Finding Jesus Beyond the Manger: A Reflection for the New Year

As we bid farewell to Advent and embrace a new year, Rev. Dr. Charles Qualls, Senior Pastor at Franklin Baptist Church in Virginia, joins us to share profound reflections on Luke 2:41-52. This familiar post-Christmas text offers fresh insights on communal faith and spiritual growth. In an inspiring interview with host Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime, Rev. Dr. Qualls explores how Mary and Joseph’s search for the boy Jesus can guide our own journeys of faith, especially as we seek to grow closer to Christ and our community in 2025.

This clip invites us to reflect on deeper spiritual habits, shared responsibility within the faith community, and how we might follow Jesus in meaningful ways beyond the manger and the Christmas season.

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REV DR. KATIE GIVENS KIME: Well, at this moment, when we're at the close of the calendar year and at the end of Advent and looking ahead to an all-new year, it is a time to think about new spiritual habits as well, and to think about what it is we're praying for the world about. And, in terms of what you've explored in this sermon, are there specific prayers you have for the world and for how we might move into it as we go into a new 2025??

REV DR. CHARLES QUALLS: I do, Katie. This story, by the way—this text that the sermon is based on—is probably the most frequent post-Christmas text that gets preached across the world. We don't know a whole lot about Jesus’ childhood, and so this one not only pops up in the lectionary frequently, it gets chosen a lot, too. I'm sure you know one of the easy things to miss is that underlying this text is this tremendous sense of community and shared space, and shared parenting. That seems to have been the norm in these caravans.

As the pilgrims came home, came to Jerusalem, came to register whatever was bringing them back for the feasts, they just seemed to travel together. You take care of our children for a while, we'll take care of your children for a while. You have everything you need. We're going to stop and sleep safely in a group for the night.

We're going to tend to each other's needs. And so there is this deep communal backdrop to this text that we also, I hope, find the depth of our faith in. For a new year, I wonder not only where I might need to begin looking more often for Jesus in a new year. I also wonder where I might find deeper community, more community, and what the community might need from me so that I'm doing my part in relating to the greater faith body and the people around me.

 

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Link to Full Sermon and Transcript

Explore Rev. Dr. Charles Qualls’s full sermon from episode #4162 >>>