Thursday, July 11, 2013

"Grab bag: Between Birth and Baptism" Luke 2: 39-52; Romans 1: 1-4

The question behind this sermon is:  "What do we know about Jesus in his growing up years?"

The good news -- if you don't know much, you haven't forgotten it because it's not there.  The bad news -- there is a whole segment of Jesus' life about which we know very little.

With the exception of Jesus being presented in the Temple and then traveling there with his parents (both stories found in the Gospel of Luke), we have no other stories of Jesus' childhood.  Unless of course, you want to read through some of the "Infancy Gospel of Thomas" (The Other Gospels:  Non-Canonical Gospel Texts, Ron Cameron, editor, 122-130) that tells stories of Jesus as a child; gospels that were not accepted by the early church nor made part of the biblical canon (if you read them, you can figure out why they were left out of the canon).

"Christianity is about something that happened.  Something that happened to Jesus of Nazareth.  Something that happened through Jesus of Nazareth.  In other words, Christianity is not about a new moral teaching... Christianity isn't about Jesus offering a wonderful moral example...nor is Christianity about Jesus offering, demonstrating, or even accomplishing a new route by which people can “go to heaven when they die... Finally Christianity isn't about giving the world fresh teaching about God himself....Christianity is all about the belief that the living God, in fulfillment of his promises and as the climax of the story of Israel, has accomplished all this – the finding , the saving, the giving of new life – in Jesus.  He has done it." Simply Christian, N. T. Wright (92).

What do you think Jesus was up between his birth and his baptism in the Jordan River? Do you care?

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