Today was one of those deja vu Sundays where the rhythm of church life gifts me with a long forgotten memory. When I left Carrollton International Baptist Mission in the summer of 2007 to purse seminary the youth group was running 30-40 students. This is my last memory, thus the one that tends to stick, however, I think my brain selectively leaves out the many Sundays of the years prior where three of four youth leaders sat around starring at each other, wondering if anyone was ever going to come. Sometimes just got in our cars and started looking for students (young and zealous, yes). And then there were the Sundays, the even more awkward Sundays, where only one student showed up and the decision had to be made. Do we pretend like this is normal and move on as planned, or do we go get Mickey D's? To be honest, our decision varied week to week. I never found a "right" answer, but always tried to make a decision based on the student.
Flash forward five years, after a hiatus in local church youth ministry, to the beginning of another new youth ministry, and as is inevitable, a Sunday with only one student. So of course, the question was posed again. Do we walk to the taco truck, or crack open a Bible? Do I adjust my group activity or run on the fly? Do we attempt the opening lectio divina experience or skip it? Here's a brief account of what happened next (with permission).
Leader (jokingly): Hey, why don't you read something for us?
Student: Okay, okay, I'm going to open it randomly and just start reading and tell you what it means.
Leader: Ummm, could you read Luke 2:41-52?
Student: Awww, I was just going to read something random, but ok. It's gonna be really wonky though because it's the Message.
Leader: It's ok, just read it.
Student: There aren't any numbers! Where are the numbers?
Leader: It must be an older version of the Message. Just read the part about Jesus going to the Temple.
Student begins to read.
Every year Jesus' parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up as they always did for the Feast.When it was over and they left for home, the child Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents didn't know it. Thinking he was somewhere in the company of pilgrims, they journeyed for a whole day and then began looking for him among relatives and neighbors. When they didn't find him, they went back to Jerusalem looking for him.
The next day they found him in the Temple seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. The teachers were all quite taken with him, impressed with the sharpness of his answers. But his parents were not impressed; they were upset and hurt. His mother said, "Young man, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been half out of our minds looking for you."
He said, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?" But they had no idea what he was talking about. So he went back to Nazareth with them, and lived obediently with them. His mother held these things dearly, deep within herself. And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people.
I'd never been so struck by this passage. Listening to the young voice of a middle school boy read the account of middle school-aged Jesus, made me for the first time see this passage not as one where Jesus' divinity shown through in some Gospel of Thomas-esque precocious child as I had previously tried unsuccessfully to avoid. No, Jesus looks incredibly human, a lot like this student who often asks the tough questions that adults have been trained are impolite to ask. As one who has a lot to offer the church even when his wisdom is shrouded in giggles.
Our college women's Bible study has been studying how to read Scripture this semester. One of the tenants we have discussed is reading in community. I could have read Luke 2 a hundred more times in seclusion and not for a second felt what I felt hearing it read by a student. The old stories that I am so sure I know, are living and breathing and coming to life again and again. This is why multi-generational church life is so important. This is why I think I'll continue to hang out with teenager even when they tell me Facebook is for old people.