July 26, 2009 Sermon

Bring Us Home (Exodus 25 – selected verses, Mark 6:6b-13)

Rev. Sally Harris

Each heart is a pilgrim, each one wants to know…
And so O Divine Presence in the telling of your story bring us home. Amen

From the beginning we have been a traveling people…
A people on the move… people going somewhere…
From Abraham and Sarah… to Moses and Miriam….
From the tribes of Judah… to the people of Israel…
We have moved from former lands to promised lands…
From lands of captivity… to lands of freedom…
From the beginning we have been a people … wanting to know where God lives…
Wanting to know where home is….
As we travel, as we worship… we ask where is God?
As we live we wonder where is home?
In a former day, an ark was built – a holy storage chest that carried all that was sacred…
Even the very presence of God.
Yes the Ark of the Covenant was a constant reminder of the Divine Presence…
And this Ark of the Covenant created an image of God for the people of God
The Divine Presence was near… the Divine Presence traveled with us…
Behold a traveling light… bringing us home
Unfortunately it was not long, before the people began to trust the ark more than God…
Regrettably the people began to think
that they had captured the essence of the Divine Being…
And the mystery became confined to humanity’s image…
Humanity claimed the Presence as their own…. And domesticated it…
This Divine presence no longer shaped a people…
No, humanity shaped the traveling light and directed the light where they wanted it to be…
and on whom...
The awesome Holy One who spoke the world into being…
Became the silent, sleeping One who was merely invoked to win wars and lotteries…
And then one day in the distance of time and space the awesome Holy One spoke again through the one named Jesus…
Within his very self the Divine Presence was thought to reside…
This one named Jesus told of a different way to travel…
Yes there was still traveling light. But the light now traveled within…
God now dwells within us…
Bringing us home to ourselves, to our true selves… to each other… to God
for in God’s presence…
we are… each of us… mini Arks of the Covenant…
Jesus’ new way was well-received throughout the country side.
But when he returned to his family - home was not home for him.

The hometown folks from Nazareth were skeptical as to his credibility… and his ability… and this new way of being with God. They preferred the old way of relating to a distant God… not wanting to be responsible for a relationship… not trusting in this ordinary hometown boy. As is so often the case when others don’t have confidence in us… our confidence in ourselves gets shaky too. That is what happened to Jesus… he isn’t having much success with his healing ministry… and he realizes if it all depends on him then the whole mission is in trouble… so he gathers his disciples together and reminds them that within them there is a traveling light… and then Jesus sends them out with three promises:

a promise of companionship… a promise of peace and a promise that through the generosity of others their needs would be met.
Go simply, vulnerably, wisely as disciples all working together, fitting human diversity into something new and life-giving…
…working side by side, laughing and crying together, receiving sustenance
from each other – that is when joy is found, and the church is born.
Jesus said: Engage with people, do not view them as a ‘market to be tapped,’ but as hosts, companions, equals.

If such engagement is not returned, move on, shake the dust because ministry isn’t something one can compel or coerce or force… it is a relationship of trust and respect it is a presence shaped by the light… incarnated by the one named Jesus.

Jesus provided a rough chart of the landscape to those willing to travel lightly. He told them of the hazards the terrain will likely pose, what towns and people to avoid, and how to navigate occasions of hospitality and resistance and hatred.

And he gave them the authority to do the work he called them to do: to chart a path marked by healing and restoration. A path that will bring them home to the divine presence, in spite of the hostile terrain.

For in the end, Jesus sent the disciples out to be themselves, to share with others the life they were leaning into…
the life they were learning to live.
For God is no longer in a box or out there… God is here, with us, within us...
And so we pray: In our time… in our place…
bring us home to you O God that we might live in your joy.
May we be homeward bound. Amen [resource: meditations by Tom Ehrich]




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