SUNDAY SERVICES:

“We’ve checked into the hotel earth overnight on our way to the heavenly Jerusalem.  Earth is not our home.”  I heard Brennan Manning say these words many times.  

So where is our home?

Our First Home

What if our real home was our first home?  I’m thinking of the Garden.  Remember?  The place our ancestors had to leave. 

The place where there was no dying or crying.  Where joy was the daily ambiance of celebrations and freedom blew in every breeze, and we walked with our God.  What if….?

I mean, if Earth was our true home we wouldn’t be wearing out, getting shabby and loose in the joints, doing daily battle with antagonism and angst in a hostile environment. 

Ever since our ancestors’ wrong decision, poor choice, we have needed something more - like life! Real, abundant and eternal, LIFE. 

And that is something this world cannot give us.  No matter what it tells us, no matter how hard it tries, it’s just not in its cards.  

Out of This World Life

But John tells us that life which wasn’t of this world was coming into the world. Jesus and his followers are unbending when they tell us not to invest in the kingdom here, but to invest in the Kingdom that lasts. 

To be honest, most of us don’t seem to realize this. I walked past a new home construction site last week. It had a 5 car garage, probably 5,000 square foot floor plan, a lake view with gators and all. 

Nice, but temporary housing...a tent. 

We invest so heavily in this place, you’d think we were going to stay here forever, that this was home. We think, “We’ve checked into the hotel earth - forever.” 

We Are Resident Aliens

So there are two Kingdoms, one of this world and one of God.  When Jesus arrived in this one, he said the other one, the one of the Father’s, was breaking in, coming among us, available to us, and that is where we would find our home. 

The fact is, we are all just passing through.  We are resident aliens. One day we all check out and we all leave all, that is, all our earthly treasures behind. 

Only what we have invested in our heavenly home lasts.  And we’ve been told, Jesus warns us, time and again, to invest in eternal treasures, not in the ones here that for sure don’t last. 

How to Get Home

So, how do we get home? How do we find our way home? 

Jesus said, “I am the way…”  We follow Jesus.

So the story of Jesus opens, he walks along the beach calling people to leave home, to follow him.  “Come, follow me, stay, abide with me.” 

Our one true home is with him.  Understood is that you will have to leave your homes and your family.  In one case it meant to sell everything, and for all, it means to love Him most of all, even more than family.

At some point, we made/make a decision, a costly decision,  but the most eternally important decision any human can make:  To invite Jesus to be Lord of your life.  To live for him.  To live with him.  To die to self and live in him.  To follow and be with him, be transformed by him. 

Jesus prayed,  “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am… " (John 17.24)

We get a new address i.e. the Kingdom of Light, a new identity i.e. children of Light, a passport to eternity i.e. they will have eternal life, a new family i.e. those who do the will of his Father in Heaven.  

Being With Him Is Home

Since he has brought the Kingdom of God with him and in him, then being with him is being home. 

Here’s the thing that is so absolutely mind-blowing about all this: most people would say that home is a place where you are loved, not just feel loved, but really are loved beyond measure, limit, and reason. 

Another favorite phrase of Brennan Mannings was, “God loves you as you are and not as you should be!”

Paul tells us that God’s love is poured into hearts by the Holy Spirit, and the best place to fill up our tanks is in the presence of our Lord Jesus, because that is our true home, being with our Lord. 

And that is where you are loved.

Home Is a Person

Home isn’t here in this world, unless it is there, i.e. being with our Lord.  It is here in the sense that the Kingdom has come in Jesus. 

When he calls us, he calls us to come and to die.  We will die anyway.  The question is will we die senselessly or as companions and co-workers of the crucified Lord?  And dying is the way to enter the heavenly Jerusalem and come home.  

Walking with him, following him. 

Enoch lived 365 years and walked with God every day; and then scripture adds, “then he was no more, because God took him away.”  Some say God said to Enoch, “it’s closer to my house than yours today, let’s go to my home,” and Enoch said, “Great!”

So walking with Jesus is being home, and he will come and take us to his heavenly home as well.  “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14.3

Picture This

Try to picture Jesus leading us HOME. 

“There they go – the wounded Word is returning from his mission – it is finished – bringing with him the totality of all that love assumed – our imperfect often fickle love. In the lead a thief who believed and half-believed, followed by a collection of tax collectors, and other sinners and victims of history beyond numbering. Choirs of angels are in the parade, cherubim and seraphim come out to meet him, to welcome home the Son of God.  They stand aghast at the battered, tattered company he is bringing with him from the highways and the byways of life.  'They are all mine,' he says. 'They are my brothers and sisters; they are the ones I went to seek and save.  I am taking them to the Father.  I am taking them home!'"

Then he turns to them and the Word speaks this word to them:  

(Quotes are taken from, Death On A Friday Afternoon, by Richard John Neuhaus)

Do you know God loves you?  Then Come!  The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”

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