A Sermon for the Second Sunday after ChristmasDay
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie

Jeremiah 31:7-14
Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a
Luke 2:41-52
Psalm 84

Jesus the teenage runaway. Mary and Joseph the exasperated parents. That's not the usual way we picture of Jesus. The one picture the Bible gives us of Jesus between his birth and the beginning of his ministry some 30 years later is of Jesus the adolescent -- doing what teenagers all do so well -- preferring friends to parents, neglecting to tell parents when they'll be home, and expecting parents to understand the inexplicable.

I can just hear it: "Ma-ah-am! Didn't you know I'd be here?" From the adolescent's point of view parents are supposed to know everything. At the same time teens are certain that parents know nothing.

And from the parent's point of view, most teenagers seem to think that they are God. My own children were not subtle about this at all. One daughter programmed my computer with a subliminal message that ran quickly across the screen. I had to slow it down to read it. It said: "Juliet is a goddess. Give her money." And then my son signing my Internet guest book when asked his favorite name for God, filled in simply "Me."

Most teenagers think they're God. The problem with Jesus is that it is true. Just imagine being parent or teacher to God. It gives the phrase "holy terror" a whole new meaning.

Listen to this story about a the child Jesus that we read in our Wednesday After Pentecost group:

A reading from the second-century Gospel According to Thomas:

"2. 1. When this boy Jesus was five years old he was playing at the ford of a brook, and he gathered together into pools the water that flowed by, and made it at once clean, and commanded it by his word alone. 2. He made soft clay and fashioned from it twelve sparrows. And it was the sabbath when he did this. And there were also many other children playing with him. 3. Now when a certain Jew saw what Jesus was doing in his play on the sabbath, he at once went and told his father Joseph: 'See, your child is at the brook, and he has taken clay and fashioned twelve birds and has profaned the sabbath. 4. And when Joseph came to the place and saw (it), he cried out to him, saying: ' Why do you do on the sabbath what ought not to be done?' But Jesus clapped his hands and cried to the sparrows: 'Off with you!'" And the sparrows took flight and went away chirping. 5. The Jews were amazed when they saw this, and went away and told their elders what they had seen Jesus do. 3. 1. But the son of Annas the scribe was standing there with Joseph; and he took a branch of a willow and (with it) dispersed the water which Jesus had gathered together. 2. When Jesus saw what he had done he was enraged and said to him: ' You insolent, godless dunderhead, what harm did the pools and the water do to you? See, now you also shall wither like a tree and shall bear neither leaves nor root nor fruit.' 3. And immediately that lad withered up completely; and Jesus departed and went into Joseph's house. But the parents of him that was withered took him away, bewailing his youth, and brought him to Joseph and reproached him: ‘What a child you have, who does such things.' 4. 1. After this again he went through the village, and a lad ran and knocked against his shoulder. Jesus was exasperated and said to him: 'You shall not go further on your way', and the child immediately fell down and died. But some, who saw what took place, said: ' From where does this child spring, since his every word is an accomplished deed?' 2. And the parents of the dead child came to Joseph and blamed him and said: 'Since you have such a child, you cannot dwell with us in the village; or else teach him to bless and not to curse. 6. For he is slaying our children.' 5. I. And Joseph called the child aside and admonished him saying: 'Why do you do such things that these people (must) suffer and hate us and persecute us?' But Jesus replied: 'I know that these words are not yours; 7 nevertheless for your sake I will be silent. But they shall bear their punishment.' And immediately those who had accused him became blind. 2. And those who saw it were greatly afraid and perplexed, and said concerning him: 'Every word he speaks, whether good or evil, was a deed and became a marvel.' And when Joseph saw that Jesus had so done, he arose and took him by the ear and pulled it hard. 3. And the child was angry and said to him: 'It is sufficient for you to seek and not to find, and most unwisely have you acted. Do you not know that I am yours? Do not vex me.'. 1. Now a certain teacher, Zacchaeus by name, who was standing there, heard in part Jesus saying these things to his father, and marvelled greatly that, being a child, he said such things. 2. And after a few days he came near to Joseph and said to him: 'You have a clever child, and he has understanding. Come, hand him over to me that he may learn letters, and I will teach him with the letters all knowledge, and to salute all the older people and honour them as grandfathers and fathers, and to love those of his own age.'" 3. And he told him all the letters from Alpha to Omega clearly, with much questioning. But he looked at Zacchaeus the teacher and said to him: 'How do you, who do not know the Alpha according to its nature, teach others the Beta? Hypocrite, first if you know it, teach the Alpha, and then we shall believe you concerning the Beta.' Then he began to question the teacher about the first letter, and he was unable to answer him. . . . . Zacchaeus the teacher . . . said . . . ‘ . . . 2. Take him away, therefore, I beseech you, brother Joseph. I cannot endure the severity of his look, I cannot make out his speech at ail. This child is not earth-born; he can tame even fire. Perhaps he was begotten even before the creation of the world. What belly bore him, what womb nurtured him I do not know. Woe is me, my friend, he stupefies me, I cannot follow his understanding. I have deceived myself, thrice wretched man that I am! I strove to get a disciple, and have found myself with a teacher.. . . 4. Therefore I ask you, brother Joseph, take him away to your house. He is something great, a god or an angel or what I should say I do not know. . . . [In response the child Jesus laughed and then healed everyone he had cursed.] . . . 1. Now after some days Jesus was playing on a roof in the upper storey, and one of the children who were playing with him fell down from the roof and died. And when the other children saw it they fled, and Jesus remained alone. 2. And the parents of him that was dead came and accused him of having thrown him down. And Jesus replied: 'I did not throw him down. But they continued to revile him. 3. Then Jesus leaped down from the roof and stood by the body of the child, and cried with a loud voice: 'Zenon' - for that was his name - 'arise and tell me, did I throw you down?' And he arose at once and said: 'No, Lord, you did not throw me down, but raised me up.' And when they saw it they were amazed. And the parents of the child glorified God for the miracle that had happened and worshipped Jesus."

And so it goes. . . . Little Jesus cursing and healing. Little Jesus the joy and the trial of his parents, Mary and Joseph. Little Jesus -- a problem student for several other teachers before he reaches the age of manhood and amazes the teachers in the Temple.

But this picture of the child Jesus that Thomas paints is rather different from the one Luke shows us. Thomas's Jesus doesn't seem to "increase in wisdom" as Luke tells us. Thomas's Jesus seems already fully in possession of Godly powers (though one might question whether he uses them wisely). The Gospel of Thomas shows us a Jesus that doesn't grow. This Jesus isn't a real fully human kid. This Jesus as his teacher Zaccheaus points out "is not earth born. . . He is something great, a god or an angel or what I should say I do not know."

There is a reason the Gospel of Thomas is not in our Bible today. In this gospel Jesus is not really human. Jesus is a God who only appears to be human. And to deny Jesus' humanity is heresy.

But Luke tells us that the child Jesus grew wisdom and in years. Like other children, Jesus asked questions and learned new things. Jesus grew and changed. And in Jesus, these very human things -- questions, growth, change -- are godly.

So here we are at the edge of heresy again. Jesus is human. Jesus is God. Jesus grew and changed. Does that mean the infinite, almighty, all-knowing God grows and changes?

It's a subject of heated theological debate, with good faithful Christian thinkers on both sides. Certainly our understanding of God grows. But is it possible that God changes? Certainly ALL things are possible for God -- perhaps even the possibility of change.

If we don't believe that God might change, then how can an unchangeable God respond to us? Are our actions -- good or bad -- then a matter of indifference to God? Why bother to pray if there is no hope that God might change God's mind? Isn't part of loving someone, responding to them, to their needs, to their hurts, to their joy?

Our God is Love and Life. A sign of love is responsiveness, which demands change. A sign of life is growth.

God in the child Jesus shows us God's loving response and lively growth. God so loved the world that God came among us to grow and change with us.

But growth and change are scary. Especially for us adults. We'd prefer a God who doesn't act like a teenager -- who doesn't grow faster than we do, who doesn't ask hard questions, who doesn't hang around in groups of strangers.

That's not the God we got. Luke tells us that Jesus was "in my Father's house" or other translations read "about my Father's business." Either is correct -- the original Greek text has no noun. One might better translate "in-or-about that which is belongs to my Father." Perhaps Jesus is not referring to a place (his father's house), or to what he does (his Father's business), but to his Father's people. Probably it's all of that and more. Jesus is in-about-among EVERYTHING that belongs to the Father.

About the Father's business in the Father's house with the Father's people. This is classic adolescent stuff: It is about growth and change. It is about questions and challenge. It is about growing up and leaving old things behind and finding new community.

It is about growing together toward the vision described by Jeremiah -- gathering God's people together from all places and all walks of life. It is the prayer we heard from Ephesians: that God may give a spirit of wisdom and revelation to those who come to know God.

In truth, by adoption we are God's children, perhaps even adolescent children. We are called to grow in wisdom, to question and to challenge, to leave old things behind and to find new community. Because, according to a wise adolescent in the Temple, these things belong to the Father.

And while doing this we, like Jesus, can say even to our baffled and astonished Mother Church, "Ma -ah-am! Didn't you know that we must be about EVERYTHING that belongs to our Father."

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