Back to Church Sunday Lev. 3:22-23 9-18-11 “Coming Back Home” Dr. Sloan 9-18-11

Today is back to church Sunday.  There are over 10,000 churches in America taking part in this event.   We think it is always important to put out the welcome mat and invite people home to God.

     One of my relatives when they were a child kept running away from school when they were in first grade.   He did this about eight times.  He didn’t like his teacher, didn’t like his schoolmates, so he would just run away.   He often would find his way back to his home after walking the half mile or so between the school and his home.   His parents punished him each time he snuck off.  They brought in guidance counselors, psychologists, but the boy just wanted to go back home.  Home for him was safer.  Home was a place where he knew  he was loved and cared for.  He was the youngest of four and so his brother and sisters loved him.  Home was the place where he was taught right from wrong, where he was educated about life.  Home was his rock- his security. 
     The church is such a home. It is a place where we should long to be.  We call this room a “sanctuary”- a holy refuge if you will.  Here you are loved by God.  Here you are taught values and when you are sick or hurting we pray for you-and visit you or bring you food from Helping Hands.   Here you have the opportunity to get to know other people and they become like Jesus said, our “brothers and sisters.”  Here you can find encouragement when you are down, hope when you are hopeless, strength when you are weak, a fresh start when you are stuck, forgiveness from the past.  Here you have something to sing about and a wonderful choir to sing for you (on tune too).   Here the real edge of life is experienced with the celebrations of birth, and weddings, and going into adulthood- with confirmation, and funerals.
     In some ways- the church is home because it makes the outstanding claim that it is the house of God- where God promises to meet us.  The scriptures say, “Where two or three are gathered in my name there I am in the midst of them!”  In a sense God is with us everywhere- but He makes a special claim to be here.   The promise is made not because the bricks and mortar are special or the sign out front says this is a church—but the bricks and mortar become a home because God is here.  He promised to be where His people are- where two or three are purposefully gathered together in His name.   Should we quit gathering, I suppose God would quit coming too.  When my oldest daughter went off to college, she made a sign that said, “Home is where your mother is.”  The church is our home because this is where God comes to meet with us.  On rare occasions you may meet him on the lake at sunrise, or on the golf course when you fall to your knees in despair or joy…but much more frequently God is where He promises to be… in His house with His people who are focused on Him.   So…welcome home.  In our passage, the writer of Lamentations speaks of God being his hope his home.  God is steady and faithful. We can always come back to Him because we know where He is .  He is here waiting on us to come back.
    In some ways the church is old, but in other ways it is new.   For some young people it is not new enough for some older folk it is not consistent enough.  But in our passage, it is implied that God (and His church) is both old and new.   He is old in that He has been around and will always be around.  His old promises are still good.  His person does not change.  He doesn’t lie or even need to repent (Numbers 6:23).   But the other thing is that God presents to us newness every day.  Life is old, but each day is new.  The tune and beat may change but the song is still the same.  Everyday is a remix.  The sun is old, but each sunrise brings with it new opportunities, new hope, a new chance to take a step away from past problems, heartaches and failures, and take a step toward what is real, good, and true.  Many times in scripture it says “This is the day that the Lord has made- we will rejoice and be glad in it.”  Each day is a new gift for us to unwrap and use as we will.  The writer of this passage had his home ripped away, his land destroyed, his place of worship burned in spite, his relatives were killed.  But he was saying here each day had new healing in it- new mercies.  His mercies never come to an end- never- that is an old truth that will never change.  But the good news is that these same mercies are new every morning!  Every morning God shows a new way of being compassionate, merciful.   The church is an old place where new life is found.   When we went to Israel we saw some olive trees that were around in the time of Jesus- about 2,000 years old.  The image of the church is a new shoot coming out of an old tree.  The church is constantly changing, yet our roots run deep.  The church is continually adapting so that it can address the world.  The church is not interested in being fashionable, but it is interested in speaking to the joy and the sin of the world around it.  In general, the church declines when it is timid or unfaithful.   The church grows when it is bold in its faith and seeks God’s presence.  It is also the same with us.  We shrink away from God- have less enthusiasm for Him- when we are hiding our faith, not reaching out, not speaking up.   But we grow when we are not afraid to identify with God, when we are seeking Him and His will for us. 
    These are some of the most meaningful verses in scripture.  They remind us that God is faithful to us, and that His promises and mercies are new every day for us.  But it is the context in which they are written that remind us why these things are so meaningful.   The context is expressed well in the Disciples Purple book that many of our members are studying: The women were raped, children were starving, elders were mourning.  Those able to walk- anyone with any ability were taken into exile.  The carefully crafted Temple was utterly destroyed; animals were gone, crops destroyed- and lands salted.  It was a terrible situation- a nightmare.
     Why was this believer able to hold onto his faith in such a terrible context? 
I believe it can be illustrated from a book by Kyle Idleman called “Not a Fan.”  The writer of Lamentations was not a fan of God but a devoted follower of God.  A fan is an admirer.   A fan may go to the games, watch on TV, but when the team has three losing seasons, the fan goes somewhere else.  Fans often confuse admiration for devotion.  Mistake their knowledge about for knowing- like we know about Governor Hailey without perhaps knowing her.  Many know about Jesus but that is not the same as knowing Jesus as their God and friend.  One of the signs that you are not just a fan but a follower is where do you go when things aren’t going well.  Sociologists are calling the post-911 age “The Age of Anxiety.” Where do you go when you are anxious?
    Where do you go when you are hurting?  Some refrigerator; Some shopping; Some work; some facebook/twitter; some friends, some drugs.  Lamentations 3 reminds us to go to the One who made us.  He says, “I remember my affliction and my wandering…my soul is downcast; yet this I call to mine and therefore I have hope.”  There are times when no one else is there.  There are times when you must face your worst fears alone.  Where do you find your hope?  Believers go home to God- our help is in the name of the Lord who made the heaven and the earth.  There is no help like His. One writer spoke of a parent sending her child to kindergarten and she became a little jealous of the teacher because her son talks about her constantly.  The mother happened to be at school at recess talking to the teacher when the first grader fell off the playground equipment.   The child ran toward both of them, but which one did he go to?  The question for us is to whom do we go?  God is our Creator, and waits for us to come back to Him when we are hurting. Go to Him when you are hurting.  Never forget where you heart’s true home is.  Call Him to Mind.