A WORD FOR TODAY, December 30, 2020
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, December 30, 2020
Scriptures for January 3, 2021, Second Sunday after Christmas: 1 Kings 3:4-15; Psalm 119:97-104; Ephesians 1:3-14; Luke 2:40-52
“We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.” Ephesians 1:11-12, WEB
Many of the beaches are covered with small rocks and pebbles, made smooth by the constant beating of the waves on the shore. I once visited such a beach and as I walked it, I remembered the scripture from Genesis about Abraham’s descendants being as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. I realized that the rocky beach showed this truth in a more enlightening way. On a sandy beach, every grain looks alike. However, on that beach, every stone was unique: some large, some small, some gray, some colorful, some flat and some round. I even found a stone that looked like a nose. Not only has God made the children of Abraham too numerous to count, He also made each of us original.
During that trip I heard a story about King Canute which is said to have happened only yards from where we stood. King Canute was a Danish man who was king of England for nearly twenty years. There was war and controversy over his reign, but he became the first king to rule over all of England. He also ruled over Denmark and Norway. He was a harsh ruler, but England succeeded under his reign. He was so powerful that his people claimed he was like a god, able to control even the sea. He knew that was not true, so he proved it to his people on that beach at Thorpeness. King Canute took a chair and set it at the water’s edge at low tide. As the waves rolled inland, he said, “Stop.” Of course the waves did not stop. The water level rose, to his knees, to his waste, to his neck. Finally, it became impossible for him to continue. As he left the water, he said, “See, I cannot control the sea.”
The scriptures tell of the same sort of humility in Solomon, the son of David. By his time in Israel’s history, God’s promise to Abraham had been at least partially fulfilled. His descendants were too numerous to count. Solomon was only twenty when he took the throne of Israel, and he was uncertain of his abilities to govern.
The story of King Canute may not be true, but we learn an important lesson from the stories of both Solomon and Canute: even great and powerful kings must submit to the Lord. God is pleased and blesses our lives with far more than we ask when we submit to Him. Jesus died and rose again so that His children might have life. Through Christ we are made one of the children of Abraham. We are unique individuals like the countless rocks on the beach, constantly touched by the hands of God, made smooth under His power. Let us ever remember that we cannot control God, but when we submit to Him, we will be blessed. He is our Father and we are the children He has created, redeemed and called to bless the world with our gifts.
Solomon was young, but we know that children can sometimes be the wisest people we know. That doesn’t stop us from holding our breath when they go forward for a children’s sermon. You never know what they are going to say; it is risky to give them an open forum to share their thoughts in front of the congregation. They say shocking things, embarrass their parents, and often make us laugh. One pastor invited the children up front and noticed one girl with a very pretty dress. He asked her if it was her Easter dress. “Yes,” she answered, “and my mom says it’s a bitch to iron.” We have all probably heard something similar from our own children; they repeat what they hear and share what they know, even if we’d rather they never shared those words.
Their comments might be embarrassing, but they are just as often amazing. We don’t think that children really understand faith or the bible, after all, we have our own questions and doubts. Surely young children couldn’t possibly know more than the adults! Yet, when asked about the things of faith, many can answer in ways that seem far beyond their years. The lessons we learn from the children’s sermons don’t often come from the pastor; they come from the children themselves. They know Jesus is the heart of the Gospel and they know it is about love. They are honest and innocent, unstained by the cynicism or intellectualism of adulthood, so they share God’s grace in the most simple and pure form. We have much we can learn from them.
How odd it is for a twelve year old to go into the Temple on his own to learn and talk about the scriptures. Yet, when we think about the things our children really know about faith, it is not so unusual. Perhaps if our own children were given the same opportunity, they too might be able to share a bit of wisdom with their elders. Jesus was certainly unusual, He was the Son of God, the living Word in flesh, and had all the wisdom of God written on His heart. As adults we tend to know the scriptures in our heads, but kids know it in their hearts.
I remember when my daughter was twelve years old. She was just becoming more independent, doing some of the things that were always my job. She started making her own lunch for school and she worked on her homework without my guidance. Children begin to test their rights and learn about their responsibilities at the age of twelve. It can be difficult age for both the child and parents, particularly when the child oversteps the authority of the parents.
Parents recognize the dangers that children face, such as peer pressure. While we understand that our growing children need room to mature, we do not want them to suffer the consequences of bad decisions. Children tend to see themselves as indestructible. They are looking forward to a long life ahead and think that nothing could possibly harm them. At times they take unnecessary risks that have the potential to bring great harm upon their physical, emotional and spiritual lives. They get involved in relationships with people who could lead them down a rocky path. They try new things, go to new places, and do so without the constant supervision of their parents. We have to let them go and pray that we have provided a firm foundation from which they can make the right decisions.
We often think of Jesus as some extraordinary child. Though Jesus was God incarnate, He was also fully man. We should not think of Him as the perfect child, never crying or getting dirty. He needed his diapers changed like every other baby in the world. He fell when He was learning to walk, skinned His knees when He played. I’m sure He even dragged mud into the house after jumping in puddles, just like the other kids. He went through the terrible twos and every other stage of life, learning and growing every step along the way.
But Jesus was different, too. He was the Word in flesh, the physical incarnation of the Lord God Almighty. His Father was not a carpenter; Jesus was the Son of the Creator of all things. When Jesus’ mother taught Him the scriptures, as was practice in Jewish homes, the words had a deeper, fuller meaning for Him. He understood what they meant. One day He decided to test His knowledge by seeking the teachers in the Temple. His mother and father loved the Lord and they knew His word, but He needed more.
In this story, Jesus overstepped His parents’ authority by staying in Jerusalem without their knowledge. We have heard for the past few weeks how Mary and Joseph heard the word from so many people and how they pondered and treasured those words, but they did not fully understand their son Jesus and His purpose on earth. To them, He was a twelve year old testing His independence. When they questioned Him, He explained it was where He needed to be, but He was obedient and returned with them to His home in Nazareth.
Though Jesus was in many ways an ordinary child, He was also extraordinary. He was the child of Mary and Joseph, but He was the Son of God. The stories of His life are filled with unusual circumstances: visits from shepherds and magi, a journey to a foreign land and then home again, prophets who sing for joy at His presence, and a lesson in the temple. Mary, His mother, watched Him grow through the normal phases of life, but she also witnessed all these things. She treasured and pondered every moment in her heart and encouraged her son through His time on this earth.
The children’s sermon can certainly provide fodder for our sense of humor. Some of the children’s answers are very funny, embarrassing and shocking. Yet, there are times when they have something very real and very important to say. We should listen to our children when they want to share something about faith. There is an innocence that we lose as we grow older; there is a foundation of faith that gets buried under our maturity and knowledge. We make things so much more complex than it really needs to be. It is not that we should stop growing and maturing in our faith. We should, however, remember that God can and will speak through the weak things of this world. Children have faith too, and we should not suppose that they have nothing to share about the Gospel of Jesus Christ just because they are young and unlearned. They are also children of the Father and we should not be surprised when they want to be in His presence and share what they know about Him.
While the focus in the scriptures this week seems to be on children, this Sunday is all about Wisdom. In the next few days we will be asking one another, “What is your New Year’s resolution?” but I’m not sure that’s the right question. New Year’s resolutions tend to be overwhelming. We set our goals too high to attain, and we rarely look at the roots of the things that need to be changed about our lives. We resolve to lose weight, but we don’t look for the reasons we over eat. We resolve to be better about money, but we don’t consider the bad habits that have put us into financial straits. Our resolutions sound transformative, but they usually just touch the surface problems or change the appearance of our lives rather than truly change us in a lasting way. That’s why we fail.
Losing weight and setting our finances right are good things, but what we really need to do is to face the emotional and spiritual reasons we over eat and over spend. We have to look more deeply at ourselves, and in that search for the truth about ourselves we will recognize our need for God. We try to make these New Year transformations on our own. Sometimes we look to the help of our friends. We rarely put God in the mix, but it is with His help that we’ll truly succeed.
Solomon knew that he needed more than health and wealth. He needed wisdom. We also need wisdom as we go into the New Year, as we look at the reality of our imperfection and think about ways that we need to be transformed. What changes are needed in our hearts and spirits to become the people we know God wants us to be.
Solomon was humble; he was so young and he knew that he was not qualified to lead the people of Israel. The nation had grown so great, fulfilling the promise given to Abraham so many generations earlier, that God’s people would be as numerous as the stones on that beach in England. How could a boy, barely twenty years old, lead a people so great? We might think that health and wealth are exactly what we need to accomplish our purpose, but Solomon knew that he needed something much different. He needed wisdom, and with wisdom came the rest.
The psalmist seeks wisdom, too. Psalm 119 is a devotional on the Word of God. It is divided into twenty-two stanzas, each focusing on a specific letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each line of each stanza begins, in Hebrew, with the letter of that stanza. Throughout the psalm, the writer repeatedly uses eight different Hebrew terms, which can be translated as “law,” “statutes,” “precepts,” “commands,” “laws,” “decrees,” “word,” and “promise.” Though these may seem redundant, there are subtle but distinct differences. The psalmist recognizes the importance of knowing the Word of God and living it obediently.
I often joke about my gray hair being a sign of wisdom. It is a signal that I’ve lived a long life, and that I’ve experienced many things which gives me knowledge about how the world works. It might be somewhat true, but the psalmist writes, “I understand more than the aged, because I have kept thy precepts.” Wisdom is not necessarily something for the old; the young, like Solomon, can be wise. Wisdom comes to those who seek God, who humble themselves before Him and who live according to God's Word.
It is that kind of wisdom we see in Jesus, even as a young boy. He was in the Temple sharing with the learned men His thoughts and understanding about God. As the Son of the Living God, Jesus had more knowledge than the others. In this story, though, we also see Him being humble before the elders, asking them questions. They were amazed, not only that He was interested but that He knew the right questions to ask. They could see that He had an understanding far beyond His years. Jesus had the wisdom that is more than knowledge and experience.
We are made citizens of the kingdom of heaven through our baptism into Christ. We are children of our Father, the King. Yet, we still must live in this world, foreigners living in the midst of the sin and darkness that surrounds those who have not yet heard God’s Word. It would be very easy for us to say that it is not our problem, why take the risks necessary to share the Gospel? After all, it is dangerous business being witnesses for the Christ who is hated by the world. However, our Lord has given us all we need to take those risks to share His Word so that they too might hear and believe. Jesus Christ was born to die so that we could live forever, and now He calls us to die to self so that we can live for others.
Paul reminds us that we have everything we need to live according to God's Word. Sometimes we think we know what we want, or need, but we would do well to see Solomon and Jesus in light of our own spiritual journeys. They were young, but they had the mind of God. They were humble and willing to learn, to seek wisdom. They understood what was truly needed to do what God was calling them to do.
In the beginning, God spoke the world into being. He named the sun, moon and stars and put them into motion. He called out to the water and it separated, creating the oceans and mountains. From that day on, God has constantly expanded His sphere of influence over the world. He began with one man named Adam. Then He gave Adam a wife. Later He called Abraham into a relationship, followed by Isaac and Jacob. Jacob became Israel and God established a bond with His chosen people. When they failed to live according to His Word, God sent His Son to bring redemption and reconciliation. This grace was given not only for His chosen people, but for the entire world.
Now we are called to join in the work of God as we take His Gospel message of forgiveness into the world. It started with just one person - Jesus Christ - and now His Kingdom reaches around the world. We might think we can’t possibly affect the world around us, but God takes us as His children, gathering us together into an ever growing people who are deeply loved and gifted by God. For this we sing His praise and share God’s grace with others
That’s why as we enter into a new year, we would do well asking ourselves better questions. Rather than resolving to change, let us resolve to seek Wisdom and listen as God leads us in the ways that we really need to be transformed. We might be able to fix the surface things, making changes on the outside to our health and wealth, but God will help us change on the inside. We are His children and as we seek God’s wisdom, we’ll receive it and then He will add everything else we need including the courage to continue His work in this world, expanding His Kingdom to His glory.
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