Pastor's Message

August 2004

It is fun to go on vacation but it is always good to come home again. I am sure you have heard people say this, and probably have said it yourself.

Why? What is it about “home” that feels so good, even after the best of vacations? Maybe it is just coming back to comfortable surroundings – but surely we were comfortable many times as we traveled. Maybe it is nice to put things back at place instead of dragging all that baggage around and living out of a suitcase. Or maybe it is being reunited with friends and loved ones.

But in our faith we have another image of “home.” Paul writes to the Corinthians (2 Cor. 5:6-8) about being “at home with the Lord” when we are “away from the body,” or in other words, when we die our home will be with the Lord. The 21st chapter of Revelation gives us this same image of “the last days” when the New Jerusalem will be our home, and God himself will be with us. The image of God that comes through these verses is that of a tender, loving mother who “wipes away every tear from our eyes.” But again, that is not this life, that is the life to come.

If we dwell only with these verses our thinking can become a bit “other-worldly.” There are some old hymns that have the sentiment of longing for going to that other world, where we can “be with the Lord.” There is one called “Jerusalem, My Happy Home” that dates way back to 1585. It has 27 verses (plus 6 extra, alternate verses) so I don’t think we will be singing it through any Sunday in worship, but the first verse says,
“Jerusalem, my happy home,
when shall I come to thee?
When shall my sorrows have an end?
Thy joys when shall I see?”
As you go through the verses you get the impression that the song writer had a miserable life, with illness, grief, aches and pains, heat and cold, and in one verse even complains about dust, dirt and spider webs! Poor soul. What misery! No wonder he (or she, because we are not certain of the author) was so eager to die, to leave this life and go to the heavenly home.

But this is not really the full teaching of Scripture. The Psalms, which reflect a faith that makes a difference now, in this world, teach us that God is very much with us already in this life. Psalm 84:4 says, “Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise,” and that is right after the verse that is about sparrows finding a home and swallows a nest, leading us to understand that we can live in God’s house in this life – we don’t have to wait for the next life. Jesus teaches this same thing in John 14:23, where he says, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

I think this is one of those wonderful times when you can have it both ways. We will find no home more comfortable, more peaceful than our home in heaven. But this home on earth can be even more comfortable, more peaceful, if we accept Christ and keep his word. And that isn’t just “at home” but even “on vacation,” as Paul teaches (2 Cor. 5:9) “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.”

Yes, it was good to travel on vacation this year, and it is good to come home. And we know there is an even better home prepared for us in the next life. But wherever we are, if we make it our aim to please God, God will be with us, and it will be good to be there.