Go To Your Homeroom

8-22-21 Sermon Notes“Go To Your Homeroom”
Have you ever heard the old saying, “You can’t go home again?” It comes from a Thomas Wolfe novel by that name, which was published (posthumously) in 1940. In the novel, a man named George Webber, a fledgling author, writes a book that makes frequent references to his family and his hometown. When he returns to his hometown, George is shocked at the anger that he finds there. His family and lifelong friends felt betrayed and unfairly represented by his novel. Turned away by his hometown, George Webber begins a quest for his identity, a quest which takes him all over the world. George says in the book, “You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood, back home to a young man’s dreams of glory and of fame…back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting, but which are changing all the time.”
There is a lot of truth in that observation; however, there is one sense in which all of us can – and must – go home again. It is when we are away from our true home – a loving fellowship with God. We sometimes forget how much God loves us, and how God will not rest until his children are home, and how much God rejoices when we come home. That’s the central point of a couple of powerful stories that Jesus tells in Luke chapter 15:
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 8 “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15: 1-10 NRSV)
Have you been feeling disconnected at lost in the wilderness? Come “home” this Sunday to Gadsden First UMC for worship and reconnection to the God who loves you so much!
Pastor Sam