Christmas 1
December 30, 2012
Luke 2:41-52, I Samuel 2:18-20, 26
Shelly was a fighter.
Not in the literal way, she wasn’t a boxer or an MMA fighter or
anything. However, she did spend a good
portion of her life fighting herself and those around her, and fighting with
God. You see, at a young age, Shelly had
come to a decision on how her life was supposed to be and what path she was
going to take. She was going to go to
said college, then she would go to a particular law school, become an intern at
a specific law firm and work her way up the ladder and be very successful in
her field. She would be married by 25,
have 4 children and 2 dogs by 35, and live a very happy life.
Shelly’s family didn’t quite see it that way. They thought that Shelly should get a
teaching degree. It was what all the
women in Shelly’s family did. She was
supposed to marry that nice pre-med student that she dated her sophomore year
in college and 3 kids were enough, no dogs, dogs are too much work. And her family made no qualms about letting
her know that this was what she was expected to do.
But God had even different plans for Shelly. When she was a young girl, God had called her
into ministry to be with people in their time of need. As a child, her neighbors could always count
on her to stop by with a homemade get well card when they were sick, and as she
got older the cards would be accompanied by cookies or other care packages that
she had crafted herself. She had a knack
for knowing who needed what when. When
her college roommates needed a shoulder to cry on, it was Shelly who would be
there first. She was always the first to
drop of chicken soup, the first to give out a hug, the first to let you know
that she was there for you and that she genuinely cared for you and your
situation.
And she was miserable, she didn’t get the grades she needed
to get into the law school of her choice…she didn’t into any law school, as a
matter of fact. But she fought it, it
was what she thought she wanted to do…should could get a masters degree and try
again in two years…but why was it making her so unhappy?
Then one day during the semester before graduation, she had
a meeting with her advisor who had known her since freshman year. Shelly’s advisor knew her grades in the science
department were excellent and that her caring nature would make her the perfect
candidate to become a nurse. They argued
over it for about 15 minutes before the advisor finally said “will you put down
the boxing gloves and let life take you where you’re supposed to go?”
Shelly listened. She
struggled, but eventually she let go and let God lead her. And God led her to nursing school and she
became a hospice nurse. For the most
part, life fell into place after that and Shelly was no longer unhappy.
Shelly’s story is not real, but it’s not made up
either. There are a lot of people in our
families, in our social circles, in our congregations, who are fighting against
something. And I know from my own
personal experience that spending even a small portion of your life fighting
against something is exhausting.
Now, there are the good fights, the fights against wrong
doing and injustice that work to make this world a better place. Those fights have a tendency to energize and
fire folks up for the work that needs to be done. But I’m talking about the personal fights,
against who God has called us to be, those are the ones that are tiring and
have the potential to make us miserable.
Our buddy, Martin Luther, fought this fight against his
father. Hans Luther wanted, no, expected
that his son would become a lawyer. When
Martin left law school to become a priest, this was seen by his father as a
slap in his face and the greatest dishonor that Martin could have put upon his
parents. But, despite this and his own
struggles with his sin and the devil, Martin knew that his call into the
priesthood was a call from God, for better or for worse, though he probably
didn’t know at the time that he became a priest that his call would eventually
spark the Reformation.
It can be easy for us to walk through life thinking that we
know the exact path that we are supposed to take, that we are in control of
whatever life has in store for us. But
when this happens, we can stray from the path that God has laid out for us. Because of our free will, we are able to do
this…but it doesn’t always lead to the best outcome. It’s when we listen to God’s leading and
nudging, that things often go the smoothest. There are other times, though, when it seems
that we are totally lost with no idea where we are headed…after all, not all of
us get caught in a lightning storm like Luther did, or get blinded like
Paul. And it can get frustrating…but
maybe it’s not time for the call yet…or maybe other things around us distract
us from the path we’re supposed to head in.
And that’s ok. We’re not all
called at the same time and in the same way.
Just take Samuel and Jesus for example.
God called Samuel early on in his life. In fact, his mother Hannah heard God’s call
for Samuel before he was even born. As
soon as Samuel was weaned, Hannah brought him to the temple in order that he
might minister in the temple. And as he
grew, Samuel proved himself to be a worthy servant of God, growing in wisdom
and insight as he worked with Eli. I wonder
if folks in Hannah and Elkanah’s neighborhood questioned the practical wisdom
of giving their first born son over to the temple. Wouldn’t it have been more practical to raise
their son themselves so he could help them with the household chores, and learn
Elkanah’s profession so he could take it over one day? But as it was, Hannah and Elkanah listened to
God’s voice rather than the voices of the neighbors, and things turned out just
fine.
Jesus also knew his call early on. In our gospel text this morning, at age 12,
which was considered to be near adulthood at that time, Jesus was found by a
very worried Mary and Joseph in the temple where he had been so caught up
speaking to the teachers in the temple and asking them questions that he wound
up missing the traveling group going back to Nazareth. It seems that in Jesus’ case, he knew his
calling better than Mary and Joseph did…and this is easy to see since he is the
Son of God, after all. But I wonder if
at dinners and other such events, it was discussed between the adults that
Jesus should have just focused on becoming a craftsman like his father. I wonder if there was any conversation about
arranging a marriage for Jesus to a young woman in town. Where there certain things that the folks in
town, maybe even his parents as well, expected from him as a fully human young
adult? What if Mary and Joseph decided
it may have been best for Jesus to stay in the temple for a bit longer and
learn (and teach) the teachers, and the neighbors scoffed at them for that? But
as it was, Jesus knew the mission that God had sent him to earth to carry out
at a young age, and like Samuel, he grew in wisdom and insight as he grew.
And even as the townsfolk rejected him during his years of
ministry, Jesus carried out the mission and the ministry that he was sent to
do. To free people from the bonds that
shackle them so that they could be free to live and to walk the path that God
had set out for them, regardless of when or how the call comes.
Jesus carried out his mission by dying on the cross and
rising from the dead so that we could be free from the sin that binds so in
order to live out the callings that God has for us, be it in our home life or
our work life or the parts of life in between.
And he did so without the shoulds and shouldn’ts that have a tendency to
weigh us down and load us up with guilt over what we have done and what we have
failed to do, where we’ve succeeded and where we have messed up. We are free to put down the boxing gloves,
and live. We are free to stop worrying
if our life is measuring up to others expectations, and live. We are free to stop beating ourselves up over
meeting our own personal deadlines, and live.
It’s what God is calling us to do.
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