"There's No Place Like Home!"

A sermon preached on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2006 at Edgemont Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) by the Rev. Christopher E. Yopp. Sermon based on Luke 2:1-20.

Few of us can forget those memorable words spoken by Dorothy in the beloved movie The Wizard of Oz; "There’s no place like home." And perhaps the reason why so few of us can forget that scene and those memorable words is because it is so true - "there is no place like home."

John Howard Payne has written a beautiful poem that captures his feelings and emotions of home, titled; "Home, Sweet, Home." He writes:

"Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;

A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,

Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met elsewhere.

Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!

There's no place like Home! There's no place like Home!"

Perhaps, we don’t fully appreciate home until we have been away from it. Over the course of Israel’s history, one of exile, they longed and yearned for a place to call home. They longed for the day when they would no longer feel as strangers in their own land. Sadly, there will be hundreds of thousands who will not be able to be home for the Holidays this year. And our thoughts and prayers need to be with them and their families.

One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 84. Here, the Psalmist, like John Howard Payne and Dorothy, captures his feelings and emotions of home. The psalmist had been away from the house of God for too long, and upon his return he celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles, which was that great annual autumn harvest and feast that was rich in symbolism. Keep in mind, for the Jews this was a time to remember their ancestors wandering in the wilderness - a time in which they had no place to call "home" - a time in which they longed for the land God would give them as their own, a place to call home. The Jews would recall this significant time in the life of their people by literally camping out throughout the Festival or Feast of Tabernacles.

In Psalm 84 we capture the psalmist’s yearning to be a worshiper in the temple or house of the Lord. He is, as a pilgrim in life - as a prodigal having been away from home.

You see, for the Jews the Temple provided an elaborate setting for worship. It was the place where the presence of God dwelt and was experienced. And the Jews made their pilgrimage to the temple during the annual feasts and festivals. They were, as strangers, returning home - returning to the house of God.

David cried in Psalm 27:4; "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."

A story is told of a wealthy English aristocrat who possessed fourteen houses in his life, but sadly he could call none of them home. And sadly, this true for many today! But can this be said of our relationship with God? Do we, like David, long to be in the house of the Lord - the very presence of God?

The psalmist affirmed that it is better to be at home with God for one day than to live a thousand days without him. Mary McCullough’s poem "Presence" reminds us of the nearness of God, she writes:

"God is very near to me
In the whispering of a tree;
And His voice I have often heard
In the singing of the birds.
I have often walked with Him
In the twilight warm and dim;
Sure and tender, He is there
In the clover-scented air.
God is near, for He is found
In all lovely things around,
Hill, or cloud, or leaf, or star -
He is never very far."

Bing Crosby made the sentimental Christmas song, "I’ll Be Home for Christmas" popular. All of us know about crowded bus stations and train depots, airports and highways during the Christmas season. It seems that everyone is trying to get home for the holidays. Now, while there were no bus stations or train depots, airports or major highways in biblical times - there were still frantic people trying to return to their home, their ancestral home on that first Christmas some 2,000 years ago. And so, Joseph and Mary had to return to the town of Bethlehem because they were both descendants of David. Now, keep in mind, Mary is 9 months pregnant when they made this trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem - a 90 mile trip, which would have taken at least 3 days - a fact that I reminded Amber of when we set out on our 35 mile trip from Roanoke to Radford’s, New River Valley Medical Center the night her water broke. And, of course, our transportation was a car – Mary’s was a donkey!

C. William Nichols reminds us, that; "Luke’s account of the birth of Christ is, without a doubt, one of the most beloved writings in the English language. The words fall from our lips as gracefully and as easily as if they were written to be choreographed and not just read. On the tapestry of stable straw and starlight, the Divine Artist painted the masterpiece that gave humanity a new picture of itself" and a new image of God. And while these words from Luke’s perspective are indeed poetic, some claim that there are errors in Luke’s historical record of this event and thus, his account is fallible. Keep in mind, Caesar Augustus was the emperor of Rome from 31 B.C. to 14 A.D., and we are told according to Luke that Quirinius, the governor of Syria was the administrator of this major census organized to facilitate the payment of taxes. But the problem is the only known census tied to Quirinius in other historical records dates to around 6 A.D., and this would clearly place the birth of Christ too late. Also, historical records show that Varus would have been governor of Syria at the time of Christ’s birth rather than Quirinius. And so, as a result many have regarded Luke’s gospel account of the birth of Christ to be fallible; but many historians and scholars claim that it is possible that Quirinius could have served as governor twice in his political career since there is a gap in the governorship records between 4 B.C. and 1 A.D., and that a census could have been ordered at that time. While others claim that the census could have started with Verus, the governor of Syria prior to Quirinius, and ended with Quirinius thus explaining why Luke would have tied it to Quirinius, which is very probable.
Someone once said; "There are only two guarantees in life - death and taxes" and, you can be assured, that the Holy Family was not excluded from either of these.

But of course, all of this was done to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament, which spoke of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem.

Through the Christmas story, we are reminded that God has made a home with us! Rather than just appear on earth one day, or "beam down" to use Trek-talk, Jesus is said to have entered this world in the most orthodox of ways: childbirth. Jesus’ appearance on earth is known as the Incarnation, or what John calls "[God] becoming flesh."

In ancient times the coming of a king required special preparation. A representative of the king was sent ahead to prepare the road on which the king would be traveling. Holes would be filled in, rough places made smooth and the crooked sections straightened. The same thing happened in recent times when Queen Elizabeth II visited the Bahamas. In preparation for her coming, the roads she would be traveling on were completely resurfaced. God has come to us! And in the same way, we must make ready our hearts and lives. The message of Christmas is that our God isn’t a impersonal, distant and absent God; God does not reside in temples made by hands. God is Emmanuel and God has now made his home in our hearts and lives.

The great Saint prayed; "O God, come into my heart; for my heart is restless without thee." We cannot know the true sense or meaning of home, until God resides in us. But only then, it is a foretaste of our home, which is to come. That’s the message of Christmas, God has invaded our lives to reside with us, that we might know what it means to have a home with God.

And so, may we pray along with the hymn writer;

"Be near me, Lord Jesus,

I ask Thee to stay

Close by me forever

And love me I pray

Bless all the dear children

In Thy tender care

And take us to heavenTo live with Thee there..."

...To live with thee in our eternal home! Thanks be to God for Christmas - God’s coming to us that we might have home with God in our hearts and lives now, a foretaste of our home to come, Amen.