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When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, \u201cSon, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.\u201d \u201cWhy were you searching for me?\u201d he asked. \u201cDidn\u2019t you know I had to be in my Father\u2019s house?\u201d But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:48-52)

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The folks at the temple were amazed at Jesus\u2019 answers.\xa0 His parents were astonished too, but for a whole different reason: \u201cSon, why have you treated us like this?\u201d\xa0 I suppose even the Holy Family has their days.\xa0 Anyone whose parented can be thankful Luke included this story: even God himself drove his parents nuts from time to time.\xa0 And all of us who have been children or are right now can take heart too: even Jesus got himself into hot water sometimes.\xa0

And that is part of the point of this story: Jesus was a normal kid.\xa0 Mary and Joseph were normal parents.\xa0 Their family was a normal Jewish family.\xa0 They had their tensions, they had their worries, they had their big family stories of \u201cremember that time when Jesus ditched us to stay in Jerusalem?\u201d\xa0 \u201cYeah! You nearly gave your father and I a heart attack!\u201d\xa0 All that normal family stuff.

There is an ordinariness to this story.\xa0 And part of that ordinariness is not only about telling us how the Holy Family had their issues too, but also how ordinary the life of faith and faithfulness was among them.\xa0 \xa0Jesus would not have been likely to get lost \u201cin his Father\u2019s house\u201d unless Mary and Joseph brought him there sometimes.\xa0 But they did, every year.\xa0 The house of God was a familiar place to Jesus because his family went to church.\xa0 And when Jesus got to church, he had something to say at the feet of the Rabbis because his family talked about the things of God at home around the dinner table and on the way to the grocery store as Deuteronomy 6 called them to.\xa0

Most significantly though, over the past 12 years of faithful family life, Jesus had formed a living relationship with God, his Father, such that here in these verses he is able to make his public profession of faith.\xa0 All sorts of folks have said all sorts of wonderful things about him over the past few chapters of Luke: angels, shepherds, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon, and Anna.\xa0 But here, for the first time, Jesus speaks for himself.\xa0 His relationship with the Father has become his own.\xa0 It\u2019s not Zechariah, Elizabeth, or John\u2019s faith, not Simeon or Anna\u2019s, not even his parents\u2019 faith anymore: Jesus has come to know God the Father for himself.\xa0 \u201cDidn\u2019t you know I had to be in my Father\u2019s house?\u201d he says.

Far from making him arrogant, however, that relationship with God inspires a deeper commitment in Jesus to God\u2019s ways.\xa0 From this time on, he is said to keep the 5th commandment to \u201chonour his father and mother,\u201d even as he grows in wisdom and stature, in favour with God and man.

Study after study shows that the faith life we live at home matters more to the faith of our children than what happens at school or church.\xa0 And it\u2019s the small, simple things.\xa0 Don\u2019t discount the role of small devotions around the dinner table or before bed: even if you don\u2019t always \u201cget something out of it,\u201d a faithful time set aside to attend to God in the life of your family forms the fabric of faith and gives opportunity for faith to find a way into your hearts, lives, and conversations.

Of course, this is also an invitation to those of you 12 years old or a little more or a little less to think about your own relationship to God.\xa0 You parents faith is not your own, nor can it be.\xa0 You have to find your own relationship with God and give voice to it yourself if it really is to be yours (that\u2019s what we call Profession of Faith).\xa0 Jesus had to do it too.\xa0 We all do.\xa0 And today is as good a time as any to think about whether you\u2019re ready yourself to claim this God as your Father.\xa0 I\u2019d be happy to talk more with you about it if you have questions or whatever about that.\xa0 Let me know.

And parents, despite all our anxieties, that transition of our children into their own responsibility before God is one of those things hidden in the mystery of God that sometimes we can do nothing about but pray and ponder through, like Mary, in our hearts.\xa0

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