In today's lectionary text, we...
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In today's lectionary text, we skip from Jesus' birth to his twelfth year. Last Sunday, we
celebrated the wonder of his birth. Today, Jesus is on the edge of adolescence. All of us
know that participating in our children's growing up is far from easy. There is fear out
there. There is heartbreak and defeat out there. There are mean kids out there. There are
the complications of having to come to terms with the limits of life. Growing up is just
difficult. Luke skips over those silent years of Jesus and brings us to his twelfth year. On
a trip to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem, Joseph and Mary lost Jesus. Any parent who has
lost a child for just a few minutes in a grocery store knows how frightening such an
occasion is. But Luke implied that he was missing for at least one day, maybe longer.
Luke did not flinch from dealing with the dark side of Jesus' life. He came into the world
where the cursed Emperor Augustus was ruler. Being born in a stable was hard. Jesus'
parents fled to Egypt because Herod was killing every male child under two years old.
The birth story was not all sweetness and light. This was followed by the account of the
lost Jesus and his frantic parents.
