Luke 2:41-52
Yesterday I attended the funeral of Bishop Bob Townshend, retired Suffragen Bishop of the Diocese of Huron, and the man who laid hands on me at my Confirmation. His daughter remarked during the service that her father’s ministry occurred during a time of great change in the Anglican Church of Canada, and he was often dealing with those whom we might call ‘anxious’ and ‘symptomatic,’ due to the stress coming out of this time of change. When I look back over the past couple of years as I’ve been moving along through the postulancy process, that theme of change within the Church and ordained ministry has come up frequently, though often more as future promise than current reality.
Today when I reflect on this reading I find myself focussing on the panic, astonishment, and confusion of Jesus’s parents. Maybe this can serve as an allegory for the institutional Church that must face times of anxiety and change, and sometimes struggles with it, and with following the unpredictable movement of the Spirit. Sometimes it seems that as soon as one issue is dealt with, another springs up. This is difficult, but a reality of life, and it highlights the need for mentoring new leaders and boldly facing the unknowns in a way that reflects Jesus's faithfulness to his call.
Can we liken the way in which Mary and Joseph were initially taken aback by Jesus’s maturity and autonomy with the Church’s difficulty in addressing (as Bonhoeffer called it) a ‘world come of age?’
Can we as Church learn from Jesus’s actions in the Temple? True, we are told that he impressed the teachers with his answers, but not before we have read that Jesus sat with them, listened to them, and asked questions. Maybe sometimes we are too quick to provide answers. Maybe our presence as Church would be more visible and effective, not to mention welcome, if we take seriously the call to sit with, listen to, and learn from and about those to whom we hope to serve and minister.
In our age of great change, and in dealing with the anxiety that comes with this change, we would do well to learn from Mary, who "treasured," we are told, “all these things in her heart.” Rather than constantly running around going from meeting to meeting, putting out fires, and trying to drum up ‘business’ in the pews, we need to work, as Mary did, on reflecting on and discerning what we’ve witnessed; on what, through God’s grace, we’ve been privileged to be a part of. And so today we remember and give thanks for Joseph, who played his part in salvation history. And we learn from Mary, who “treasured all these things in her heart.” And we pray for the courage and wisdom (of a twelve year old kid!) to eagerly take part in the coming of the Kingdom of God through authentic engagement with those around us.
- Matthew Kieswetter
[Adapted from my homily this morning delivered at The Chapel of Our Lady and St. Hilda, Trinity College, Toronto).
[Adapted from my homily this morning delivered at The Chapel of Our Lady and St. Hilda, Trinity College, Toronto).
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