This is the text of the sermon I delivered today (September 29, 2013) at Faith United Methodist Church in Sandy Ridge, Pennsylvania. This was a homecoming and it is also the first time I have preached in the area I grew up in.

Micah 6:6-8 (NRSV)

(What God Requires)

(6) “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

(7) Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

(8) He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Luke 15:11-32 (NRSV)

(11) Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons.

(12) The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them.

(13) A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.

(14) When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.

(15) So he went  and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.

(16) He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.

(17) But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!

(18) I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you;

(19) I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’

(20) So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.

(21) Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

(22) But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe - the best one - and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

(23) And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;

(24) for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.

(25) “Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.

(26) He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on.

(27) He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’

(28) Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him.

(29) But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.

(30) But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’

(31) Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

(32) But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”

I first want to thank you for the opportunity to worship here with you this morning. Believe it or not, this is a big honor for me. I have been working as a pastor in one form or another for just over three years, but this is the first time I have preached here in the area I grew up in. Maybe it is for that reason that I am more nervous standing before you today than I have ever really been at the church I serve at every week. The Gospels remind us of the reception Jesus got when he preached in his hometown, so I guess it is par for the course to be a bit anxious this morning. Truth be told, I never thought I would be here. Just like any young kid growing up, I had plans with what I wanted to do with my life. Those plans changed over time, like they are wont to do; yet, at no point would I have said I wanted to be a pastor.

But, life has a way of coming full circle. We spend our youth trying to get away from home. As adults, we spend our time trying to make a home. As we age, in one way or another, we always end up on our way home again. Home is a place, both real and imagined, that we are constantly in relation with. We are either trying to get away or trying to get back there, but we always measure ourselves by how far away from it we are.

Home is a center for our lives. Yet, home is also the beginning and the end of our lives. And, at some point in our life, we long to go home. So what does it mean to want to go home? What does it mean to be away from home? What does it mean to be at home? What is home in the first place?

Home is that place, both real and imagined, that we belong. It is that place, real and imagined, where we find our identity. It is that place that defines us, that makes us who we are. And it is that place that we are called to, that we return to, that we yearn for.

My life, in a lot of ways, has been a search for home. I spent my youth, like many, trying to get away from it. I wanted to see more, to travel around, to experience life in a way I felt wouldn't be possible here in the place I grew up in. Home, then, was the place I knew, but I wanted to know more. Life would be successful in my eyes, if I learned that which home couldn't teach me.

So I went in search of that which I sought. I kept searching. I searched in south America. I searched in central America. I searched in the Caribbean. I searched in Lewisburg. I searched in Athens, Ohio. I searched and I searched and I searched. Then, I fell in love and the search changed. Instead of searching for my home, I searched to create one. I began to search for the things that can create a home. I searched for a job, for a city, for a place, for a life to provide for my wife, my children, myself. But it was then that I realized that as I searched for a home, my need and yearning for my own home became stronger. I no longer looked to get further away, but looked for how to get closer. I looked for ways to create a home. And I realized that while home may be a place, more than that it is a feeling, it is a reality that is made up by those who surround us. The old saying Home is where the heart is is true because home becomes the place where the people are that we love. Home is where our family is.

It is in the company of family that we are truly at home. It is a shame that some of us need to venture far away from our loved ones before we realize it was their company that we were searching for in the first place but never realized.

I began to come to this realization about 5 years ago, at least in earnest. I didn’t realize that I was on the path that would lead me here all my life, but about 5 years ago I began realizing that ministry was what I was supposed to do. Give years ago, as I was still learning to be a father, as I was still learning to be a husband, I began to realize that God was calling me to something that would eventually put me in a position to lead a church, and it was in this process that I began to piece together these different parts of my life in a way that allowed me to see the hand of God all around me. As my eyes were opened to this tapestry, I realized that home had been there all along, what I was missing was the right frame of mind to see it.

God had been there in my youth. God had been there in my travels. God had been there with me when I was on camping trips with Boy Scouts. God had been there with me in high school when my heart was broken. God had been there with me when I felt alone and when I felt loved. God had been there every step of the way. In ways both visible and invisible, God’s was working in my life to help me get to the point where I could look back and see the larger picture.

I thought long and hard about which scripture to use this morning. I originally didn’t want to use the story of the prodigal son because I didn’t want my words this morning to be about me. I didn’t want to portray myself as the prodigal son. But over the last couple of weeks, after talking with some close friends of mine at seminary, I realized that this story actually would be perfect. It is a story we all know, we have heard it countless times in church over our lives. But, in addition, we all are that son that goes off to live his life for himself only to realize later that what he sought was there all along.

Much like the son in this story, I wasn’t able to recognize when I was younger those sacrifices that my parents made for me. I wasn’t able to recognize how much they loved me and because of that I wrote them off way too much. I wanted more, I wanted it my way, I wanted to live my life the way I knew would be best and my only consideration was my own happiness. Being a father now, I know that there are days ahead of me that my own kids will want to do the same thing and that is scary, because a father or a mother always loves their children no matter how much trouble they might get into, no matter how many stupid stunts they pull, no matter how many times they don’t follow our advice, we love them. And we know that despite loving them so much, we know there will come a day when they won’t see how much we love them and will claim that we are just not getting them, that we just don’t understand.

But, looking back, I can say that I was blessed to have two parents who turned me into the person I am today, who helped me to be a better father than I would have been without them, who helped me be a better husband than I would have been had I not had their example. And I am thankful for that. It means more to me that I can explain that my mother is here today. And it hurts to know that by the time I figured out I was being called into ministry, it was too late for my father to be able to hear me preach. More than anything else, his absence is the one I feel the most. I have come to realize that the love which defines home is sometimes best understood as the love between father and son, even though for much of our lives the relationships we have with our fathers is complicated. But as complicated as the relationship may be, the love is stronger than just about anything else.

I would like to share with you a short story that I came across the other day. It is the sad but inspiring story that emerged from the Vietnam War and it is about the stamina and cohesiveness of the Elmo Zumwalt family. Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr., a graduate of Annapolis, quickly progessed from rank to rank. He was appointed chief of naval operations at age 49, the youngest person ever to hold that position.

Lieutenant Elmo Zumwalt III embraced his father’s credo, “Duty, honor, intelligence, and compassion.” Much against the admiral’s wishes, the young man elected to serve in Vietnam. He neither sought nor received special treatment from the Navy. In fact, his assignment was an extremely dangerous one: patrolling the rivers in small craft. During this time the powerful chemical defoliant, Agent Orange, was used along the riverbanks.

In 1983, Lieutenant Zumwalt learned he had developed cancer. It was traceable to Agent Orange; ironically, his father had given the order to use it.

Their book, My Father, My Son, details the unbelievable account of the family’s courage and commitment to one another. There was no blame; each man did what he thought he had to do. The son’s painful days finally ended. However, before his death he wrote his father a beautiful letter. Here is the last paragraph:

“How I loved you. How I would have loved to continue to fight battles by your side. You always made a difference. You made my last battle, the journey to death, more gentle, more humane. I love you, Elmo.”

We all love the story of the prodigal son, because to a some extent we all can empathize with the son. But, to some extent, too, we can empathize with the father. We know the importance that forgiveness can bring to a relationship and we all know what it is like to be in need of forgiveness.

This morning I didn’t want to stand up here and recount a sad story, but sometimes it is in the sad stories that we see the most joy. The father in the story, at the sight of his son coming home, rejoiced. Even if he knew all the wrong his son had done, at that moment, he didn’t care. He was joyous simply with the knowledge that the separation was over. Coming home is a celebration.

It is in that celebration that we gather today. We have come home to share our lives with one another. This celebration today we share with those that we love. While there may be a few people missing from our tables today, their absence also reminds us of the fact that we all are on our own way home. From the day we are born we are on a journey home. For some that journey is long and for others not so much, but the destination is the same. Much like the prodigal son, we may fear that homecoming, but the parable we read from Luke’s Gospel this morning reminds us that while we may not think we deserve a homecoming celebration, the Father will be ready to welcome us back to the home that we all share and that day we will feast with Him, with those who have gone home before us and those that still journey to join us. That, my friends, is the good news.

The prophet Micah reminds us this morning, too, that getting there isn’t as difficult as we make it. The Bible is big and complicated, but the story of the prodigal son and the words from Micah remind us that there is a home we are venturing too and getting there is more simple than we know. We may say that the Father expects a lot, but in reality what he expects is not that difficult to do. He wants us to do justice. To know that there is a wrong and a right and that our decisions should reflect that. Yet, even after the call for justice, we are to love mercy. We are to acknowledge that God’s grace is what helps us stay on the road home and that we are to reflect that mercy to others. And He wants us to acknowledge and live into the fact that we do not journey alone, for He is with us and we walk with Him through it all.