Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 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 2:49-52
Maundy Thursday has been a major part of my Christian journey for as long as I can remember, going back far into my childhood at the former East Natick UMC. In the oldest memory, I must have been ten or so and midway through the Maundy Thursday service, I broke the silence to lean toward my mother (who was also my Sunday School teacher) to whisper “I’m sorry, but what happened on Maundy Thursday?” I certainly should’ve known, because we’d gone over it in class, and because, after all, I was at a Maundy Thursday service. I don’t think I’ve ever confessed to the fact that she misunderstood me to have said “I’m sorry ’bout what happened on Maundy Thursday,” and must have thought I was the most sensitive Christian in the room.
A few years later, I was quite a bit more committed to church and the learning therein, and as chair of the worship committee I drafted a service which was used for subsequent Maundy Thursday services until the church’s demise (for other reasons, of course!). It was a service of readings and music, and involved a tenebrae (light to dark) element that we will see this evening at Edwards Church. The creation of that service ended up being a formative experience, and one of those unexpected moments when one moves from the status of uninitiated to leader. The congregation trusted me, gave me the space I needed to be creative, and ended up changing my life.
God, we do not always know what our present actions may lead us to do in the future. Help us to invest our efforts in those aspects of our lives which need our attention, imagining that they may at one point be seen as transformative points on our journey. Amen