“THE
HOMECOMING – A SERMON FOR HOMELESSNESS SUNDAY
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A Sermon preached at the Readings:
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Today we
think about the homeless and the houseless –
not necessarily the same thing.
Having a
roof over your head (as you’ll know if you’ve ever been without one)
is very important – but only part of what it means to have a home.
If you
have been watching the Big Brother House
this last week or two, you will have seen a house which is not a home –
a place
of racial and other anger,
a place
where everyone is overtly competing with everyone else
a place
whose ultimate way of dealing with people
who fall down or don’t fit in is not to love or redeem them
but to evict and if necessary break them in the process.
If Jade
Goody has given us a sad object lesson in bullying intolerance,
Channel 4 has given us an equally sad object lesson
in how not to deal with conflict.
“Lo, I may have a fine TV studio and a host
of minor celebrities and huge viewing figures,
but if I have not love, I have nothing but a hollow house
echoing to the discordant sound of stars & cymbals….”
We all
need a roof over our heads.
But more than that, we all need a place where we feel “at home”,
at peace, loved, welcome, secure, a place of
belonging,
a place of continuity with our past, our roots –
all part of what it means to be home.
Jesus of
course said that the foxes had their holes
but the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head.
In our
Gospel passage set for today,
Jesus comes to his home town of Nazareth –
but it is not a happy homecoming.
He
preaches in the Synagogue and proclaims
good news for the poor, release for captive.
But
those in the town just smile – Why, they say –
“he be Joe Carpenter’s boy –
I remember him when he were nobbut a lad
throwing nails round workshop –
reckon we can manage without lah di
dah lectures on God
from the likes of him” –
A
prophet without honour in his home town –
Churches
are often referred to as “the House of God”.
I wonder - when Christ comes to this House of God,
what sort of homecoming does he get?
Do we greet him and say
“Make yourself at home - Consider yourself part of the family –
have the run of the place – no need to ask – just feel at home…”?
Do we say:
“Come to my heart Lord Jesus, there is room
in my heart for thee..”
You know
the story of the rough sleeper
who decided to go to Church one Sunday morning.
He chose the richest and most opulent Church in town,
and rolled up to the fine main door.
The door steward look at him -
he was not dressed for the occasion,
he had been drinking a bit and don’t smell too good –
The Door Steward refused to let him in lest he upset the other worshippers.
The man
went rather disconsolately and sat of the front steps of the Church.
Looking up he saw Jesus come and sit next to him and offer him a sandwich.
The two sat eating together and then the guy from the streets said –
Tell me Jesus – this is meant to be your house –
I’m sad I couldn’t get in – could you at least tell me what its
like in there –
they say it looks very fine.”
Jesus
replied –
I really can’t tell you want it looks like inside –
I’ve been trying to get into that place for years myself
but I’ve never managed it yet…”
We need
to open the doors. And who knows what
will happen then.
Michel Quoist imagines having a conversation with God:
“Lord, why did you tell me to love all my brothers and sisters? …
Lord I was so peaceful at home, I was so comfortably settled.
It was well furnished and I felt cozy. … I was at
peace. …..
I would have stayed unsullied in my ivory tower.
But Lord, you have discovered a breach in my defences,
You have forced me to open my door.
….Now, Lord, I am lost!
….As soon as I opened the door I saw them,
with outstretched hands, anxious eyes, longing hearts,
like beggars on church steps.
The first came in, Lord. There was, after all, a bit of space in my
heart.
I welcomed them….
You would have been pleased, Lord…
But the next ones, Lord, I had not seen them;
they were hidden behind the first ones. There were more of them…
…. They come bending under heavy loads;
loads of injustice, of resentment and hate, of suffering and sin…
They drag the world behind them,
with everything rusted, twisted, badly adjusted.
Lord they hurt me! They are in the way, they are all over. ….
…Ah Lord my door is wide open! I can’t stand it anymore!
It’s too much! It’s no kind of a life! What about my job?
My family? My peace? My liberty? And me?
Ah Lord! I don’t belong to myself any longer;
there’s no room for me at home.
Don’t worry, God says, you have gained all,
while these men and women came in to you,
I your Father, I, your God, slipped in among them.”
[Michel Quoist, Prayers of Life” – “Lord Why
did you tell me to love” (abridged)]
This
weekend is Holocaust Memorial Weekend.
The Synagogue round the corner is open all day with exhibitions about the
Holocaust –
if you can do please call in after the service
and while you are there say a prayer that these horrors may never happen again.
Corrie ten Boom tells the story
from the days of the Nazi occupation of Holland.
She was seeking a home for a Jewish mother and her tiny baby.
She tells the local pastor and he warns her that anyone
taking the baby will risk their lives for the child.
Corrie’s father, the local watchmaker comes
in.
He, says “Give the child to me.”
Corrie says, he
“held the baby close, his white beard
brushing its cheek,
looking into its little face with eyes as innocent as the baby’s own.
At last he looked up at the pastor.
“You say we could lose our lives for this child.
I would consider that the greatest honour that could come to my family.”
So on Holocaust Sunday as on Homelessness
Sunday
we hear Christ’s words –
“Insomuch as you did it to one of these, you did it unto me”
What do we do? Do we take up our cross of sacrifice and
commitment,
or do we lay it aside saying
“Lord when did I see you naked in a gas chamber
or hungry in Darfur
or homeless in the streets of Exeter?”
We need to be honest here and careful.
As a Church we do not as a policy give money at the
door
to those who are homeless.
We will try to help with food and drink and conversation and prayer,
but not with money.
We say to those at the door –
St Petrocks Centre is geared up to help the homeless
and we do give money through them.
I
wrestle with this issue –
I think
it is the right thing to do – but it is hedged with dangers.
What is
clear is this –
If I am denying the individual money for fear it goes on drugs etc,
then I absolutely must give till it hurts to support St Petrocks
–
otherwise I am indeed no better
than the Priest and the Levite on the Jericho Road
who ignored the man in the ditch lest he inconvenienced their prayers.
The Good
Samaritan did not run an inn any more than we do –
but he gave with immense generosity
to the innkeeper to care for the man in need!
So - on
your way home, please:
1.
Give generously to St Petrock’s
for those with no home to go to.
The plate will be at the door. We
really shouldn’t walk past it.
2.
If you can, call at the Synagogue and say a prayer
for those whose homes and villages and lives were destroyed by the holocaust
and pray that it may never be so again
3.
If you meet a homeless man or woman on the street,
stop smile and talk with them. It is
Christ you meet.
4.
when you get
home,
give thanks for the house and home with which you are blessed.
5.
then
finally, remember that we are all sojourners in a foreign land,
with no abiding home in this world.
Let us look forward with hope and joy to our heavenly homecoming –
and meanwhile let us care for those who have no earthly resting place –
and bring them just a glimpse
of that glorious heavenly home which awaits us all.
Sunday 28th January 2007
Homelessness Sunday Holocaust
Memorial Sunday
Morning Service led by Rev Andrew Sails
Hymn 16 (vv 1,3,5) “Praise to the Lord” KHB 21
1. 다 찬양하여라 전능왕 창조의 주께
내혼아 주찬양 평강과 구원의 주님
성도들아 주 앞에 이제 나와
즐겁게 찬양하여라
2. 다 찬양하여라 놀라운 만유의 주께
포근한 날개밑 늘 품어 주시는 주님
성도들아 주님의 뜻 안에서
네 소원 다 이루리라
3. 다 찬양하여라 온몸과 마음을 바쳐
이세상 만물이 주앞에 다 나와 찬양
성도들아 기쁘게 소리높여
영원히 찬양하여라
Prayers
All Age Ministry – Fay
Priestley
Hymn “When
I needed a neighbour”
[NHWS
359]
Readings: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Luke 4:16-24
Hymn 552 “Lord of all hopefulness”
Sermon: “The Homecoming”
Hymn 691 “Come let us sing”
Collection
An affirmation of faith
(congregation stands)
Leader: We believe in God,
creator of the world and of all
people;
and in Jesus
Christ, incarnate among us,
who died and
rose again;
and in the
Holy Spirit,
present with
us to guide, strengthen, and comfort.
People: We believe; God, help our unbelief.
Leader: We rejoice in every sign of God's
Kingdom;
in the
upholding of human dignity and community;
in every
expression of love, justice and reconciliation;
in each act
of self-giving on behalf of others;
in the
abundance of God's gifts entrusted to us
that all may have
enough;
in all
responsible use of the earth's resources.
People: Glory be to God on high; and on earth,
be peace.
Leader: We confess our sin, individual and
collective,
by silence or action:
through the
violation of human dignity
based
on race, class, age, sex, nation, or faith;
through the
exploitation of people
because
of greed and indifference
through the
misuse of power;
in personal, communal,
national,
and international life;
through the
search for security
by
those military and economic forces
that
threaten human existence;
through the
abuse of technology
which
endangers the earth and all life upon it.
People: Lord, have mercy;
Christ, have mercy;
Lord, have mercy.
Leader: We commit ourselves individually and as
a community
to the way of
Christ:
to take up
the cross;
to seek
abundant life for all humanity;
to struggle
for peace with justice and freedom;
to risk
ourselves in faith, hope, and love,
praying that
God's kingdom may come.
People: The kingdom come on earth as it is in
heaven. Amen
[World Methodist Council Social
Affirmation 1986]
Prayers of Intercession
(congregation sits)
Leader: ………O Lord hear my prayer
All (sing): O Lord hear my prayer, O Lord hear my prayer: When I call, answer me.
O Lord hear my
prayer, O Lord hear my prayer: Come and
listen to me.
Hymn 267 “Love Divine”
1. 하나님의 크신 사랑 하늘로서 내리사
우리 맘에 항상 계셔 온전하게 합소서
나의 주는 자비하사 사랑 무한 하시니
두려워서 떠는 자를 구원하여 줍소서
2. 전능하신 아버지여 주의 능력 주시고
우리맘에 임하셔서 떠나가지 맙소서
주께 영광 항상돌려 천사처럼 섬기며
주의 사랑 영영토록 찬송하게 합소서
3. 우리들이 거듭나서 흠이없게 하시고
주의 크신 구원 받아 온전하게 합소서
영광에서 영광으로 천국까지 이르러
크신 사랑 감격하여 경배하게 합소서
[Charles Wesley Tune 267i Blaenwern]
Blessing