Dear friends in Christ Jesus,<\/p>\n
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What was life like for you when you were 12 years old? Was your time spent playing hockey or baseball or some other sport? Were you enrolled in music lessons or swimming lessons or loaded down with homework assignments? Did you spend much time in church? Did your parents drag you there every Sunday? Did you ever go to church WITHOUT your parents? <\/p>\n
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When I read this story about Jesus as a 12-year-old boy in the temple, I\u2019m confronted with a profound mystery. Something I just can\u2019t understand. Here we have the God\/man, or in this case the God\/boy Jesus Christ, sitting and chatting with the leaders of the temple, asking them questions. And I ask myself, \u201cIn this encounter, what are we seeing here? Are we seeing the Almighty God giving the religious experts some kind of divine pop quiz, firing questions at them to see if they\u2019ve got their theology right?\u201d <\/p>\n
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Or are we looking at a 12-year-old boy seeking answers to the deep questions of life? Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? What is my purpose? Where am I going? Those were the kind of questions I had when I was 12 years old. Maybe deep down beneath all the activities that kept you occupied as a 12 year old, you had some of those questions too. <\/p>\n
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Because Jesus was truly human \u2013 a true boy \u2013 maybe he had these same questions. And maybe that\u2019s why he\u2019s there that day, all alone, without his parents, asking profound questions and seeking profound answers. <\/p>\n
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The crises we have in life always seem to lead us back to those basic questions. It may be the crisis brought on by puberty \u2013 when we\u2019re suddenly and powerfully moving from childhood into adulthood. Or it may be a crisis of a failed relationship, a broken marriage, a lost love, a betrayal of trust. It may be a crisis brought by the death of a beloved wife or husband, or a child. It may be the sudden loss of your employment or the prospect of facing retirement with insufficient funds. All kinds of situations in life can cause us to re-examine our basic beliefs about life. Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going?<\/p>\n
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This morning our 12-year-old Lord Jesus helps us answer that first and most important question: Who are we and where did we come from? <\/p>\n
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The world is quick to affirm and our students are boldly taught in school that we all evolved, beginning from a \u201cbig bang\u201d and a primordial soup of chemicals. Is that where we came from? Where do we define and affirm our origin? Where do we discover answers to our identity and purpose in life? Is it in the pages of a science book? Is it in the classroom? Is it from the History Channel or from the collective wisdom gleaned from the pages of facebook? No! It\u2019s right here. In our Father\u2019s house! Mary and Joseph didn\u2019t need to waste their time scouring the video arcades and midway attractions of Jerusalem in search of their Son. He was right there where he belonged \u2014 in His Father\u2019s house, listening and asking questions.<\/p>\n
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Here is where we find and affirm our identity too! In our Father\u2019s house. It\u2019s right here every time we participate in the Divine Service \u2013 here, in the first three actions of the liturgy \u2014 in our preparation for worship. <\/p>\n
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It\u2019s there in the first action, the Invocation where we remind ourselves of who we are. Recalling our baptism, we can make the sign of the cross and declare that we are indeed children of the Triune God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The pastor proclaims it and you affirm that it is true with your strong acclamation of Amen! We belong to God. He created us. He knit us together in our mother\u2019s wombs. He has numbered all our days, as the Psalmist says. And not only did He create us, He recreated us in Holy Baptism where He put His Name upon us, adopted and claimed us as His own dear children, added us to His family of faith, and bestowed upon us an inheritance that will never fade, spoil or decay, eternal in the heavens. In the invocation we know and affirm exactly who we are, where we came from, and where we are going! So don\u2019t be timid with your \u201cAmen.\u201d Let your \u201cAmen\u201d ring forth proudly and boldly. God is your Father. You are in His house where you belong! Here you find your identity.<\/p>\n
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But you come here every Sunday morning after having struggled with your identity all week long. The Devil has been working hard to get you to abandon your identity, to deny your birthright, to forsake your inheritance. \u201cAre you really the Son of God?\u201d he asked Jesus in the wilderness. Then turn these stones to bread, grab all the riches and pleasures the world has to offer, expect God to heal your every disease and make your life easy and carefree. And when it doesn\u2019t happen according to your expectations, well can you really trust God after all? What kind of father would let you down like that? You struggle with that every week.<\/p>\n
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And you struggle with what the world is teaching you \u2013 to accept its standards of morality, to forsake God\u2019s commandments and do what pleases you. And you fight against your own sinful flesh \u2013 the temptations to live life your way, according to your desires and will instead of the will of your Father. It\u2019s a deadly battle, this struggle to remain true to your identity as a child of God in the midst of the challenges of life all around you. You struggle and you fail. You know you fail, and so do I.<\/p>\n
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That\u2019s where the second action of the liturgy speaks to us \u2013 or rather, where we speak the truth to God. \u201cI, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended you, and justly deserve your temporal and eternal punishment\u2026\u201d This is who we are \u2013 children of God who have failed in so many ways to live the lives He wants us to live. And we respond to that failure, not by denying it, not by making excuses for it, not by trying to justify it, but by confessing it! And we implore His mercy, for the sake of Jesus: \u201cGod, be merciful to me, a sinner!\u201d <\/p>\n
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Then comes that wonderful third action of the liturgy \u2013 the proclamation of God\u2019s forgiveness, where from the voice of God\u2019s representative, with God\u2019s own authority, we are pronounced forgiven, restored, reconciled. Those are more than just words. Those are words that carry the full authority of God\u2019s plan of salvation completed in His own Son. For the sake of Jesus\u2019 perfect life of obedience and for the sake of His innocent suffering and death and glorious resurrection the Father now wraps His forgiving arms around us and pulls us back to His bosom where we\u2019re safe and secure. <\/p>\n
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So, who are we? We are God\u2019s own beloved children, struggling and failing time and time again, but then returning to Him in repentance and receiving His forgiveness and strength for the future. This is what we affirm over and over again, here, in our Father\u2019s house. <\/p>\n
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My dear friends, come here often. This is where you belong. This is your Father\u2019s house. This is where you discover and affirm your identity. Don\u2019t let others, don\u2019t let the devil, the world or your sinful flesh, try to define you. They will do their best to discourage you, to pull you away, to create doubt. But you belong to God and you belong here, in your Father\u2019s house, asking questions, seeking answers, and always receiving the knowledge, strength, assurance and love that your heavenly Father wants you to have. <\/p>\n
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Whatever knowledge he may have had as a human boy, Jesus was certain of one thing. God was his dear Father who had a purpose for his life. My friends, you can be sure of the same \u2013 God is your Father who has a purpose for your life — for you have been redeemed and all your sins have been forgiven. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear friends in Christ Jesus, What was life like for you when you were 12 years old? Was your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","wpfc_preacher":[176],"wpfc_sermon_series":[],"wpfc_sermon_topics":[],"wpfc_bible_book":[],"wpfc_service_type":[],"class_list":["wpfc_preacher-pastor-j-fritsche","wpfc-sermon-single","post-4808","wpfc_sermon","type-wpfc_sermon","status-publish","hentry"],"sermon_audio":"","sermon_audio_duration":"","_views":"20","bible_passage":"Luke 2:40-52 \u201cWhen he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day\u2019s journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. 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. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, \u201cSon, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.\u201d And he said to them, \u201cWhy were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father\u2019s house?\u201d","sermon_video_embed":"","sermon_video_url":"","sermon_bulletin":"","_featured_url":false,"sermon_date":1767528028,"_sermon_date_auto":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/4808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/wpfc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/4808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4810,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/wpfc_sermon\/4808\/revisions\/4810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wpfc_preacher","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_preacher&post=4808"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_sermon_series&post=4808"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_sermon_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_sermon_topics&post=4808"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_bible_book","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_bible_book&post=4808"},{"taxonomy":"wpfc_service_type","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redeemerlutheranchurch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwpfc_service_type&post=4808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}