole. God giving King David a promise of a descendent who would reign forever. And then there is Samuel.

In our Advent midweek services we heard how "God Breaks In to a Broken World." We heard about Bethlehem, Mary, and the Shepherds. And God also broke in to the world at the time of Samuel, to raise him up for an important task. As a young boy, Samuel served in the house of God with a less-than-competent priest named Eli. Our first lesson ended by telling us that, "the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men."

"... to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men." That's the only place those words are found in the Old Testament. In our Gospel lesson, Luke wants us to connect to those words when he writes that 12-year-old Jesus "grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." Luke is telling us, "God is at work here. Just like in the time of Samuel. God has broken in again."

Why did God have to break in at the time of Samuel? Because, the Bible says, "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6; 21.25). Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Sort of like a bunch of kids with no parents, where the big kids push around the little kids and nothing is ever really fair or good or right. God had given Israel his law through Moses many years before. But without a king's leadership they were left to do with God's law whatever they wanted. And what they wanted to do - and what they did do - was ignore it.

And things haven't changed much. God still gives us his best and we often still ignore it. Some years ago utility crews were out in Michigan after a tremendous ice storm brought down power lines all across the state. It was a dangerous situation, and they had put up barriers to keep people back. As they picked up wires in one hard-hit area, a worker heard a horn honking behind him. Turning around and seeing a man in an old pickup truck, the worker stomped over and yelled, "Didn't you see those wires, red flags, stands, and barriers back there?" "Oh, yes," the guy in the pickup replied, "I got by those all right. It's just your truck that's in the way now."

Do you ever find God's truck in the way and wonder why? It's because God wants the very best for you. Did you know that? He wants you to know his very best, and so when he puts up warning signs - or even stop signs and barriers - it's not to spoil your fun but to keep you from things that will do you harm. And so, at a time when there was no king in Israel and everyone ignored the signs and barriers and did what was right in his own eyes, God raised up a boy named Samuel who "grew in stature and in favor with God and with men." He became a great leader in Israel, and through him God chose Israel's first two kings. Can any of you kids here tell your parents who those first kings were? The first two kings of Israel? The first was Saul, who didn't work out so well, and then David. Great King David, whom the Bible calls "a man after God's own heart" (1 Sam 13.14).

And there was more. Samuel and David helped Israel, but what God did through them also pointed ahead to what God had in mind for the whole world. Their work, like that of Moses and others, also pointed the way to Christmas. And so Luke tells of Jesus in the temple and connects that to God's breaking in at the time of Samuel, breaking in upon a world in which everyone was doing what was right in his own eyes. Luke is saying, "Listen up, folks. In Jesus, God is on the move again. He sent Samuel to help Israel, and now he's sent his Son, Jesus, for all of us ... for the whole world." For me, and for you and for you and you and you.

But what about us today? Haven't we gotten beyond the chaos of Samuel's time? Surely, at least in the western world, it's no longer "every man doing what is right in his own eyes." We're people of reason and laws, after all. Yet we look at how, as Pastor Dan mentioned on Christmas Eve, our culture has done its best to push God out of the picture - and how we are now reaping the results in so many ways. We look at the violence of video games, the crude content of popular music, the lifestyles promoted on TV and in the movies, and we wonder what on earth has happened to us?

We live in a culture absorbed by entertainment, which promises endless stimulation, and yet which sucks the spiritual juices right out of us. N. T. Wright, bishop of Durham, England, and somewhat of a modern C. S. Lewis, compares our modern western world to a particular species of ant which, like other ants, travels in long lines from point A to point B. Each ant knows where he's going because he follows the ant in front of him. But sometimes an ant gets separated from the group. What does he do? Well, he wanders round and round until he finds another ant and then gets in line behind him and he's back on track. And that's all well and good except that sometimes an ant leading a line of ants gets off course, wanders, and starts following the last ant in the line. Then they're in a closed loop, and they just keep going round and round, each ant following the ant in front ... thinking all is well ... until they all die.

All too often we are like those ants, says Wright. Following the buzz, led by the voices of pop stars or the world of advertising, plodding - or running madly - in circles that feel comfortable because they are so familiar; and yet they end up nowhere. Or worse. My friend, God has more for you than that; he really does.

That's why this Sunday between the two births - between the birth of Jesus and the birth of the new year - offers such hope. That's why, this Sunday, we need to look both backward and forward. In the birth of Jesus, God broke in once for all, a never to be repeated event, to make us right with him. When we look back at the birth of Jesus we look at something unique - just like the cross and resurrection - God breaking in for you, for me, for the whole world - once for all. To bring forgiveness of sins and to fix our relationship with him.

That's the birth we just celebrated, the birth we look back to. But now, we turn and look ahead to the birth of the new year - 365 untouched days - new pages on which no one has yet scribbled, but pages on which God is again and again going to seek to break in upon your life - so that you might know his best for you. Because this next year can be different. Christ was not only born for you, not only died for you, but wants to live in you and through you ... in these waning days of 2009 and then in the broad expanse of days that now lie ahead in the new year.

How might that happen? Only God can answer that for you. But for the new year that now lies close before us, let me suggest a few very simple possibilities. First, be here. Just be here - in worship and in fellowship. Even Jesus said, when they found him in the temple: "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" For this is the place that God most clearly speaks, and surrounds you with his people and his support.

Second, expand your vision. Expand your vision. Get to know more about what God is doing by joining a group or taking a class. That's one of the very best ways to break away from just following that ant in front of you. Young people, you have youth group, a place where God has promised to meet you. Those of us who are a bit older: look in the bulletin - you'll find a video and class on C. S. Lewis, one on parenting, another on the parables of Jesus. And that list continues to grow. Look for a chance to expand your vision of what God is doing all around you.

Finally, as the new year unfolds before you - and as you take time to be here and to expand your vision - then seek to extend God's reach. Extend God's reach. In the coming new year, look for one way in which God can extend you beyond the borders of St Timothy's and reach through you into the community around us. Jail ministry, neighborhood visitation, family shelter. Because that's how God most often breaks in upon his broken world - breaks through to everyone doing what is right in their own eyes, breaks in to us when we're just blindly following the ant in front of us. God often breaks in by reaching out through someone just like you.

And so it is that God
      - who raised up Samuel at a critical time,
      - who sent his Son at Christmas
now has plans for you, growing in him, reaching out for him, in the new year that lies ahead. Amen.