Where to Increase (Dec 29)

Readings, 1 Sam 2: 18-20, 26, Col 3:12-17 and Luke 2:41-52
Image, Nativity. Sawai Chinnawong, Acrylic on canvas, 32 x 37 (2004)
 
There have been many a hero, legend, or leader whose upbringing was entrusted (either willingly or by necessity) to the care of others. Romulus the founder of Rome, was raised (along with his brother) by a She-Wolf. Quasimodo was raised (not well mind you) by Frollo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Batman raised by his butler Alfred, Sleeping Beauty entrusted to the fairies, Charles Foster Kane handed over by his impoverished parents (sans beloved sled) to the rich Walter Parks Thatcher. In Star Wars children identified as possessing the power of the force were entrusted to the Jedi Order for their raising and training.  
 
Sometimes these children are entrusted because they are recognised as special, set apart as vital to the future of a community or the plans of God, their upbringing too important to be left to their family. They are shielded, sheltered, moulded and made ready for the day to come when they will be needed. Samuel clearly fits this mould. Miraculously born in a time of great need, he is set aside so as to hear the word of God, overturn the exploitation and hypocrisy of the community’s religious leaders, and lead the people to a fruitful future.
 
In narrating the story of Jesus, the gospel writers deliberately evoke the heroes of their scriptures. And it is clear that Jesus’ miraculous birth resembles that of Samuel (especially in Luke who has Mary sing a song in the manner of Hannah). And soon after his birth, Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to make their offerings… and soon after that Jesus absconds from his family to remain at the temple to learn from the priests and the learned of the day. If you’re an initiated, active listener, hearing this gospel proclaimed in the shadow of the stories of Samuel, you might be thinking, ah, yes, Jesus is going to stay at the Temple. This is the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, his upbringing must naturally be entrusted to the priests, he must grow in wisdom, stature, and favour in the household of God, the Temple, nearer my Lord to Thee.
 
But that doesn’t happen. Jesus is not like Samuel. He is not entrusted to the care of the Priests; he does not grow with God at the Temple. Despite these early stories evoking this possibility, Jesus returns to Nazareth with his family, it is there and with them that he increases in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour. What do we make of this?
 
At Christmas we stress Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us. We celebrate that in Jesus, God took on flesh and walked among us. That in Jesus we have a saviour familiar with our struggles. It is the immediacy of Jesus’ presence, the humility and mundanity of his earthly life, the identifiability of his tent beside our own, that makes the foundation of our faith and discipleship. And while there are those among us who have been raised by grandparents, aunts, uncles, family friends, adoptive parents, or any combination of such, I’ll hazard none among us were raised by priests, none grew tall in temples. Had Jesus, it would certainly have qualified the claim God with us, would have diminished the truth that he had really walked among us. Think of that early hymn preserved by Paul in the letter to the church in Philippi,
Christ Jesus
who, though he was in the form of God,
   did not regard equality with God
   as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
   taking the form of a slave,
   being born in human likeness.   
Would this not read slightly differently if, while emptying himself, Christ carved out a privileged upbringing amongst the community’s religious leaders within his Father’s house?
 
Jesus, like the bulk of his fellow humanity before and since, was not cloistered as a child, but raised in community among family. It was here he learnt of God and God’s way, here he practiced his faith, here he learnt to navigate challenges big and small, particular and universal while seeking to remain integrous to one’s values and responsible to one’s neighbours. And as those who follow after Jesus, we do the same. Christians are made in the power of the Holy Spirit and then formed in community. We increase in wisdom, stature, and years together as the church.
 
And it is for this reason that Paul’s words in Colossians are so important. As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another… forgive each other; [and] Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts... Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.
 
Christ (whose upbringing was not entrusted to the Temple, but to his family and community) in turn entrusts the upbringing and formation of his followers to the church (the new family/community made in his name). We are all set apart, chosen and commissioned, and so help raise each other. Through the fruit of the Spirit, the teaching of the Word, the wisdom of tradition, the delight of worship, the practicing of virtue, and the outpouring of love we create an ecosystem where we increase together in wisdom and in years, in divine and human favour. An ecosystem where we (like Christ before us), learn to listen to the word of God, rejoice in God’s wisdom, follow the Spirit’s promptings, and cloth ourselves in love.
 
Christmas, I remarked on the Day, is a beginning. What it launches continues to this day, but it does so not in isolation or insulation, but in communities, with families, friends, and strangers, seeking together what it means to respond to the presence of God, with us still.