“Home Again”

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

August 8, 2004

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

I have been on one this summer, as you know. If you are going to take a vacation this summer and if you have school aged kids, then you had better hurry. Susie and teachers like her have to report for duty on Wednesday. Eight days later, your children are supposed to be in their new classrooms with new teachers and new possibilities.

I guess that I am still trying to live out my vacation a month after being back from it. You will know this. There is something great about vacations, about being away, about a change of pace and a change of place. Growing up, my parents took me on vacations where we went places and did things. I cannot remember a single vacation that we were not on the go from morning to night. We went to places like Washington, D.C. and New York City. In Washington we saw the sights and the sounds of the Smithsonian Institute. I can remember seeing the thousands of exhibits in the museum of history. Of all the things that were there, what is ingrained in my memory is seeing Archie Bunker’s chair. In Washington, I can remember seeing things like the Washington Monument, the Pentagon, and the White House. On this particular vacation we drove, and when we were in the middle of the city, we were soon lost. I understand that navigating your way around Washington is difficult. So I saw the Washington Monument two or three or four times as we passed by it. The third of fourth time around it, I think that my mom asked my dad if he knew where he was going. He assured her that he did. I could be making this up, but after we passed it a fifth time, I think that my mother said, “I always knew that I married Mr. Right. I just didn’t know that his first name was Always.” Those were the kinds of vacations that my parents took me on. We went somewhere, we saw something, and when we got home, we were exhausted. Perhaps that is your idea of a vacation.

Now that I am a little older and working, I like vacations where all I have to do is to go, sit in a condo, near a swimming pool, and read a book. And perhaps, a time or two a day, walk by the ocean. Some folks, when they vacation, get a thrill in the planning of the trip. They love making the phone calls and the arrangements. They love tending to the details, figuring out the best route to take, where they will stop for lunch, and what things need to be taken on the trip. The excitement for them is in the anticipation of the vacation, often not the vacation itself. Sometimes going and getting there is a real let down for these folks. For some people, it takes a day or two to leave their worlds behind, to actually relax and to be where they had planned to be since their vacation last year. Other people can be in the moment immediately, from the very get go. I wonder if you have discovered this. At some point during your time away, there is a turning point. Maybe it happens like this, there you are on your vacation, having a good time when something goes off in your head and this question crosses your mind, “When is this going to be over?” That is the turning point and after it you begin to go home whether the ones that you are with are ready to or not. You are done with your vacation and you are longing for your own house, your own bed, your own routine, and familiar voices. And sometimes you even long to get back to that job that you could not wait to leave just a few days before. Of course this does not happen in all of you. I will admit that it does not happen in me. But sometimes we long for home.

I heard a story about a senior pastor who went with his youth minister and the youth of his church on a floating trip on the Colorado River. By the way, going on a youth trip is no vacation! It was a great trip. It was exciting being on the rapids of that river. It was great except for one thing. It rained every night. Because they were camping along the river, the group slept in sleeping bags. There was no room in their rafts for tents. So every night, when it rained, they got wet. One night, in the middle of a downpour, the pastor and the youth minister were lying near each other. Their heads were positioned so that they could hear each other. As the rain continued to fall, the pastor began to talk, more to himself and under his breath than to the youth minister. He asked these things, “What am I doing out here? I have a nice home, a loving wife, a warm and dry bed. What am I doing out here?” You see, he had made the turn and he was ready to be home. We all have a basic need, a longing deep inside of us, to find someplace where we feel comfortable, where we have a sense of belonging, a place that we can call home. Where is home for us? For some of us, it is the place that we are living right now. For others of us, it is a place in the past, a house that we grew up in, or one that we once lived it. So it is a going back place to a happier and more peaceful time. You will know this, sometimes people, who have lived somewhere else for years, still talk about returning home.

In our scripture lesson for this morning, from the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we meet again Abraham. Someone who is considered one of the great men of the Bible. He longed for a home, a place that not necessarily was where he had been before. The writer of Hebrews pens these words, “For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” This eleventh chapter of Hebrews is often called the faith chapter. It begins with a great definition of faith, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” That is the writer’s definition. We could easily come up with one of our own. With his definition set out, the writer of Hebrews gives a host of examples of people who were faithful when God had plans for their lives. But the lectionary asks us just to consider Abraham. The verses that make up our lesson for this morning tell us that when the call of God came to Abraham, he obeyed. That is, he got up from where he was and set out for a place, a destination that only God had in mind. He left his hometown of Ur of the Chaldees. A place, I am sure, was comfortable for him. We know that Abraham is up there in years. Our lesson has these words, “...and this one as good as dead...” So Abraham is up there in years. Most likely he is comfortable and settled in where he is. It is there that God calls him to go to another land, to another place, a place that was the equivalent of half way around the world. As I just said, it is a destination that is not revealed to him. He is to start out in faith and when he gets to where he is supposed to be, God will let him know that. Now that is faith. We are told that when he arrived there, in the new place, a place that we know as the Holy Land, he pitched a tent, as though he was in a foreign land. We do not really know why that is. Maybe he was hoping that he could just pack it all in and head back home. Perhaps God was saying to him, “We are not there yet.” I do not know. What I think, though, is that Abraham was more than frustrated with the decision to live in a tent, because in the very next verse, we read, “He longed for a city with foundations whose architect and builder was God.” He longed for a city with foundations. He wanted something solid. He wanted somewhere where he could put his roots down. I do not think that he wanted to go back home, to Ur. I think that wherever he was, he wanted to have the feeling of being at home.

Now, is there anything wrong with that? I don’t think so. In fact, I think that that is what we want for ourselves. I think that we, too, want to feel at home wherever we are. Susie and I have now been married for eleven years. In those eleven years, we have lived in three different cities and five different places (two apartments and three houses). In these eleven years, we have pastored three charges and four different congregations. We stayed four years at the first two charges and so far we have been here for two years. The longer you are in the ministry, the longer you get to stay in one place. So we are hoping for a longer tenure here, much longer. That is our ministry’s disclaimer. But in each place, we have put down roots. Which, by the way, is the only way to be a good pastor. And in each place, including this place, we have had the feeling of being at home. We all want that.

In the Bible, even in our lesson for this morning, this being at home is talked about in terms of looking for a city. The one being searched for is not a earthly place, like Little Rock, but a heavenly space. We see this same idea in our lesson from Luke’s gospel. In it, Jesus is on his way to the greatest city of his day, Jerusalem. We know that he will meet death there. He knows why, but his disciples do not know why. So they are in the same boat that Abraham is in. They are going somewhere without really knowing why. In the face of all of this. In the face of approaching pain and separation, Jesus says, “Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” What exactly is the kingdom? When Jesus talks about the kingdom and when the writer of Hebrews talks about the city, they are talking about the same thing. They are talking about that place where we are brought together for a time, to try our best to do God’s will, to live under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be surrounded by people who will take care of us and keep us in God’s love. It is the place and it is in these people that we can confess our biggest dreams and our greatest failures. It is in these people that we are held accountable and whose friendship is through thick and thin. It is in these people, who are walking with us, who love us no matter what. That is the kingdom for us. That is the city that Abraham longed for. This kingdom, this city, can be huge or it can be very small. But the city, the kingdom, is that longing deep inside of us to be connected to those around us. It is a gift that is given to us. It is the way that God made us. And when it happens, it helps us to feel at home wherever we are. I want you to understand it.

But I also want you to understand this. Not only can we have it, we must try and create it for others, too. One of the trends that we know happens is that teenagers cannot wait to get out of the house when they graduate from high school. Sometimes parents cannot wait for them to leave. Most of the time they want to go to school somewhere or to work somewhere as far away from home as possible. And when it is time they leave. They go away, perhaps to a large city, and they look for something. Sometimes they look to lose themselves, to disappear and to never come home again. Sometimes they find themselves and sometimes they are found. It does not always happen, but sometimes it does. When they are a little older, they leave again. They want to go home again. They long for a more simple time. They look for meaning and they search for a change in their lives. They are looking for new possibilities, but mostly they are looking for a connection. And our job, our calling in life, when we have found a place to call home, is to help others and to welcome them home, no matter where they have been.

Let me close with this. A preacher friend of mine told me about a poem that was written by Edwin Markham whose title is Shoes of Happiness. You will recognize the theme of the poem. Whether you have heard his version of it or not, you will nod your head when I am finished telling you the details of it, because it’s story line is familiar. Shoes of Happiness is a poem about a shoemaker named Conrad who dreamed one night that God would come and visit him the very next day. He woke up early, and began to clean his house and his shop. After all, if God was coming by there, it needed to be tidy. Just after his breakfast, a beggar came by Conrad’s shop needing help. Conrad did the only thing that he knew to do. He gave the young man a pair of shoes. Later in the day, an older woman came into Conrad’s shop. She was loaded down with all of her bundles. She was tired and worn out. And since it was lunch time, he decided to fix her a hot bowl of soup complete with cornbread. Late in the afternoon, a young girl came by his shop. She was lost and did not know her way home. Conrad knew her and he knew where she lived. But he did not want to leave his shop because he was afraid that God might come while he was gone. But still, he took the girl by the hand and led her home. When he came back home, it was almost dark. He fixed his evening meal and prepared to go to bed. In his own bed, he said to God, “God, I don’t know what happened to you today. I was sure that you would come by here today.” From the heavens, Conrad heard God’s voice. It said this, “Conrad, I did. I came three different times. Each time you received me well.”

Deep inside of us is the need to belong and to be at home wherever we are. We all know that. But deep inside the heart of Jesus is his desire for us to help each other. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to a minister friend of mine who helped pave the way for this sermon)