Welcome Home

Lectionary • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

0 ratings

· 10 views

Home is where the heart is. It is also where everyone who ever thought they knew you growing up lives. Often times people will not let the past go for virtue of the present. Still, God wants us to witness to God’s love among those who have known us longest. They may not believe their eyes, but welcome home, when have they ever believed you?

Notes

Transcript

FOCUS STATEMENT

Home is where the heart is.

It is also where everyone who ever thought they knew you growing up lives.

Often times people will not let the past go for virtue of the present.

Still, God wants us to witness to God’s love among those who have known us longest.

They may not believe their eyes, but welcome home, when have they ever believed you?

POINT OF RELATION

I have often wondered what it would be like to serve my home church.

Truth be told, I am not sure I could do it.

I would give it my all, just like I give everything else;

however, I am not sure how successful I would be pastoring the church community I grew up in.

There are people who have done so.

Heck our own sadly late Rev. Dr. Frank Fowler served for over thirty years at Hackettstown Trinity United Methodist Church

and had a storied career there.

He was meant to be at that location; however, I am sure it did not come without its challenges

and that I would find his ministry to be the exception to the rule.

Far too often, I would imagine that visionary, insightful leaders probably get eaten alive by those who knew them.

“After all,” I can imagine them saying”, who is this upstart kid who used to run around here and cause all of the trouble when he or she was young? Who do they think they are coming in here and telling us we’re not following God. Look who’s talkin’ pal, just look who’s talkin’! Some manners you were taught.”

I think back to the churches I have called my home church.

I wonder does my original home church know much about me.

They know I am a pastor, and they’re proud as heck about that...

but do they know ME.

Do they know what brought me here.

WHO brought me here, rather...do they know WHO brought me here.

I think back to my home Methodist Congregation.

What a beautiful congregation, that I got to serve in such wonderful ways.

One of the most important things I did during that time was served the Youth as their youth pastor.

Those were some of the best 5 years of my life, reaching kids who, like me,

needed desperately to know that they were created and LOVED by God.

During those years, I felt God work through me in a way that totally came out of my experience as a lost youth.

I counseled people, and spoke with their parents, about suicide and cutting

I was able to build up a trust with kids and parents I ministered to.

Both knew that I was there for THEM. And that is the way I saw it...as a parent, I wasn’t just there for the youth, but for the parents as well.

That role changes a bit between the two, but it is vital for a youth ministry to understand that a youth pastor serves both the youth and the parents.

Serving in ministry all these years has been a wonderful experience.

I have gotten to serve a community of people who learned that they still had it in them to be an active, vital church.

I have served youth who were lost and confused and found their way with Jesus.

I am currently serving a wonderful church community with so much potential for mission and outreach.

I have not gotten to serve in my home churches, but they have, thankfully, gotten to see me serve...

And they have been so supportive.

And I never had to worry about how they would treat me regarding my past.

Why? Because I was new to my last two appointments.

I didn’t know them and they didn’t know me.

That put us all out to batting practice, right?

No one thought they knew me better than anyone else. I was new.

The question was...how scary would I be.

In knew churches, the point is obvious, you learn how they do things.

You learn what it means to be them.

That is the role of every incoming pastor...

Learn what it means to be a current member of your church and then get the church to put their best foot out there, while growing along the way.

Yet, leading a church that has spent several years watching you grow up into your leadership position…not so easy. Yet God has not called us to EASY. God has called us to being faithful.

THINGS TO CONSIDER

We all have a past, a place where we discovered who we were as people,

and what it meant to push the limits to the edges.

What’s more, we all have people who observed us in the throws of learning life and,

no doubt, some those observers forget that they did the very same things.

Yet, that was us then and this is us now.

We have since had a change in our lives.

We each discovered there was more to life than just ME and We discovered that there is God,

who has called us to bring the good news to people that living life is more than just fulfilling the daily bump and grind of day-to-day work and day-to-day drama.

Because Christ has saved us and shown us our true purpose of being born again,

we are called to see things from God’s perspective and we are supposed to

guide God’s people toward where it is that God is calling us.

That is the true call of a pastor, of a shepherd, right? To guide the flock?

This is where the challenge can really kick in?

This is where we can see the proverbial you know what hit the fan.

People have no problem with a celebrity coming in to praise how awesome they are;

however, they are not so quick to hear critique and points of change that are needed to be made.

That’s when things can get really tense.

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

In today’s Scripture,

Jesus had his first encounter at home.

Just before this, Jesus had been out in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights.

Prior to this, Jesus was just an average Jewish man, earning his living in his father’s trade of carpentry.

All of a sudden, this John the Baptist character comes and baptized Jesus,

along with countless others, and Jesus was whisked away into the wilderness.

When he returned he was not the same as when he had left.

He had been changed.

Not only did he have the look of hunger and thirst on his face;

however, there was a wild, mysterious light about him, as if he had faced some darkness and overcame it.

Now, over a month later, this Jesus returns and acts like God has shown him the light

and, what exactly...we’re all supposed to go “ta-da” and act like he’s God’s Son or something

This is that same Jesus who’s mom had a funny reputation about her.

This is the son of that carpenter Joseph, the brother of James, Jude, Titus and others.

So, yeah, this was hard on Jesus...no doubt.

It hurts to get rejected by those you grew up knowing.

I cannot think of a pain more sharp than that...

well, that, and the pain of being rejected by one’s own family.

Yet, who knows one better than one’s family.

Surely, they got to see you on a scale NO ONE gets to see you.

They know how you sound, they know how you smell,

they know all your nasty habits.

If anyone has dirt and authority over someone, it’s one’s family.

In fact, our first verse proves just that.

In verse 21, his family said, “He’s out of his mind”, and they tried to take him away thinking he’d gone crazy.

That’s not exactly the best PR stunt for one’s career as a rabbi and prophet, but that is what Jesus’ family did to him.

Then, on top of it, Jesus lambasts the local religious leadership.

So not only did he appear out of his mind,

but he was insulting the local establishment as if that was going to make things comfortable for his family.’

When push came to shove, Jesus turned his own family away in preference to carrying out his mission,

In verse 33-35, Jesus said, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?

Look, these are my mother and brothers.

Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister, and mother.”

I can only imagine the reception at home Jesus received after those words.

Still, Jesus is teaching us something important to realize about the urgency of his mission...it is second to no other.

We often try to live double lives.

We try to live as if we both are who we formerly were and we are a follower of Christ’s as well.

Jesus, in turning down his family’s request to see him tells us two things:

He knew their hearts. He knew what they were thinking, how they were feeling and what they were planning.

He would not be deterred from his mission to bring the Good News to the people of Galilee...even if that meant being rejected by them...by his own family even.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

We all are constantly having to evaluate what is our most important mission in life...

the very thing that take first place in all other competitions.

For some people it is sports.

For others, it’s their house or their cars.

For some it’s their families.

Nothing comes between a good family member and their family.

With that said, Jesus teaches us that nothing should get in front of us when it comes to being disciples.

We are called to prioritize the mission of Christ...

even when we are home among those who know us best.

In fact, this is doubly important for we especially want our family to know the importance of Christ’s mission.

You are called to witness to the love of Christ.

Even if you were not always the person who did,

even if your family and friends have dirt on you,

even if you lose some family or friends as a result...Christ’s mission is primary.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR US

As a church community, there is no other mission more important

than spreading the words and mission of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Spreading his Lordship and the urgency of his message is vital to the life of the church.

You have been elect of God, given the grace of God, to spread and love and peace of God.

You freely chose this calling, because you knew that what Christ did for you had to be shared with others.

What this means is this:

You, no matter how frightened you might be, are up to the task.

Otherwise, why would God choose you.

When the pandemic hit us...I kept thinking, “Why God? Why us? Why now?

The response that kept coming back to me was this… Why not? Why not you or your church? Why not now?

The mission was urgent enough for Jesus to die for 2,000 years ago...

what would make it less urgent for us?

We have a mission to spread and, in many ways due to the pandemic,

we are having to start from scratch in how to spread it.

That’s great!

We have a challenge before us and a great many sheep to feed and tend to.

Let’s get to it my sisters and brothers. Welcome home.

Related Media

Related Sermons