“Time to Seek Christ”

Could we ever truly lose Jesus?
I once saw a church’s worship announcement board that displayed the sermon titles like this:
For the 11 a.m. service: “Jesus: Walking on Water”
And beneath it, for the 7 p.m. service: “Let’s Go Find Jesus.”

When I think of mothers who lose sight of their child even for a moment and suffer with worry, I can imagine, at least in part, what Mary and Joseph must have felt.
They had gone up to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. As they traveled back home with a large group of relatives and neighbors, their twelve-year-old son did not return to them that evening. Assuming he was with friends, they waited—but he never came.
When they began searching, they discovered he was not among the village children.
They turned back, walking the same road for another day and a half. Finally, they found him in the Temple, still discussing Scripture with the elders.
We can begin to understand the deep anguish Mary and Joseph felt during the three days they searched for their eldest son.

When they finally found Jesus in the Temple, relief and frustration came together. They scolded him—but the boy’s answer felt almost impossible to grasp. I would like to use his reply as our Christmas’ message.

Luke 2:49 is translated in various ways:
The Revised Standard Version has, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
The Jerusalem Bible, similar to the King James Version, reads, “Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?”
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza suggests another possible translation: “Did you not know that I must be with my Father’s people—my family, my kin?” (Interpretation, 10/82, p. 401)

These three translations may be summarized as:

My Father’s house
My Father’s work
My Father’s people

These do not contradict one another. Rather, taken together, they invite us—at the beginning of a new year—to devote ourselves more earnestly to “the movement of seeking Christ.”

(1) In My Father’s House

This is the place where God is present, where God has promised to meet His people.
For Christians, there is no single “holy place,” no single “Jerusalem,” because God meets us anywhere. Whenever we preach, listen, worship, or receive Holy Communion—wherever these things take place—God truly encounters us.

What is clear for us is this: the kingdom of heaven is “neither here nor there.”
If I am not where I am meant to be, then I am, in truth, nowhere.
Where I meet God the Father—that is my Father’s house.

It may be in the deep interior of my soul, in lonely places where no one else may enter—in the Holy of Holies, where only God is present.

“Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
At the age of twelve, Jesus teaches humanity where we are meant to be.

(2) About My Father’s Business

The church is where we gather to offer thanks and praise to God and where we join in God’s love through service and obedience toward our neighbors.

Mark Twain once described some churchgoers as “envelopes mailed without an address.” To spend our one precious life that way would be tragic.
When we were born, God clearly sent us out as “envelopes with an address”—sent for God’s work.
To receive that address is to live actively, energetically.

(3) Among My Father’s People

Human gatherings exist so that we may be stirred to life.
Those who are zealous create opportunities for those who are not; and those who lack zeal offer gratitude and encouragement to those who labor in front.
Wherever God’s people gather, I believe the life-giving breath of God—the Holy Spirit—will fill that place.

In the coming Yuletides, may every gathering of God’s people truly become God’s house.
The movement to seek Jesus must become our daily life in God, drawing many into the grace of the Lord.

My earnest prayer is that the joy Mary and Joseph felt when they found Jesus on the third day will overflow in your lives throughout the year.