Coming Home
September 9, 2007

 

A sermon by

The Rev. Dr. Laura Barnes

 

 

Hymn:  Softly and Tenderly

 

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,

Calling for you and for me.

See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,

Watching for you and for me.

 

Refrain:

Come home, come home, Ye who are weary come home;

Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, Calling O sinner, come home!

 

Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,

Pleading for you and for me?

Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,

Mercies for you and for me.

 

Refrain

 

Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,

Passing from you and from me;

Shadows are gathering, death’s night is coming,

Coming for you and for me.

 

Refrain

 

O for the wonderful love He has promised,

Promised for you and for me!

Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,

Pardon for you and for me.

 

Refrain

 

Words and music by Will L Thompson; The New Church Hymnal published by Lexicon Music, Inc. 1976.; Hymn #461

 

Today is a special day, a day of beginnings and endings.  Summer is officially over, and the autumn equinox is almost upon us.  This Sunday, and the next, we begin to re-engage in many of the regular programs and activities of our church. The youth will meet tonight for their regular time of fellowship, break bread together and prepare their hearts and minds for engaging in acts of Christian discipleship.  Seven of our regular church commissions will be gathering today during Second Hour - all of you are welcome to choose one to attend.  Our Faith Journeys commission has planned many Second Hour discussions for us on current topics and items of theological interest.  The Sunday School and Godly Play programs begin next week (yea!).  We have several special events each weekend, you are invited to participate in the Global Days for Darfur on Sept 16 with the Outreach Commission; the Ministry of Caring is having another mini-retreat Sept 29, sponsored by the Diaconate; and the Interfaith Religious Leaders of the San Ramon Valley, or ISRV, invites us all to our third annual interfaith festival for families on Sept 30.  We all have many options where we can choose to become even further involved, or involved for the first time here in our church home.

Today I want to talk about what it means to be at home.  “Coming Home” is my sermon topic.  It comes from the old hymn, “Softly and Tenderly”

Sing:

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,

Calling for you and for me.

See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,

Watching for you and for me.

 

 (invite them to join in...)

Come home, come home, Ye who are weary come home;

Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, Calling O sinner, come home!

 

Where is home?

What do you think about when you think of “coming home”?

The concept of home is a very important one, one which has been central to humankind since the beginning.  In the Creation story, the first man and woman were given the perfect home, the Garden of Eden.  Their punishment was to be cast from this home and to become the first exiles.  The idea of having a home and then having to leave that home is a repugnant one, something to avoid, an idea which can really generate fear within us.  Home is something which the ancient tribes of Israel longed for, searched for, wandered in the wilderness  for forty years looking for...the Promised Land... Home.  We all know the story of how Jesus wandered from city to city, preaching the gospel, but never really claiming an earthly home. The apostles after him carried on his message and were also wandering, homeless itinerant preachers.  Today we work very hard to keep the places were we live as well as “our house”, this house of God, in good shape through stewardship and through elbow grease, such the upcoming All Church Work Day on Sept 15.  Yes, home is very important to us and this priority comes to us from some very ancient traditions.

The Hebrew alphabet has a letter, Bet,  which is transliterated into our “B”. It is their very first consonant.  It comes from the original Sumeric language which is over 3500 years old.  Bet was literally a simple picture of a house.  It still looks like a house in its shape today as it  has a wall, a floor, a roof and an open door.  The Hebrew word for house is bet  and it is found throughout the biblical text.  In fact, the word for house is so central to our bible that it can be found in almost every single book of our text, all 66 of them.  The word house appears over 1200 times in our bible. 

Coming home, or finding our home, is one of the main themes of our biblical text. Let’s look at the scriptures for today and see what they have to say about coming home.

In our Call to Worship we proclaimed these words in the 122nd Psalm:  I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.  Glad, the psalmist says, glad!

Were you glad this morning that you could get up and come to the house of the Lord?  To Danville Congregational Church?  To meet and greet other members of this faith community?

If so, Hallelujah.  If not, is it a temporary feeling or is it something you experience all the time?  Sometimes I find we too often look at what is wrong with the church, what the Council is NOT doing, where the church is not meeting our needs rather than where we can help meet the needs of the church, better serve the Church Council or look at what is causing the struggle within us.  Now, I am NOT saying that if you were not glad this morning that there is something wrong with you.  I AM challenging you to look at your church home and understand how you feel about it and why.

            Do we feel like participating?

            Do we feel welcome here?

            Is this a place we can all call home?

To be a healthy home, a place of welcome, a sanctuary for all of God’s children, this community needs you and your gifts.  Are you participating in the life of this church to the best of your ability?  If not, why not?  Where can you help us become more inviting or more loving?  How can your contribution make a difference to the fellowshipping atmosphere of this church..make it more your home?  Choose a commission meeting to attend today and share your thoughts. We want to hear from you!

Psalm 122 is a song of Zion, a song which the pilgrims would sing on their way up to Jerusalem, which is literally “up” because the city sits on top of a high plateau.  This ascent psalm declares the joy experienced in the ascent to Jerusalem, climbing up the steep road this pilgrim was filled with gladness.  In Psalm 122, the psalmist shares the feelings of joy and gratitude at being able to climb up to Jerusalem and to be able to enter the house of the Lord.  The psalmist feels welcome in this house, this place of worship, this temple. 

One reason the psalmist might feel so glad about this journey is the prayer that is offered at the end of the psalm.  The last four verses are a prayer for peace, or for shalom, the presence of the spirit.  When was the last time we thought to pray for peace in our church? Perhaps each one of us could take a moment every time before entering this house of God and pray that peace might come to its occupants...that peace might come to the family and friends of your DCC family.  What a change we will see in response to all those prayers!

So, as we come into the house of the Lord, let us pray for peace.  I would invite the members of the DCC prayer network to add this to their list of prayer requests for the year - let us pray for peace within our church home.

            Another feeling to be brought into the house of the Lord, according to Isaiah, is the sense of joy and of prayerfulness.  “make joyful in my house of prayer” is what the prophet tells us the Lord proclaimed.  “For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Are we doing that?  Is this a house of prayer for everyone?

As we declare that we are a loving church, an inviting church, a praying church, are we following the words of the prophet Isaiah? 

 Is this house of the Lord truly for all peoples?

Now, we can look around and tell we are not very diverse in some ways, yet we are very different in others.  Many of us come from similar backgrounds and cultures, many of us experience the same struggles with society and the institutions that control our worlds.  Yet, each one of us is a unique child of God with specific spiritual gifts and talents that could benefit this body of Christ, this house of the Lord.  Let’s spend some time and energy toward making this a place for all peoples, for the physically challenged, for the young children, for the elderly, for those who think differently than we do.

I think that this church tries to be a place of prayer for all peoples. I have heard prayers for AIDS sufferers, flood victims, the homeless and children in need. We have prayed for other churches, those of other faith traditions, and foreign countries in this praying church.  My challenge to us this day, as it was in the time of Isaiah, is not to let go of that.  Keep on praying. 

Continue to make this a house of prayer for all peoples, asking God to lead us in the direction of inclusivity and invitation.   God will hear our prayers and we will be changed in ways that you or I cannot even imagine. 

SING

Come home, come home

Ye who are weary come home

This familiar hymn uses text from the gospel of Matthew, the end of the eleventh chapter. “Come to me,” Jesus says, “all you who are weary and heavy laden”

I know there are some out there in this very congregation that can relate.

This has been a very difficult time on members of this church, myself included. The burden of grief is one which can make us feel heavy laden, weighted down, unable to take just one more step. That is a reality of grief, that sense of heaviness.

I am reminded to listen to this beautiful song, the text of Matthew, and the prayers of those who surround us and know that our burden is shared.  This is a community that knows how to grieve and can share from personal experience what it means to go on just one more day when you think you cannot possibly even rise out of your bed.  There is room for our grief, for our burdens, right here.

The invitation today is to live each day as if it is a gift from God, which it truly is.  Live knowing where home is, what is important to you, where our heart is....

(Sing) Come home

            (Sing) Come home, Ye who are weary come home...

Jesus is calling us to come home in this beautiful song.

Do we know where that is?

When I say home, some of us may reflect on the place where we live now, or the place where we grew up.

When I think of home, I remember my safe place growing up...it was an old live oak tree in our front yard. I could climb up into its branches and hide from the world.  As a child of 5 or 6 I learned to seek the comfort of nature, God’s creation, the safety of that canopy of branches.  Many of us envision something in the future or in our past when the concept of home is brought up...what about the present?  Where is our home right now?

            Psalm 122 brings to mind the House of the Lord.

            Isaiah talks about a place of prayer for all peoples, a house of joy.

            Jesus calls all to him who are weary to find a place of rest.

Where is our home? 

            I would suggest that that home is where the heart is...literally.

            We can be far away from here, from DCC, from California and still be at home.  We carry our home with us.  It is that place inside where we connect with the Holy Spirit and know that we are loved and cherished because we are children of God.

Deep inside of us there can be, or maybe already is, a sense of home.

            Yes, coming home is a major theme of our Bible.  We can find home anywhere we go, anytime, anyplace.

            This place of rest that we are all looking for...

            This place of joy...

            This place of prayer for all peoples...

            This home...Is within us. 

            Is right here (point to chest near heart).

            Deep inside we know that home is possible, that we can feel at home.  That is what all the searching is about,

            That is why we are so touched when we hear the words of the hymn:

SING

            Come home, come home

            Ye who are weary come home

            Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling

            Calling O sinner come home.

 

We so want to come home.

 

WE so want the comfort that can be found in the arms of God.

We want to find this place of rest.

We want the peace that passes all understanding.

We all want to come home.

 

Thank you for inviting me into your home five years ago.  It is a blessing and an honor to serve the Lord with you and among you. 

May there be peace within our walls.

Amen.