| June 17, 2007
You are welcome to reflect on this message
Our text is the occasion when Jesus got lost in church! Hmm. But he also got found in church. They searched for him for three days, foreshadowing Easter. So of all places he finally shows up at the temple, confounding the sophisticated religious leaders, foreshadowing the cross. But Mary’s mad at her boy’s thoughtless/thoughtful preoccupation. And Jesus is incredulous: “Didn’t you know, I must be about my Father's business?” Well, nooooo. They didn’t. Seeing eternal things with every day eyes, they thought he’s talking about the carpenter shop. But Jesus had something far greater in mind: “The Father’s business.” Being the Mom of God’s Son must’ve been a load. He was her “special” kid and she’s only looking out for his best interests. But this stuff about the Father’s business can get you in trouble. And only exacerbated the guarded concern she had for her son. It put a strain on their relationship. And it only got worse. The more Jesus sought “his Father's business,” the more Mary tried to hold him back. Do you feel the tension of these relational rivalries?
Mamma’s love and Daddy’s vocation. Two contending pressures -- the possessive impulse to control. And the call to go beyond the shielded boundaries, into his Father's unarmed areas of concern. Where anything can happen. One reacts to fear and creates dependency. The other responds to risk and strengthens character. Jesus' curiosity at the temple indicates his inclination at an early age that eventually created distance between him and his mother. Once Jesus left the carpenter shop in pursuit of his Father's business, to initiate a ministry of change in religion, that guarantees controversy. And the cross that was his to carry, began to weigh more heavily each day.
Mary chewed out her absent adolescent pretty good at the temple! But everybody could stand to have a Jewish Mamma! Because of her mothering, her Kid turned out pretty good. But when she agreed to “Let it be to me as you say,” with God’s preposterous Christmas proposal, Mary got a whole lot more than she bargained for. As we usually do in open-ended endeavors. The heated reception he received the first time he preached in the local synagogue broke her heart. It was Jesus’ toughest audience. He disappointed their neighbors so much that they’re “furious and tried to toss him over the precipice.” Mark says, “He could do no mighty work there.” But it was their ability to hear not Jesus’ ability to preach that was the problem. All Jesus could do there was heal a few sick folks and move on to Capernaum where the kindling was drier.
It had to be tough on Mary at the wedding in Cana when he scolded her, “Woman, what have you to do with me? My hour is not yet come.” Yet, she had the good grace to say, “Ya’ll better do whatever he tells you.” They did. And he turned drinking-water into 680 gallons of fine wine! It was doubly difficult to see him “about the father’s business,” and his enemies shouting, “He’s got a demon!” Or when his relatives came to take him home ‘cause they thought he’s crazy. And he disowned her by asking coldly, “Who is my mother?” Jesus’ “focus on the family” values? How despondent she must’ve felt when one of the twelve betrayed him with a kiss and the rest forsook him when it got dark. When soldiers whipped him like a dog and nailed him to a tree. She stands beneath it, hearing him scream his feelings of abandonment to heaven over what chasing after the Father’s business got him on earth. One of the few left who watched his eyes close mercifully in death, she cradled him on a bloody hill as once she’d rocked him in a lowly stable. How surreal for Mary on Good Friday to even imagine the lifeless flesh in her arms would soon shatter the rock that entombed it!
The Father's business can be agonizing to a mother's love! And she holds on with all her might. Her soul freshly pierced by Calvary's sword, just like Simeon predicted. And now she’s left to whisper what she first exclaimed in ecstasy: “Let it be to me according to your word.” Watch out when you say that! For you too will be dealing with these twin tensions, that created a lot of stress for Jesus from his earliest days. The loving protectiveness of his mother, and the security and safety it provides. The conservative stimulus, Jesus got from Mary. And the ever-beckoning call of his Father, to adventure, change and danger. The call to “launch out into the deep.” The liberal predisposition he got from his Father. And anybody worth your salt is a bit of both.
I’m both a father and a son and I’ve seen how it becomes a mother to give love, sustenance, and support. It becomes a father to bring forth the potential that lies dormant in every child, to inspire us to be creative and make something out of ourselves. And vice versa. There are many families where only one has to be both father and mother and that’s tough. I’ve seen a lot of mother's who were evoking and father's who are nurturing. But Jesus’ home had two fathers and one mother. The affirmation that comes from a mother's love. But as he matured, he began the intense quest for his life’s purpose and his Father's business. Both tugs that shaped his personality, are the same kind that mold us. And our institutions. Whether we embrace them or resist them is crucial to the quality of life around us.
Didn’t Churchill say, “Anybody who is not liberal when they’re young doesn't have a heart. And anybody who isn't conservative when they’re old doesn't have a mind?” Yeah, and Elton Trueblood added, “Any thinking person is a bit of each.” Every church has plenty of both - the transformational people who focus on the creative side of life; unafraid to risk, or worry about what other people think. Then the managerial types, who respond to the security impulse, protecting the traditions & see that things are done just so.
This text is applicable to us in several ways. A word about each. First to parents. It is important that every newborn has the protective love of a mother from as far back as you can remember. This was the foundation from which Jesus was able to launch out in pursuit of his Father's business. But Mary and Joseph show us that a good parent isn't just somebody we can lean on, but somebody who makes leaning unnecessary.
As a church, many daughters and sons are given to us. And a congregation with a history like ours, both of these instincts are vying for victory, embodied in varying degrees among the people. There will always be the propensity to keep things the same. As well as the stimulus to make improvements. A healthy Church, like a healthy person needs both. To neglect one or the other means getting sidetracked from our mission, to bring people to Christ and grow people in Christ. The church’s business is the same as Jesus, to be about our “Father's business.”
How do we as individuals handle these two polarities? Some gravitate toward one or the other, depending upon our world view and what feels right to us. And we ought to respect that in each other. But not to the point that it stunts our balance.
The Bible has many stories about the people of God struggling between these proclivities. When God called the Israelites to “go forth and possess the promised land.” They sent out spies who were more prudent than daring. They saw giants in the promised land. So in their fear they developed “the grasshopper complex.” The cautious blinders, led them to believe the risks were too great. So they decided they better stay where they were rather than enter the land of Canaan. And God let them. They were stuck there till they died off. It took 40 years of going around in circles for this resistance to risk to dissipate. And then it fell to others, who were capable of venturing into the unknown, to possess the promised land. 40 years, wandering around? Some people would rather die than let go of Mamma’s love. Now we're bumping up against one of the deepest lessons of the biblical witness, which was a hallmark of Jesus’ teaching: “Those who try to save life will lose it. And those who lose life in pursuit of the Father’s business will find it.” And this is exactly what Jesus did.
Jesus’ Father picked two mighty good people to raise him. Joseph and Mary’s sheltering provided a solid foundation for him to undertake his Father's business with gusto, beyond the protective love of his home. And when it eventually led to his death, what his mother feared at the temple that day in Jerusalem, came to be on Calvary when spoke to both. To his Father he said: “...Into Thy hands I commend my spirit!” But not before he took care of his mother: “Woman, Behold your son!”
Don’t ya’ll see that only hazarding his Father's business can give his mother's love meaning? They go together or they don't go at all. Jesus lived his entire life out of this relational torque: the pull of his mother and the call of his Father. So do we, as parents and individuals and as a church. The story of Jesus as a youth reminds us that our kids don’t listen to us as much as they watch us. And Jesus saw a good man in Joseph, a shining example for his son. His mother’s obedience to God led to a pierced soul because she had the guts to say: “Let-it-be-to-me-as-you-wish.” He saw that too, most clearly on the hill. Mark it! If you leave this worship today with those eight monosyllables on your lips and in your heart, you too will have “built your house on the rock, not sand. And when the rain falls and the winds blow and the floods come, there’ll be something on the inside of you to stand up to it.”
Pastoral Prayer
Like a trusting mother-Lord, who knows us well and believes in our dreams and treasures our hopes. Who teaches us to develop tough minds and tender hearts; who sees all our weaknesses and loves us still. Like a constant friend-Lord, who raises a mirror before us and reveals the many facets of our lives; good and bad; who helps us to look behind our masks and see the struggles taking place between the saint and savage.
We worship you today Father-God, who provides us with a church family and peoples it with fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers; faithful friends, and allows us to see tiny glimpses of heaven in the midst of all the hell.
Thus on this day we celebrate all fathers in the world, who take their influential role seriously and their power to make or break the future through their training or lack thereof by how they raise their children.
We would not conclude our prayer time without thanking you for allowing us to belong to your family, so we may develop the mind of Christ and let it rule in our hearts and homes. This, our prayer on this fine day...through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |
