Coming Home
September 9, 2007
Genesis 45:1-15, 25-28
Ruth 1:1-17
Luke 15:11-24
The concept of home is a difficult concept for many of us. It’s hard because of the homes that we have come from as children. It’s hard due to the circumstances we’ve created as adults. And yet I believe that most of us recognize what it means within our very bones, to be home. This small community of faith belongs to a network of churches that stretch across the United States known as the United Churches of Christ. We in the United Church of Christ believe in an extravagant welcome. We believe that no matter who you are or where you’ve been on life’s journey, you are welcome here. We believe this not because it’s nice. We believe this not because it’s trendy. We believe this not because we want to save the pitiful souls that cross the threshold. No. We believe in a still speaking God who calls to us from Ancient story captured in Scripture. Stories that are filled time and time again with all different kinds of people showing up and mirroring the image of God in the least likely of places. Places that immediately become home.
Like the story of Joseph. Joseph came from one of the first majorly dysfunctional families. The father, Jacob had grown up in a competitive household. He had a difficult and painful relationship with his brother. He took this difficulty into his own life as he married and began having children of his own. And his children were selfish, jealous and cruel. In fact so cruel that they decided to kill their father’s favorite son to open the position that one of the other brothers might rise to favorite. It wasn’t a home that inspired love or being. But when the time came, they just couldn’t kill the brother, so they sold him off into slavery and just told their father that he was killed by a bear. This young person, Joseph, was sold off into a foreign land, Egypt to be a slave for his lifetime. It was so far away and so foreign Joseph’s brothers had no fear he would ever return home or be heard from again. But through the twists and turns of life, he ends up thriving in Egypt. Joseph becomes the Pharoah’s assistant. Joseph rises in power and importance because of his belief in the power of visioning through dreams. And, the Pharoah desperate to understand his own dreams calls upon Joseph to interpret. Famine strikes the land. And, the famine is so harsh and cruel it brings people from many lands to Egypt looking for grain. Joseph had devised a system for storing grain that would provide for Egypt during this harsh time. This hunger. The fear of dying and watching the family slowly suffer and die because of this starvation, forces the brothers to approach the country of Egypt where grain is said to be found. The brothers unknowingly face the very brother that they had sold off, killed, driven away from their home, their customs, their way of being in this world. And, in good sibling form, Joseph is angry with them and puts them through all sorts of trickery and revenge. But finally, out of that starvation to know what has become of the family that he remembers. Out of that hunger to see his beloved father again, Joseph is compelled to tell his brothers who he is. And, he weeps. He cries out. He is overcome with the grief of letting go of all of the painful stuff that has estranged them for so long. And, after the brothers are reconciled with Joseph they carry the news to their father who immediately leaves everything to go to Joseph. It matters not the physicality of home, Joseph is compelled to be with his son, to reunite his family, that he might once again be home.
Like the story of Ruth. Women were not allowed to create families. They were sold off to produce children that would grow to become a strong nation. Either the leaders of the nation, the men or the producers of more men, the women. And, when the men died, they were nameless, faceless, without identity. They had no source of income or ownership in land. They would find themselves penniless and homeless. Naomi finds herself in this place. She begins her days surrounded by prosperity, a husband and two sons. Both sons find wives which bodes well for grandchildren, the continuation of social security when again famine strikes. This hunger gobbles us Naomi’s husband and two sons leaving not only her but also her daughters-in-law behind. Naomi begs the daughters-in-law to leave her and go back to their own people, for she has nothing left that can help them. Orpah, she does what is normal. She obeys. She goes back to her people. Not out of anger, just the practical hope to survive, have a name, have a people. But Ruth, Ruth does a weird thing. She throws off her identity, the nation from which she comes, Moab. Which means she also throws off all her customs, foods, culture that would help her to feel at home and says no, she is staying with Naomi. She vows to cling to Naomi adopting her God, her customs, her people as Ruth’s own.
Like the story of the Loving Father…We often know this story as the prodigal son or the lost son. But, the story isn’t actually about the son, it’s about the father. This father actually has two sons. And he loves both of his sons. He runs out to meet both of his sons right where they are and tries to teach them with compassion and love. His love for one son doesn’t force him to love the other son less. The father loves both of his sons for who they are and meets them wherever they happen to be on life’s jourey.
We are these stories. We come from so many places and so many situations. The good news today is that it really doesn’t matter where you are from or where you’ve been. Our God calls to us and meets us wherever we are on the journey. God can open us no matter where we find ourselves to feel as if we’re home. Those feelings of being safe, of knowing who we are, of having an identity, of being nurtured, challenged, and supported to become who we are created to be. A sense of home. A sense of home that allows us to breathe deeply into our own selves, evolving from the very seed of beginning to becoming again and again. It doesn’t matter what our family of origin was like. It doesn’t matter what our siblings were like. It doesn’t matter what land we find ourselves in or who we cling to. It doesn’t matter if we squander our physical goods or devote our lives to following the cultural rules. God can meet us in wherever we are on the journey. Our God isn’t an either or kind of God that only has so much love choices must be made. We believe in an unconditionally loving God. This means that no matter who you are, you can come home. This God calls to us, welcomes us, beckons us to come home. Come home to your very being. Come home to the peace that dwells within. Come home to being together in ways that are not either or but both and. Come home to ways of reconciliation with your past and hope for the future. Come home to a love of self, a love of neighbor a love of life that turns the world on its ear. Come along and find you have been home all along.
I pray that this home coming, you realize, no matter what hunger you have, God can meet you there.
Play video.
Let us pray.