1 Samuel 2.18-20, 26, Colossians 3.12-17, Luke 2.41-52
Joint Benefice Service, Bridestowe, Christmas 1, 30/12/2012
Together at Ten / Baptism, Queen Camel, Christmas 1, 27/12/2015 [*]
Today let us celebrate the obsessive behaviour of twelve year-old boys.
Let us give thanks for the propensities of the pre-teen male.
We all know twelve year-old boys. Though we don’t see much of them. They’re the ones who made their excuses at the end of the family Christmas meal and disappeared to their room for a six-hour session of internet gaming, or the ones who buried their heads in a book in the corner while the family party went on all around them, or who went out to meet their friends to put their new BMX bikes through their paces.
Some of us have been twelve year-old boys, others of us have lived with them, and so we know what they’re like - they’re people of passion, their passions often fixed very clearly in one particular direction, a hobby or interest which they spend so much time with, strengthening and deepening their knowledge and skill in it. They’re great people to buy presents for, because you know exactly the thing they’re most interested in.
For one boy it will be the train set - constantly revising and expanding the track, the layout, the rolling stock, spending all his pocket money on engines and accessories, spending all his time poring over railway modeller magazines and on internet railway hobbyist forums contributing to discussions on the finer points of some detail, gaining more and more arcane knowledge of his subject day by day.
For another boy it will be kicking a football around with friends, or collecting coins, or birdwatching or... the interests vary, but the passion and the intensity is the same.
My friend Jim Hart died three years ago, aged 72, taking his own life in fear and protest at the onset of the Parkinsons Disease which was beginning to overtake him. But some time before that he gave me the most amazing gift - a set of diaries which he had kept as a young teenager in the early 1950s, each diary entry describing in the finest detail, a bicycle ride he had taken. These rides were astonishing because from his childhood home in Suffolk the young Jim would cover long and tortuous routes, often riding through the night with no lights, through all sorts of weathers, driven by an urge to explore. As time went on Jim covered most of central England, Northern Scotland, and parts of northern and southern England. In 1955 the young man wrote, ‘The long lines of cats' eyes; the glare of droning night vehicles; the dossing scenes in shabby transport cafes; gaunt floodlit factories; the sight of driving rain in the beam of a headlight; these became the real pleasures of my life.’ [1]
Jim’s youthful obsessions with discovering Britain by bike developed into an adulthood where he forged a career in town planning, and established the Hunts Cross Cycling Group, through which he shared his passions with another generation of boys, some of whom came to regard Jim as a key role model in their lives.
My own obsession between childhood and young manhood, was in another form of journalling. At the age of 12 I began publishing a monthly newspaper. It was called the Family Times and it contained news and features of various events in our family life. One single copy, handwritten in pencil, it got passed around the family each month, and I kept that going for four years, until the month my granddad died and somehow I couldn’t find the words to describe that. But ever since then I’ve been writing and publishing wherever I’ve been, all the way through to today and the Northmoor News. [2]
Sometimes we are infuriated by the obsessions of twelve year-old boys - because their passions take them away from us, they stop them doing their homework or tidying their room or spending any quality time with us at all.
But we know that we can also celebrate the obsessions of twelve year-old boys - because in their own way they educate them, they socialise them, they mature them, and in many cases they set them up for life.
In my last parish, on a Liverpool housing estate, a young man was constantly in trouble with the staff at De La Salle Secondary School because he was never there - he was always up the road at the sports centre kicking a football around with older boys. His family hardly saw him for the same reason - though they knew where they could find him, around the corner practicing his considerable soccer skills beneath an end-of-terrace wall sign which read NO BALL GAMES. And in fact his family fully supported him in developing his skills further than any of them could have originally imagined or wished for. His name was Wayne Rooney. [3]
So the obsessions of twelve year-old boys might be an example to us, an example of a spirit we should never lose, whatever our age or experience - a spirit of curiosity, a spirit of dedication to discovery, a spirit of determination to grow in knowledge and insight and skill, in wisdom and maturity.
Sir Bradley Wiggins recently told a reporter, "At 12 I told my art teacher, I’m going to be Olympic champion, I’m going to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour." [4]
The twelve year-old Jesus was preoccupied with learning; learning from the teachers in the temple the ways of God. This was no solitary task, for it involved him in sitting among them, listening and asking them questions. And this was no selfish task, for the consequences of it were a young man growing almost visibly in wisdom, and wisdom is a thing which is shared to the benefit of all. The adults who shared their time with him ‘were amazed at his understanding and his answers’.
His parents must have been used to Jesus spending time with others, because on their way home from Jerusalem it took them a day to notice he was missing; they were anxious about him then, and they couldn’t quite understand why he had done what he did, nor the terse way in which he explained his actions to them. But after he returned home and was obedient to them, Mary, being Mary, ‘treasured these things in her heart’. And watched Jesus grow ‘in divine and human favour’.
So today let us celebrate the obsessive behaviour of the twelve year-old Jesus.
Let us give thanks for the propensities of that particular pre-teen male.
Because he has shown us how to live towards others and towards God. He has encouraged us to cultivate within ourselves a spirit of curiosity, of dedication to discovery; a determination to grow in knowledge and insight and skill, an urge to develop in wisdom and maturity.
You know, our society has a bad habit of belittling young people and their ways, rather than taking an interest in those things which interest them, making ourselves available to them as people who can take their questions seriously, engage in speculation with them.
We have a bad habit of mocking those who attach themselves singlemindledly to a subject and let it define them - not least those young men who spend all their time at computer keyboards. And yet when we consider Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and the emergence from their bedrooms to their boardrooms of thousands of other youthful computer pioneers we see the truth in the expression, the geek shall inherit the earth.
And one of our society’s worst habits, particularly among religious people, is the way that we shy away from discussing God together: even suggesting that makes me feel that I’m crossing some sort of taboo boundary.
Thank God that Jesus was born and raised a Jew. For Judaism is a faith which people develop primarily in conversation - about God - with each other. God is an open subject to be discussed with others, and we grow in maturity together through having those conversations about how the scriptures relate to our lives. ‘Judaism values debate and does not stifle it’. [5] And thank God for those grown-ups who welcomed the young man Jesus into their company to engage in their theological discussions with them: without their nurture of him, how would the young Jesus have grown towards manhood? They too, are examples to us.
Looking back over 2012 in our churches I think that some of the best times we’ve had have been in the small groups which have met - here in Bridestowe, over in Lydford and most recently for Advent at Bratton - to look at scripture together and bring our our own experiences and questions to open conversations about it. We’ve not always found definitive answers, but exploring the questions together has been very good. The church should be a place which welcomes discussion, which cultivates curiosity and encourages questions about God.
So this coming year, let us celebrate the young and the singleminded, and those of every age who are determined to grow in understanding and wisdom. Let us be encouragers of them. Let us be among them.
This coming year, let us determine to explore our faith, more deeply and more keenly, together, as Jesus and the temple teachers did.
Notes
[*] A shorter version broadened to include girls too, preached at Bonnie Robinson's baptism service.
[1] Boy on Bicycle, Man in Boats, my blog entry at johndavies.org, Friday, September 15, 2006. I intend to publish Jim’s cycling memoirs at some future date, to honour the man.
[2] Northmoor News, magazine of the Northmoor Team Ministry: online back issues here.
[3] Wikipedia, reports that Rooney joined the Everton youth team at nine years old, so by twelve he was well on the road to professional flourishing.
[4] Hattenstone, Simon, "Bradley Wiggins: 'Kids from Kilburn aren't supposed to win the Tour'".guardian.co.uk, 2 November 2012.
[5] Conversation and debate in Jewish culture, from myjewishlearning.com.
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