Going home rejoicing...

from Helen

Have you ever had that feeling of being away from home ? I remember someone looking after a dog for their friend. Their friend lived in Germany and as they looked after the dog they found him very badly behaved. They tried every type of command they could think of. ‘Sit’, ‘come here’, ‘behave’ nothing worked until they realised that the dog understood German not English !! Who would have thought it

If I said to you, ‘home sweet …’ what would the next word be ? If I said, ‘Home is where the ……… is, ‘ what would be the missing word ? How about, ‘there’s nowhere like …..’.

Home is a beautiful word, it is a word that conjures up lovely images. It may be a nice cuppa, it may be a family meal, it may be your bed, it may be your favourite armchair or settee. Home is an incredible word. I have noticed that sayings about home are generally very positive and the statement home is where the heart is probably sums up that type of feeling.

Our Old Testament reading this morning came from the book Zephaniah (3:14-17). The book is a very miserable one in general apart from the passage that we heard. The book of Zephaniah was written for people who had been taken away from their homes and put under the rule of another country. In the book, up until this passage, the people were being warned that judgment was impending and that the situation was all their fault. Then suddenly there is the passage we heard today in which the people are told to rejoice. A couple of verses after the passage they were told that they would be going home. Their home was JerusaIem and things would be different because God was going to be there, He was in their midst. The presence of God was to make the place safe. The people would be safe in a way they hadn’t been and it was because God was with them. They could be home knowing that God had made Jerusalem His home. Home was where God is. 

This is incredible, the answer to the question of what makes a house a home is the presence of God. In the reading the people were to rejoice because God was with them He was in their midst. This is something of which we will be reminded as we approach Christmas, God is in our midst. There is one translation of the Bible which talks of the incarnation as God moving into the neighbourhood. I absolutely love that translation. God makes a place home by being in its midst, and that home is not a literal home but a place where we as followers of God feel at home.

This idea of the presence of God giving us the feeling of safety also came up in our epistle reading.(Phil 4:4-7). The reading says, that God is near, and it is due to this that we do not need to worry. God is with us and He is in our midst. 

In the gospel reading (Luke 3:7-18) we heard of John the Baptist explaining to the people that they had lost this sense of home as he pointed out the things that they did wrong. This was added to by the need to get ready as one mightier than he was on the way.

God is in our midst and we need to be ready to come home to Him. It is almost ironic that God who made Himself nothing for us provides us with safety, gives us a home and helps us to rejoice. 

This Sunday the third Sunday of Advent is also known as Gaudatte Sunday This means rejoicing Sunday. In the midst of all our readings during advent reminding us of our doom if we don’t repent, reminding us of the second coming and all that will bring, suddenly we have this set of readings that talk of joy. 

This Sunday is the one Sunday of the Church year when we can wear pink ! I love the fact there is a pink Sunday and that Sunday is all about joy. This joy is something we heard about in Zephaniah as we heard of God being in the midst of the people and of God being near as we heard in the epistle reading.

Rejoicing is something that we can find hard to do at times. It is hard when we look at the world around us to think of the ways that we can see good and see rejoicing. In the last few years we have been reminded more and more of people being refugees and we can also clearly see those who are homeless those who need a home. This is why we need to help those who are in need. To talk to  homeless people and treat them as any other human in need. To offer love and friendship. 

I often have songs pop into my head for unknown reasons and one of the songs that often pops into my head is Homeward bound. 

This song talks of longing to go home, to get away from the loneliness of touring and cries out, ‘homeward bound, I wish I was.’  For the people that Zephaniah spoke to, for the early Christians, to all who feel that they don’t belong, to all of us we can know that our home is with God. 

God never moves away from us but we move away from Him. We should be longing to get closer to God, because as we have heard this morning life with God is home, life with God is where we should be. We should be, being homeward bound.

In advent we have times to get ready. We have time to prepare and in the middle of all the stress of Christmas planning we need to take time to rejoice. To think about the fact that God is in our midst and as we turn to Him we are homeward bound. We are on our way to safety. 

That is something to really rejoice about. AMEN