Homecoming Sermon 2013
Lectionary readings
Happy Homecoming Sunday Everyone! It is very good to see you all and it feels so wonderful to be back.
There is a story about a minister trying to get serious. In doing so she speaks about the imminence of death and its power over her congregation. Her opening sentence was that “in 100 years, every member of her parish would be dead.” And with that, a man in the fourth row began to laugh. Now there is nothing in the world more upsetting and disconcerting to a preacher than to have someone miss the mood and the intent. So she thought the brother had misheard her and she said again,
“I’m here to say that within the next 100 years, every member of this parish will be dead.”
At that, the man laughed again. The minister began to get a little angry and was losing her temper. So she turns to the laughing man and said, “You think that’s funny?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why do you think it’s funny?”
“Because I don’t belong to this church!”
Although I don’t intend to echo this minister’s shocking opening sentence, you will probably agree with me that in our Gospel story I have a challenging and even more shocking statement to deal with. This morning we encounter very unexpected and troubling words from Jesus, who is often portrayed as the epitome of gentleness and compassion. He shouts that “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” This is not gentle-Jesus, meek-and-mild. This isn’t the comfort for which we come to church. When we initially hear this we are taken back, because this is the same Jesus who said that we should not hate our enemies but instead love them. It was also Jesus who said the two most important things you could do were to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Surely we are not expected to love our neighbor as we love ourselves and at the same time, detest our parents and siblings.
Recall, Jesus frequently spoke in parables and while is not captured in this scripture, I believe, Jesus went on to explain this very important message and I think today his explanation will go something like this:
“My Ministry, my vision is to create God’s Kingdom here on earth. I am asking you to be a citizen A NEW KINGDOM,
· a citizen that does not hate,
· a citizen that takes care of the poor,
· a citizen that sees no value in a class system that doesn’t provide justice for all,
· a citizen that respects the dignity of every human being.”
Yes, maybe Jesus could have used a better word than “hate”, but I think he was asking the crowd to look thoughtfully and squarely at themselves and to consider their values, their priorities and most importantly to see the disconnect between who they were and who Jesus was calling, inviting, pleading for them to be. Jesus mentioned the thoughtful planning of a king going out to wage war and a builder calculating and designing a plan to construct a new tower.
His message to those gathered, as it is to us today, is an invitation, all be it an informed invitation. It is an invitation to be architects and citizens of the Kingdom of God. It is an invitation to find home in God and his Kingdom. Home is when we are with God – not in the conservative Evangelical sense of the afterlife (“now the faithful deceased are with God”) -- no, our true home is much more radical than that. Being at home with God means having God and God’s values as our home base. This of course means that when we are at home in the world, we are embodying God’s values and we are experiencing God’s presence while we are walking around in our daily life and work.
Jesus is our primary example of someone who was at home in the world. That is because he was constantly at home with God in his heart, in his thinking, in his relations, and in all his behavior. Jesus is inviting them, as I believe he is inviting us-- to be dual citizens, Citizens of the Kingdom of God as well as Citizens of the USA, or Mexico, or Canada, or the Nederlands. I would go so far as to say that, as disciples, Jesus expects that our primary Citizenship is with him and the Kingdom.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in Washington DC at her installation ceremony opened her sermon by asking: Where is home for you? How would you define your home? What makes it home? The familiar landscape, a quality of life, or the presence of particular people? She went on to say: The home we ultimately seek is found in relationship with the creator, with the redeemer, and with the spirit. When Augustine says "our hearts are restless, O God, until they find their rest in you," he means that our natural home is in God. Schiori reminded us in her sermon, that "home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in." We all ache for a community that will take us in, with our warts and all, our quirks and our petty meannesses – and yet they still celebrate when they see us coming!
That vision of homegoing and homecoming that underlies our deepest spiritual longing is also the job assignment each one of us gets in baptism – go home, and while you're at it, help to build a home for everyone else on earth. For none of us can truly find our rest in God until all of our brothers and sisters have also been welcomed home like the prodigal.
Today is our first homecoming Sunday together. Things may look a little different than how they have looked in the past. Going forward I want Messiah to mark this Sunday as a day that brings us all home, a day that brings us fully into community.
I want today to be a day where we celebrate our being family and acknowledge the many gifts we have coming home.
· Bob and Karen, welcome home and by the way I promise to restock the freezer
· Mark, Sandra and Andrew, welcome home
· Tom, our Mount Witney hero, welcome home, glad you returned safely and don’t do that again
· Julie/ Jim/Jihae/Sona welcome home
· Carol Harvey, welcome home—
and to all of you that journeyed and all of you that stayed close to keep Messiah shinning as that Beacon of light, welcome home.
Now rested my friends in the coming year I ask you to lift up your voices. Lift them up in such a way that they are heard in our committees, the vestry, stewardship, our peace and justice ministries, our children’s program and the choir. Lift them up in such a way that anyone in Santa Ana and all around Orange County know that there is a place here for them, that Church of the Messiah, this Church!! believes boldly that we are called as Christians to be about creating God’s Kingdom right here, right now in our time.....WELCOME THEM HOME!
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