Sermon: A Child's Spirit

Luke 2:41-52

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our minds and hearts be acceptable in Your sight, Oh Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer.  Amen.

When I was little there was a store that my mom used to go to in order to shop for clothes.  The store had these great round racks.  And, while she was turned around, my brother and I would hide in the center of the racks.  Inside the racks we could create our own little world or at least play hide and seek.  And if it wasn’t too busy or we were loud enough so she could hear our voices, she would know exactly where we were.  But sometimes what would happen is that my mom would get worried because she couldn’t find us.  We, of course, didn’t think anything of it, because we knew right where we were and were having fun.  One of the blessings of a child’s spirit, after all, is the lack of worry.  But now, as a mom myself, I realize how awful that must have been for her.  Because it is very scary when you have lost someone you love and you can’t seem to find them anywhere. 

Has this ever happened to you?  Have you ever wandered off from your parents in a store, or lost a child, or ever heard an announcement over a loudspeaker somewhere..."May I have your attention please? We are looking for a six-year-old child who is lost. His name is John and he is wearing blue jeans and a red shirt. If you find John, please bring him to the customer service center." Or the thought that scares me even more is being in a place like the Big E where they have signs up in certain locations: First Aid, Lost & Found, Lost Child.  How frightening that would be in the middle of a place where there are thousands of people – to lose a child.  Just thinking about it right now my heart starts pumping, and the adrenaline starts flowing. 

Well, we don't know a lot about the childhood days of Jesus. The Bible doesn't tell us very much about Jesus as a child.  There are two stories that we read about Jesus in the gospel of Luke between the time he is born in the manger and when he is baptized and begins his ministry when he is about 30-years-old.  The first is about his dedication in the temple when he is only 8 days old.  The other is a story from when Jesus was about 12-years-old, and it talks about a day when Jesus became lost.

You see, Mary & Joseph were very true to their faith.  So every year they went to Jerusalem for a festival called Passover. When Jesus was twelve-years-old, they attended the festival as usual. When the celebration was ended, Joseph and Mary started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without them knowing. At first, his parents didn’t miss Jesus. They were in a large group with family and friends, so Mary & Joseph assumed he was traveling with some of their friends. But they had traveled for an entire day, which in that time meant walking probably 15-20 miles, and when evening came and Jesus still didn't show up, they became worried. They looked among their friends and relatives but Jesus was nowhere to be found.

When they could not find Jesus, Joseph and Mary returned to Jerusalem to search for him there. They searched for three days before they finally found him. Can you imagine how they must have felt with Jesus missing for that long?  And where did they find him? He was in the Temple, sitting among the religious leaders, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at the knowledge of this young boy.  Jesus wasn’t worried and didn’t feel lost though.

As you can imagine, Mary and Joseph were happy to find Jesus, but don’t you think they might have been a little upset with him too? "Son," Mary said to him, "why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic with worry. We searched for you everywhere."

"Why did you need to search for me?" Jesus replied. "Didn't you know that I would be doing my Father's business?"  You see, Jesus was sitting with the elders of the church listening to what they were teaching and asking questions – showing both respect to the older people in the temple and sharing his own knowledge about God.

As we hear this story, we can learn a few things from what happened in those days on the pilgrimage a long time ago – aside from the obvious that we always should tell the people we love where we are going to be so they don’t get worried about us.

First, the one thing the elders of the church saw and that helped Mary & Joseph to be not quite as mad as they could have been about Jesus sticking behind is that they noticed he had some special gifts.  It is important that we, in our church family, are not only looking out for each other and taking care of each other, but that we help to identify the special things we see in each other as well – whether those are gifts of music or special knowledge about the stories of the Bible, or a special way that someone reaches out to others, or can build something from scratch, and so many others.  Mary knew there was something even more special about Jesus when she realized how much he knew about God, and how respectful he was of the elders in the temple that day.  And it says that she treasured these things and pondered them in her heart, trying to figure out a little bit more about who this special son of hers was.

But the second thing is perhaps even more important.  You see, sometimes we get so busy or so caught up in things that we leave God behind too.  Jesus asks his parents why they didn’t think that he would be doing God’s business. 

This reminds me of a little lesson that someone once shared with me about how we keep God at the center of our priorities or the things that are most important to us.  It was a children's sermon that someone gave at my church when I was a teenager that has stuck with me ever since.  (***See Illustration Below.)  You see, when you put God and the things that are most important in first, the rest fits in around it.  When you take Jesus with you on the journey, the rest seems to fall into place.

So you see, even Jesus had a child’s spirit once upon a time…and with it he taught some pretty important lessons.  Will you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your Son. Through what he taught us, help us to see the best in others and to keep him at the center of our lives that we may never leave him behind. Amen.

ILLUSTRATION:
Items Used: a small mason jar, bag of M&Ms, 6 Hershey Kisses, and a ping pong ball  (The first time I saw it the items were a jar with marbles and a large bouncy ball.)

Begin by asking the congregation to speak out loud some of the tasks and things that we worry about -- that are on our "to-do" lists that we get caught up in each day.  (Some of the answers are generally things like: work, paying the bills, doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, making sure the kids are fed and dressed, homework, etc.)  As they list out the tasks place the M&Ms in the jar.  After the M&Ms have all been placed in the jar, place the Hershey Kisses on top of them.  The Hershey Kisses represent the important people in our lives that we sometimes take for granted or figure will fend for themselves as well.  Finally, place the ping pong ball on top -- which represents God.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the busyness of our everyday lives that we forget to place God at the top of our priority list.  When we do that things don't seem to quite fit or fall into place.  (Try to place the cap on the jar and notice that it will not go on.)    Remove all of the items from the jar and start all over again, but this time place God and the important people in the jar first.  Then repeat some of the tasks that people mentioned as you put the M&Ms back in the jar.  This time you will notice that the cap twists on just fine.  When we put God in first the other things just seem to fall into place!

 Note: This sermon was largely based on this week's children's sermon from www.sermons4kids.com entitled "In My Father's House"-- with the knowledge that our children would be remaining in church for the service.