A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

home is where the heart is

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, March 14, 2010

A sales agent knocked on the front door of a home. When no one answered, he peeked in the front window and saw a ten-year-old boy practicing the piano. Their eyes met, and the young pianist eagerly jumped up from the piano to answer the door. “Young man, is your mother at home?” the salesperson asked. The boy looked up somewhat incredulously and replied, “Now, what do you think?” Home is/was where mom and dad make you do things you wouldn’t necessarily do on your own.

I guess this is what drove the “prodigal son” to leave his father and try life on his own. The son rejected his home, his hearth. He rejected his father’s heart and love. Jesus told this parable because his opponents were complaining that he was eating and drinking with sinners. And so the Lord tells about the man with his two sons and the feast that they had when the one who departed, returned. God welcomes home everyone who wants to come home.

As you may know, in the Middle East, the eldest son would get a double portion. If there were just two sons, the eldest would get two-thirds; the younger one third. From the parable, we understand that this father was not poor. He has servants; he can have a feast; he has fine robes and signet rings. He is a prince of some sort, or a very wealthy businessman. Amazingly, he complies without question to the son’s request. He gives the young man his share of the estate. The young man gathers together all he receives, turns it into cash, and leaves. Those who heard this parable may have gasped or held their breath. What is happening here is hurtful and selfish. It is a radical rejection of the father’s love and position. No son in Jesus’ day would ask such a thing. The request means that he wants his father to die and he no longer has the patience to wait till his death. I want to be on my own, he tells his dad. He wants the money coming to him, and he wants it now. "Show me the money!"

Of course this is such an extreme that we can easily think we aren’t like this. We are good “kids.” But rejection of God comes in many, many forms and manners, and it often has to do with rejecting one’s home, where one belongs, and to whom one belongs, and is responsible. A student goes off to college. There, sporting her newfound sophistication and a couple of new concepts she learned in Psych 101, she joins with a few other students in ragging on their parents, discounting them as dinosaurs in their ideas and as dysfunctional in their relationships. Her stories from home provide a few good laughs for her friends, as their stories do for her. The only thing is, later, in the quiet of her room, she feels like she has betrayed something, and she is flooded with shame. Or a man, dumps his wife who loved him faithfully, leaving because he has met somebody else he likes better. (He may leave, but he doesn’t get away guilt-free. He feels that on the most basic level, he is now less of a person.) Or a woman who turns on her best friend, deciding that friend doesn’t fit in with the more polished person she is trying to become.

When we walk away from a place and people who loved us, we reject God’s good for us. Those who don’t have a home, would do just about anything to find someone to love them. Bishop Woodrow Hearn likes to tell a story he picked up from the newspaper about the Children's Home in New Orleans. It is a home for abused children. A couple of years ago, a 9-year-old boy, after having been at the home only a short time, was walking down the street near the home when a dog bit him. He was taken to a local hospital, where a number of stitches were given him along with more love and care and attention than he had ever received in his life. He was returned to the home. While the stitches were still in the arm, he left the home and started looking for that dog again.

If you’ve got a home, keep it. If you’ve got love, stay with it. Home is where you are loved today. You know the truth is, this may be the best it gets. Sounds strange to hear that, doesn’t it? We always want to believe things are going to get better, even better, better and better. One of the things older people have learned is that this isn’t necessarily true. What is absolutely true is that we get older; we also don’t get stronger. Today, for sure, is the youngest any of us are going to be. Today may very well be the best things will be. Now I’m not saying that we aren’t going to experience ups, if we find ourselves down today; I’m not saying we aren’t going to be in better shape if we start working out, or healthier in the future if today we have a cold. That would be silly. But here’s the thing: When we don’t view today, if you don’t see that the way life is for you right now is good, if you forget to see the amazing good of your life, then when are you going to see it? If not today, then when; if not with what you are and with whom you are and with what you have, then when, with who, with what? Home is where your heart is. If you heart isn’t with you today, then you can’t be at home. So get situated; get comfortable; make a home in the world; do it now; do it for others; do it for yourself.

Of course, “Home” changes throughout our lives. A father remembers when he used to come home at the end of the day, his wife used to announce, ''Boys, your dad's home!'' She would act like it was a big deal for him to be home. Several years later, one afternoon she didn't hear him come in. After a long pause, one of the teenage boys called out, ''Judy! Your husband's home!'' Now that his sons are gone, she tells the dog when he arrives, ''Bandit! It's Bob!''

What is the Bible's ultimate purpose? To bring delight to you and me? No. It is to bring us back to God. The One who made us who wants us back in fellowship with him. The Bible is a love letter to the whole world, but it starts with the person who opens it and reads it. It is the message of a Father pleading with his children to return home. We are made to be at home, to be at peace.

Love, real love, always has a lasting effect. When we turn away from it, our own foolishness can feel like a heavy weight. That’s why, when we look again at Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son, we should see that what made his journey possible in the first place was the benefit of living in a loving home. He was given money; he was given permission to leave. But that kind of love weighs a lot. And it hurts to leave it behind, if we finally come to our senses and realize what we have done wrong. Eventually, it was the remembrance of such substantial love that gave the prodigal the hope that if he did go back, there might be a place for him in the servant quarters. So he decided to go back and beg his father to take him in. And as we know, he does. God holds us in the hand of his love. God keeps us in the heart of his peace. God stays with us in the embrace of his graces. God watches for us, God seeks us, God calls us, God blesses us, God forgives us--God wants us to be home.

One of the most difficult things to do is to keep your heart open to those who have hurt it. If you are the home for another, even if they don't always realize it, find strength to continue to be home. There are so few places where we belong in this world, to lose one home, and a person who is that person can be devastating. Be a loving person. Be a courageous lover. Be a forgiving home.  

Therapist Mary Pipher wrote a book around the Irish proverb "It is in the shelter of each other that the people live." Here is what she said:
"In the 1990s, ironies abound. With more entertainment, we are more bored. In a culture focused on feelings, people grow emotionally numb. With more timesaving devices, we have less time; with more books, we have fewer readers. With more mental health professionals, we have worse mental health. Today we're in a more elusive crisis, a crisis of meaning, with emotional, spiritual and social aspects. We hunger for values, community and something greater than ourselves to dedicate our lives to. We wake in the night, sorry for ourselves and our planet." Dr. Pipher makes some probing suggestions that don't cost money about how to make America a better place. "Turn off your machines, walk outside and visit with whoever is there. Talk to the children in your neighborhood. Ask the waiter at the place you buy your morning coffee about his family. Ask the waitress's name at the cafe you frequent. Ask of the people you meet, "What is your experience?" Go to a school board meeting, befriend the older people on your block, coach a ball team, and offer help to whoever needs it." What was true in the 1990s, is certainly true today. Make a home. Make a home for yourself. Make a home for your spouse, children; be a home for family, friends, and others.

Many this very hour are thinking of "home:" Those who are in prisons, those in Afghanistan or Iraq, those in hospitals; those who live now in nursing homes. What they wouldn't give to be back at home. Sometimes a home is given to us because of love lavished on us. And sometimes, we have to make a home for others. Either way, a home is the most precious gift we ever have. Don't neglect it; rejoice in it. Don't abandon it; rebuild it. Don't forget it; give thanks to God for it. And when you are given the great and holy choice, choose to make a home, to be a home, today, here, where you are.

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