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Knox Preston, 5 January, 2025 © Scott McAndless 
Genesis 23:1-16, Psalm 34:15-22, Luke 7:11-17 

We are fast approaching something very special – in two weeks we will finally celebrate the fulfilment of a long and sometimes difficult process of amalgamation. On January 19, we will join together at St. Andrew’s in Hespeler and we will become something new – an amalgamated congregation.  

Up until now, however, we have mostly been working towards this separately. And I’d like to take a little bit of time to bring the folks from St. Andrew’s up to date on how the folks from Knox have experienced this.  

A Metaphor 

In many of their discussions, there was one particular metaphor that they kept coming back to. They talked about it as a marriage. When they were looking for a partner in an amalgamation, they used words like “dating” and “courting.” They even came to look at their participation in our summer experiment as a kind of “speed dating.” 

And do you remember the congregational meetings that we held back in the beginning of November? Each congregation had to separately hold a vote to decide if we wanted to begin the process of working out the details of an amalgamation. And Preston met a week before Hespeler. They said, yes, that they wanted to come together with St. Andrew’s. And then they had to wait seven days to hear our answer. 

Any guesses how that felt? It felt as if they were down on their knees, holding out that jewellery box with the engagement ring and the one they were proposing to just said, “Hey, can I get back to you in a week?” It made for a bit of an emotional roller-coaster.  

Isaac and Rebekah’s Wedding 

With all of that in mind, I would like to embrace that marriage metaphor as we think of what is going to happen in a couple of weeks. In fact, I have concepts of a plan to preach about the wedding of Isaac and Rebekah on that day. But I would notice today that there is something important that comes before that marriage. 

Today we read the story about what happened before the joyous wedding of Isaac and Rebekah – the sad death and burial of Sarah, Isaac’s mother. We sometimes don’t realize that there is a connection between the two stories because we tend to read Bible stories without making those connections. But the story of Isaac’s marriage to Rebekah ends by saying that “Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” (Genesis 24:67) 

Sarah’s death is only mentioned at the end, but it clearly looms over the story of his marriage. He has suffered a great loss. It seems to have broken him. 

Father-Son Estrangement 

But it is not just that Isaac has lost his mother. He also seems to have lost all contact with his other parent. How else can you explain it that Isaac is not there for Sarah’s funeral or for all of the arrangements for his own wedding. Abraham isn’t even there for the “wedding” when Isaac takes Rebekah into his tent. Isaac just seems to have taken his mother’s tent and gone to live in Beer-lahai-roi. 

That is odd, isn’t it? What could explain such a rejection of a father by a son? Well maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with the time when Abraham took his son, tied him up, put him on an altar and held a knife to his neck. Do you think that maybe that kind of trauma – even if Abraham did it for the right reasons (which is what the Bible insists) – might put a bit of a strain on a father-son relationship? 

Processing a Loss 

And that does bring us to something that I think we need to talk about today. I mean to celebrate a wonderful wedding in two weeks, but first, can we talk about the traumatic journey that brings us to this point? Can we talk about a congregation that has to process the end of a 134-year independent history? 

That would be hard under the best of circumstances, but some things made it more difficult. Due to the circumstances and some difficult decisions made by the Presbytery, the folks at Preston kind of felt up against the wall. They had a very difficult timeline and a necessity imposed upon them by the Presbytery. 

Now, maybe this was a necessary thing. Maybe nothing at all good would have come out of this without that external pressure. I don’t mean to judge it. But I’m sure that you can understand how that felt. It might have felt a little bit like being tied up, laid upon an altar of sacrifice and having a knife held to your throat!  

So, if we are like Isaac and heading towards a joyous wedding, let’s also recognize that we are also like Isaac in that we are carrying some grief and scars and maybe even some unprocessed trauma as we limp towards this wedding. And I can’t help but feel as if the passage we read this morning might have some advice for us where we are right now. 

Isaac’s Anger 

The first thing I would note is this: Isaac really doesn’t seem to process his grief for what he has lost very well. He is completely absent as his mother is laid in the tomb. This is clearly not because he didn’t love his mother or because he doesn’t feel her loss. I believe it has to do with his resentment of his father. His anger at what his dad has done prevents him from properly grieving his loss.  

Now, anger is a part of grief. Psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross famously identified anger as one of the essential stages in grief. We need to accept the anger that we feel and process it by asking where it has come from and whether it is legitimate. But getting stuck in anger doesn’t help you. And that is what Isaac seems to have done, and it is probably one good reason why he struggled unnecessarily with his loss for so long.  

The endings we are marking this month are real. And the rituals and services that will be held are there to help you to work through that in constructive ways. I hope you don’t make the mistake that Isaac made and rob yourself of the opportunity they give you because you are mad at Presbytery or any leadership that has brought us to this place. You won’t hurt the people who you feel have hurt you; you will likely only hurt yourself. 

Abraham Comes to Terms with his Nomadism 

So, that is what we can learn from Isaac’s grief. What can we learn from Abraham’s? The death of Sarah seems to force Abraham to come to terms with his nomadic status. He has been living in Canaan as a wanderer for a very long time and has done very well with such a status, so much so that the Hittites see him as “a mighty prince” living among them. He has never suffered from having no place to call home until the loss of Sarah hits him like a ton of bricks. All of a sudden, he realizes that he needs a place where he feels like he belongs.  

And I am sure that the folks at Knox can relate to some of the things that Abraham is feeling. You are losing an anchor in your lives, a place that helped you to know who you were and where you belonged. It is at moments like this that you realize, like Abraham, that you need to find new places of belonging. 

Will Abraham Pay? 

And that is what this whole passage is about. Abraham sets out to find that place much like the folks at Preston set out to find a partner. But the interesting thing about this particular story is the whole question of whether Abraham is going to pay for it.  

Once Abraham has discovered the place where his family can belong for all time, he goes to the Hittites to try to obtain it. They react strangely to say the least. Both the Hittites as a whole and the man who actually owns the property want him to have it. They want him to have a place. But they insist that they don’t want him to pay for it. 

It is hard to know what is going on here. Perhaps it is just a unique look into the ways in which people bartered in that culture. That might be what going on when Abraham keeps on insisting that he must pay until finally Ephron says, “My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver—what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” And that is the price that Abraham finally pays. 

Why it’s Important to Invest 

But more than an insight into how such things were done in that culture, I suspect that this exchange is there to teach us something today. When you are going through a great loss, the people around you, if they are compassionate people, may well react like the Hittites in this story. They may say to you, “No, you have suffered too much; you have lost too much. You shouldn’t have to pay anything more. Let us just take care of everything now. That comes, to be sure, from a place of care. But it is not necessarily the most helpful thing.  

Abraham is wise enough to recognize that that isn’t going to work – that he can’t just be given a place and feel that it truly belongs to him. It must cost him something or something inside him will always tell him that it is not really his. This too is an essential part of the grieving process. You must decide to invest in something new moving forward and, until you do, your natural process of grief may be stunted. 

Why You may Hesitate to Invest 

And I think there is an important message in that for us. Coming out of a difficult experience of loss, you may be tempted to coast. You may hesitate to invest yourself too readily into the life of the amalgamated congregation or wherever else your next stop in your personal spiritual journey may lead you. 

That is perhaps understandable. You have been burned before. The last time you invested in a religious community maybe it let you down. But do not listen to the Hittites around you, or maybe the Hittites inside your own head, who are saying, “what is that between you and me?” The Hittites may be telling you to step back and hesitate to engage yourself but Abraham says, take a risk; step forward with your 400 shekels of silver. Get involved. 

More than Money 

And I hope that you understand in that that I am not merely talking about making a commitment for financial support. Sure, that is important, but it is hardly the only way, and I am not even sure that it is the most important part when it comes to dealing with the grief and loss that you have suffered. 

Maybe concentrate at first on making new connections – put yourself forward as a new friend. And you who are welcoming new people into already established groups, welcome people as new friends with the expectation that they have wisdom and valuable contributions to bring, because they do. 

And most of all, find a place where you can step in and begin to contribute your time and energy and the gifts and abilities that God has given you. This may be a risk. What if you get something wrong or make a mistake in this new context? No one can guarantee that nothing will go wrong. But Abraham understood that if you do not take a risk, you may never discover where you truly belong. 

Loss and Opportunity 

Abraham came to Canaan as an outsider, a wanderer who did not belong. Isn’t it interesting that the first foothold he found in this new land came on the heels of the greatest loss he ever suffered, the loss of his wife. This is a reminder that grief and loss cannot be avoided in life, but such times also offer us the greatest opportunities to find ourselves and our place in the life that God gives us. 

The wedding is coming. It will be an opportunity for celebration and joy. But take note of where you are now. Perhaps there is a reason why God has brought you here as well. 

Worship begins at 10:30 am.

Worship begins at 10:30 am.

https://youtu.be/Mm7PIjoUWRc

Hespeler, December 29, 2024 © Scott McAndless – First Sunday after Christmas Day 
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26, Psalm 148, Colossians 3:12-17, Luke 2:41-52 

There are certain scenes from the Bible that have been depicted in art over and over again down through the centuries. The crucifixion, the annunciation to Mary, the sacrifice of Isaac are biblical episodes that artists have turned to again and again, seeking to explain and interpret the meaning of these amazing stories through the medium of art. 

And one of those scenes that has been depicted like that comes from our reading this morning in the Gospel of Luke. There is something about that idea of the young Jesus talking with the scribes and teachers in the temple that artists just haven’t been able to resist. Again and again, they have taken up their brushes to try and show us what they think it looked like. 

And so, I went on Google to do a bit of a survey of the history of the depiction of this scene. And I’ve got to say that I found it all very interesting. So many of the pictures had much in common. But let me show you one picture that stood out to me because it incorporates all of the key elements. It was painted by Ludovico Mazzolino sometime around 1524 in Northern Italy. 

Ludovico’s Version 

Let me point out a few details that are very common. First of all, and most important of all, your eye is immediately drawn to the central figure, the young boy Jesus. He is dressed in pure white and bathed in light. Everything else is in relative darkness. This Middle Eastern child also looks surprisingly white and European, but of course that is a common feature in most Western art depictions of Jesus!  

And then there is the expression on his face. Jesus is perfectly serene. He is clearly self-assured and is making a firm “talk to the hand” gesture towards someone who is arguing with him that seems to say, “You poor man, you don’t understand anything, do you?” 

The Faces Around Jesus 

Meanwhile, look at the expressions on the faces of the people around him. Their faces (which are, by the way, all stereotypically Jewish) reflect only confusion, annoyance and anger. There are, three exceptions, though. On the right of Jesus, we see his parents, Mary and Joseph, approaching. Mary also looks very white and is in an attitude of adoration while Joseph (who I guess is allowed to look Jewish) seems to be staring at Mary trying to figure out what she is thinking.  

And then there is another puzzling figure on the left. This balding man also looks European and is an attitude of pure devotion. Who is he? Well, it turns out that we know exactly who he is. His name is Francesco Caprara and he is the guy who paid for the painting. I hope he paid well to be immortalized for all time! 

But I don’t share this picture with you as a lesson in art history. I think it gives us a great deal of insight into how people have read and interpreted this story down through the ages and right up to today. There are all kinds of theological ideas and assumptions that we bring to this story that are reflected in it.  

Theological Assumptions 

For example, we all know who Jesus is supposed to be – that he is God incarnate. And so, the assumption in this picture seems to be that, even if he is only twelve years old, Jesus already has everything figured out. Nobody needs to teach him anything. He already has all the answers. Most of all, Jesus is literally above everyone else when it comes to understanding. 

There are also, to be frank, a few antisemitic assumptions at work in the picture. It sees Judaism as a possibly false religion of anger and confusion that Jesus has come to supplant. The Jewish teachers who appear in the picture are not very attractive. The message seems to be that Christians have all the answers and they understand nothing. The message is Christians good, Jews bad. 

And all of those assumptions that are there in that painting are part of the baggage of the Christian faith that many of us still carry with us to this very day. The idea that the Christian faith has somehow superseded the ancient faith of Israel is very common, even though the church officially rejects that as a heretical notion. 

He Already Knew 

But it is the other assumption that I particularly want to focus in on today – the notion that, when the twelve-year-old Jesus was in the temple, he already knew all of the answers. No one had anything to teach him. In fact, he must have been there to teach the Jewish teachers and set them all straight. 

I understand where this kind of thinking comes from, of course. If, as we often confess, Jesus really is, in any sense, God living among us, then surely Jesus came into this world with the full knowledge of, well, everything that God knows. The conclusion, therefore, that nobody could presume to teach Jesus anything seems obvious. 

We’ll get to the question of whether that is really how Jesus is portrayed in the gospels in a moment, but let us first reflect on how that assumption affects us in our Christian lives.  

The Example of Jesus 

Jesus, is after all, our perfect example of faith. Because of this, many seem to assume that the supreme proof that they have faith is that they never have doubts. They never question what the Bible says and that no one can change their mind about what they believe. Have you known people like that? I have.  

I remember once, when I was quite young coming to what I thought was an amazing realization. I suddenly decided that I knew how to be right all the time. All I had to do was find a quote in the Bible – something that declared a simple truth – and I could know that whenever I said that I would be right.  

I Got Wiser 

Now, I grew out of that notion fairly quickly. I had not asked if we are even supposed to read the Bible as literally true all the time or if there might be other kinds of truth. I had not considered things like whether words might have had different meanings in their original language and context or whether what the Bible said in one place could be contradicted someplace else.  

As I grew older and wiser, I discovered that the more I read the Bible, less I knew for sure. The more I studied, the more I realized that I had to learn. But the thing is that many do not grow out of my early childish assumption. They think that the only way to show that they are people of faith is to never express any doubt or ask any question. 

Self-Assured Christians 

For them, being a good Christian means that you are always self assured. Like Jesus in the painting, their only response to anything other than what they have already decided is true is, “talk to the hand.” 

But all this time I have been talking about how this episode in the Gospel of Luke has been portrayed and what people think it means. I think it might be time to consider what the passage actually says. Does it say that Jesus already had all the answers or that he had gone there to set all the Jews straight? Well, let’s take a look at the text. 

What the Text Says 

We are told that, when Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem traveling, we must imagine, with a large party from their hometown, they traveled for a whole day without realizing that Jesus wasn’t with them. They then turned around and went back – another whole day of traveling – and searched the entire city for him for three days. 

So, Jesus has been missing for five days in the big city. I don’t even want to think of all the horrible things that his parents might have imagined happening to him. And what has he been doing for five days? Well, it seems that he has spent all of that time “in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” 

He didn’t Have it Figured Out 

And that, to be clear, is not what Jesus is pictured doing in my favourite piece of art. The Gospel of Luke doesn’t say that Jesus already had it all figured out. It doesn’t say that he had all the answers and had been busy for five days teaching the Jewish leaders. On the contrary, he seems to have decided that he has a lot to learn and so, on the fifth day, he is still listening and asking questions. 

I realize that people might be confused by the next verse where it says, “And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” You might take that as saying that Jesus was answering their questions because he understood better than any of them. 

But the word “answers” can also be translated as “his responses.” And since Luke has already told us that Jesus was the one asking the questions, what he seems to be saying is that Jesus was responding to their teachings with questions that were so insightful that they were amazed at his understanding. 

Questions 

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? What kind of questions was Jesus asking? I mean, I think I could come up with a few.  

“When it says the God created light on the first day and the sun, moon and stars on the fourth, where was the light coming from for those first three days? When God stopped the sun in the sky for Joshua why, since the sun doesn’t actually move and it only looks that way because the earth is rotating, didn’t everyone go flying off the face of the earth due to centripetal force? How on earth does a Twelve-Year-Old child survive for five days in a big city with no food and no place to sleep?” 

I mean, those are a few questions that come to my mind but I’m sure that, if everyone was amazed at his understanding, Jesus’ questions must have been much more insightful than anything I can come up with. But my point is that you can’t ask questions like that without wondering, without expressing a bit of skepticism or doubt. Intelligent questions can only come out of minds that are open enough to consider all possibilities. 

God Incarnate 

And that means that when we confess that Jesus was God incarnate, whatever that means, there has to be enough space in what we are saying for the twelve-year-old Jesus to not have all the answers – to not have it all figured out and to be in a position where he’s truly questioning everything.  

And, while that is something that may challenge the way we’ve always seen Jesus and the Trinity, it also needs to challenge something else. It needs to challenge the ways in which we think of what it means to be faithful Christians.  

The notion that many people have that being a good Christian means that you never question and never doubt is very unhelpful. It leads people to suppress things like critical thinking and discussion. It leads them to treat those who express an alternate view or who struggle with teaching as dangerous adversaries when they should be friends and allies. It encourages a kind of Christian life that is defined by judgement and a false air of self-assurance that frankly turns people off. 

Christology 

The Christian doctrine of the Christ (which is called “Christology” if you ever want to impress people at parties) teaches that, while he was fully divine, Jesus was also fully human. And true humanity does not exist without the experience of questions and doubt and critical thinking. These things make us human. 

If you want to follow in the path of Christ, you will not succeed by suppressing what makes you human. That is why I would indeed hold up the story of the young Jesus as an example – not the story as it lives in our imagination and our art, but the way that the story is actually told in the gospel. 

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