Homecoming Sermon

Throughout the 18th chapter of the gospel according to Matthew and in the five verses we heard today, in particular, Jesus reminds us of the essential nature of Christian community. For us, the timing could not be better. This morning we greet each other in the crisp fall air – to give thanks and to ask God’s blessing in the days ahead, to offer ourselves again to each other and to new ministries, and to share in a meal together after worship.

This is a morning for coming home. For quieting the restlessness and doubt that creep in while we are away from each other and for honoring the ways we help each other recognize and remember that God is among us. When we are faced with turmoil of any kind, and at times – like this – when there is so much violence and violent rhetoric in the public square, on top of natural disasters, on top of personal struggles and separations and disappointments – that promise might be the only thing we can say with certainty.

But, it is a certainty.

Every time two or more of us are together in Christ’s name, Christ is there.

All through the pages of Scripture, there is this great theme of longing for salvation, of longing for our home in God, the recovery of something which has been lost: a nostalgia for a lost love, or a lost paradise. This sense of loss, of alienation, is wonderfully and classically expressed in the poetry of the first chapters of the Book of Genesis. God has created humankind to live in a beautiful world and in a perfect relationship of love with God’s creation. But through a fateful act of pride, disobedience and hubris, humankind ruptured this relationship with God and with creation. They are ejected from paradise: paradise is lost. The human condition thereafter is to be one of loss and alienation. But still, deep down, a nostalgia, a deep memory of what was, abides in us. A yearning for Eden. And it is this ‘memory’, this nostalgia, this aching ‘restless heart’, as Augustine calls it, which, like glowing embers, can be fanned by God’s Holy Spirit, burst into flames, and lead to salvation. (pause) I have always appreciated the writings of the second century bishop and theologian, Irenaeus. Writing about the Fall of man in Genesis, he reflects that, when we disobeyed God, seeking to be like gods ourselves, we lost our likeness to God – but not God’s ‘image.’ Genesis says that we were made “in the image and likeness of God.” Although we lost our ‘likeness’, we can never lose the image – the ‘imago Dei’. The spark deep within our souls that is a profound memory of who we truly are. And it is this image— this memory within us—that can cooperate with God’s grace to begin our journey home. Like the Prodigal Son, we can ‘come to our senses’, and say, ‘I want to go home.’ And when we do, the Good Shepherd is there, waiting and longing to pick us up, lay us on his shoulders, and bring us home to God. When we do turn around and long to come home—when our restless hearts find peace once more in God—we begin that wonderful journey of wholeness and deep into the heart of God. We who were made in the image and likeness of God can begin to recover that lost likeness. Every day can be a new experience of wholeness, of conversion – as we take on more and more the likeness of God – as we become day by day more like that unique person whom God called us to be.

I wonder where you are right now in your life with God?

Have you had or do you have experiences of salvation? What are they like? Do you have a ‘nostalgia’ for God – a restless heart? A desire for prayer? A deep inexplicable longing, which no amount of ‘things’ can satisfy? Maybe you’ve had an experience of conversion, which was so important it really changed your life, and set you on the spiritual path home to God. The Psalmist experienced that himself. He writes in Psalm 18, “He reached down from on high and grasped me. He drew me out of the deep waters: he brought me into an open place, he rescued me – because he delighted in me.” (Pause) “He delighted in me.” I love that. God longs to save us, rescue us, to bring us home, because God delights in us. Like the Prodigal’s father, God misses us and longs for us to come home. Somehow, someway, home has a special place in the human heart. It seems as though we are all longing for a place to call home. Whenever we feel lonely or abandoned, we want to go home. Whenever we are filled with doubt or despair, we want to go home. Whenever we feel cut off or lost, we want to go home.

Home is the placing of belonging, of comfort, of love, of knowing and being known, of sharing life together.

For us, Grace is that home when we gather in Christ’s name and remember who we are called to be, the fact that we really can be that person, that we can be that person all the time, and that Christ’s promise to us is real and makes it possible every time we come gather.

This church, our church, is a school for love and forgiveness. It is where we learn to show up and share and take care of each other. It is where we practice imagining the work of God – and claiming our roles in that work – out loud. It is where we practice naming what is holy about what is ordinary and decidedly un-tidy. We need that experience, because we really do get more done together. Christian community is where we practice letting go of what does not belong to love, and of claiming what does...If we give ourselves to that love, we can leave behind the things that haunt and hold us back. We can shed shame and rebuke, and step into new life – one step at a time, together. And when we do, we teach others to do it – inside and outside our community. The love that transforms us and allows us to choose more love also makes that choice available for everyone who encounters it.

Isn’t it amazing that coming home—that the act of returning—creates the motion that propels us forward? The American poet Robert Frost once wrote, “Home is the place, where when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” So, home is where we go when we need to ask and listen for what we are called to next and who we are called to love now. It is where we go to find ourselves—both the old self and the new—and to practice reflecting the image of God. This church is where we gather when we celebrate and when we mourn and everything in between. Its good to be home! Amen.