1st Sunday of Christmas 2024 St Andrew’s Milngavie
Today we celebrated the First Sunday of Christmas accompanied by Abigail.
We were a good turn out and the church still looked very festive.
This Week
No prayer Group on Tuesday this week but there will be a service of Holy Communion on Thursday
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House
Readings for next Sunday – The Epiphany – Isaiah 60:1-6 Ephesians 3:1-12 Matthew 2:1-12
Today’s readings – 1 Samuel 2:18-20,26, Colossians 3:12-17, Luke 2:41-51
We all lose things at times: keys, phone, important papers, the list is endless. Its even worse when it’s the dog, that sinking feeling until he’s found. Of course, worse of all is losing a child. And that is exactly what happens in the gospel today, Mary and Joseph lose Jesus!
I always rather like this story in Luke because it’s the one story we have of Jesu’s childhood. Luke is the only Gospel writer to give us any information regarding Jesus’ early years. Perhaps as a doctor and an observer of life, he had a sense of the importance of the story and he chose this one incident because it reveals so much about the boy Jesus.
The story is set at the time of Feast of the Passover. Jewish law required every adult male living within 25 miles of Jerusalem to attend. Every male Jew, no matter where he lived, would take part in these high and holy days of Judaism if possible. Women were not required to go, but they often did.
It was on this occasion that Mary, Joseph on their return form Jerusalem after attending such a Feast discovered Jesus was missing. They then searched for three days for him, one can only imagine how upset and anxious they must have been!
But after searching they eventually found Jesus in the temple with the teachers. He was listening and asking questions.
This may seem unusual for a boy his age but by the time Jewish boys were five, they would have begun to read the Scriptures aloud, including Leviticus, the book of ceremonial laws that explained how devout Jews should perform their various religious observances. By the age of 12, they knew the Psalms and were instructed in the basics of Hebrew law and history, but Jesus’ understanding does appear to be extraordinary.
When Mary eventually finds Jesus, she naturally reacts, chastising Jesus for the distress Jesus had caused them. His response startled his parents. Perhaps they did not fully understand that Jesus was beginning to fulfil his vocation by exploring the scriptures with the teachers in the temple courts. In that place he asks, he answers, and he grows. Jesus astounds everyone with his understanding and wisdom.
So many of our readings at Christmas are focused on Mary, she is in many ways the star of the show, certainly the lead in any nativity play. But being the mother of Jesus was no easy calling. From her obedience of accepting the will of God at the annunciation to her bewilderment at the visit of the shepherds to the manger
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart”.
Luke 2:19 we are told this in Luke’s gospel as the shepherds visit the manger and we wonder what Mary was thinking and feeling? exhaustion, emotion, relief, fear and anxiety. Who were these shepherds, she must have thought.
And then at 8 days old when Mary presents Jesus in the Temple as required by Jewish law, she meets Simeon, full of praise and adoration for the infant Jesus but then in the next breath a warning “and a sword will pierce your own soul too” a reference to the pain of motherhood, and a foretaste of the passion.
Today in the gospel we feel the angst and anguish that Mary and Joseph must have felt when they realised Jesus was missing, the fear experienced over the following three days as they searched for him. And then when they found him in the temple courts sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions, they were astounded and once again Mary “treasured all these things in her heart” Luke 2:51
To be the mother of Jesus was an extraordinary calling.
The passage ends with Jesus saying it was important for him to be in his Father’s house. It is also important for us to be in God’s house because His Father’s house is our Father’s house too! It is a house of worship, a house of prayer, a house of peace, a house of love, a house of joy. What better place could there be for a child of God and us than to be in the Father’s house?