The Text of my sermon from Sunday, December 27th, 2009

The 1st Sunday after Christmas Day; December 27, 2009
Park Avenue Presbyterian Church; Des Moines, Iowa
Texts: 1 Samuel 2: 18-20, 26
Psalm 148
Colossians 3: 12-17
Luke 2: 41-52 * 

 

“What Did Mary Treasure in her Heart?”

 
--} A lot of people believe that Luke’s story about Jesus staying behind in Jerusalem has a lot of symbolism to it.

• Jesus IN Jerusalem;
• His parents searching for him for 3 days;
• Jesus undergoing questioning and answering;

The point, perhaps, being to offer readers and hearers a prelude to Luke’s final chapters—when Jesus will sneak back to Jerusalem again; when he will undergo a different kind of questioning and answering; when the world will languish for 3 days, searching frantically in hope for what seems impossible. Luke’s preparation for the end?—even before we have a full beginning?

 

But Luke’s story is chocked full of interesting facts—not just symbolism, but real details:

• Mary and Joseph were annual pilgrims, who celebrated Passover IN JERUSALEM;
• Jesus would have grown up, going to Jerusalem for Passover, too;
• Jesus, at the age between child-hood and adult-hood, slips away from his parents and stays behind in Jerusalem at the Temple, questioning and teaching with the religious leaders and quite impressing them;
• And Mary again “treasured” all these things in her heart.

It’s an impressive list that demonstrates a number of things we might not have thought about:

• This is an incredibly “religious” family.
• Mary and Joseph were “people of means;” pilgrimages being quite expensive, and they went “annually.”
• Jesus might not be demonstrating the prowess of the “son of God” as much as he was demonstrating what it meant to live a life of faithfulness.
• AND, there’s this business of “treasuring” ALL these things, too.  

These are important details to remember. But there are some other details, too.

 

Mary presents an interesting problem. In all honesty, Mary isn’t supposed to be in the picture. Women didn’t often travel, and especially not for religious festivals. While men are required to pilgrimage to Jerusalem at least once, women are not. While men are required to keep Sabbath observances; women are not. By all rights, Mary would have “stuck out” like a sore thumb; especially in Jerusalem. At Temple, as in every Synagogue, the men worship separated from the women; and it’s an almost certainty that Mary wouldn’t have been in the Temple to “find” Jesus, but at least that Joseph would have to go in bring him out.

 

Similarly, Mary wouldn’t have ordinarily “traveled” with Joseph to Bethlehem, to be registered, either. It’s thought that because she was with child and near to delivering that she left with Joseph so that she would be “out of town,” thusly avoiding social shame. So even in Bethlehem, for the Christmas story, Mary is out of place. And one of the “connections,” is that both at the birth, and then again at the Temple, Mary is said to have “treasured” or “kept” these things in her heart.

 

“His mother treasured all these things in her heart.” “Treasure,” is a word that is related to “to guard or protect someone,” or “to preserve.” In the New Testament, the world appears in the story about putting new wine into old wineskins; the new wineskins would “preserve” the wine. In the Old Testament, the word is associated with the story of Jacob, Joseph’s Father, and Joseph’s brothers. In Genesis 37, Joseph has a dream about his own greatness, of his father and brothers bowing down to him. And the writer tells us, “So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.”

 

At first glance, “keeping the matter in mind” sounds similar to “treasuring all these things.” Both phrases originate from the same kind of word, suggesting that it’s about “remembering” or “preserving the events” for later. But is that really what Luke would have us think Mary is up to?

 

Jacob seems to be planting a seed for later, kind of like “waiting and seeing” what will turn out. Perhaps that’s what we would believe about Mary, that she’s neatly putting away the events, “just waiting to see what would happen.” But she already knows the prophecy about Jesus; she’s heard the voice of the angel. She’s already the insider.

 

But Luke is telling us that Mary treasures ALL these things; and there’s a list. She began “pondering” when the angel Gabriel appeared to her; but she’s also been pondering the words of the shepherds; the prophesies of Simeon and Anna at the Temple, and Simeon who says, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

 

One possibility is that Luke is preparing believers for the “surprise ending” in Jerusalem that is to come at the end of the gospel. But another possibility is what Mary is “treasuring” and “why?” and perhaps, what we need to be “treasuring.”

 

A couple of weeks ago, we encountered Mary responding to the angel and God’s message with, “here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” We “picked her” as a kind of “model” of responding to God’s immediacy. Many of us like that model. God calls, we respond. But surely Mary knows—at least by the time that Jesus is 12—that it’s not always so easy. We promise ourselves that “if” or “when” God calls us, we’ll respond with, “oh sure, God, I’d love to.”

 

But in today’s story, the “model” is “treasuring.” It’s paying attention to the things people say and do—and remembering. And perhaps more than a preview of what’s going to happen at the end of the story, Luke is intentional about us recording the details and “remembering them for later.” Details that might rearrange how we see and know the story—details that may seem insignificant in any given moment, but then become crucial. Details like:

• “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.”
• “Nothing will be impossible with God.”
• “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”
• “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
• “Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
• “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
• “After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.”

These “details” that Mary seems to “treasure” are a kind of mixed bag—good and bad. But they also carry within them the story of one who is supposed to guide our lives. Details that remind us about salvation, and the costs of working toward that salvation. Details that enlighten and lighten our hearts’ joy; and details that put the fear of struggle and difficulty upon us. Details that liberate, and details that restrain.

 

God is calling us all to a special kind of life in Jesus. No more or less for Mary than for ourselves. God is calling us to take account, to “treasure,” to put inside ourselves “special remembrances.” And I suppose not the kind of “special remembrances” that make us just feel good; but the ones that remind us who this “one” truly is. That this is God come among us; God having us live into a life of salvation.

 

It is striking to me that Mary is not just “remembering” as a parent, a mother; but as a human being—as one of us. She’s “remembering,” because “remembering” is always going to be our guide. “Remembering” not just a birth, or a death, or a resurrection—but all the things that Jesus says and does; the people he meets, the words that are said, the people he liberates, the challenges he puts before us.

 

What’s striking to me is that Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph where incredibly religious—the followed all the rituals, including annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem for Passover. Their lives already demonstrated what it meant to keep covenant with God. Jesus learns from some of the best people; and offers us a similar kind of journey if we are but willing.

 

But if we dare to “remember,” we may find ourselves called and invited into a different way of being—not just defined by what we “hope for,” but by what we’re willing to “do” to host the presence of the living God among us. The details about “who” this Jesus is; what he “says,” the things he “does,” the way he “lives” the stuff he “teaches”—that’s what we need to remember. So that we can make our lives look and be like his. Some people believe Luke may be preparing readers and hearers for the “end” of his story; but perhaps his intention is to prepare us for ours.

 

So “treasure” the details; and keep the for future reference. And reference them frequently and often. From the beginning of your spiritual journey, to the end of your life.

 

--+ AMEN.