Covenant
United Methodist Church
Sunday School 9:45 Worship 8:30 & 10:45 am
PENTECOST 15 GOING HOME-JOHN 14-1-20
Have I told you the story of my friend who lost his job. He was 22 at the time.he had finally left the family home and had his own apartment. He was living fairly well off his salary and things seemed to be going pretty good at his new job when it happened. My friend came down with a kidney stone. He ended up in the emergency room twice with pain so severe he couldn’t stand it. Each time they gave him more powerful pain killers to fight the pain and sent him home saying that the kidney stone would eventually pass. It didn’t. he was sent to a urologist and the expenses were quite expensive. The urologist suggested surgery to take out the kidney stone. A month after coming own with the kidney stone he had the surgery… the aftermath of the surgery is what did him in though. He lost his job because of the amount of time that he took off. Then the hospital bills and doctor bills started coming in. He didn’t have insurance… He was without a job and he had huge doctor bills. Rent continued to come each month and eventually the apartment manager told him he would have to leave… he did the only thing he knew to do… he went home. He moved back in to his old room at his old home… My friend told me it was one of the saddest moments in his life. In debt up to his eye balls and living with mom and dad again. He got up each day depressed, and looked at the want ads, looking for a job. He would go out searching for jobs each day and would come home about 1pm or 2pm and just lie around. Every afternoon about 3pm, the young man’s grandmother would come into the room and say, would you like an alcohol rub down, and this little old lady would get down on the floor and give her depressed grandson a rub down with alcohol. Around 5pm the young man’s parent’s would come home and they would sit around as a family and eat a meal together, and watch TV together. The job problem and his bills were never mentioned… Finally the young man got a new job and started paying off his bills. He moved out of the family home, and moved back into an apartment. The young man said, “Going home was one of the most humbling things I have ever done, and yet it was the most healing thing I have ever experienced… The reason I went home was because I knew it was a place I would be safe, and a place I knew I was loved.”
THAT IS WHAT OUR SCRIPTURE LESSON WISHES US TO HERE TODAY. WHEN JESUS SAYS, “IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE ARE MANY ROOMS, IF IT WERE NOT SO WOULD I HAVE TOLD YOU THAT I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU AND WHEN I GO AND PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU I WILL COME AGAIN AND TAKE YOU TO MYSELF…JESUS IS TALKING ABOUT THE MOST WONDERFUL HOME YOU CAN IMAGINE. IT IS THE HOME WHERE WE BELONG. A PLACE WHERE WE FEEL SAFE, WHERE IT FEELS FAMILIAR, AND WE KNOW WE ARE LOVED. CHURCH, I BELIEVE, IS THE FORSHADOWING OF THAT HOME…IT IS A HOME WHERE WE BELONG. IT IS THE HOME OF THE MOST WONDERFUL PARENT WE COULD EVER IMAGINE. THAT PARENT IS WHAT MAKES THIS PLACE HOME…
I HAVE TRULY BEEN BLESSED, BECAUSE HOME HAS ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY FOR ME. I KNOW THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD TODAY WHO NEVER REALLY FEEL PROTECTED AT HOME. IT ISN’T A PLACE OF SAFETY. WELL, MY PARENTS AND I HAVE ARGUED AND FOUGHT DURING MY LIFE. THINGS HAVEN’T ALWAYS BEEN PERFECT, THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF CRISES, BUT I ALWAYS KNEW I WAS SAFE AND LOVED. That is what our home with God is meant to be. For those of you who didn’t feel safe growing up all I can tell you is there is a home of safety for you. God is the great parent of that home and you and I can live in that home today by trusting in Him.
WHEN I WAS A KID GROWING UP ONE OF MY GREAT ADVENTURES WAS GOING TO THE FARM WITH MY FAMILY. THE FARM WAS WHERE MY GRANDPARENTS LIVED. WE WOULD STAY THE WEEKEND AND I HAD GREAT FUN. I WOULD GO FISHING, AND HUNTING, AND WE WOULD HAVE THESE GREAT NIGHTS WHERE WE WOULD BUILD A BONFIRE AND SIT AROUND THE BONFIRE AND TALK. I ALWAYS HAVE WONDERED WHAT WAS IN IT FOR MY PARENTS THOUGH. IT COULDN’T HAVE BEEN VERY COMFORTABLE FOR THEM. I MEAN THE HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEM AT THE FARM WAS PRETTY LIMITED. TO COOL THE HOUSE YOU OPENED THE WINDOWS, AND TO HEAT IT YOU TOSSED WOOD INTO THE POT BELLIED STOVE. IT GOT PRETTY HOT IN THE SUMMER AND PRETTY COLD IN THE WINTER. THE WATER WAS WELL WATER AND PRETTY LIMITED. WE ALL TOOK A BATH IN THE SAME WATER FROM THE SAME TUB AND THERE WAS ALWAYS MORE SAND THAN WATER IN THE TUB. IF YOU NEEDED TO GO TO THE REST ROOM YOU WENT OUT BACK IN THE OUTHOUSE…I MEAN IT WASN’T THE CONVENIENCES THAT MADE IT A REFUGE FOR MY PARENTS…WHAT DREW MY PARENTS THERE WAS THE SAFETY AND LOVE THEY FELT FROM MY GRANDPARENTS, THEIR PARENTS… THOSE PARENTS ARE WHAT MADE IT HOME FOR THEM. THOSE PARENTS MADE IT A SAFE HAVEN, COMFORTABLE, FAMILIAR AND A PLACE THEY KNEW THEY WERE LOVED.
That is what God’s home is like. What makes it home is the great parent. It is meant for you and me. Let us trust God with our hearts and minds and let us live in that home today.