Episode 1502: Going Home

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1, 502 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:06] Ben Cooper: Hi, I'm Ben Cooper. God has invested in you by providing you with your own unique gifts and talents. I challenge you to invest in yourself and in others to become an influencer that impacts the world with your time, your talent, and your treasures by living out your calling.

[00:00:25] The key is staying connected to God. especially during these challenging times. A great way to be inspired to do that is to listen to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:42] Scott Maderer: Encountering

[00:00:48] Emmanuel in this season has a transformative effect. Our gatherings change, our homes change, we change. And yet it is still time to go [00:01:00] home. Let us go home in hope. Let us go home in joy. Let us go home glorifying and praising God. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:01:15] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence. so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:43] In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about first Samuel chapter two, verses 18 through 20 and verse 26 and Luke chapter two, verses 41 through 52. I share how the rhythm of life includes coming and also going home. [00:02:00] And I also share how we were all transformed, not just by the visit, but by the return.

[00:02:05] And how God was with us through it all. 1 Samuel chapter 2 verses 18 through 20 and 26 says, Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy wearing a linen ephod. His mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

[00:02:24] Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, May the Lord repay you with children by this woman for the loan that she has made to the Lord. And then they would return to their home. Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with the people. Luke chapter 2 verses 41 through 52 says, Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover and when he was 12 years old they went up as usual for the festival.

[00:02:53] When the festival was ended and they started to return the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem but his parents [00:03:00] were unaware of this. Assuming that he was with a group of travelers, they went a day's journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.

[00:03:12] And after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting amongst the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, Child, why have you treated us like this?

[00:03:28] Your father and I have been anxiously looking for you. And he said to them, Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. And his mother treasured all these things in her heart.

[00:03:47] And Jesus increased in wisdom, and in years, and in divine and human favor. It's that time again. It's time to go. The holiday has come and gone. We've [00:04:00] gathered, often some from a long distance away, others from somewhere close, maybe even right next door, right in our own house. But we've gathered together and we've celebrated somehow.

[00:04:13] Maybe that celebration came with excitement and enthusiasm, maybe with quiet. consolation and a passing of peace. And even if our home was the locus, the place of the gathering, even there we've been in a new space as we've gathered loved ones together. And this gathering unsettles everything and everyone.

[00:04:41] It's often a hopeful or a joyous unsettling, but it's unsettling nonetheless. Schedules are changed, routines are upended, expectations are shifted regularly, but now it's time to go home. If you think about the story, the shepherds who rushed to the side of the manger, [00:05:00] coming with that angelic announcement still ringing in their ears, and now it's time to take their leave.

[00:05:06] They go back to their flocks left grazing on the hillside in the surrounding countryside. They fulfilled their commission to go and see this thing that had been main node to them, and now they returned. It's what we do. It's part of the rhythm of how we live in this world. We come and we go. The story in the Old Testament from Samuel of Hannah and Elkanah, they went home too.

[00:05:34] They went to the temple like everyone went to the temple and then they went home. It's what we do, except they didn't come the same way everyone else came. Yes, they came to worship. It was part of their faith and part of their ritual practice, but they also came for Samuel, a chance to see their little boy whom they delivered to Eli as a result of a promise made to God.

[00:05:57] And Samuel was now there working in the [00:06:00] temple. They came to make a connection to, to hope he remembered them, his parents who had given him up to the Lord. Hannah made him a new robe every year and brought it to him. Maybe she got to try it on and take adjustments in and make it fit a little better so he could wear it longer.

[00:06:19] So he could wear it proudly, so that everyone who came to the temple would know he wasn't abandoned, but he was loved and a part of a family who loved him. And then they went home. Did they go home with broken hearts? With pride? Maybe both? Mary and Joseph also went home. Not only were they changed, but home was changed too.

[00:06:43] There's this odd little story here in Luke tucked away. It's a rare glimpse of the childhood of Jesus. But even in this little story, we have a recording of how we think about this world and our place in it. You know the story. Jesus gets lost along the [00:07:00] way on the Passover trip to Jerusalem. The parents among us often want real detailed information as how could this happen?

[00:07:07] And it's really not made clear. We don't know, but it happened and there was panic. There was worry and Mary lets him have it. And then she's given a glimpse into a whole new way of seeing. A whole new way of being. Did you not know I must be in my father's house? Must be, he says. Must be. This boy, Jesus, who Luke implies had an inkling of who he was or who he was becoming, like Hannah and Elkanah, Mary and Joseph left their son at the temple because he must be in his father's house.

[00:07:46] You And though in this case, the boy is not left behind again, but they all go home changed in some way. Jesus goes and, Luke says, is obedient to his earthly parents even as he grows in wisdom [00:08:00] and years and in divine and human favor. And we can assume Mary and Joseph did their share of growing too.

[00:08:07] Here's the reality to embrace. We go home, but we go home transformed. We go home changed. I know it isn't Luke's story, but we go home by a different way, a different route. Even if the road is actually the same one physically that we took to get there, the way is different because we are different. Things happened in the gathering.

[00:08:35] Maybe we grew closer. Maybe we overcame differences that have kept us apart longer than they should have. Maybe new rifts grew between us as we realized that we are different people and unable to understand and be understood. Maybe we became aware of the passing of time and now we've learned to love in new ways and to see with new eyes.

[00:08:57] To appreciate with new [00:09:00] determination. Maybe we realize that our circles of connection don't overlap like they used to, and we now have choices to make. We go home changed. That's the message of this grand celebration, this holiday, this holy holiday. Incarnation comes to bring transformation. The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had seen and heard.

[00:09:26] They didn't just return to their work the same way, they returned with glory. They returned with praise. It makes you wonder what it was like in those fields in that region around Bethlehem. Was there spontaneous singing breaking out unusual times during the day? Was there more laughter than usual or laughter that maybe lifted up instead of knocked down?

[00:09:49] Was there a larger vision that didn't ignore the needs of the sheep but saw serving sheep as somehow holy work now? God infused work, [00:10:00] instead of that dirty, smelly chore fit only for the folks on the margins. We don't know, we're not told, except that we know how we look at our work, our rituals, our habits.

[00:10:13] When we have gathered together in the light of love and joy of the Lord, we know how we are impacted by a significant event, transformed by connection and by hope. Hannah and Elkanah went home transformed every single time they came to the temple. You can count on that. And when it came time to return to the temple, they didn't go reluctantly.

[00:10:36] They went with anticipation and with joy because they weren't going to perform some common rituals and join in religious observance, or rather they weren't going only for that reason. No, they were going to connect with family as well. They were going to see someone they loved, to see someone who belonged to them and to whom they belong.

[00:10:58] The time and the distance [00:11:00] did not diminish the relationship and the love. They carried it with them at home and in the temple and on the journey there and on the journey going back home again. It's time to go home, but we go home transformed and being further transformed. We go home and carry a part of our gathering, a love of family, a shared worship, traditions, new observances with us as we go.

[00:11:27] Emmanuel goes with us. It is what the name means after all. Encountering Emmanuel in this season has a transformative effect. Our gatherings change, our homes change, we change, and yet it is still time to go home. Let us go home in hope. Let us go home in joy. Let us go home glorifying and praising God.[00:12:00]

[00:12:00] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to Facebook. com slash inspired stewardship.

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