Welcome Hone

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

July 9, 2017

Welcome Hone

Selected Texts

We start when we are very young,

start with our bedrooms,

putting pictures on the walls,

crafts we made at Vacation Bible School

or YMCA summer camp on shelves,

photos of family on vacation at Disney World

or the Outer Banks next to our beds.

We continue with dorm rooms,

and then on to first apartments,

condos,

townhouses,

the 3-bedroom ranch,

the 4-bedroom colonial,

even a room in a nursing home.

We make these spaces our homes—

home: a place that give us comfort,

a sense of peace and serenity,

a place of welcome, family,

laughter, love;

a place,

the place,

where we feel we truly belong.

Those of us of a certain age

may remember a beautiful,

haunting song by the Beach Boys.

Brian Wilson wrote the song

and sang it so plaintively back in 1963,

sang of a place

where he could lock out all his worries

and his fears;

Do his dreaming and his scheming;

Do his crying and his sighing,

Lie awake and pray…

(“In My Room”)

For Wilson, a teenager at the time,

he was singing of his room,

his room, which for him was home.

There is something in all of us

that longs for home,

searches for home.

Home – not a house;

Home is more than structure,

more than walls, furniture and appliances.

Home is an embrace,

a deep breath,

a place where the door is always open

– to you.

                                            

Home is the place we spend our life seeking,

all of us restless,

whether we admit it or not,

Augustine spot-on when he wrote

more than 1500 years ago,

“God, you made us with yourself as our goal,

and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

(“Confessions”)

Our hearts are restless;

we are restless,

until we come to rest in God;

until we find our home in God,

until we make our home in God.

The Bible is filled with story after story

of how we humans scramble, stumble,

and tumble our restless way through life,

filling our lives with possessions and things,

things we think will nourish us,

but turn out to be lifeless and empty.

The book of Jeremiah—

which for a book written more than

2600 years ago,

is as timeless a book

as might be found in Scriptures—

shows us the folly of our ways,

and God always wise to them, always:

“For from the least to the greatest of them,

everyone is greedy for unjust gain;

and from prophet to priest,

everyone deals falsely.

They have treated the wound of my people

carelessly,

saying, “Peace, peace,”

when there is no peace.

They acted shamefully,

they committed abomination;

yet they were not ashamed,

they did not know how to blush.”

(Jeremiah 6:13-15)

The Reverend Frederick Buechner has written,

“Our stories are all stories of searching.

We search for a good self to be

and for good work to do.

We search to become human in a world

that tempts us always to be less than human

or looks to us to be more.

We search to love,

and to be loved.

And in a world where it is often hard to believe

in much of anything,

we search to believe in something holy

and beautiful

and life-transcending

that will give meaning and purpose

to the lives we live.” 

We search,

for we are restless

until we find our way home,

home to God,

home with God.

The joy is that we can find our way there

here and now,

our lungs still full of breath,

the majesty and mystery of

God’s world all around us.

We don’t have to wait for that euphemism

we use for death,

one I’ve never cared for

because I think it is wrong,

that in death we go home,

that God calls us home.

No, we can find home in life.

Here, now.

Our Lord Jesus Christ shows us the way,

the way home,

with his invitation:

“Come to me, all you that are weary

and are carrying heavy burdens,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;

for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy,

and my burden is light.”

(Matthew 11:28)

“Come to me”,

our Lord says to us,

all  of us with restless souls,

chasing sign after sign,

everyone that looks like it says,

“Welcome Home”

but which we find on closer inspection,               

say, “Welcome Hone”,

a critical piece missing,

the most critical piece,

the God piece,

the Christ piece,

missing,

the piece that gives peace to our souls.

As Reverend Buechner has put it,

“the home we long for and belong to

is finally where Christ is.

I believe that home is Christ’s kingdom,

which exists both within us and among us

as we wend our prodigal ways

through the world in search of it.

…[Christ’s] peace comes not from the world

 but from something whole and holy within himself

which sees the world also as whole and holy,

because deep beneath all the

broken and unholy things

that are happening in it even as he speaks,

Jesus sees what he calls the Kingdom of God.”

The Kingdom of God,

the home we long for,

the home we can find even here,

even now,

for as our Lord has told us,

“the kingdom of God is among you,

the kingdom of God is within you.”

(Luke 17:21)

Our Lord has the sign out for us

for you and me, here and now,

the sign that says, “Welcome Home”.

“Home”, not “Hone”;

there no piece missing.

The sign calls us to this Table,

where our Lord will feed us,

nourish us,

quench our thirst,

still our restless hearts,

and grace us with peace in our souls.

The sign is out.

It says, “Welcome Home”.

Welcome Home to all who seek,

who search,

who long to find peace,

long to find wholeness,

long to find the holy.

We who gather round this Table

are in the presence of our living Lord,

and he says to each of us,

all of us:

“Welcome Home.”

AMEN 

(The idea for this sermon and the phrase "welcome hone" came from the writings of Rev. Frederick Buechner)