“There is no place like home” It’s hard to find a more iconic movie quote than Dorothy’s desperate wish to be back home safe and sound instead of all of the dangers of the land of OZ. When bad things happen, there is no place like home. When you do not feel safe, there is no place like home.
“Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars O LORD of hosts. My King and my God.” There is room for everyone in God’s kingdom. “How lovely is your dwelling place O LORD of hosts! For a Day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.” If on an earthly level there is no place like home, then even more so is this true in God’s kingdom on an eternal level.
What makes a home such a beloved place? I have lived for various periods of times in dorm rooms and apartments that are fairly stable structures, brick and stone, concrete and wood. Of course they did not feel exactly like home.
The buildings themselves are not what makes a home so comfortable and secure, but instead the sense of identity a person has in a home, and in many cases because of relationships past or present with others in the home. There is no place like home because home is where we can feel belonging and love.
Home can also be lonely. In time even little girls in Kansas like Dorothy grow up and see family come and go. I have lived alone periods in my life before. And I know some in our congregation here live alone. My experience has been that besides feeling lonely in a home, with the Lord’s presence there is solitude and contentment.
There is a greater belonging prepared for us as God’s people. It is the belonging in God’s kingdom that we have received. This place to belong will find its ultimate fulfillment when Jesus returns, when the Bridegroom comes to take his bride the church to the wedding feast.
What did we pray in the Collect of the Day about coming home? “Lord God, heavenly Father, send forth Your Son to lead home his bride the Church, that with all the company of the redeemed we may finally enter into His eternal Wedding feast.”
The prayer asks Jesus to lead us home. Knowing Jesus is leading us, we can feel secure. We can know joy already as we await the wedding. To be engaged to be married is to have hope and to anticipate a future.
Without weddings and marriage there would be no family, no home to make us secure. The wedding feast of the Lamb, that’s what gives us belonging in eternal dwellings.
Building a home together with family is a wonderful thing. Furniture selections, paint colors, flower gardens. Our brother in Christ JD moved in with his daughter’s family back into the home he and his wife built for the purpose of raising their children. He told me it brings him joy to be in a place with so many memories, with family, a place that is home. And the landscaping and the flowers are indeed beautiful there!
We are building a home as a church family. We build this home, not just with brothers and sisters at Christ Lutheran, but with all of the body of Christ. The common bond we have in the work of the gospel is a beautiful thing.
We build this spiritual home with faith, with God’s Word. With the hymns we sing, with prayers of faith, and with lives that live out this faith.
Simple actions of hospitality and fellowship build bonds in the body of Christ. Some of our members entered into the community of Christ Lutheran Church through Euchre night at the church. Others may have been moved by the fellowship meals after church. (Remember how meaningful those were for our congregation up until March of this year?)
In some cases Christ Lutheran has become a spiritual home through an invitation at a restaurant or place of work, or through attending Bible Study and then worship at a time in life of great need for God’s Word.
Since I have been here I have been heartened to witness the ongoing building of a spiritual home with an event like the Spaghetti dinner which brought so many of our youth together and our congregation members and even many visitors from the community.
You could see the spiritual home growing at times when we had an Easter Egg hunt and a Christmas party that brought many children together around the joyful events of our Savior’s birth and Jesus’ victory over the grave.
I’m sure many of you can remember many a past Easter Sunday we celebrated here, or a memorable and enriching Christmas Eve service or Thanksgiving Eve Service. These are memories of our congregation, the body of Christ, building a sense of home in this corner of God’s kingdom.
All of this building comes through Jesus. We build on the foundation of Jesus alone. By God’s abundant grace, in those meaningful moments in our faith and in our community in Christ, we are very much like like the five wise virgins who have prepared in faith for the coming of the bridegroom, with plenty of oil for our lamps so that they do not go out. Our faith is strengthened and enriched and made alive through Jesus the living Word of God.
At the same time there are many in this world who consider all of this effort to build a spiritual home as folly. They would see it a waste of money to keep up a church building that has air conditioners units go out and other building maintenance costs, 5,000 dollars here and 5,000 dollars there, and that is not to mention the building loan churches are often paying.
We could wonder why we put so much effort into building a spiritual home. I have met Lutherans who have left smaller congregations in the city similar in community context as here, such as Emmaus, or St. Peter’s. A few years back I met a man who was a former chairman of a smaller congregation. He described me how hard it was to stay afloat as a smaller congregation in the city, and he thought it would just be easier if such churches would close and have everyone join a larger congregation. In other words, he wondered if the house is worth building and maintaining.
Our sinful human nature may speak to us and tell us that it is too much to bear, that we cannot build the home in the same way as it once was, too many opportunities have been lost, numbers are too few.
Many in this world would say that everything about our faith is a waste of time. They prefer to spend their attention and energy on things they can see has a tangible result. They would say, what are all of your prayers going to get you? Will God really be there for you in your hour of need?
They are like the five foolish virgin who became drowsy and slept when there was no sign that the bridegroom was coming. They moved on to other things in life, and only at the last hour when the cry went out that the bridegroom is here, then they seek to prepare a spiritual home in haste and desperation.
“Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Jesus is teaching us to be ready for the last day, when the bridegroom will return and call all of the faithful believers to the eternal marriage feast. When Jesus returns we will be prepared because we will be filled with Christ.
This Word has sustained you through trials and temptations, it has brought healing and forgiveness to your sinful life. It has strengthened your faith to endure even the day of persecution. Your lamps are generously and lavishly filled with Christ.
Your lamps are filled with Christ in his font, where faith in Him was created, where you first entered into His kingdom. As you repent of your sins and remember your baptism your lamps are filled.
Your lamps are filled with Christ at this table. Here Christ enters your body and your soul to forgive your sins and strengthen your faith.
I know some of people this time of the year, colder weather, and even look forward to winter. However for many, less daylight, colder weather, a virus that persists to disrupt our life, makes for a difficult time to live through. No matter the attitude it is for all of us, a great time to fill our lamps with the oil of faith. Amen.