January 26, 2025 Jesus at Nazareth Luke 4:14-30

             Later in this service we’ll be baptizing Alexander.  It’s the kind of thing we love to see – a baby beginning a life of faith.  They look cute.  We’re curious if they’re going to cry or not.  And there’s the excitement of the unknown.  Babies are unpredictable after all.  You never know what will happen! 

But I suggest we also realize that in what may appear to be a quaint little ceremony, we are also making a serious statement to him about the limits of his human nature, and reminding us of our own.  It’s all quite insulting actually.

            Let’s get at it this way.  Right now everyone thinks Alexander is cute.  Prim and proper adults forget their dignified existence and make fools of themselves babbling and cooing to make him smile.  There’s something magical about a baby’s happiness.  That’s a good thing, because at a practical level babies are unparalleled messes.  At this point, cute as he is, Alexander is an unbridled tyrant.  He makes messes.  He cries.  He does not feed himself.  He requires that he be carried around everywhere.  He does not sleep or wake with any regard to the fatigue it causes those who care for him.  He does not clean up after himself.  He does not dress himself.  He does not contribute to his family’s income.  All he’s got is a smile to charm the hardest of hearts.  And he’s almost certainly learning how to use that charm!

            But of course he will grow with time.  He will learn to walk and talk.  He will become potty trained.  He will learn how to tie his shoes.  He will learn how to cooperate with others and contribute to his family.

            It’s all cumulative.  When he is being potty trained it will earn him lots of approval.  But then he will be expected to move on.  It is highly unlikely that when’s he’s a high school student his parents will say, “Good job on that algebra test!  And also good job on using the potty today!”

            We build.  We grow.  We improve.  Parents seek to raise children who are a balance of selfhood and also well-regulated community members.  We put a lot of resources into developing children into productive adults.  And I mean A LOT of resources.  If you doubt me I suggest you look at your most recent school tax bill.

            That’s okay.  We humans are immensely capable beings.  It is worth putting a tremendous amount of resources into growth and education.  And, with the exception of college students after all-night parties (which can make you wonder if they are, in fact, truly potty trained) the results of our growth and education should amaze us.  Through scientific research and engineering we have discovered many things about the universe and put them to good use.  Factory workers and skilled laborers create amazing things that make life comfortable.  It is easy for me to preach that everyone has an important part to play in improving the world.  You’ve heard me say before that the highly delicate surgery you have is not only dependent upon the skills of the surgical team, but also upon the skills of the hospital janitor who cleaned the operating room beforehand.

            Yes, we humans can grow from babies to become more and more refined to do great and amazing things.  Over time we can tell ourselves that we humans are ever progressing to a bigger and brighter future.  That’s the philosophy that drives our nation.  That goes for whatever political party you may be a part of. 

It is almost like an emotional drug for us:  Getting better and better every day in every way.  We can improve.  We can progress.  We can be increasingly aware and moral.  We can think and invent solutions through all problems. 

            That’s what Alexander will experience from the world all around him.  I said at the beginning that baptism is actually an insult to all of us, because baptism reminds us that all of what the world teaches is a lie.

            I have to choose words carefully here, because a misunderstanding can go deeply wrong.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve things.  And there is certainly nothing wrong with a solid morality based on things like: conscientiousness, responsibility, emotional responsiveness, and agreeableness.  Those are all good and important qualities to have!  But we make a mistake the moment we think that such things put us in a higher position than someone else.  Or perhaps I should say that we make a mistake if we think that somehow such things will buy us more divine favor than others; or that those things will give us status, license, and privilege before God.

            Let’s see this problem at work by looking at our gospel reading for today.  Jesus goes to his hometown of Nazareth.  You’ll remember that Nazareth was a sleepy little town of no importance.  It never made the news.  If it somehow disappeared few people would have noticed.  But, in Jesus the locals had found someone who would put them on the map.  We read that Jesus had been traveling through the surrounding country.  He was preaching in the synagogues.  He was popular.  He was being praised by everyone.

            Then he comes home.  I imagine the synagogue was packed the day he spoke.  Everyone wanted to hear his message.  At first he does not disappoint.  Not at all.  He opens the roll of the prophet Isaiah.  He reads two powerful passages.  The Spirit of the Lord was upon him to bring good news to the poor.  He had come to proclaim release to the captives and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.  (This year of the Lord’s favor is what I wrote about in my February newsletter article.)  All of this was great news!  Big things were going to be happening.  Life was going to improve and they were going to be the center of it.  They were the right people who had done the right things in raising Jesus.  They were good.  They were moral.  They were of a superior status before God and God was going to bless them especially.

            Jesus is aware of their expectations.  He reminds them of two stories they knew well.  There was a serious famine in the time of Elijah.  Many Israelites, God’s chosen nation, were suffering.  It did not give them privileged status before God.  God sent Elijah to help a foreign woman.  The other story was with the prophet Elisha.  Surely there were many lepers in Israel in Elisha’s time.  But God did not give them any preferred treatment.  Instead, the leper who was healed by God was a military official of a foreign nation.

            As Jesus teaches these things, the truth of “good news to the poor” becomes apparent to the hometown crowd.  The widow, the unclean, the foreigner, the immoral, the educationally unenlightened are all equally valued and embraced by God.  There is no longer any such thing as a chosen nation, a privileged status, or preferential treatment.

            The hometown crowd becomes enraged.  That message can’t possibly be right.  It is so unfair!  They decide to take Jesus to the edge of the town and kill him by throwing him off a cliff.  It is easy to mistakenly imagine this move as a mob overreacting and going out of control.  Their reaction is indeed severe.  But it is not unheard of.  In some ways it could be said they are carrying out justice.  Jesus claimed to be speaking and acting for God.  Then he taught things they found offensive.  According to the religious laws people who falsely claimed to speak for God were to be killed.  But Jesus escapes from them and goes on his way.

            Alexander will surely be shaped into a good, moral, upstanding person.  It will be process of growth and refinement over many years.  His baptism reminds him that while he will be raised according to the promises of God’s love, no amount of refinement on his part will mean he is entitled to preferential treatment by God.

            That is true, but very difficult news to hear.  As I said earlier, the message that we are capable of improving everything every day is an intoxicating one.  We think that each succeeding generation can be better, more fully enlightened, more deserving.  It is as if we think we can societally evolve into something better. 

The truth of baptism reminds us that we are inescapably caught by sin.  The confession and forgiveness we say at the beginning of the worship service is equally true of newborns as it is of highly educated adults.  The truth is that we humans go from mess to mess.  What we call “progress” isn’t possible.  Today’s solutions at their very best just cause tomorrow’s problems.  God alone can save us.

The truly good news for Alexander, and all of us, is that God does truly save us.  God does truly value us and love us.  God accompanies us through life.  God encourages us to healthy living and doing good for others.  And in this inescapable mess of life, God redeems us.

It is impossible to truly do good apart from recognizing the need for God’s grace.  The good news for Alexander from his baptism is that through God he can do good things.  He is blessed.  He can be a blessing.  And he can work along with all of us for bringing about God’s promised kingdom.

January 19, 2025 Jesus’ Baptism and Testing Luke 3:21-4:13

             It may seem odd to lump Jesus’ baptism, his genealogy, and his testing in the wilderness all into one gospel reading.  Yet they all do flow together.  We’ll discover that flow by looking at prayer.

In Luke’s gospel Jesus prays more than in any other gospel.  For Luke, prayer is mostly about opening yourself to the will of God.  Let’s keep that in mind as we look at this text.

            Jesus is baptized.  When does the Holy Spirit descend according to Luke?  He says, “…when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven, (and here we get notice for the next part of the flow) “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

            That voice that comes from heaven is God.  God is saying to the praying Jesus, that he is his Son.  So, Jesus is the Son of God.  That’s not news to us.  We’ve known that since reading about the angel telling Mary she would conceive Jesus.  But here is where it gets interesting.

            The very next thing in the text is Jesus’ genealogy.  It may seem like an odd place to put it.  What does it have to do with Jesus’ baptism?  Why not do it at the beginning of the gospel the way Matthew’s gospel does?  That makes chronological sense.  And let’s note that both Matthew’s genealogy and Luke’s genealogy are suspect at best, and…, quite frankly, inaccurate.  Luke even tells us the genealogy is bogus.  He points out that it goes through Joseph, but we’ve learned earlier that Joseph was irrelevant to the conception of Jesus.) The point of the genealogies is to root Jesus into a heritage, not a DNA path.  The heritage is important.  Jesus does not just fall into the human timeline without any context. 

            The genealogy traces through irrelevant Joseph all the way back to Adam.  At the baptism the voice of God said, “You are my Son, the Beloved.”  What does the genealogy call Adam?  “Son of God.”

            We could land deep in an abyss of heresy if we interpret that the wrong way!  Yet Luke wants us to realize some connections.

            Remember I said that in Luke’s gospel Jesus prays more than in any other gospel, and that prayer is opening yourself to the will of God.  How did things go with Adam and Eve?  How did they do as being open to the will of God?  Not too well!  Adam and Eve took their destiny into their own hands.  They decided they wanted to be their own source of self-fulfillment.  God promised them wholeness of life.  That would come in relationship with God.  Adam and Eve basically decided they’d like to try something on their own terms.  The Garden of Eden had a self-help section and Adam and Eve went for it – to their loss.  Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation.  They failed.  They didn’t trust God.

            What follows the genealogy in Luke’s gospel?  The testing of Jesus by the devil in the wilderness.  Jesus is there for forty days.  That echoes similar times in the ministry of Moses and of Elijah.  Luke tells us that Jesus is led there by the Holy Spirit.

            Let’s make sure we understand what that really means.  In contemporary theology, and I think in common thought, people picture the Holy Spirit as sweet and kind and nice.  Indeed, the Spirit has those qualities.  But the Spirit can also be tough, strong, and forceful.  In fact, all of our understanding of God is that way.  God as Father can be both nurturing and tough.  Jesus as Son was both kind and challenging.  The same goes for the Spirit.

            This can put me in a tricky place as a pastor.  People will sometimes ask if what is happening to them is God trying to punish them or teach them something or reward them for something.  I can never answer with certainty.  God is God.  God is Sovereign.  God does as God chooses without any higher authority.  We cannot domesticate God into something we understand and predict.  Rather, as we are often told, we are to love and fear God.  Yes, God is loving.  But it is a mistake to picture God as a sweet and fragile little spring petunia.  The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to fast for forty days. 

I don’t know about you, but I get hungry a couple hours after each meal.  I have gone a whole day without food several times as part of a challenge.  I was ravenous afterward!  But to go forty days without food is to have your body in a severe state of malnourishment. 

No, the Spirit is not nice.  How is this “Son of God” going to act when his bodily health is depleted by the will of God?  Will he make excuses and say, “Surely God must want me to be prosperous and healthy and do well.  God cannot want me to suffer so and for no real reason.  I’m going to get myself something to eat.”

Temptation is right there with him.  All three tests are to see if Jesus, as the Son of God, will go against God’s will – especially as God’s will appears to be unhealthy and pointless.  Will he use his powers to get himself food?  Will he use his powers to get himself earthly glory?  Will he use his powers to give himself divine protection?

Note that all of these tests are common tests for every person.  God has given you abilities.  How will you use them?  Will you use them to fulfill yourself according to what you want?  Or will you use them as God promises to give you fullness of life?

I think we’d all answer that we’d use them according to God’s promises of what will give us fullness of life.  The problem is, the voice of God is often so faint to us – if we can hear it at all.  The voice of the world with: its comforts, its health, its approval from others, its security… are all available to us always at full volume.

If you want to shake your fist at God and cry out in rage over the situation you’d be in good company.  Many people have done just the same.  It is in the absence of hearing anything from God that we often turn to ourselves and think, “Well, I don’t know what God wants.  So I’ll try to be a good person with what I have and what I know; and generally go along with the world otherwise.”

I’m not in any position to condemn that if that’s what you feel.  So let’s go back to prayer.  Prayer, according to Luke, is opening yourself to the will of God.  It is not asking for stuff for yourself or for other people.  It is constantly reconnecting to God.

Raise everything to God in prayer.  Whether you hear God’s clear reply or not, you are doing something very important.  As part of a broader life of faith, raising everything to God in prayer is mulling over everything you do in your mind in light of your faith.

I’m reading a biography of Myron Taylor.  He was born in Lyons and became president of US Steel in the run up to World War 2.  He became an international negotiator during the war.   Taylor was a man of deep Christian faith.  Even today, over seventy years after his death, every church in Lyons receives usually over $1000 a month from his estate.  In his time as president of US Steel he negotiated with everyone; from major stock holders all the way to coal miners.  He seems to have tried to do what was good and right and fair even as he knew his decisions would hurt and endanger many people.  He mentions the tension he lived in – between the will of God, the wartime threat of Germany, the Great Depression, stockholders who want dividends, and laborers risking their lives and ruining their health.  He was a ruthless businessman on one hand, yet cared about people on the other.  I won’t try to depict Taylor as either a villain or a hero.  People have varied opinions of him.  But I think he gives an example of the complexity of life. 

A life of faith is to take all of that complexity to God in prayer.  Make decisions based upon what you know from the Bible, from church, and from your experience.  Quite likely there will be no answer that feels absolutely right.  But you have acted in response to opening yourself to the will of God.

I want to end with this.  I find it fascinating that President Roosevelt asked Taylor to help with postwar reconstruction even before the US entered the war!  As a diplomat Taylor tried to influence things with a long-term view in mind.  We need to remember that in our lives we do not go from problem to problem or crisis to crisis with times of rest in between.  Life is most likely one ongoing challenge; perhaps even an ordeal.  New problems and new challenges always arise.  What were the final words of our gospel reading?  After Jesus was famished in the wilderness and tested we’re told, “When the devil had finished every test he departed from him until an opportune time.”

What?!?  If not eating for 40 days is not an opportune time to tempt someone with food I don’t know what is!  Yet this was not the opportune time for Jesus to be tested.  We know that opportune time will come at the crucifixion, when following God’s will will cost Jesus life itself.  That makes no logical sense.  But through prayer Jesus wills stay true to it.

For our own lives, we realize that we should not expect things to be easy and comfortable and stable.  That may be what we want but that does not necessarily coincide with opening yourself to the will of God.  Instead, realize that God is with you every step of the complexity and trouble.  Stay open to God’s will and you will stay on the path of God’s kingdom.

January 12, 2025 The Ministry of John the Baptist Luke 3:1-20

             Have you ever met one of your childhood heroes?  They’re usually a lot less impressive in person than you’d expect.  Somehow I always imagine them being taller than they really are; except, of course, basketball players who turn out to be even taller than you thought because they’re always surrounded by other tall people!

            I’m usually disappointed when I see a politician or a local news anchor out in public.  They too end up being shorter than I expect.  Sometimes their private persona is very different from what they’re like in public.  And since you’re used to seeing them on TV in news rooms or press conferences they’re usually surrounded by a studio or props that give them a certain look.

            There have been a few times in my life where I’ve had a chance to be behind the scenes when someone famous or charismatic goes out to do something in public.  Every time I’ve been pleased to see just how much behind the scenes work they do.  They make it look spontaneous and effortless when they’re in front of people but they’ve done a lot of preparation work beforehand in order to make that happen.

            I’ve often wondered what it will be like to meet Jesus.  We will all, at some point, get to meet him.  That’s part of the power of the Incarnation – of God coming to actually be a human being for a lifetime.  So how would a true God come across as looking?  In the Greek myths the gods often come to be in human form.  They’re usually specimens of masculine muscle or perfect female beauty.  But those are myths.  What about the real God in human form?

            Artists almost always depict Jesus as being tall, good looking, and having an amazing physique.  European artists make him look European.  African artists make him look African.  Asian artists make him look Asian.  Just about every culture makes him look like them.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with that.  However, he does have an actual look.  And if the Bible tells us anything about how God works, I suspect he wasn’t all that impressive looking.

            He almost certainly has an Arab/Middle Eastern appearance.   If the Shroud of Turin is any indication, he was average height and not particularly handsome.  19^th and early 20^th Century American artist Thomas Eakins did a piece that I believe is in charcoal called “The Crucifixion”.  He depicts Jesus on the cross as almost boy-like.  He’s small.  You can see that he is somewhat dirty and unkept.  His face is not visible.  And Eakins has done something very powerful in that piece.  He has not depicted Jesus as being raised above the viewer and looking down.  That’s the way almost all crucifixion art is done.  No, you see him at eye level.  I can imagine the scene where Pilate is questioning Jesus as this insignificant ordinary Jewish man and asks sarcastically, “You are the king of the Jews?”

            And also, what did John the Baptist look like?  It is easy to imagine John as wild looking as he lives in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey.  The Bible describes him as wearing camel’s hair with a leather belt.

            But I want to point out something very interesting about the passage from Luke’s gospel that we read today.  Does Luke describe John’s look at all?  No.  Luke tells us about John’s parents and about John’s birth.  Luke tells us about John’s relationship to Jesus.  But Luke, who tells us these thing about John the other gospels do not, does not tell us anything about how he looked the way the other gospels do.

            I’m not sure, but I suspect that is intentional on Luke’s part.  Luke is pretty deliberate about the way he handles information.  So, with no details about John himself at all, notice what Luke does.  Our passage started off with a time frame: the 15^th year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius.  So we’re given a date and an emperor.  He goes on, “…when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas…”

            Luke does not need to go to this extreme to locate the ministry of John the Baptist in history.  He could have just said the 15^th year of the Emperor Tiberius.  But he is emphatic listing Roman government leaders, Jewish government leaders, and Jewish religious leaders.  He lists who they are, what they do, and where they do it.  They’re all the important people in all the important places.  And then, after all those details we get this: “…the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”  We’ve met his father before in the gospel, so we’re given his name, and that’s it.  No description of John.  No description of where John is doing it.  It’s just John in the wilderness.

            There wasn’t a place in Judea called, “The Wilderness.”  You wouldn’t be driving down the highway and see a sign saying, “Wilderness – 35 miles”.  It was nowhere and everywhere.  Luke never even locates John’s baptismal ministry along the Jordan River.  He’s just baptizing in the wilderness – presumably someplace where there’s water!

            Earlier I said that I suspect the physical presence of Jesus was unremarkable.  He didn’t stand out in a crowd.  And I also suspect the physical presence of John the Baptist wasn’t all that remarkable either.

            Never underestimate how much God does through the unremarkable and in places that don’t seem important.  The Buffalo Bills will be playing this afternoon.  Many people will be watching with rapt attention.  Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park is where the famous and skilled players of two celebrated football teams will be gathered in an epic athletic contest.  Tickets are expensive.  Concessions are expensive.  Advertisers have spent a fortune to get an ad in the game broadcast.  You can bet sports betting companies have millions upon millions in bets on who knows what all in the game.

            And the word of God…  Well, don’t expect there to be any splashy displays of divine revelation during the halftime show!

            God can do anything.  But big splashy things are not generally God’s style.  The word of God will be active in untold places among untold people throughout the world.  But, despite the fact that there is sure to be a lot of prayers raising to heaven over the outcome of the game (especially by those who have bet a lot of money) I doubt Highmark Stadium will be at the center of God’s activity.

            John the Baptist says some pretty offensive things in our gospel reading.  He’d certainly never make it as a presidential candidate in America with some of his words.  Luke tells us that crowds are coming out to meet him.  How does he greet them?  Does he say, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father”?  Nope.  Does he say, “Welcome all and receive a word of hope from God”?  Nope.  Does he say, “Come to me and be baptized to receive a new life”?  Nope.  He says, “You brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

            Here’s a hint.  If you want people to like you, don’t greet them like that!  John’s initial message to the crowds is full of challenges and threats.  He tells them to bear fruits worthy of repentance.  He tells them not to point to their ancestry as descendants of Abraham as significant.  He tells them that every tree that does not bear good fruit is to be cut down and thrown into the fire. 

Then notice something about his actual message.  The crowds ask him, “What then should we do?”  How are they to escape this fiery punishment from God?  John’s words are mundane.  If you have two coats share with someone who has none.  And share your food.  Tax collectors, often despised for their role as collecting money for the Romans who occupy the territory and who were often opportunists get similarly mundane instructions: “Collect no more that the amount prescribed for you.”  Soldiers also ask for advice.  If there’s any group we’d expect John to lay into it would be soldiers.  Shouldn’t they quit and become peaceful laborers?  Is that what prophets like Isaiah often talk about when they say about turning swords into plowshares?  But what does John actually tell them?  “Do not extort money form anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”

This is all ordinary advice.  As Luke depicts it John is an ordinary guy in no place special giving basic advice about decency to the crowds.  It’s almost as if the whole ministry of John the Baptist is a letdown!

Let’s learn something very important from all of this unremarkable-ness.  Don’t expect a life of faithfully following Christ to somehow be special, or charismatic, or attention getting.  Ordinariness may well be what it is.

So don’t expect God to ask you to do extraordinary things.  And don’t demand that God meet you in extraordinary events or people.  Expect to see God in the ordinary.  And be ready to do ordinary things in the name of God. 

Perhaps the ordinariness of faith is one of its challenges.  But just because it appears ordinary does not mean we approach it with a spirit of dullness or apathy.  No, we approach the works of faith with energy and enthusiasm because these are God’s work.  They are worthwhile.  They are important.  And despite the fact that they may appear routine, their effects are everlasting.

January 5, 2025 Christmas 2 Luke 2:41-52

             If you’re a parent I’m pretty sure there have been times when you wished you could see inside your children’s heads and known all their thoughts.  When they’re crying as infants it would be great to know why.  Do they have a messy diaper, are they hungry, do they have to burp, are they sleepy, are they sick?  It may take several tries before you figure it out.

As they get older knowing what’s going on inside their heads could help to keep them safe.  You might be able to step in before they try something that looks cool but is dangerous.  It would also help to know when they’re being manipulative, for kids also learn how to be strategic and cunning.  When they’re little it is often possible to know what’s going on inside their heads.  Smart parents use that time to create the illusion that they are all-knowing.  It impresses the kids and helps to keep them in line.

A parent will try to keep that myth going for as long as possible.  When children reach their teenage years they’ve discovered just how little their parents do, in fact, know.  Teenagers begin to realize how much they can get away with.  And at that time a parent may not actually want to know what is going on inside their child’s mind!  Although a clever parent will create a network of spies and informants among neighbors,  teachers, and the parents of their kids friends.  It is always impressive when you can catch your teenager at something they thought they got away with.  Sometimes you can actually re-instill the myth that you are all-knowing.

But ultimately a good parent just wants to know what is going on in their children’s heads to simply be a better parent.  No two children are entirely alike, although I guess identical twins are close.  Still though, for the most part, what works for one child may not work for another.  You want to give the right amount of freedom and the right amount of limits so that your children can grow up to be strong and solid people.

I wonder what it was like for Joseph and Mary as they raised Jesus.  How much did they actually know about him?  And along with that, we should probably ask how much did Jesus know about himself?

The Bible tells us almost nothing about Jesus’ childhood.  The only story is the one from Luke’s gospel that we read today.  That does give us some clues as to what it was like to raise Jesus.  It also gives us a subtle lesson about God and our faith.  In order to understand that, let’s remember that while the Bible tells us almost no stories about Jesus’ childhood that does not mean that there aren’t any.  There are, in fact, quite a number of stories about him that did not make it in the Bible.  One such collection of stories is called the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.  Scholars believe it was written around the year 150.  While almost all of it is certainly untrue I want to read some excerpts for you.  It’s entertaining to read them and it also helps us to understand the subtle things we learn from our gospel today.

Imagine what it would be like to rear a child who is like this:

“When this child Jesus was five years old, he was playing at the ford of a stream.  He made pools of the rushing water and made it immediately pure; he ordered this by word alone.  He made soft clay and modeled twelve sparrows from it.  It was the Sabbath when he did this.  There were many other children playing with him.  A certain Jews saw what Jesus did while playing on the Sabbath; he immediately went and announced to his father Joseph, ‘See, your child is at the stream, and has taken clay and modeled twelve birds; he has profaned the Sabbath.’  Joseph came to the place, and seeing what Jesus did he cried out, ‘Why do you do on the Sabbath what it is not lawful to do?’  Jesus clapped his hands and cried to the sparrows, ‘Be gone.’  And the sparrows flew off chirping.  The Jews saw this and were amazed.  They went away and described to their leaders what they had seen Jesus do.  The son of Annas the scribe was standing there with Joseph.  He took a branch of a willow and scattered the water which Jesus had arranged.  Jesus saw what he did and became angry and said to him, (Keep in mind Jesus is supposed to be five years old) ‘You unrighteous, impious ignoramus, what did the pools and the water do to harm you?  Behold, you shall also wither as a tree, and you shall not bear leaves nor roots nor fruit.’  And immediately the child was all withered….

“Once again he was going through the village, and a child who was running banged into his shoulder.  Jesus was angered and said to him, ‘You shall go no further on your way.’  And immediately the child fell down dead.  Some people saw this happen and said, ‘From whence was this child begotten, for his every word is an act accomplished?’  The parents of the dead boy went to Joseph and blamed him: ‘Because you have such a boy you cannot live with us in the village; your alternative is to teach him to bless and not to curse, for he is killing our children.’  Joseph took the child aside and warned him saying, ‘Why do you do such things?  These people are suffering and they hate us and are persecuting us!’  Jesus said, ‘I know that these are not your words, but on account of you I will be silent.  However, they will bear their punishment.’  Immediately, those who accused him were blinded.  Those who saw were very frightened and puzzled about him…

“After some days Jesus was playing upstairs in a certain house, and one of the children playing with him fell from the house and died.  And when the other children saw this they ran away, and Jesus remained alone.  The parents of the dead child came and accused Jesus of throwing him down.  Jesus replied, ‘I did not throw him down.’  But still they accused him.  Then Jesus leaped down from the roof and stood by the body of the child and cried out in a great voice, saying ‘Zenon!’ -that was his name – ‘rise up and tell me, did I throw you down?’  He immediately rose up and said: ‘No, Lord, you did not throw me down, but you raised me.’  Those who saw this were astonished.  The parents of the child glorified God because of this sign that happened, and they worshiped Jesus.

“After a few days a young man was splitting wood in the vicinity; the axe fell and split the bottom of his foot, and he was bleeding to death.  There was an outcry and people gathered.  The child Jesus ran there.  He pushed through the crowd, and seized the injured foot of the youth; immediately he was healed.  He said to the youth, ‘Now get up, split your wood, and remember me.’  The crowd, seeing what had happened, worshipped the child, saying, ‘Truly, the Spirit of God lives in this child!’…

“His father was a carpenter and at the time made plows and yokes.  He received an order from a certain rich man to make a bed for him.  One beam came out shorter than the other, and he did not know what to do.  The child Jesus said to his father, ‘Lay the two pieces of wood alongside each other, and make them even at one end.’  Joseph did as the child told him.  Jesus stood at the other end and grasped the shorter beam; he stretched it and made is equal with the other.  His father Joseph saw this and was astonished, and embracing the child he kissed him and said, ‘I am blessed because God has given this child to me.’…

“Joseph sent his son James to gather wood and bring it into the house.  The child Jesus followed him.  While James was gathering the sticks, a snake bit Jame’s hand.  As he lay dying, Jesus came near and breathed on the bite.  Immediately James ceased suffering, the snake burst, and James was healed.”

Okay, enough of those stories.  There are many more.  You get the idea.  In these stories Jesus shows supernatural powers from an early age.  He is both amazing and threatening to people.  How would you go about parenting such a child?  Forget trying to get inside his mind.  You’d know he fully knows your mind!  Do you teach him or does he teach you?  Do you ever discipline such a child or does he discipline you?

Now let’s look at the only thing the Bible actually tells us about Jesus’s childhood.  He’s 12 years old when he stays behind in the temple.  According to Jewish custom a male child became a man at age 13.  So Jesus is still considered a child.  His parents are understandably worried about him.  All parents know the fear and anxiety of a lost child, and the relief of finding him or her again.  Jesus’s response is a bit critical of them but still respectful.  It is as if he expected his parents to know where he is and why he was there.  Luke tells us that they did not understand, though.  Then Jesus returned with them and was obedient to them.

What does this brief scene tell us?  (Keep in mind the other fantastic stories about Jesus’ childhood.)  Here we see that Jesus has knowledge of who he is; or perhaps who he is becoming.  Yet his parents do not know; or do not understand.  Jesus has obviously not revealed himself in any way that is too far out of the ordinary.  And, we can’t say for sure what Jesus knew about himself and when.  The Bible isn’t prepared to answer that.  But again, he appears to be growing up like a pretty typical boy.

Then the key part for us to take away from this text-  Jesus returned with them and was obedient to them.  God may be his father.  He may be about his Father’s interests, yet he is still technically a child.  He respects his parents’ authority and is obedient to them.  His parents weren’t perfect, but Jesus respected them and worked with them.

It all adds up to this:  God can accept, and will work with our flaws, bungles, and imperfections.  God is not like those other childhood stories of Jesus where he is fixing everything, correcting everyone, and severely punishing everything.  With the biblical Jesus there is grace at every turn.

I believe God is far less interested in us doing everything perfect, and instead doing things in whatever imperfect loving way we can.

No parent is perfect.  Good parents do their best with their limited knowledge.  Sometimes the children turn out great.  Sometimes they are endlessly problematic. 

The same goes for all of life.  Do the very best you can.  Always learn from mistakes.  Apologize when things go wrong.  Be forgiving as God is forgiving with you.  And know that God truly values you and your ways as you do all of that.