Home Not Alone
Stories
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit
Series V, Cycle C
Object:
Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search 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. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" (vv. 41-49)
In 1990, Macaulay Culkin played Kevin McCallister, an average American eight-year-old child. He lived with a large family in suburban Chicago where his siblings all relentlessly picked on him. His family problems were compounded by the fact that the family had swelled at Christmas time as a host of relatives had come in for the holiday. He was displaced from his room on Christmas Eve -- the night before his family was leaving for a European vacation.
Kevin's frustration boiled as he told his mother, "Everybody in this family hates me!"
His mother replied, "Then maybe you should ask Santa for a new family."
Kevin's comeback was, "I don't want another family. I don't want any family. I don't want to see you again for the rest of my whole life. And I don't want to see anybody else, either."
His mother said, "I hope you don't mean that. You'd feel pretty sad if you woke up tomorrow morning and you didn't have a family."
Kevin argued, "No, I wouldn't."
His mother challenged, "Then say it again. Maybe it will happen."
Kevin obliged, "I hope that I never see any of you jerks again!"
The next morning, his parents overslept. Frantically, they tried to pull everyone and everything together for their flight. In the process, they accidentally left Kevin at home.
By the time Kevin woke up and found he was home alone, he thought that his wish had come true: his parents had disappeared. Enthralled by this, he proceeded to do everything and anything he was not allowed to do before, including eating ice cream in the morning, watching violent gangster films, jumping on the bed, wrecking his brother's room, and having some fun with a BB gun.
Meanwhile Kevin's family was in transit. His mother, Kate, had the feeling she had forgotten something. She and her husband went through a checklist: turned off the coffee pot, locked the door, and closed the garage door. And then it sunk in. They had forgotten Kevin.
Kate was frantic as she abandoned the trip. Last minute travel arrangements over Christmas proved impossible. She told a ticket agent in Scranton, "This is Christmas. The season of perpetual hope. And I don't care if I have to get out on your runway and hitchhike. If it costs me everything I own, if I have to sell my soul to the devil himself, I am going to get home to my son."
Her eventual mode of transportation was a polka-band bus.
The bulk of the movie was the encounters between Kevin and two bumbling burglars, Harry Lime and Marv Merchants, who unsuccessfully attempt to rob the McCallister home. Even home alone, Kevin was more than prepared with an array of booby-traps that made the thieves Wyle E. Coyote to Kevin's roadrunner. Of course, the thieves were arrested, Mom made it home, and Kevin won all the way around.
In a correlation, Jesus was left alone while his family was traveling. Not in Chicago, but in Jerusalem. In a similar way, he was lost in the shuffle of the large group. The women and men traveled separately, so undoubtedly Mary and Joseph each thought Jesus was with the other. Imagine their shock, when they discovered they had left their son alone in a strange city.
And when they returned to Jerusalem to find Jesus in the temple, he was holding his own. Like Kevin McCallister, he was confounding the adults, however not with pranks but with his knowledge on matters of faith. While his mother was frantic, he was calm, cool, and collected. He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
Jesus wasn't home alone. Just in his Father's house schooling the teachers.
In 1990, Macaulay Culkin played Kevin McCallister, an average American eight-year-old child. He lived with a large family in suburban Chicago where his siblings all relentlessly picked on him. His family problems were compounded by the fact that the family had swelled at Christmas time as a host of relatives had come in for the holiday. He was displaced from his room on Christmas Eve -- the night before his family was leaving for a European vacation.
Kevin's frustration boiled as he told his mother, "Everybody in this family hates me!"
His mother replied, "Then maybe you should ask Santa for a new family."
Kevin's comeback was, "I don't want another family. I don't want any family. I don't want to see you again for the rest of my whole life. And I don't want to see anybody else, either."
His mother said, "I hope you don't mean that. You'd feel pretty sad if you woke up tomorrow morning and you didn't have a family."
Kevin argued, "No, I wouldn't."
His mother challenged, "Then say it again. Maybe it will happen."
Kevin obliged, "I hope that I never see any of you jerks again!"
The next morning, his parents overslept. Frantically, they tried to pull everyone and everything together for their flight. In the process, they accidentally left Kevin at home.
By the time Kevin woke up and found he was home alone, he thought that his wish had come true: his parents had disappeared. Enthralled by this, he proceeded to do everything and anything he was not allowed to do before, including eating ice cream in the morning, watching violent gangster films, jumping on the bed, wrecking his brother's room, and having some fun with a BB gun.
Meanwhile Kevin's family was in transit. His mother, Kate, had the feeling she had forgotten something. She and her husband went through a checklist: turned off the coffee pot, locked the door, and closed the garage door. And then it sunk in. They had forgotten Kevin.
Kate was frantic as she abandoned the trip. Last minute travel arrangements over Christmas proved impossible. She told a ticket agent in Scranton, "This is Christmas. The season of perpetual hope. And I don't care if I have to get out on your runway and hitchhike. If it costs me everything I own, if I have to sell my soul to the devil himself, I am going to get home to my son."
Her eventual mode of transportation was a polka-band bus.
The bulk of the movie was the encounters between Kevin and two bumbling burglars, Harry Lime and Marv Merchants, who unsuccessfully attempt to rob the McCallister home. Even home alone, Kevin was more than prepared with an array of booby-traps that made the thieves Wyle E. Coyote to Kevin's roadrunner. Of course, the thieves were arrested, Mom made it home, and Kevin won all the way around.
In a correlation, Jesus was left alone while his family was traveling. Not in Chicago, but in Jerusalem. In a similar way, he was lost in the shuffle of the large group. The women and men traveled separately, so undoubtedly Mary and Joseph each thought Jesus was with the other. Imagine their shock, when they discovered they had left their son alone in a strange city.
And when they returned to Jerusalem to find Jesus in the temple, he was holding his own. Like Kevin McCallister, he was confounding the adults, however not with pranks but with his knowledge on matters of faith. While his mother was frantic, he was calm, cool, and collected. He said to them, "Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
Jesus wasn't home alone. Just in his Father's house schooling the teachers.
