Home

This sermon was recently delivered by a member of our congregation, Ms. Karen Wray.

 One good thing about filling in at the last minute for the preacher was that the bulletin was already complete.  That was helpful to me because I didn’t have to do one of the hardest things about this service—coming up with a title for my remarks.   Let’s face it, titles are hard…they need to be catchy—informative and yet somewhat mysterious so as to pique interest in what the sermon is really going to be about.  Think about the books that you pick from the library or that catch your attention in a bookstore; consider the headlines in a newspaper or the name of a movie.  A good title can help attract fans or turn folks away.  It’s a lot of pressure! And a lot of power!
 The chaplain at our school related this story about titles.  When she was in seminary, one of the required classes focused on how to write and deliver sermons.  The professor tried to stress to the students that the title of a sermon was extremely important and had the capacity to increase the attendance at a worship service or do just the opposite, especially if the church had an outdoor sign on which the sermon title was posted each week.
 To illustrate his point, the professor related a story of an older woman who lived in New York.  Each Sunday, she would get on the bus and ride down Park Avenue and look at the church signs to see what sermon title appealed to her. Then she would signal for the next stop, get off the bus and attend that church for the week.  As the class progressed and the seminarians were assigned the task of writing their own sermons, the professor reminded them over and over not to neglect their titles.  Each class meeting, he would tell the students, “Your titles have to have the power to get the old woman off the bus.”
 Finally, when it was one guy’s turn to deliver his sermon, he got up to the pulpit, and since they did not have bulletins or signs, prepared to announce the title.  He felt that he had a winner for sure—he just knew that the professor and his fellow students would applaud his choice.  After he cleared his throat, he said, “Today I have come up with a foolproof title that will surely entice the old woman to come into my church today.  The title of my sermon is ‘Get off now—there’s a bomb on your bus!’
 As I said, I didn’t have to come up with a title, but I thought about it a great deal.  And I really felt that the simpler the better, because sometimes few words have the power to communicate a lot as long as they are powerful ones.  And the word that best reflects the thoughts that I am going to share with you today is “home.”

 When you think about it, it’s a great title.  No, it’s not really catchy and it may not entice anyone to get off the bus or step into a particular sanctuary, but it has the most wonderful connotations in the world.  The word carries with it the best that this world has to offer—warmth, love, comfort, peace and understanding.  In a perfect world, we would all have the homes that we sometimes see on TV.  Usually we see this idealized sort of home depicted during holiday commercials.  I clearly remember a Folger’s Coffee ad from several years ago that shows a young man, obviously returning home from being in the armed forces.  It is early on Christmas morning and he is trying to be quiet so as not to wake the family.  Naturally, as things would go in the world of commercials, everyone is apparently asleep yet the Christmas tree is aglow with twinkling lights and discreetly-placed lamps shed a warm glow on the whole house.  Of course, snow is gently falling outside and you just know that Santa has already been down the chimney, eaten his cookies and is on his way back to the North Pole.  As if that is not enough to welcome the young serviceman home, his little sister appears and squeals with delight at the sight of him.  Soon, the whole family is awake and thrilled by the surprise holiday visit of the son, and all is made complete with the addition of a well-perked cup of Folger’s. 
 I hope that when you think of your home, you get the same feeling that commercial was meant to inspire in us.  Our homes should be safe havens from a world that is often too overwhelming, too demanding, too stressful, too distasteful, too upsetting, and well, I could go on and on.  Our homes should be the place we can run to when we need to escape or when we need to feel the surrounding presence of love in our lives.
 That may or may not be an apt description of a lot of homes in our world today, but whether it is or isn’t, I am of the opinion that everyone has a spot in their soul which needs to be filled with the idea of “I’m home.”  And I think that everyone would love to have a place where they felt loved, understood, appreciated and at peace.  Ideally, this would be in our homes with our families, but we live in an imperfect world, and that feeling of being home might not be within the house located at your street address.

 This yearning for home that I tend to think that most humans possess is there for a reason, I believe.  I am no Biblical scholar, let me be clear on that, but I don’t find it surprising the people generally desire to be a part of the idea of a home.  This need to belong, the need to feel that no matter what has gone on during the day, that once you open that door, you will be flooded with a sense of being exactly where you are meant to be.  If that is an accurate description of your home, wonderful, but for those in our world who are still looking, I think that there is an answer.
 I think that we have these feelings because the space in our souls that needs a home is the space where God wants to dwell.  It seems to me that throughout the Bible, it is clear that God want to be with His people.  He desires to be a part of the very days and details of our lives, but since He is not with us physically, we have to invite God to dwell within our hearts and souls. 
 Let’s take a look at some passages in the Bible that illustrate to me (and maybe this is just me; you might see things quite differently) that God wants us to find our home in Him.
 First of all, I ask you to turn to Genesis 3:8 (Read scripture).   It seems pretty clear to me that when things began in the Garden of Eden, God was present with Adam and Eve, at least until a certain point.
 Now, let’s move forward in time a bit and take a look at Exodus 13: 21-22.  (Read scripture).  See, God was with the Hebrews as they were escaping the bonds of their slavery in Egypt.  He accompanied them by day as a pillar of cloud and by night as a pillar of fire.  He wanted to be amongst them, to dwell with them.  Later on in Exodus, in Chapter 25, God communicates to Moses the instructions for constructing a tabernacle so that God can leave Mount Sinai, travel with the Israelites and live among them. 
 What I find particularly interesting is the word “tabernacle.”  Apparently, in the original language, the word dwell and tabernacle come from the same root word, so God wanted to dwell or tabernacle with his people as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.  He wanted to be at home with His family.
 And in the Psalms, we just read in Psalm 90 how Moses describes his home with God in this way:  “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” 
 I know what you are thinking—that’s the Old Testament when God seemed more present, more on the scene.  Well, naturally your thoughts will turn to the New Testament and how God came again to dwell among us in the person of Jesus.  The Gospel of John records it this way (John 1:14) “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”  Once again, God’s desire to make a home with His people leads Him not to build a tabernacle of wood or stone or brick, but one of flesh and blood.
 So, to me it is clear that God wants to establish a home with us and for us; after all, isn’t that what fathers do?  Contemporary Christian author Max Lucado puts it this way.  After quoting Moses in the Psalms, he says, “What a powerful thought: God as your home.  Your home is the place where you can kick off your shoes and eat pickles and crackers and not worry about what people think when they see you in your bathrobe….Just as your earthly house is a place of refuge, so God’s house is a place of peace.”
 Although we have talked about that homes in our world may not be all that we would like them to be, I believe that is a part of God’s plan as well.  You see, even in the toughest lives here on earth, we do have occasional glimpses of the holy; of what life might be if there was no sin.  We laugh, we have fun, we go to ballgames and root on our teams to victory, we celebrate birthdays and anniversaries and we do experience happiness in this life.  I tend to think that our happiest moments, our most serene moments, our most fulfilling moments are only a taste of what God has prepared for us in our heavenly home.  And if He is dwelling in our hearts, He knows that we need some of those good times to balance out the tough times that we encounter in our daily lives. 
 English author, historian and theologian C.S. Lewis perhaps expresses it best when he says, “The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world.  Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to ever mistake them for home.”  In other words, God provides times of contentment, pleasure and satisfaction for us here on earth, because He wants us to continue seeking Him and His will.  But no matter how good or how bad things might seem, no matter what our houses are like, our home is always with Him.
Amen.