Showing posts with label permanence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label permanence. Show all posts

Sunday, January 17, 2016

2nd Epiphany 2016, God of Transformations

2nd Epiphany
Jesus Among the Doctors, Durer
January 17, 2016
Luke 2, 41 - 5

Every year his [Jesus’] parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they took him with them. Now after they had gone there and fulfilled the custom during the days of the feast, they set off on their way home. But the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know this; they thought he was among the company of the travelers. After a day’s journey they missed him among their friends and relations. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

Tissot
After three days they found him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And those who heard him were amazed at his mature understanding and his answers.

And when they saw him, they were taken aback, and his mother said to him, “My child, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”

And he said to them, “Why did you look for me? Did you not know that I must be and live in that which is my Father’s?”

But they did not understand the meaning of the words he spoke to them. And he went down with them again to Nazareth and followed them willingly in all things.

And his mother carefully kept all these things living in her heart. And Jesus progressed in wisdom, in maturity and grace [favor] in the sight of God and man.

2nd Epiphany

January 17, 2016
Luke 2, 41 - 5

Twelve is a number of completion. The thirteenth begins a new cycle. We might think of January as the thirteenth month of the past year, a month that both looks back and looks ahead.

In their forty years of wandering the desert, the Hebrew people had something that remained the same – the commandments, written in stone. Their God was a God of Anchoring Permanence, who accompanied them in all their changing circumstances.

Durer, inset
With Jesus things began to change. At twelve he undergoes a process in the temple that changes him so radically that his parents barely recognize him; they cannot understand what he is saying. This is the development of a God of Transformations, a God of Change. He will continually change and transform in his life on earth. And like John his predecessor, He will encourage his followers also to change their hearts and minds. At the same time, his is not a rebellious overthrow of the past; he still honors what was written in stone. Instead he will amplify the meaning of the commandments, giving them even greater depth and nuance, greater meaning.


Our lives too have a mixture of permanence and change. We can remember and honor the immutable. And at the same time we can develop the flexibility and fluidity to operate with nuance in the midst of change. Christ is the great teacher of transformation. He gives us the strength and the flexibility for all the changing conditions of our lives. And like the mother, we are to keep all these things living in our hearts.