The Last Child in the Room

MEMO for Those Who Preach

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Feb. 2, 2019 The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple Luke 2: 22-38, Luke 2: 41-52

When Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned/was fired on December 20 many observers were dismayed. Mattis was widely hailed as “the last adult in the room,“ the last hope for maintaining sanity and stability in the Trump administration.

Having an adult in the room can be helpful in many situations – but helpful, too, is paying attention to the children in the room. So let us preachers not leave Luke 2 too quickly.

Note: Attention was paid to Jesus when his parents brought him to the temple soon after his birth “to present him to the Lord.“ (Luke 2: 22) While there his uniqueness as God‘s Messiah was recognized by “righteous and devout“ Simeon and the 84-year-old prophet Anna.

Next Luke describes the“amazing“ experience of the teachers in the Temple when Jesus was the last child in the room with them, interrogating them.

12-year-old Jesus had traveled in a caravan with his family and friends to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When the Festival was over, the caravan headed home---but Jesus was not on board. After a day‘s journey, his absence was noticed. That his parents did not immediately miss him did not mean they were neglectful but that raising up a child was a communal responsibility in Jesus‘ time.

The caravan turned back to Jerusalem to find Jesus. “After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions“ (2:46). He was questioning authority at a young age. His parents were “astonished“ (2:48).

But what did they expect, given the witness of his subversive mother? No one questioned more fiercely the injustice of the economic order under which their people lived than did Mary. The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) still rings with commitment to the poor and contempt for the rich. By questioning authority, Mary authorized Jesus‘ questions.

Having found Jesus, they headed back home. (What a relief that must have been for those temple teachers to finally get Jesus off their hands.) I wonder: Did Jesus stop in to see them when in town for the Passover next year? Maybe they were unavailable.

This story of the boy Jesus in the Temple forces us to ask how our youth would interrogate us.

*I‘m certain they‘d tell us that to continue our denomination‘s discrimination against gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender folks is self-destuctive and sinful.

*And they‘d speak in unison with the recent words 15-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg at the United Nations: I care about climate justice and the living planet...Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury...The year 2078, I will celebrate my 75th birthday. If I have children maybe they will spend the day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you. Maybe they will ask why you didn‘t do anything while there was still time to act. You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes."

Let us listen well to every last child we meet. And be ready to be amazed.

The Rev. Bill Steward is a retired clergy member of the Iowa Annual Conference. Along with the Rev. Bill Cotton, he writes "Memo for Those Who Preach," an email newsletter.