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Grew in Strength and Wisdom

 Last night, we watched a podcast with the Kelse brother's as they were talking to Caitlin Clark. She revealed that when she was in the seventh grade, she was already playing for the varsity team in her school and had college recruiters already scouting her. She said her parents kept a barrier around her until after her freshman year in high school because they wanted her to just play basketball and not worry about college while she was in junior high, letting her just be a kid. This past Fall, Kileen asked her mom if she knew who Caitlin Clark was and she replied, "Of course I know who she is, what do you think, I live under a rock?" For those who don't know, Caitlin Clark broke 'Pistol' Pete Maravich's scoring record for the most points by any basketball player, male or female, in NCAA history last year. Since joining the WNBA this past summer, attendance records, television viewership, and interest has skyrocketed. 

It would be hard to imagine that as a seventh grader, her parents wanting her to have a normal life and realizing she wasn't ready yet, would encourage her to wait until she was thirty years old to join the WNBA. And then she would come out and be all that and set the basketball world on fire. Yet, this is what happens with Jesus, isn't it? When he is twelve years old, he spends three days in the Temple with religious scholars and teachers, asking them questions and discussing faith and God and they are all amazed at his answers. And then Jesus just ups and disappears for eighteen years. At that time, most people got married between the ages of thirteen to fifteen, so by the time they are thirty, most already have grandchildren. 

However, Jesus went into the family business, carpentry. He worked with his father and family and then at some time, he probably took over when Joseph died, as the eldest son. His younger brothers and sisters got married and started families of their own, though in those days, they would have stuck and worked together. So, what was it that Jesus, the Son of God, fully human and fully divine, waited for, almost two decades, until he began his ministry, his calling, his anointing?

Some of the answer was that his cousin, John the Baptist, needed time to start and establish his ministry of calling for repentance and baptizing in order to "prepare the way" for the new Christ. The other part, is found in the scripture. Jesus matured, he grew in wisdom, with God and with people it says. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whom we heard about in October, had two doctorates by the time he was twenty, but the Lutheran church in their wisdom, deemed him too young to be a pastor, so they sent him to America to do a fellowship at Union Seminary in New York City and then to Spain to minister to the ex-pats living there. Why didn't Jesus start his ministry when he was twenty or twenty-five, he seemed to have a pretty good handle on faith and scripture when he was twelve? As we will see in two weeks, some of Jesus' neighbors are surprised at Jesus' words, wisdom, and ability to perform miracles when he returns to preach there, supposedly for the first time though he lived there all his life.

One of the questions I ask in the Discipleship Groups and in Confirmation is when did Jesus know he was the Son of God? Did he always know, even as a young child of three, four, or five? Did his parents have the 'talk' with him when he was ten or eleven, before this story and before he became an adult at thirteen, as was the tradition in that time and culture? Did entering the Temple awaken something in him, knowing that his Father was now waiting for him to begin?

It took me ten years to become ordained, five years of college, one semester off, three years of seminary, and a year to find a church and be confirmed by the Northern Plains Conference to be ordained into the ministry. For in our church structure, a person cannot be ordained until after they have been called to their first church or setting. What I know is that I am still learning about ministry, the church, God, and myself, and sometimes unlearning what was previously taught. And the world, the world is constantly changing, moving forward, one or more steps back, and lurching side to side. 

We can take away from this story, that Jesus had to grow and mature in order to be who he was, all that he was. And, as his followers, whether believing him to be the Son of God, or the Christ and Anointed, or a wisdom giver who showed the way, it is part of our job as disciples to continue to grow in our wisdom, in our strength, and in our favor with God and with people.  Amen?  Amen.





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