Sermon for the Sunday in the octave of Epiphany
Your relief is visible
when you hear the tannoy say:
"Please come to the reception desk;
your child has been found."
The panic of the last hour
frantically searching
for your child is over,
and all you need to do
is come to the reception desk
and pick them up.
Oh the relief!
But not every parent
in this situation
finds this relief:
all too often,
there is bad news
and grief.
It's because of this
distinct possibility that
your child is lost
that causes the panic,
the fear,
the cascade of
a million unpleasant scenarios.
Having hope
almost makes the pain worse.
[PAUSE]
Even after twelve years,
Herod's wicked murder
of all those babies
rings in the memories
of Mary and Joseph
hunting frantically for Jesus.
He is not among
the crowds of unfamiliar faces
leaving Jerusalem for Nazareth.
He is not among the crowds
milling about in the streets of Jerusalem
nor the dark alleys,
nor in the places of buying and selling.
But then they hear the tannoy.
Voices declaring amazement
at some occurrence
in the midst of the temple.
Can He be where they left Him?
Indeed,
that's where Mary and Joseph
find Him.
Their relief is visible.
[PAUSE]
Children do this to you.
Even the Son of God
worries the life out of those
who are blessed by caring for Him.
To them
He is the most precious thing in the world.
To Him,
He is trying to become Himself.
This is the great challenge
of parenting:
your precious child
isn't really yours.
They are their own people
and the greatest wrench
for the parent
is that their precious child
is not theirs to possess
but rather to get them to the place
where they can go
and live their own lives
away from their parents.
Jesus makes it clear that,
although He loves His Mother,
although He loves St Joseph,
He also loves His Father
and must become
the human being that He is
independently of those
who take care of Him.
Mary and Joseph
must be prepared
to let Him go.
Just as the Father
has let us go.
[PAUSE]
Love never insists
on its own way.
It always respects the choices
of the beloved.
In a few years' time
the precocious twelve year old
teaching the teachers
asking awkward questions
while learning the Law
will speak of the Prodigal Son.
Just as the father
of the Prodigal Son
lets Him go and live his own life
independently from his family
so does God let us go
to live our own lives
independently of Him
in the hope
that we may learn for ourselves
who we are and how God fits in with that.
He lets us go,
to His pain as the Cross proves.
But that Cross calls us,
like the tannoy,
back to God.
[PAUSE]
Good parents
are willing to bear the great pain
of letting their child go
despite the pain it causes.
But they work
to make sure that
their children are in the best position
to become who they are meant to be.
The loss of a child
is perhaps one of the greatest pains
that a human being can endure
and it is a pain that God bears for us,
that God bears with us,
so that joy may come at
Eternity's sunrise
when Heaven's morning breaks
upon us.
It is this loss that parents fear the most
and will do anything to prevent,
yet it is God's love to us
that gives us strength
to endure what we must endure
so that our children grow in love
as themselves,
and so that we grow in God's love
as ourselves.
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