Sermon: Epiphany 1 – 2023

8 January 2023

Text: Luke 2:41-52 (1 Kings 8:6-13, Rom 12:1-5)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The incident of Jesus being separated from his family and lost at the age of twelve is the only thing we know about Jesus between His infancy and His ministry.  The incident is recorded by St. Luke and preserved for us by the Holy Spirit precisely because there is something that God wants us to learn from this event.

Even at twelve years of age, Jesus is carrying out His Father’s will, and that will is that Jesus be “in [His] Father’s house.”  He is talking about the Scriptures.  He is teaching even at that young age.  The text mentions both asking questions and giving answers.  The rabbis used a form of the Socratic Method, in which teachers teach by asking questions.  Jesus was not there as a bright-eyed student; He was there as God in the flesh.

Although God is everywhere, God is present in the temple in a way that you can see Him, hear Him, learn from Him, be blessed by Him, and receive the Word of God from Him.  This is why “all who heard Him were amazed.” 

The temple is not a holy place in and of itself.  It is holy because God chooses to locate Himself there.  That is why when it was destroyed forty years after Jesus said it would be, this was a sad event, but it was not blasphemous.  For the glory had departed.  For from the coming of the Spirit, Christians are temples in their bodies, and what’s more, Christian churches and altars began to appear everywhere, with the Lord’s Supper being celebrated.  God’s presence is no longer found in a single building in Jerusalem, rather, He is present wherever two or three Christians gather for worship.  He is present when His Word is read and preached.  He is present in Baptisms and the Eucharist. 

In our Old Testament reading from the book of First Kings, the first temple has been built.  The Ark of the Covenant was brought into the temple and placed in the Most Holy Place.  On top of the ark was the mercy seat, the throne of God’s presence, appearing between two golden statues of angels, as “the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark.”

God’s presence appeared here in glory, in the inner sanctum of the house of sacrifice.  “And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.”

Sadly, the Israelites would be judged, as they were unfaithful to their God.  Ten of the tribes were conquered and lost to history.  Two tribes were taken into captivity in Babylon, the Ark was taken, and the temple was destroyed.  The Glory of the Lord departed.  But in His mercy, the grandchildren of these exiles were allowed to return to Jerusalem, and rebuild the temple, though it would be smaller, and the Ark of the Covenant was not there.

This second temple is where Mary found her Son lecturing after three days of his being lost to the family.

There are many who claim to believe in God, and even in Jesus, but have no desire to gather where God’s glory is, where Jesus is actually present: the Most Holy Place of the Christian altar, font, and pulpit.  Some Christians, perhaps, think it is a waste of time, that they “don’t get anything out of it.”  And what an arrogant attitude, dear friends, for even Jesus goes to the temple.  Are we better than Jesus?  Do we already know everything?  Are we so idolatrous to believe that other things are more important than going where Jesus is, to hear His Word, to be forgiven, to be instructed, and to participate in the miracle of His presence in Holy Communion? 

Just what could possibly be more important?  Our Lord’s reply to His mother, “Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” should be on the lips of every Christian when one is asked what one is doing on the days that the church meets.

For coming here to this holy house is not something we do grudgingly because we are commanded to, rather, we come here because this is where God’s love finds us, where we are strengthened, where our departed loved ones are (for they are with Jesus, and Jesus is with us here).  This is why the Psalmist,  says, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” 

No more do we need to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  No more do we have to bring livestock to slaughter as payment for our sins.  No, indeed, we come not to make blood sacrifices, but to receive sacraments.  The one all-availing sacrifice has taken place, dear friends: our Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, offered as an oblation to God for the sins of the whole world on the cross.  We come here to receive this gift with joy. 

Now we do “present our bodies as a living sacrifice,” as St. Paul says.  What he means is that we offer ourselves, our lives, our bodies, our minds, our souls to the God who created us, redeemed us, and sanctified us.  This is not a sacrifice to shed blood for our forgiveness, as in the days of the temple.  For this is a “living sacrifice,” this is our “spiritual worship,” says the apostle.  This is like the thank offering in the Old Testament, the unbloody offering of grain and oil as a sacrifice by which to thank God.

We are here, dear friends, because we are thankful to the Triune God: for creating us, for dying on the cross to save us, for calling us into this life that will have no end.  Think of all the things we have to be thankful for, dear friends – and not just the things of this life.  Think about your baptism, in which the Holy Spirit descended upon you and the Triune God claimed you for Himself by means of His name.  Think about how you first learned the Gospel: your parents or relatives, your teachers, your pastors, all the people God placed into your life to draw you to Himself.  Think about the apostles who gave their lives for the privilege of preaching the Good News.  Think about the martyrs who died for the faith, men and women in the history of the church who lived heroic Christian lives.  Think about our forebears in Gretna who sacrificed to buy this property, to raise church buildings where the presence of Christ dwells, where His Word is preached.  Think about the “living sacrifice” to purchase this altar, font, and pulpit, for these pious Christians knew where to find Jesus, for He must be in His Father’s house.

The House of God is holy, dear friends.  This place is sacred, because Jesus is here.  This place is separate from the world.  As the apostle teaches us: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

But this Holy Place is not made for God to dwell in alone, dear friends.  This House of God is made for you to come into His presence, to hear the Word, read and preached, to have the blessing of the Office of the Keys placed upon you in the words of Holy Absolution.  This Holy House is a place of cleansing, where people have been baptized for a century and a half.  This temple is indeed where our Lord Jesus Christ comes to us in His true body and blood, sharing His miraculous presence with us physically. 

It is ultimately not the walls and furnishings and windows of this place that makes it holy.  It is holy because of Christ and because of us, dear friends.  In the words of the ancient liturgy, “holy things for holy people.”  We have been made holy by the waters of baptism and by the love and mercy of God in Christ Jesus.

It is important that we, in the body of Christ, continue to gather here, week after week, not to “get something out of it” (though we get nothing less than the gift of eternal life), but rather we gather here because we are the body of Christ  And what’s more, by gathering, we love and serve our neighbors, our fellow Christians.  For there is strength in numbers.  St. Paul says, “So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”  Let us serve one another, and let us receive the Lord’s gifts, here, in this sacred place, for we “must be in [our] Father’s house.”

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.