Home, But Not Alone

Will the grace, mercy and peace of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, be with you in this Epiphany time, this Epiphany season. One of the assistants, as I arrived this morning - you maybe notice something's not here right now, the Advent wreath - and asked me, are we supposed to leave it out? Or are we supposed to put it out of sight, now? Probably should ask the guest Call Pastor what we're supposed to do with that. And I guess I was drawing a blank, and I thought, well, it's Epiphany. It's an Advent wreath. We've celebrated Advent. So, so the Advent wreath has been removed, and maybe you removed some of the Christmas decorations, now, probably. We still have our tree set up at our home in Chili, and we have the trees decorated here still, but, you know, the thing when it comes to Christmas and the Christmas Gospel, you can never put away that Christmas Gospel, because it continues to reign supreme in this season of Epiphany. And in all seasons of life, whether it's chilly, or whether it's warm weather. We are firm in faith, or whether our faith may be fleeting. And you probably also, as we have, put away those Christmas movies that we like to turn to during December to get us in the mood of Christmas, right? So, do you have any favorite Christmas movies? I wonder how many care to admit that, yeah, what gets us in our family in the mood for Christmas is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah. Some are shaking their heads no, and others are going, yeah, that's the one we used to get in the mood for Christmas. I kind of like Will Ferrell in Elf. If anybody's ever seen that. And we always - I know my wife insists on it - and I enjoy it, too, is Charlie Brown's Christmas. That really gets us in the mood when we anticipate Christmas. Well, let me give you a quick clue to another movie that we like to turn to, to get us a bit in the mood for Christmas and here's a clue: Kevin!

Yeah, Home Alone. Exactly. What's the point of conflict in Home Alone? Well, it's how the set of parents, the McAllisters, find themselves living every parent's nightmare: a child has been left behind. In the whole chaos, how it's displayed in that particular movie getting themselves ready, all the other kids ready, and then realizing after they're on board, on a flight to France to celebrate Christmas, they've left the youngest home. Kevin. Wow. Every parent's nightmare, leaving behind a child. Well, it's what happened to Mary and Joseph, as you were listening to the Gospel that was shared. And it wasn't that Mary and Joseph were bad parents. No. They were making their trip to Jerusalem as a family with acquaintances and friends and and neighbors and such. And as was the custom then, the women and younger children traveled together in a group. And the man and the older boys, they traveled, you know, at a distance, but yet still a part of the overall group. Boy, that's what I remember about growing up in Minnesota. Whenever we went to Grandpa Schwanz's house, all the women were upstairs with all the little kids, and all the men were in the basement of Grandpa's house, playing cards and drinking beer, and the two never mixed. The two never mix. That's just the way it was. And so, here's Mary, assuming that their twelve-year-old son, Jesus, is with his father, and father, Joseph is thinking what? Jesus is with his mother. Happens all the time, doesn't it, parents? It has happened to Heidi and me. We've got five kids. It's happened more than once. I thought he was with you. No, he was supposed to be with you. But here's a difference between Kevin be left at home alone and Jesus being left behind: Kevin wasn't supposed to be left home alone. But Jesus was. Jesus had to be home. Jesus wanted to be home, not alone, but at home, just He Himself with His heavenly Father in his heavenly Father's house, to be about His heavenly Father's business. Not his earthly father Joseph's business, not his earthly mother Mary's business, but to be home alone with His Father, His heavenly Father and His business. And, well, Luke tells us that Joseph and Mary couldn't understand what Jesus was up to by leaving them behind and being off in the temple. They would begin to understand some 21 years later. Remember, Luke tells us that, how old was Jesus? Twelve. Do the math. Twenty-one years later brings Jesus to the age of 33. And what happened when Jesus was 33? Well, they had to have had their eyes and hearts open to why their son had to be in His Father's house, doing His Father's business. Because Jesus knew, even at 12, that there was this business that needed to be taken care of. A business that concerned Mary and Joseph, a business and its result that was all about Jesus' brothers and sisters. That was all about, in a business for every parent who has ever intentionally or unintentionally left a child behind, had to be focused on his heavenly Father's business with regards to every child who - you think they are children, who deserve to be left behind?

But this business of Jesus knowing that there was a plan and a mission to assure - and this is what the heavenly Father's business was all about and Jesus definitely being a part of it - that no one would ever be left home alone, or left without a home. And how were Jesus and His Father going to accomplish that? Do you remember in one of Jesus' business trips during his earthly ministry? He again headed to Jerusalem. He came to what was known as Herod's temple. And in this occasion, He became very upset and angry, because in the court of the temple, Herod's temple, that was set aside as a place for Gentile believers to be praying, people had set up their tables to buy and sell, to exchange money. And what did Jesus do? He came in and He overturned those tables and their cash registers, and He proclaimed, so everyone could hear: destroy this Temple and I will raise it up again in three days. Now, that puzzled a lot of folks. Let's put it this way: destroy this house. Destroy this home where you worship other things other than worshiping exclusively the One True God, and He'll raise it up in three days.

Jesus wasn't talking about the temple that was named for Herod. He wasn't talking about this building here, this church. You know, we say oh, yeah, my home, my church home is Immanuel Lutheran. The building on Eighth Street out there. No, He was talking about Himself as the Temple that again, in light of His Father's business that He had gone into the temple to be alone with His Father while His parents were wondering, what on earth are you doing? It was that Temple that would soon be torn down and razed by a cross. Well, I suppose, we could say it really wasn't the cross that destroyed Jesus as the temple. But rather, it was what takes place in our own homes, in our own houses, maybe even sometimes here in this temple, in this church home where we have - whether intentionally or unintentionally - been worshiping and bowing down to other things and other people other than the One True God. Whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Now, this brings to my mind Martin Luther, who wanted to help us get some clarity on this whole business of idols and having other gods. And, so, you know, reading through this Gospel, I kind of had this vision of Luther at my side, saying, "Okay, Chris. To whom or to what do you place, your trust and faith when you're at home? Chris, let me ask you, to whom or to what do you place your faith and trust when you're doing your business at the clinic? Is it exclusively to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Or how about when you're preaching, Chris? Where do you place your faith and trust? In yourself? Or exclusively in God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? And it was dealing with how I - and perhaps you, I'll leave you be the judge as to where you're at when it comes to what we know of as the First Commandment: you shall have no other gods besides me. It was dealing with how I have misplaced my trust and my faith. You know, I have a prayer that's very personal to me. It comes from Mark's Gospel. I think it's in chapter 4, and it's a father who had a son whom he wanted Jesus, the Great Physician to reach out to. And that father, at one point, says, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief." Boy. That nails it. I can't speak for anybody else, but for me? Boy, I thank God for faith, but I know there are times when I wonder where is that faith. When I was a pastor, when I started out in Iowa, in West Bend, Iowa, Where is Bird Island? Where is West Bend? Well, I've gone to all these places nobody knows about, and I'll always remember one of the greatest theologins I ever met was an Iowa farmer. And in my first year of ministry there, he - whatever brought it about, well it was probably because of the drought in the 80s, and then there were the floods in the early 90s - He said to me: Chris, I want to tell you about farmer - well, Reverend Schwanz is what he said - Reverand Schwanz, I want to tell you about farming. For me, every year of farming, ever since I've been a farmer, I lose my faith and I find it again. Boy, that's ... he's one of the greatest theologins I've ever met, this Iowa farmer. How true. And it was dealing with that, that I experience, perhaps you do too, that motivated this twelve-year-old Jesus to leave behind His parents to be at home alone with His heavenly Father, to make sure that everything would be carried out as planned between the two of them - also, with the Spirit involved - to assure you and I whatever has been happening in our lives - spiritually and otherwise, pandemic and no pandemic - that we would never be left home alone. Not in this life, or in the life to come.

So it was 21 years later after the Gospel account that we have this morning from Luke Chapter 2, that Jesus was found, you know, in His Father's house, now was found hanging by a cross. Being torn down and destroyed by all the ways we have left God behind, right? As we have chosen to do our business, our way and squeezing God out of the picture. And sure enough, all it did was what? Took three days until that Sunday came, and the dawning of the day. You know what? I started out to drive here from Chili, the sun had risen again. I thought, thank you, Lord, for that. It's reminding me of that part of the message this morning. As the sun was just about to dawn and break forth, is when our true home, our true house, the real true temple of God Himself was raised up after having been raized and destroyed, and then declared to all the world: come on back home. Come on back home. Home's here. And Mary and Joseph's Son kept that promise, didn't He? And His heavenly Father's promise to bring us back home. And so, how does Jesus keep doing that? I mean, that was a long time ago, right? Easter, that first Easter 2000 years ago. How does He keep doing that when we find ourselves not feeling or thinking that we're at home, whether we brought it upon ourselves or circumstances beyond us. But yet to have that assurance, that He hasn't left us homeless, when we're thinking or feeling that way. How about right here at this font? But it's not the font, itself, that's the home, right? Or the temple. But the water, here. And it's not the water that's the home, if you will, or the temple. It's what? It's the water with the word. And what does John say in the first chapter? And this has got Christmas and Easter written all over it. But the Word became flesh and made His what? His home, His dwelling among us. So that those who have the opportunity to be splashed with - here, not just because of the font's water, but because of the word, Christ present here. So those baptized infants and others - maybe they're not infants being splashed - can go through their lives, especially at those times when they're feeling like: what has happened to my home? What is going on? Oh, yes, but I'm baptized. I've been brought into Christ, Himself. I have a home with Him and He is within me. He is at home here in my heart. And hey, how about those? Do you have like a meal at holiday? That really, "boy, this is what home is all about"? You know, like my wife's creamy, green bean casserole. Oh man, that's just out of this world. Or a Christmas Ham? Or my grandmother - who is Orthodox Jewish, by the way - she had this slightly spicy ground beef, rolled up in a sourdough bun that she called Perogin. Boy, that just made me feel at home with Grandma. But what does this meal up here do for you? Right up here on this table. Does this Body and Blood, this home and temple and house that the word tells us, the scriptures assure us, is in with and under that bread and wine. What does that do for you? When when you come to this temple after a week of "Oh boy. I don't know if I should dare go up there and eat any of that or have any of that, in light of how things have gone. And how I haven't really been have home with my Lord." And wondering if there's any desire on His heart, on His part, to be at home with me. Of course, He says. Yes, come on home. Come, eat and drink of my Body and Blood, so that I can strengthen your faith and keep you convinced I'm at home here with you. For I do not come for the healthy, for those that say, "Ahh, I've got my own home." Or in the hospital. A day doesn't go by where I remind people: you've got a Great Physician. I'm not talking about Dr. Greg Anderson. I don't know if you know this about me. In August, I had surgery for prostate cancer. I'm cancer-free now. Thanks be to God to Dr. Anderson. And all thanks to the Great Physician, who made it possible for me to have Dr. Anderson. But to know that Christ, whether I would end up cancer-free or not, wouldn't change anything as far as Christ being at home with me, and me being at home with Him. You see, He is Immanuel. You're Immanuel. You know what that means. God with us. God at home with us. And we at home with God. Jesus with us. Jesus, our home. The Spirit with you, the Spirit with us, the Spirit at home with us, and we at home with the Spirit. And, you know, don't you, that there are those in Wisconsin Rapids and maybe even here in this congregation that are homeless. Spiritually homeless. It can happen. You can sit in the pew and there's no guarantee that everybody is convinced there, that they know what home really is all about. And for whatever reason, either because they aren't hearing it, or it hasn't been shown to them, that there is a home and a temple and a house for them, too, for them to belong. So, how can you bring that home, if you have, if you know anybody like that, how can you bring that Temple, Jesus to them? Because that's the business we have. That's the business that the church has. And not because we have to, but because we know, don't we? Those of us who have had experiences of wondering where is home to be found? Where is love that's unconditional? Where is there forgiveness to be had, in light of the guilt that continues to leave me feeling like I don't belong anywhere?

And to know that, not even when that time comes when I breathe my last breath, that I can still be assured that I'm not all alone. People don't want to die alone. But when you've got Jesus, you're home. Do you ever die alone? I think that's why people say: we want the chaplain here to give us last rites. And it better be last rites that remind us Jesus is still with me. And I, I am with Him. So, isn't it good to be home for the holidays? Especially when you are at home with Jesus, and Jesus is at home with you. Absolutely, no doubt about it.

And now, may the peace of God, which transcends all our understanding, keep and guard our hearts and minds in Christ. Your home and mine. Amen.