Homecoming

In June, I began my final sermon in Grandville with the story of my parents, Kate and Carter, and how they worked for many years at the youth center in my hometown, Fair Lawn, New Jersey. They were very good at “adopting” young people who were at-risk or just didn’t have many friends. I talked about how I was aware of it as a young person and how I have tried in some ways to imitate them in ministry – trying to reach out to people who are hurting and marginalized. For me, it was just a way of honoring my parents and explaining a little bit of what I try to do. But God has this way of doing things…

The worship services are recorded and I sent the CD of that service to a church with which I had been in contact in New Jersey about their pastor position. When I arrived late July for the interview, I met the members of the search committee. One of the women introduced herself and then explained that her daughter was one of the young people that my parents had “adopted” all those years ago. Stunned, I went over her words in my mind and realized what she was saying. She had heard the sermon on that CD and must have remembered my parents’ names! The next day, “the” daughter came to see me preach and she shared how she knew and loved my parents and fondly remembered my brother and me as children. It was “a moment” on many levels.

I couldn’t make this stuff up! And the reason for that is that only God could arrange something as beautiful as this. That this member of the search committee would listen to that CD. That I would mention my parents by name in the message. That I would be applying to this church. So many “planets” had to line-up for this.

“God knew what he was doing from the beginning…” says The Message in Romans 8:28. And I am here to testify to that very faithfully and enthusiastically. I know it doesn’t look like it a lot of the time. But God does know what He is doing – all the time – and it is for the good. Sometimes it takes years. Sometimes it takes going through a lot of things that don’t make sense. And, He is the only one who can take awful circumstances and convert them into many and incredible blessings.

Almost five years ago exactly, we came out to Michigan believing we were sent there by God. It was daring and risky. There was loss and there were many blessings. Some of it made sense and some of it didn’t. But after a while one of my prayers was to go home at some point. In my mind, I meant somewhere in the Northeast corridor would have been fine. I once asked the question, “Is God that good?” Well, He is! Because from our prayer, we now are blessed with the opportunity to go all the way home – literally a quick ten minutes from the place I lived for 23 years. A place that at this stage of my life, I cherish. A place where we are known and loved for who we are.

And get this, toward the end of seminary (some eight years ago) I briefly thought about the idea of somehow being at a church that was in the Bergen County area so that I could lead and love a congregation and with them have the opportunity to also reach, draw in and care for family and friends I grew up with as well as others in the area. I never thought it could actually happen. But I guess God heard that thought and prayer too! He is listening…

Thomas Wolfe coined the famous phrase “You can never go home.” And he is right to a certain extent. I don’t expect things or people to be like they were in the 70s and 80s. But it doesn’t have to be to go “home.” For me, home today is a God-choreographed dance of reconciliation, peace, all things new, too good to be true, found, dreams, love, beginnings and ends – a dance that has the potential to defy time, the past and distance. The Bible and our lives have many stories of wonderful homecomings and reunions – the prodigal son, Joseph’s reunion with his brothers, Jesus in the garden with Mary after he was resurrected. It’s a major theme. From the beginning in the Garden of Eden to the Kingdom of God coming down from Heaven at the end – history will end with the grandest homecoming and reunion of all – God and His people.

You know, before celebrating the sacrament of The Lord’s Supper, we talk about communion as a foretaste of Heaven – a united banquet of peace and remembrance blessed by the presence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and beloved brothers and sisters.

This homecoming feels a little like that, a foretaste of what is to come – a familiar city with loved ones and new friends eagerly awaiting this blessed gathering by God’s hand and on His timing. And as with the experience of partaking in the sacrament, I am in awe and thankful and humbled and overflowing with love for my Lord.

W.H. Auden wrote, “He is the Truth. Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety; You will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.”

Amen.

Rev. Christopher B. Wolf

Isaiah 42:7

cbrianwolf@sbcglobal.net

www.christopherbwolf.com

“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.” N.T. Wright

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The Way Back

Hosea 6:1-2

The Way Back  

“Come, let us return to the Lord. For he has torn, that he may heal us. He has stricken, and he will build us up. After two days, he will revive us; on the third day, he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” Hosea 6:1-2 (RSV)

 

The truth is that we all have some “prodigal” in us. It is easy to think of the prodigal son (Luke 15) as a person who needed a lesson and thankfully comes back. But if we are honest about most of our faith journeys, it is a process of going away and returning to the Lord. We spend seasons on the mountaintop only to have everything fall through. We find ourselves in the wilderness, at the end of our rope, finally crawling onto the edges of a promised land. Some of us have lost years, decades even. And then, without any warning, our hearts once again, begin to yearn for God or something about him. As the band Pearl Jam sings in their song “Thumbing My Way (Back to Heaven)” – “No matter how cold the winter, there’s a springtime ahead; I’m thumbing my way back to heaven.”

 

But we have to ask the questions, “Why the wilderness, why the lost years?”

 

The above verses in particular are about how that yearning sometimes comes back. Hosea, as you know was a prophet asking God’s people to wake up to the distance between them and God. “Come, let us return to the Lord (1).”

 

But then the prophet offers what will seem to some as a strange explanation. “For he (the Lord) has torn, that he may heal us.” Why do we have to be torn, so that God can heal us? Why can’t we just stay un-torn or whole? And you know what I am going to say. That we don’t start off whole to begin with. Sins like pride, lust, and others are ever present in our lives. It is the human, fallen condition. If that isn’t bad enough, our denial only makes it worse. When sin leads us to believe that we don’t need God or don’t need to follow his ways, is as they say, insult to injury.

 

And because we believe that God is always purposeful, these words from Hosea cut deeply. “For he has torn (allowing our sins and their consequences), that he may heal (come to understand our need for Him) us. How often have we felt torn, physically, mentally and spiritually? But more importantly, how often have we felt torn and then seen it as God actually trying to heal us or draw us closer? I guess it is easier to blame God for bad circumstances and just be angry. But oh what we miss when we leave it at that. Because the awful truth is that God has to tear us to get us to see that we completely need him for salvation and living. For most of us, without the tearing and wildernesses, we wouldn’t acknowledge the need for a savior.

 

Admittedly, it took many years for me to learn this to the point where I really believe it. And I do. Part of my job is not so much to give answers, but to give sight based on the Word. And more often than not, I find myself with brothers and sisters helping them to see what God is doing in their lives. And this is the principle at work many, many times. And I can say it with hope because of my own tearing experiences.

 

And there is hope in this passage, much hope! “He has stricken, and he will build us up. After two days he will revive us, on the third day, he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” You see as humans, we often look at the torn and stricken and say, “why?” instead of saying “Amen!” to the healing, building up, reviving, and raising up so that we may live parts.

 

By the way, have you caught the echoes of Jesus in these two verses? Our dear savior was torn so that we can be healed; Jesus was stricken for our sins and was built up. Built up when? On the third day he was raised up and because of that we live before God. But remember, Jesus had to be torn and had to die for us to live eternally – it was the only way. And therefore is it also the rhythm for our daily living – tearing down and then building up; dying to our sins and then finding new life in Christ.

 

I know you are torn and stricken. I wish I could take it all away. But even if I could, I would be interrupting what God is trying to do in your life. And that is – trying to get us to return to him; not just to church, although that might be one way; but leading our hearts back to him. Leading us to turn our hearts home to him again. So whether it is the first time you need to come back or the twentieth, as the verse said, “Come let us return to the Lord.”

 

And you know there is nothing like coming home. Whether it is after a long day, or after months or years. A couple of times a year I return home to New Jersey, and it starts with seeing the familiar signs and sights along Route 80 all the way until I enter my hometown Fair Lawn and arrive at my brother’s house – seeing family and friends – those blessed reunions. There is nothing like returning to a place and people where you are known and loved. Just walking up to the door, that first smile or hug, can make the journey all worth it. That is what it is like to return to the Lord.

 

And as the song says, “No matter how cold the winter, there’s a springtime ahead; I’m thumbing my way back to heaven.”

 

I am right beside you walking and praying – we can come home to Him after all.

 

Amen.

  

Discussion Questions

1. What is your gut or first reaction to hearing that God tears us (even though for a purpose)?
2. When you think of tearing times in your life (maybe even right now) what does this passage say to you?
3. Can you think of some times when you felt revived after being in the wilderness? What were they like? Does God get the credit for that too?

4.   Would you like to return to the Lord but don’t know how? Please call or email me, I would love to help.

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