LUKE 2:41-51

41  Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover.

42  And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival.

43  When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.

44  Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends.

45  When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.

46  After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

47  And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

48  When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety."

49  He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"

50  But they did not understand what he said to them.

51  Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

It happens every year without fail. At exactly 6 p.m. on Christmas Day all the radio stations stop playing their Christmas carols. The next day all the stores mark down their left over Christmas merchandize and quickly move on to the next big cash register event.  Maybe you’ve noticed that some stores already have the candy out for Valentine’s Day.   It reminds me of the Christmas pageant where someone decided that it would be a good idea to symbolize the radiance of the Christ child by putting a light bulb in the manger.  Unfortunately, at the end of the pageant when all the lights were lowered someone accidently turned off the light bulb in the manger.  A few seconds went by and then out of the darkness a lonely shepherd’s voice cried out, “Hey!  You switched Jesus off!”

Sometimes that’s what it feels like in the days after Christmas.  Jesus quickly get’s switched off. He’s there on Christmas Eve but then it’s back to the real world where he gets lost in the push and pull of everyday life.  That shouldn’t come as a big surprise though.  Jesus gets lost all the time.  Even his parents lost him.  It happened when Mary and Joseph went to the Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Everything went as planned until they were on their way back to Nazareth. Mary and Joseph probably thought that Jesus was with one of their relatives in the caravan.  When they realized that he wasn’t they went running back to Jerusalem to find him.  It isn’t hard to picture them running through the streets asking people if they’d seen their son.  For three long days they searched high and low for him. 

Eventually, they found him in the Temple dazzling the priests with his knowledge of the Scriptures.  Now when you look at this story as a whole you realize that Jesus wasn’t the one who was lost.  Mary and Joseph lost him.  Jesus knew where he was all the time.  It was Mary and Joseph who lost track of him.

Unfortunately, that’s the way it is sometimes. You get so busy with work and errands and bills and sports and vacations that you don’t realize that Jesus is missing.  When that happens you may end up feeling the same way the sister did when she walked into the Mother Superior’s office.  The Mother Superior looked at her and asked, “What’s troubling you sister?  Didn’t you spend some time with your family today?”  The sister nodded her head.  “Yes, Mother. I went to play golf today with my brother.”   “That’s nice,” the Mother Superior said, “but I take it your day of recreation wasn’t relaxing?’   The sister shook her head and sighed, “Not at all.  In fact, I’m ashamed to admit it but while I was out there on the golf course I took the Lord’s Name in vain.”  “Oh my!” the Mother Superior said.  “What happened?”  “Well,” the sister said, “We were on the 5^th tee and Mother this hole is a monster.  540 yard par 5 with a nasty dogleg to the right with a hidden green and I managed to hit the drive of my life. I mean I got all of it.  It was flying straight and true…when all of a sudden it hit a bird in mid-flight.”   “How unfortunate,” the Mother Superior said “and that’s when you took the Lord’s Name in vain?”  The sister shook her head and said, “No Mother. I was still getting over the shock of what happened when a squirrel grabbed my golf ball and started running down the fairway!”  “So, that’s when you took the Lord’s Name in vain right?”  The sister again shook her head and said, “No, Mother.  I still didn’t look my cool. I was so proud of myself.  I was wondering if this was a sign of some sort from God because just then a hawk swooped down, grabbed the squirrel and flew off with the golf ball still in its paws.”   “Oh my…So that’s when you took the Lord’s Name in vain?”  The sister shook her head again and said, “No, Mother.  You see the squirrel started to squirm and the hawk dropped him right there on the green.  The ball popped out of its little paws and rolled and rolled until it was about 18 inches from the cup!”  At that point the Mother Superior leaned back in her chair, folded her arms across her chest, glared at the sister and said, “You missed the stupid putt didn’t you!”

Unfortunately, it happens all the time.  Jesus gets lost.  He gets lost in the push and pull of vacations and sports, bills, errands and work. For most people though it’s not a conscious thing.  It’s not like you wake up one morning and say to yourself, “I think I’m going to ditch Jesus today.”  People don’t loose Jesus because they’re bad people.  It’s just that, you get distracted by other things and then all of a sudden , like Mary and Joseph, you suddenly realize he isn’t there.

Maybe that’s the way it was for the innkeeper on Christmas Eve.   We usually like to picture the innkeeper as the bad guy who turned a pregnant woman away in her hour of need.   There’s a reading though that suggests that maybe he wasn’t a bad guy after all.  The reading is called “The Inn That Missed It’s Change” and it includes this monologue from the mouth of the innkeeper.

What could be done? (he says)  The inn was full of people:

His Honor, Marcus Lucius, and his scribes

Who made the census; honorable men

From farthest Galilee, come hitherward

To be enrolled; high ladies and their lords;

The rich, the rabbis, such a noble throng

As Bethlehem had never seen before

And may not see again.

                             ….Could I know

That the two who came in the darkness of the night were so important?

Just the two, no servants, just a workman sort of man,

Leading a donkey and his wife thereon…

There was a sign, they say, a heavenly light

Resplendent, but I had no time for stars,

And there were songs of angels in the air

Out on the hills; but how was I to hear

Amid the thousand clamors of an inn?

Of course, if I had known them, who they were,

And who was He that should be born that night…

… Alas, alas!  To miss a chance like that!

This inn that might be chief among them all –

The birthplace of the Messiah – had I known.

The sad news is that a lot of people today have lost Jesus.  The good news is that it isn’t all that hard to find him. He’s waiting for you the same way he was waiting for Mary and Joseph.  It doesn’t matter how you lost him or when you lost him or where you lost him or how long he’s been missing.  He’s right there waiting for you the same way he was waiting for Mary and Joseph in the Temple.

In the book  A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Rev. John Ramsey tells a story about a rose boutonniere that he wore every Sunday in the lapel of his suit. One Sunday a young boy walked up to him as he was leaving the church. “Sir,” the boy said, “what are you going to do with your flower?”  When Ramsey said he didn’t know the boy went on and said, “If you’re just going to throw it away, I would like it.”  Now Ramsey was curious and asked why.  What he learned was that the boy’s parents had divorced and the boy had gone from living with his mother to living with his father.  When the father said he couldn’t live with him anymore the boy went to live with his grandmother.  “She is so good to me,” the boy announced.  “She cooks for me and takes care of me.  She has been so good to me that I wanted to give her that pretty flower for loving me.”  When the boy finished, the minister could hardly speak.  His eyes got a little misty and he knew that he had been touched by God.  “Son,” he said, “that’s the nicest thing that I’ve ever heard but you can’t have this flower. It’s not enough.  If you look in front of the pulpit you’ll see a big bouquet of flowers. Different families buy them for the church each week.  Please take those flowers to your grandmother because she deserves the very best.”  The minister knew it was the right thing to do especially when he heard the boy gleefully say, “What a wonderful day!  I asked for one flower but got a beautiful bouquet.”

It’s easy to loose Jesus but it’s even easier to find him.  Mary and Joseph found him in the Temple.  He’s waiting for you right now in a moment of prayer.  He’s waiting for you in the Christmas carols that you sing and, by the way, we’re still in the Twelve Days of Christmas.  So if you want to keep singing and listening to those Christmas carols you go right ahead.  He’s also waiting for you in the sacred stories of long ago and he’s waiting for you in your deeds of loving kindness.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

December 30, 2012