In My Father's House (Sermon for the Second Sunday of Christmas: January 5, 2025)

Texts:  1 Kings 3:4–15

Ephesians 1:3–14

Luke 2:40–52

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text that serves as the foundation for our sermon for today is our gospel reading, especially these words recorded towards the end, “When his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.’ And he said to them, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’” (Luke 2:48-49).

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,

As we enter into a new year, people are eager or at least feel some sort of obligation to make New Year's resolutions. Eat healthier, lose weight, become more financially secure. Whatever it is, people are quick to think of things that they want to do in this New Year and then oftentimes just as quick to break them. There might already be a few broken resolutions in this room. No matter what our resolutions are, there is one thing more important than the rest to be focusing on. Not a resolution to make, but still something that we should indeed focus on. It's what Jesus was focusing on when he went to the temple for the Passover with his parents. He wanted to learn in His Father's house. Today in our readings, we learned that what is most important is that we are in our Father's house.

Let us pray: Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, Your Son sought to hear Your word and be in Your temple. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer, that we too may desire to be in Your word constantly, learning more and more about who You are and what great things You have done for us. It is through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, we pray. Amen.

There are plenty of voices out there that want to give us path which we should follow, a way we should go for a whole variety of things. As we enter into the new year, I've noticed as I'm flipping through reels on Facebook that more and more seem to be, “Oh this great piece of advice will help your 2025 be better than your 2024”. And then I just scroll right past it because whatever it is, it's just going to be something stupid. There are plenty of voices out there that try to get us to do what they say, try to get us to go their way. It can sometimes be deafening how many voices there are out there. The cacophony of voices trying to get us to go one way or the other can drive us insane. They can make us to just want to be like, “You know what? I am wiping my hand of all of it? I mean to go my own way.” The problem is, what is our own way? Well, we confessed it this morning. “I, a poor, miserable sinner”. Our own way is not good. We are people covered with sin, by nature, sinful and unclean. We are people who have in our very root, by our very nature, sin that plagues us. Thus, when we try to go our own way, when we try to do what we think is best, what's that going to end up being? It’s going to end up being sin. It's going to end up being a way that does not lead to what is holy, what is righteous, what is good, but a way that leads to breaking each and every one of the commandments. As we learned in the Creed, Third Article, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him”. Therefore by our own reason or strength, we can't keep His commandments and therefore by our own reason and strength, all we will do is sin.

We need a different answer. We need a different hope. It was for this reason that Christ came into our world. He took on human flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. He lived the perfect life for us including eagerly learning from the rulers and leaders in the temple. Including eagerly sitting at their feet, hungry to hear their teaching, asking questions, learning, dialoguing. Oh, that we could have such a hunger for God's word. Oh, that we could have such a desire to hear God's word. And then Christ, having grown up, Christ having lived the perfect life for us, took all our sins upon Himself, even our lack of desire to hear God's Word. He took each and every sin of all of creation upon himself. And He suffered and He died for those sins, for your sins, for my sins. He suffered and He died on the cross, taking on the punishment that you and I deserved, facing God's wrath over our sins so that you would never have to face God's wrath. So that God could give you the complete and absolute forgiveness of sins. All your sins are washed away. All your sins have been cleansed through Jesus Christ. God has adopted you as His son through His Son, Jesus Christ, “according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5-7). What wonderful gifts God has given to us as even now He has given us his Holy Spirit through the waters of holy baptism to dwell in us, so that even though we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him, we know that the Holy Spirit has called us by the gospel, that He continues to enlighten us with His gifts to sanctify and keep us in the one true faith. God has worked these great things for you. God has done this for you and continues to do this for you.

Therefore, what is our response? Well, to borrow the old adage, “What would Jesus do?” Or what did Jesus do? He was the very Son of God from whom everything was made and the God who was not anything made that was made and yet He eagerly heard God's Word. He eagerly attended the temple, heard the teachings of the teachers, asked questions, and learned from them. That is what God has called each us to do as well. It begins right here as you all are doing. As you come and you hear God's Word read and proclaimed to you, you get to do exactly as Christ did. As you come and receive His gifts through water, through the absolution, through the Lord's Supper, you get to partake with Christ. But it doesn't end here. This is where it starts. This is the root. This isn't where it ends. We have so many great Bible studies that are offered. Our Sunday morning Bible study, our Wednesday evening Bible study that'll be starting up again. Places where you too can not only hear God's Word, study God's Word, but also dialogue, ask questions. It’s kind of hard to ask a question in the middle of a sermon, but during Bible study you get that chance. There are other times throughout the week, throughout the month that we have special Bible studies as well.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, as we begin a new year, don't make a resolution to hear God's word more because if you're like me as soon as you break it you think, “Oh well too bad for this year. I'll try again next year.” Don’t resolve to do it. Pray to do it. Pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to work faith in you, that you may more eagerly come and hear God's word. That you may more eagerly come and receive the gifts that He has given to you, that He gladly and richly continues to give to you. Pray that He who has begun this good work and you may continue to work this faith in you today and everything. And if you falter and if you fail, and each and every one of us in here will, myself included, guess what? You can jump back on any time. You can continue right where you left off. Pick back up. That's the wonderful thing about God's Word. He always is gladly here to give it to you, to give you that forgiveness of sins. So pray and come. Here is good news of salvation for you. Amen.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.