When he was 12, Mary and Joseph lost Jesus. “They had journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,” but could not find him. “They returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.”
We have each experienced some manner of being lost. Perhaps we have been physically lost when we were children or as adults visiting a city new to us. We can be spiritually lost too. Over 100 years ago, after The Great War ended, its returning soldiers were described as lost, spiritually, “All of you young people who served in the war… You are all a lost generation.” (Gertrude Stein) Currently, people living in the U.S. are enduring another great war, 20 years of it, and it is really not over. If we are too are lost, then we are not like Jesus in today’s Gospel story. Jesus is not lost. Jesus is searching, exploring his spirituality, questioning church elders. Perhaps neither are we lost. We too may be searching, exploring our spirituality, questioning church elders. If we reject the responses we would be like Jesus, who also rejected the teachings of the church elders. We know Jesus rejects the answers of the elders because it is the elders who later condemn Jesus to death for his disobedience to them. Jesus will not get lost in their religion. It is every era’s church elders who are the ones truly lost. They are intent on condemning people to death through white supremacy, hostile insurrection, and civil war. They are woefully lost. And they refuse to be found. Today’s church elders are more lost now than just a year ago when, on January 6th, adorned with Confederate flags and Nazi paraphernalia, they showed how truly lost they are. Lost is pastor Ken Peters (“Patriots are now storming the capitol in front of us.”). Lost is Pastor Brian Gibson (“We need lions to take back this Republic so that America can remain a Christian nation.”). Lost is Memphis pastor Greg Locke (“Be willing to lead your people into battle. We are in a battle for the soul of… this nation”). These and so many more such church elders prove they are worse than lost. They prove they have lost Jesus. But, as they are unlike Jesus, so too they are unlike Mary and Joseph. For unlike his parents, today’s Temple elders are not looking for Jesus. They are not looking for Jesus among friends, nor among strangers. They are not busy about finding Christ. They are busying about white supremacy, hostile insurrection, and civil war. They are therefore also busy about obstructing others from finding Jesus. They especially obstruct knowledge of his being a peacemaker – who did what he could to help lost warmakers like the elders, find there way. Church elders and their many followers are a lost generation. We are called in this season of the Christ-child to find the lost.
“When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone,… the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to bring peace among the people.” (The Mood of Christmas – Howard Thurman)
Prayer: Holy Spirit, help me grow in energy for Christ.
Question: Who are the people I know who have lost Jesus and his Way? What am I doing to help them find their way home?
December 26, 2021 Gospel Matthew 2:13-23 Feast of the Holy Family