Unexpected People, Places and Things

1 Samuel 2:18-20
Luke 2:41-52

The Gospel of Luke gives us the one and only account= of anything that went on in Jesus’ life between the birth narratives we = read at Christmas and the baptism stories we’ll read next Sunday. And if E= rik Erikson and others are right about adolescence being the time in our life’s journey in which self-identity is formed, this story may give = us the only clues about how Jesus handled the major ‘task’ of what= we call “adolescence” --- how he found his ‘true self.’= ;

A phenomenon which seems in our culture to begin with puberty and extend into the mid-twenties, adolescence is, sociologically, an ‘invention’ of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Cultures transformed by the Industrial Revolution became more urban, less agricultural, populated by smaller families --- just to mention some of the changes which helped create a newly recognizable stage of life in between childhood and adulthood.

In his book Rites of Passage, Joseph Kett notes that adolescence obtained legal status in the decades following 1920 so that by mid-century virtually every state in the Union had extended juvenile court protections to those as old as 18 and even 20. During that same period, the number of youth in Scouting organizations went from thousands to millions as young people maintained their ties on into their teen years. With fewer job opportunities during the Great Depression, boys as well as girls stayed in school longer: the number of 17-year olds graduating from high school jumped from 6% in 1900 to over 60% by the 1950’s.

Advances in communication and transportation during = that same period transformed family relationships and facilitated the growth of = an adolescent sub-culture with values all its own. By the time the turbulent 1960’s came along, ways in which the adolescent search for self-ident= ity was finding expression in Europe and America were profoundly affecting those societies. Adolescents are not to be taken lightly --- but neither do they = need to be feared.

Because many adults --- especially parents at times = --- ‘throw up their hands’ about what’s going on in the heads= and hearts of their teen-agers who play weird music, walk around in sagging pan= ts and obsess with video games and cell phones, people like me get hired to infiltrate the youth culture (as it were) and, hopefully, provide a positive role model and an experienced voice from an adult the youth might listen to= for guidance in their life’s journey. And then we’re expected to interpret to older generations from time to time what’s really going on behin= d the masks and rituals of adolescents. Sometimes, of course, it is the adolescen= ts themselves who need help understanding what’s going on inside and aro= und them --- which is, when we think about it, really no different from the res= t of us!

Like putting on new clothing that seems attractive a= nd then looking in the mirror to see if its ‘you,’ it’s characteristic of adolescents to try out ideas and make commitments which m= ay --- or may not --- become part of who they will be in maturity. Among other things, it’s a time of idealism, of believing that the kind of world = in which they want to live and find a place is possible, and we know from experience that large numbers of high school and college students look for = ways of “be[ing] the change [they] want to see in the world.” <= /o:p>

Hopefully, such idealism becomes part of the self-id= entity of every youth that grows up in this faith community, and they learn to see= k, along with the rest of us, to pattern their lives on that boy from Nazareth who found= his ultimate self-identity in relation to something and Someone beyond this wor= ld. That boy, as a consequence, was later to challenge the way things are in th= is world with prophetic pronouncements that the judging and redeeming ‘r= eign of God’ is already in our midst --- it’s only a matter of our tuning in to it. Then he did = those deeds of love and mercy we’ve all heard about, just to prove his poin= t. . . . And he’d like us to do the same!

Having worked with adolescents for over four decades= , I often get asked whether I think teen-agers are different today from the ones with whom I worked and played ten, twenty, thirty years ago. My standard an= swer is that the issues and challenges of adolescence probably haven’t cha= nged much in the past hundred years, but the manner in which they get acted out = and, hopefully, resolved depends on what the culture around them makes available= at any given time as means for their expression. The search for --- some would= say the discovery of --- one’s own self identity as distinct from that wh= ich others have given them --- is the eternal challenge of this period in one’s life, generation after generation.

Luke’s story tells us of Jesus’ earliest expressions of self-identity,= and they are the words and deeds of a 12-year old boy. They confirm his awarene= ss of and relationship to a Father greater than the one with whom he was learn= ing the carpentry trade in Nazaret= h.

Prior to this story, Jesus is identified only by what others have said about him --- the angels, Mary, Elizabeth, the shepherds a= nd wise men, the righteous old man Simeon and the prophetess Anna. Without referring to those birth stories, Luke tells us that by the time he made his appearance at the Jordan River --- somewhere around the age of thirty --- t= o be baptized by the man who had “prepared the way” for his ministry, Jesus had already sorted out that most important issue of what we call adolescence. We can only speculate that the years from 12 to 30 were spent developing the gifts related to his identity in preparation for the way his life would travel beyond the Jordan.

Following his baptism, we know that he spent forty d= ays “in the wilderness” struggling with the implications of his mat= ure self-identity before his prophetic ministry of teaching and healing began. = In truth, we all spend a lifetime working out the implications of our self-identities. Jesus was to have only three years to do that.<= /p>

Adolescence and identity formation includes, of cour= se, the development --- or discovery --- of one’s sexual identity. And si= nce you pay me to help our young people deal with that, as well, let me share w= ith you some insight I’ve gained while doing the special ministry to which this congregation called me over thirty-five years ago. Contrary to what we incessantly hear from those for whom hatred does seem to be ‘a family value,’ one’s sexual identity is --- first of all --- only part= , not all, of who we are. But it can be a scary part and has been a troubling iss= ue for some of our young people through the years. Surely, the topic is a troubling issue for Christian churches and will continue to be for at least= the near future.

Among the many hundreds of teen-agers with whom I= 217;ve been privileged to walk for a mile or two of their life’s journey, so= me have struggled with the roadmap they were given both by nature and nurture. There have been some who discovered for sure --- or at least had to affirm = the possibility --- that they were sexually attracted to others of their same gender. As I’ve said on the floor of= Presbytery on several occasions when this topic reared its head, there’s no question, from my experience, that one’s sexual iden= tity is not a so-called “moral choice” that one makes at puberty or during adolescence.

I’ve challenged my fellow Presbyters to reach = back in memory to their own adolescent years and the crazy hormones of puberty t= hat were running around inside them, and consider whether they could have controlled the direction in which those hormones were steering their affections. I don’t think so.

Some of our youth who discovered or affirmed their attraction to persons of the same sex felt OK about it and said they kind of knew it all along. But I’ve testified to my experience that&nbs= p; others would have given almost anything for that not to be true --- = even their lives.

They’d heard the cut-downs in school. Maybe they’d been asked the scary question that’s really an accusatio= n: “What are you, queer?” They’d heard the word “fag” at least a dozen times a day at the bus stop or in the ha= lls, sometimes even from teachers --- and it wasn’t a friendly label! They could imagine the difficulties of life as a GLTB person in our society.

Why on earth would they “choose” to be “gay” or anything other than 100% All-American heterosexual? I = have learned that it is not a disease to be “cured,” neither is it subject to change --- at least according to reputable sources. It’s a given piece of one’s identity that simply --- or not-so-simply --- ne= eds to be accepted --- by everyone.

The sex-education curriculum of the Presbyterian and Reformed churches which we have used with our adolescents is entitled “God’s Gift of Sexuality.” To deny one of the ways in whi= ch that gift is given to some within that species we claim to be made in the i= mage of God is, in the final analysis, a rejection of our Creator’s creati= on and a projection of human prejudice upon a God for whom (if I may quote a former colleague) love is the answer, not the question.

Within Luke’s story is the description of a bo= y who had, as assets from which his self-identity was formed, both a pious family that faithfully kept the Law of Moses, and the temple where religious rites were observed and holy writings discussed. The lectionary today links the Gospel with the Old Testament story of another boy by the name of Samuel. He had been given to Hannah in her old age, and out of gratitude and promise, = she dedicated him to God’s service. At a young age he went to be in the temple and le= arn the faith from an old and wise priest named Eli.

It was while serving in the temple that Samuel disco= vered his identity as one called by God to a special mission. Of the boy Samuel it was said that he “continued to grow both in stature and in favor with= the Lord and men.” (I Sam. 2:26) --- a description surely brought to Luke’s mind when he phrased his story of the boy Jesus.

While yet in human form, Jesus was nurtured in an atmosphere of obedience and worship. From his earliest years his parents ta= ught him to live in awareness of God’s presence. Their keeping of Moses= 217; Law in pilgrimages to the temple taught him to live in awareness of GodR= 17;s expectations. And by the time he attained the age for Bar Mitzvah, Jesus= 217; sense of identity, his awareness and obedience, had grown beyond his home i= n Nazareth and beyo= nd his parents’ understanding. Let us take heart in knowing that can happen = in even the best --- and most unique --- of families, usually beginning at abo= ut that age!