Sermon - Epiphany I 2018 - Luke 2:41-52

Where is your God? Where do you have to go to find and experience Him? Where do you look for Him? Do you search the golf course or the lake, the camp ground or the mountains? Do you find Him under the covers of your bed behind closed eyes or in your place of work where you can make a lot of money? I know many say that they can experience God in these different places, and in fact that’s their prefered location to be with God. 

But you don’t need to go out and look for God; He’s not lost. God is right where He should be. Jesus is exactly where He promises to be: in His Father’s house. 

The problem is not that God is lost, the problem is that we very quickly forget where He is and promises to be. The problem is not with God, the problem is with us. Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus, had this same problem when Jesus was but twelve years of age. 

They lost their Kid. Not just any kid, not just any little boy, but they lost the Messiah, the Christ, they lost the Son of God! So you can imagine the panic that rushed through their brains, as they searched for Jesus in great distress. They looked all over the place, the looked for Him among their family and relatives, they even looked for Him among their acquaintances. They searched for Him for three days, when finally, they found Him in the temple, the last place they looked. 

When finally locating Him, His parents were astonished and surprised to find Him in the temple and Mary His mother lectured Him on how worried she was and how diligently they sought Him out. But the boy Jesus kindly replied to His mother, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”Jesus is exactly where Joseph and Mary should’ve expected Him to be, the first place they should’ve looked: in His Father’s house. 

Much of American religiosity and spirituality, even among Christians, is steeped in what is called mysticism and enthusiasm. Mysticism is the belief that you can come to knowledge of God, the experience of God, through contemplation and self-surrender. If you want to find God, then you need to look for Him in yourself. If you give yourself over to God with your whole heart, remove all other distractions from your life, then just maybe you can experience God inside of yourself. Or maybe, if you can get away from the rest of civilized society and enter into nature then you can experience God in the majestic snowy mountains, the gently babbling brook, and the crackling of the campfire. That’s all mysticism and enthusiasm, looking for God everywhere but in the place He promises to be.

St. Paul declares, “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” God is received not through some mystical works that you need to perform. You’re not going to find faith and righteousness except where Jesus promises to be found, namely, by hearing with faith. What are you supposed to be hearing? “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.”

Jesus declares in this Gospel lesson, the only account we have of Jesus’ childhood, that we don’t need to look for Him because He is in His Father’s house. Could He come to you in some direct revelation? Or speak directly to you? I suppose it’s quite possible, but nowhere does Jesus promise that will happen to you, and so we should not expect that to happen. 

But Jesus does promise to be present among us in very specific places. Here Jesus promises to be present in His Father’s house, elsewhere Jesus promises “where two or three are gathered in My name there am I among them.” Thus when baptized Christians gather together under the Triune name into which they’re baptized, Jesus promises to be present. This gathering together of Christians is vital because this where Jesus has promised to be.

What’s more, in this place, Jesus promises to be present in His Word, as we’ve already heard that faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of God. Through this Word of God all Christians everywhere have been gathered together.

When God converted St. Paul, He not only made Him blind but He spoke to Him. When God’s presence dwelt in the temple of the Old Testament, He was present there because the ark was there, which contained the tablets of God’s Word. When God appeared to Moses in a burning bush, it wasn’t fire alone but God’s Word was present as He audibly spoke to Moses. When God walked among the Garden with Adam and Eve they knew He was present because He called out to them with His Word. When God created the Earth and all things, it wasn’t just stuff moving around but God was speaking as things were coming into existence. The Word of God is always everywhere present God is present. He does not come to us apart from His Word. 

So when we gather together in His name, our words of the liturgy and our hymns are the words of scripture. The lessons we hear each week are the words of God straight out of the Bible. The sermon is fundamentally grounded in scripture. The sacrament of the altar, when God promises “this is my body; this is my blood,” is begun by hearing the Words of Jesus. When a Christian is baptized and the Holy Spirit enters into them, God speaks the Word of His name upon that individual. The presence of God is intrinsically linked to the hearing of His Word.

So if you desire God to be present for you in your daily life then you need God’s Word to be present. Let God’s Word ring out from your homes as you read His Word in the scriptures. As you go about your day, let His Word be upon your lips as you sing His Word in various psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Imprint God’s Word, both spoken and sung upon your hearts and your children’s hearts so that when a Bible cannot be found nor read, His Word still dwells richly in your heart.

Here’s where we learn a very valuable lesson from the Holy Family. Don’t focus so much on their losing Jesus, as on what they were doing regularly with their Son to begin with. Why were they in Jerusalem? “His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom.” 

Joseph and Mary were in Jerusalem with Jesus because every year they made the passover pilgrimage. Here was this poor couple from a small village, making the expensive journey to Jerusalem each year, giving up work for a week, in order to bring their child to the house of God. 

Parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, sponsors, you have a job to bring the children in your life to the house of God and raise them up in the faith. Just because they may be over 18 or live many miles away doesn’t mean they’re no longer your responsibility. Just because they’re busy and rebellious doesn’t mean you can shirk your duties. When you stand before God on judgement day, do you think that excuse will really hold water? Is it your fault when they reject the faith? No, but that doesn’t mean your job is done yet. 

Children, of whom all of us are somebody’s child, look to the boy Jesus as your example. “He went down with His parents and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.” He, the Son of God, the almighty creator of all things, the king of the universe who reigns over all creation, who created Joseph and Mary and all of their ancestors, was submissive to His mother and adoptive Father. If even He, our God, our Creator, our Savior would submit Himself in humble service to His parents, so most certainly should we. If our parents were to leave the house of God, we would stay behind because ultimately we are to be submissive to our heavenly Father and dwell in His house.

So if Jesus is to be found in His Father’s house, so should we only look for Jesus in His Father’s house. What’s more, this is where we belong: we belong in the Father’s house because this is also our Father’s house. You dear Christian have been baptized, and this means something because your baptism actually saves you and adopts you as God’s beloved child just as the scriptures attest. You belong to be found in the house of your heavenly Father, just as Jesus dwells in His Father’s house.

 So right now, you are home. You are right where you should be found. And on the last day, when Christ returns He promises to take you home, not just anywhere, not just any heaven, but to His, your, Father’s house. Jesus promises, “In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” During our days of earthly pilgrimage, we spend our days in the house of our Father, so that on the last day, we will still be found living eternally with Jesus in our Father’s House.