How do we see God's love?

The return home ...

The desire to return home can be quite strong in some people. Home might mean different things to different people — and it might even mean different places for people of the same family — but the desire to return to a place that is safe, welcoming, and makes us feel whole, can burn within us.

I grew up in Welland and Fonthill, went to university in Waterloo and London, lived in Oshawa, Toronto, Ingersoll, Kitchener, St. Catharines, Dundas, and here in Burlington. In some ways, I’ve lived in a lot of places, and yet in some ways I have never traveled far from home.

Then came the day that I stepped on the Isle of Iona — a place where I had never been before. There was a sense of calmness about the island, a sense of holiness, a sense of … home. I knew immediately that I had gone home — to a place I had never lived in, and to a place where I’d only visit for a few days, and a place where I’d probably not get back to for decades to come — if ever.

While your place of home — of safety, of welcome, of comfort, of wholeness — probably wouldn’t look like mine, I’m sure it is in you somewhere.

I haven’t been back to Iona, but I have been back to most of those other places that I’ve lived.

… isn’t usually as expected ...

I don’t know what your experience of that has been like, when you’ve returned home, but mine has been marked with a profound sense that the saying, “You can never go home again” is certainly true.

All of the places that I’ve lived in, and been back to, have grown and changed. The businesses I used as landmarks have changed — in some cases have been torn down and rebuilt. Sometimes the houses in the area have changed as well.

Certainly the kids I grew up with are no longer in the houses they grew up in. My friends stretch from the States to Europe.

If I thought that going home would produce some nostalgia, some feeling of familiarity, it certainly never came with a strong sense of either of those. It did come with a strong sense of change … some change I’ve seen as progress … some I’ve seen as loss, but this for certain is true … there has been change.

… maybe it is better ...

Imagine for a moment that no change had happened. What would that be like? Think about all the experiences that were once new to you that you wouldn’t have had if you never left home. Probably some of them, you could have done without. Hopefully most of them have enriched your life though, and made you who you are today — and that’s a good thing.

(What is “better” though?)

Today’s reading marks the time that God’s people get to go home. The exile will end as the Persian king turns to God and releases God’s people to return home.

And if they decide not to go home, they should support those who do — financially support the rebuilding of their home.

Ezra 1:2–4 NRSV

“Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of those among you who are of his people—may their God be with them!—are now permitted to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem; and let all survivors, in whatever place they reside, be assisted by the people of their place with silver and gold, with goods and with animals, besides freewill offerings for the house of God in Jerusalem.”

They have the support of a good number of people. They’re able to rebuild the temple — not in the grandeur it once was — but in the same place. They’re able to worship again in their spiritual home.

Ezra 3:3–4 NRSV

They set up the altar on its foundation, because they were in dread of the neighboring peoples, and they offered burnt offerings upon it to the Lord, morning and evening. And they kept the festival of booths, as prescribed, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the ordinance, as required for each day,

You’d think people would be happy — they’re home — back worshiping in the same place — with support of those who didn’t even travel home.

And yet some of them aren’t:

Ezra 3:12–13 NRSV

But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted so loudly that the sound was heard far away.

It would have been a difficult and confusing time for God’s people — they were home, back in their own land — yet they were still under Persian rule; they were back in the temple, their spiritual home — yet it wasn’t what it once was. The nostalgia that some would have hoped for, might not have ever been realized.

… certainly it is with God.

One of the things that I’ve come to rely more and more on is my connection with God. Nostalgia is nice and comfortable. Different can be energizing and inspiring. But both of those are fleeting at best.

It isn’t possible to live in the past — and it isn’t possible to sustain always doing something new.

However, what is possible is building on a foundation that has been set with God.

Psalm 118:22 NRSV

The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

For us, of course, the chief cornerstone is Jesus:

Ephesians 2:20 NRSV

built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

And our foundation isn’t one that is a brick one … but a human one — the apostles and prophets

Can we return to the way things were? No.

Can we begin to build things back up … relying on the foundation that has been left for us? Yes.

In just a few days, that foundation story will start again — with the birth of a child.

Let us not build up structures and buildings on that child — but let us build up faith — our faith, the faith of others on Jesus. For then we will see God’s love in the world, and others will see God’s love in us.