“What Does It Mean to Be a Child?”
Preached Sunday, December 29, 2024
Does anyone remember what it was like to be a middle schooler? Perhaps those parents or grandparents with middle school aged children remember it best. I’ll go ahead and say that the reality of a middle schooler is mystifying to me. This is actually an age that scares a lot of people. My sister has been a fifth grade teacher before and people’s responses to this are often something along the lines of “God bless you” and “Better you than me.”
At the 7:00pm Christmas Eve service, I shared a little bit about what it tells us about God that God, the God of the universe, of all creation, chose to come to us in the most vulnerable form possible - a baby. I’m going to quote that sermon here now because, one, it’s still Christmas in the church! And two, many of you probably didn’t hear it or need reminded to be brought up to speed:
“And here's the kicker - here's the thing that always gets me - God sent us Jesus, born into the world, born into this unsafe, dark world….in the form of a baby. The most vulnerable form God could have ever taken. God didn't come fully formed as a king or general or political leader or even as a capable adult… God came as a vulnerable baby. A newborn baby. Who needed to be held. And loved. And cuddled. And rocked to sleep. And nursed at the breast. Who couldn't hold up his head. Who is precious and so so so small in comparison to the bigness of the world.
This tells us so much about the kind of God our God is - that God is a God of tenderness and love. Of care and mutuality. That God isn't daunted by the darkness of the world, knowing there is still so much light to be found. That God acts in small but impactful ways. That God knows fully what it means to be human in our world. To know our fears and our darkness. To walk alongside us, truly as Emmanuel which means God -With- Us and in the midst of that darkness, show us a better way. Show us the light. The light that will never go out. The light that the darkness will never overcome.”
And just as Jesus was a small, human, vulnerable baby without head control and who needed to be burped and held and rocked and shushed…Jesus also grew to be a very human twelve year old boy. The mystifying and terrifying age of what we call “middle schoolers.” We don’t have many stories of Jesus at this age but the Gospel of Luke gives us this one story - today’s Gospel.
Jesus was “lost” from his parents, for several days, as he remained behind in the temple. I remember getting lost once, when I was a little younger than Jesus was here. I fell asleep at my parents’ feet on the ground at some sort of festival on the Canfield Green. They moved on, not realizing that I was asleep on the ground. Unrelated - I wish I could sleep like that again! Anyway, I woke up and was terrified to find they were gone. Unbeknownst to me, at that time they too were terrified, searching frantically for me. Maybe they could relate to Mary and Joseph here. The story ends well though because there was a Help/Emergency tent staffed by emergency personnel who quickly helped us be reunited, they did not have to look for me for days like Mary and Joseph did. But it does make us wonder - what was this experience like for 12 year old Jesus? What was he thinking? Both as the God-Child but also as the very human twelve year old that he was.
A friend who works with middle schoolers gave me some great insight into what this age group is like - and yes, our world has drastically changed but I still believe that when we look at today’s 12 year olds, we can learn a thing or two about Jesus as a 12 year old, 2000 years ago. And 12 year olds often swing between two worlds. One minute they are very concerned with being grown-up and mature and getting glimpses into the adults they will be. They are worried about crushes and dating, appearances, body-image, what the future holds for them - at times they are like little adults. And then the next moment, they are doing something ridiculously silly, once again like a child - playing with toys and laughing uncontrollably. The confusing part about this age group - both for them as children and us as adults - is you never know which one they are going to be at what moment. Little adults, trying out the personas of who they will become. Or letting the child inside of them be free.
Theologian and deacon, the Rev. Barbara Dunlap says this about this text and what could have been going through Jesus’s head in our text from this week:
“Jesus was trying out a little independence. He was interested in what was happening in the temple, and he didn’t ask permission because he was ‘almost a man.’ But I suspect he might have been a little nervous {and/or} scared when he realized his parents weren’t there. But when they did get there, he had to play it off like that was what he meant to do….this age of kids is super smart. They have so many questions. They want to know more about things. So I’m sure Jesus was soaking all that in. And then he taught them some things. Which older people rarely want to hear from tweens. We think we know everything, but they know so much we don’t know. Especially in certain areas. So he explained it, but [maybe] they brushed him off as ‘just a kid.’ Maybe he spoke with the equivalent of slang? Skibidi sigma rizz, etc. Adults hear those words and ignore everything else as unimportant because we don’t like feeling like we know less. But these kids feel that way All. The. Time. They feel like they are constantly trying to keep up with us, and when they know something we don’t, we often ignore them. So I think that’s a lot of what was going on. But Mary saw what was happening. [Mary saw] who Jesus really was. She had those mother’s eyes and really saw him. Under the shaggy hair and Crocs with socks. Beyond the sus and the lost aura. The real him. And that’s what we need to do with all tweens [and] teens.”
In addition to this text challenging us in how we view and interact and learn from tweens and teens - I also think we need to consider what Jesus as a tween tells us about God and what challenge it has for us. Just as Jesus as a vulnerable, helpless newborn tells us so much about God, and how God is truly Emmauel - “God-With-Us.” God-With-Us in our humanness, God-With-Us in our fear and darkness. God-With-Us in the light that shines. God-With-Us in the midst of everything that it means to be human…Jesus as a tween, not a child and not an adult, that tells us about God too. It means that “God with us” includes God-With-Us when we oscillate between child and adult.
Tweens and teens don’t hide this switch that I mentioned very well - where they oscillate between inner child and inner adult…but I don’t actually think that goes away. I think all of us, whether we be 12, or 32, or 62 or 82…all of us have an inner child and an inner adult. We go back and forth between being uncertain and fearful, like a lost child…and then pretending we have it all together, like an adult. We just do better at hiding it. Because when we were children we believed that adults really had it all together - and, as adults, I think we know now that sometimes we are still figuring it all out…and this is what I think these stories about the 12 year old-son-of-God tell us - it’s okay to admit that we are still figuring it out. And in fact, while we should “grow up” in the maturity of our faith… As our text says about Jesus, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.” And as our Old Testament text says about Samuel, a boy of a similar age, “Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and with the people.” We are called to mature in our faith, our wisdom, our understanding. To not stay at the basic understanding of a child but to seek nuance and deeper understanding…or even deeper questioning…part of growing up is realizing you don’t have all the questions…and part of growing up is being okay with that inner child who is full of questions and curiosity and wonder about the world and about God.
We should always approach our faith like a child who wants to get lost in the temple for days, to know that while we have much to teach, we also have much to learn. And we never stop learning. My favorite adults - whether they be 32 or 82 or even 92…my favorite adults are those who never stop learning, never call themselves a finished product. We are called to be children in faith - full of wonder and curiosity, full of questions, full of openness to learn.
As United Methodists, as Wesleyans, we have a term for this - it’s called “sanctification.” And that’s the never-ending journey of letting the Spirit shape us, working with the Spirit, journeying…toward becoming more holy. More full of love of God and neighbor. We call this growing up in the faith…but sometimes growing up in the faith means accepting our inner child who just wants to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn. Sometimes growing up in faith means accepting we don’t have all the answers. Sometimes growing up in faith means listening to and learning from those younger than us. Sometimes growing up faith means keeping our inner child and their curiosity and wonder alive inside of us.
My prayer for us today is: may we learn from tween Jesus. May we allow our inner children the freedom to question and to wonder and to learn. May we allow our adult selves to continue to grow and mature in our faith. May we know beyond a doubt that God-With-Us means God-With-Us in every stage and every age. That we are never alone and that God is never done teaching us.
Amen.
In addition to this text challenging us in how we view and interact and learn from tweens and teens - I also think we need to consider what Jesus as a tween tells us about God and what challenge it has for us. Just as Jesus as a vulnerable, helpless newborn tells us so much about God, and how God is truly Emmauel - “God-With-Us.” God-With-Us in our humanness, God-With-Us in our fear and darkness. God-With-Us in the light that shines. God-With-Us in the midst of everything that it means to be human…Jesus as a tween, not a child and not an adult, that tells us about God too. It means that “God with us” includes God-With-Us when we oscillate between child and adult.
Tweens and teens don’t hide this switch that I mentioned very well - where they oscillate between inner child and inner adult…but I don’t actually think that goes away. I think all of us, whether we be 12, or 32, or 62 or 82…all of us have an inner child and an inner adult. We go back and forth between being uncertain and fearful, like a lost child…and then pretending we have it all together, like an adult. We just do better at hiding it. Because when we were children we believed that adults really had it all together - and, as adults, I think we know now that sometimes we are still figuring it all out…and this is what I think these stories about the 12 year old-son-of-God tell us - it’s okay to admit that we are still figuring it out. And in fact, while we should “grow up” in the maturity of our faith… As our text says about Jesus, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.” And as our Old Testament text says about Samuel, a boy of a similar age, “Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and with the people.” We are called to mature in our faith, our wisdom, our understanding. To not stay at the basic understanding of a child but to seek nuance and deeper understanding…or even deeper questioning…part of growing up is realizing you don’t have all the questions…and part of growing up is being okay with that inner child who is full of questions and curiosity and wonder about the world and about God.
We should always approach our faith like a child who wants to get lost in the temple for days, to know that while we have much to teach, we also have much to learn. And we never stop learning. My favorite adults - whether they be 32 or 82 or even 92…my favorite adults are those who never stop learning, never call themselves a finished product. We are called to be children in faith - full of wonder and curiosity, full of questions, full of openness to learn.
As United Methodists, as Wesleyans, we have a term for this - it’s called “sanctification.” And that’s the never-ending journey of letting the Spirit shape us, working with the Spirit, journeying…toward becoming more holy. More full of love of God and neighbor. We call this growing up in the faith…but sometimes growing up in the faith means accepting our inner child who just wants to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn. Sometimes growing up in faith means accepting we don’t have all the answers. Sometimes growing up in faith means listening to and learning from those younger than us. Sometimes growing up faith means keeping our inner child and their curiosity and wonder alive inside of us.
My prayer for us today is: may we learn from tween Jesus. May we allow our inner children the freedom to question and to wonder and to learn. May we allow our adult selves to continue to grow and mature in our faith. May we know beyond a doubt that God-With-Us means God-With-Us in every stage and every age. That we are never alone and that God is never done teaching us.
Amen.
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