Luke 2:41-52
Well, it’s the first Sunday of the new year and everywhere people are talking about resolutions. You can even see some of those resolutions in their fledgling form. For example, Jennifer and I went to the fieldhouse on Friday for a normal workout and I noticed that it was way more crowded than usual. You could tell that a lot of people made resolutions about getting in shape.
This happens every year, but by the first of February things are generally back to normal as people get sore and realize that getting in shape takes discipline, commitment, and some work. Like most New Year’s resolutions, getting in shape is one that is easily broken because there doesn’t seem to be a larger purpose in mind.
The problem with most of our resolutions is that they are too safe, too sensible and too self-centered. We resolve to make tiny cosmetic changes in our lifestyles — but refuse to consider restructuring our lives and changing the paradigms by which we live. It’s easy to break a resolution when it’s something minor like going to the gym or skipping dessert. No one else will notice.
But what if we went big with our resolutions, making one that alters our whole lives and lifestyles?
Luke's single story about the boy Jesus offers us an example of what it would mean if we were to transform our lives by making the ultimate resolution, the mother of all New Year's resolutions, the resolution that ends all resolutions.
Joseph and Mary, their friends, neighbors and relatives, all made the required pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. But as soon as the allotted time for the holiday was over, they hit the road — anxious to get back to all the chores and responsibilities that filled their lives. Joseph, a “builder” (the Greek word is tekton—not carpenter), undoubtedly had projects awaiting his attention. Mary would have had the hundreds of time-consuming tasks it took to keep her family fed and clothed. Like most of us at the end of an extended vacation, they were probably looking forward to getting back to the comfortable familiarity of their own hearth and home.
But the young Jesus refuses to let his relationship with God be regulated according to some prearranged, culturally imposed schedule. Instead of going along with the return-to-business-as-usual attitude, Jesus says that he had to be “in his Father’s house” according to the NIV, but the Greek doesn’t have the word “house” there. Instead it’s a more ambiguous phrase. Literally it can translated “Did you not know that I must be in/of the Father?” Some translators have rendered Jesus as saying that he must be about his Father’s business. Whatever the translation, Jesus clearly understood that his life had a higher purpose and that all of his actions and thoughts and habit were to be under God’s direction.
This was Jesus’ resolution at the beginning of his life. What would it mean if we were to act in a similar fashion declare that from this day forward we will be "about [our] Father's business?” What would it mean to live, not according to human expectations or cultural patterns, but according to what God required of us? What does it mean to be about God's business, rather than other people's business, or even other people's definition of God's business? Jesus discovered at this early age that answering God's expectations can get you in trouble — even with your own family. In fact, focusing on God's business may put an unexpected crimp in the family business. "Business-as-usual" may not be the way God does business. And the world and the church find that unnerving.
The ultimate New Year's resolution does not challenge us to cut fat grams, or quit smoking or get to aerobics class twice a week. The ultimate resolution a Christian can make is to live in the light of divine intentions, not human inventions. The New Year's resolution to end all resolutions is to live under the umbrella of God's expectations and to make it my business and your business to be a part of God's business.
But this just begs a bigger question: What is God's business?
God's business is transformation. An electrical transformer takes high voltage and transforms it into energy that we can use in our everyday lives. Without a transformer, there could be no light in the darkness, no safety in the storm. At Bethlehem, God came to us and gave us Jesus the Christ, who transforms in his life the love and power of God into the impulses of grace and salvation that the world desperately needs.
Jesus knew at an early age that he had to be prepared to be that kind of transformative person, and I think that Luke gives us an idea of just how Jesus went about that preparation. It’s instructive for us as we look at a new year and the possibility of transformation in our own lives.
First, Jesus steeped himself in Scripture—God’s Word. When the young Jesus felt called to live beyond business-as-usual and answered the call of God's business, he first went to the temple. In other words, he steeped himself in the meanings and messages of God's Word. Knowing what God intends for men and women, learning what God has already said and done and promised for this world, is a necessary first step in the transformative process.
Reading and studying Scripture is perhaps the most transformative thing a person can do because God’s Word gives us a guiding narrative and story in which we can find meaning and purpose for our lives. One of the books I picked up this summer is by British theologian Christopher Wright who writes about the Bible as the story of God’s mission in the world—a mission in which we are invited to participate. He writes, “The writings that now comprise our Bible are themselves the product of and witness to the ultimate mission of God. The Bible renders to us the story of God’s mission through God’s people in their engagement with God’s world for the sake of the whole of God’s creation. The Bible is the drama of this God of purpose engaged in the mission of achieving that purpose universally, embracing past, present, future, Israel and the nations, life, the universe and everything, and with its center, focus, climax and completion in Jesus Christ.”
When we read the Scriptures we are thus entering into God’s mission and are shaped by God’s transforming power.
The best resolution you can make this year is to read and study the Bible. And the best way to do that is not only individually but corporately. I’m convinced that biblical literacy is essential to transformation, not simply a part of our faith but foundational to it. That’s why I have committed to take the entire year of 2009 to have us read through the Bible as a congregation from Genesis to Revelation, encouraging each and every person in our church to read 3-4 chapters of Scripture a day, engage in some study through a daily commentary and by joining a Bible study group, and by preaching through the Bible over the course of 52 Sundays. I want you to see how the Bible unfolds as the story of God’s mission and our part in it.
We will begin this journey the weekend of January 17-18 with the first sermon in the year-long series, so I’m inviting people to start their reading on January 10 or 11 (or now, if you like!). We have a companion guide for this series called “The Grand Sweep” that is available after the service (we’ve ordered more copies). We’ll also have the reading plan up on our web site soon. Whether you are a full-time resident of Park City or a visitor, you can participate in this year-long journey by reading along and by listening to the sermons here or on our web site. I’m also excited about the fact that in another week or so we’re going to have a high quality video system installed in our sanctuary, which I will use during the sermon time to enhance the teaching with maps and photos. We’ll be able to not only read the text but see where and how it came toget
her.
Next week I’m going to use the sermon time to give you some orientation on the Bible itself and make some recommendations about what kind of Bible might be most helpful (a good study Bible). Throughout this series, I’m going to encourage you to bring your Bible to church every Sunday. We’ll provide a notes page in the bulletin each week and I also recommend that you use a notebook to jot down your observations and questions from the daily readings.
I’ll also be leading a Bible study on the weekly readings on Tuesday nights at 7 and Wednesdays at noon. This will be a chance for us to go a little deeper together and wrestle with some of your questions. We’ll begin that the week of the 20/21st.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to begin this journey with you because I think it could be the single most important thing this church has ever done in its 128 year history. That’s a bold statement I know, but I believe in the transforming power of God’s Word. Luke tells us that before Jesus did anything in his ministry, he became steeped in the Scriptures, becoming a student. If we are intentional about doing the same, I really believe that we will see individual lives and our church transformed in ways that we can’t even imagine right now.
But while Jesus was steeped in the Word he was also a student of the World and its needs. Being about God's business doesn't mean we do nothing but sit in the temple — in the church — all day long and discuss theology. Remember that while Jesus started out in the temple, he then obediently followed Joseph and Mary back out into the world.
Ultimately, the knowledge of Scripture and the story of God’s mission leads us into our own mission in the world. God’s Word transforms us so that we might transform the world around us. Scripture is only useful when it is applied. Having been thoroughly immersed in the Word, Jesus went into the world with a sense of mission and purpose—preaching, teaching, healing, and ultimately giving his life for God’s mission.
Throughout this series we will be talking a lot about application, reflecting on how the Scriptures speak to us and our role in God’s Kingdom. We’ll be talking a lot about history and theology—my two favorite subjects—but we’ll be talking more about practice—how we live out the Scripture in our day to day lives.
I have loved teaching a Bible study called Disciple over the years and I think it’s sub-title is instructive. “Into the Word, Into the World.” That sounds like a great title for our journey through the Scriptures together.
I love how Luke ends this section: he says that Jesus “increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.” Jesus did that because he was fixed on his purpose. My prayer is that we will grow in the same way—increasing our wisdom by studying the Word, increasing in years not just in age but in spiritual maturity, increasing in favor with God because of our faithfulness and with others because of our outward focus in transforming the world.
That’s a resolution with real resolve. Let us join together in growing in God’s Word in the new year!
Sources:
“The Resolution to End All Resolutions,” Homiletics, January/February 1995.
Wright, Christopher. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Grand Rapids: IVP Academic, 2006.
