April, 2007
Reunion Sermon
Come Home
Mark 6:30-44
INTRODUCTION: You have probably gone to many family reunions, homecoming, summer picnics, high school class reunions or other gatherings where you “come home” once again to some part of your past. You look forward to it, but there is also a little sense of apprehension about it. Will it be like I remembered it? Will the buildings look different from what I remembered? Will my close friends of years gone by be there? Will they remember me? Will anyone speak to me or will I be accepted? Will I look as good as they do? Will I feel at home or feel like a misfit?
You might come up with a lot of questions and anxieties over a traditional “coming home” event. I think it is normal to have these questions and feelings.
ILLUSTRATION: I remember when I went back to preach at the church where my Mother took me as a four year old. I remembered that we sat on little wooden chairs in a Sunday school class. Those same little chairs were still there in the same room--after 50 years had gone by. In fact my Sunday school teacher was still there. I was accepted back into that home church after having been away for all those years.
ILLUSTRATION: I remember on one of our trips Walter and I went to the town where he was born--Harrisburg, Arkansas. We drove around the town, and he pointed out things he remembered. We drove by the movie theatre he and his Mother and their dog, Boots, went to every Saturday night.
There had been a barber shop on the corner, and it was still there. He went into the shop and asked about certain people. It so happened that there was a man there that day who Walter had gone with to a soap box derby 50 years before. He hadn’t seen this person for all of these years but there were instant connections.
ILLUSTRATION: A woman in Louisiana, Aunt Marty, who came home to a “traditional dinner on the grounds” at a rural church was asked, “Why do you travel all this way to come here?” She laughed and said, “for the food,” but then she said, “Because I NEED to…” She went on to explain:
1. I need TO KNOW there is someone who cares that I still exist.
2. I need TO FEEL family.
3. I need TO BE FILLED not only with food, but my soul filled and refreshed.
In our scripture reading for today, people “came home” to be with Jesus. Many had come for miles. Why?
1. A Need to KNOW: These people had a need to know some things too. John the Baptist had been killed. How was this going to affect Jesus? Would they be abandoned? Did they fear that Jesus would be beheaded too? Did they need to get their miracle while it was still available? Did they need the assurance that someone cared that they existed?
They probably needed to know all of these things and more. Scripture says that these people were like “sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34). They needed to be RECONNECTED to some kind of stability. Jesus saw this need and scripture said, “He had compassion on them” and took time for them (vs. 34). The account says that it was not a convenient time. Jesus and the disciples had ministered all day and were trying to slip away for some rest, but the people kept coming to Jesus who was the center of unity and stability for them. He didn’t turn them away. They needed to be there, and He taught them, healed them, and even fed them.
Just as they had a need to come home, we also have the same need. HOME is a place you can come even at an inconvenient time. Jesus was able to convey to them this sense of HOME--you matter, I’m here for you.
When we come home, things might always be like we remembered because things change over time. Things may not even be as good as we remembered. Buildings and furnishings deteriorate and might look worse than we ever remembered. There may not be as many people as we remembered.
This happened to the Jewish people who returned after long years of exile. What they found in the city was not what they had anticipated, and there was a sense of discouragement, doubt, and disillusionment. But they were home and that was what mattered.
Places you revisit may not be the same as you remembered it, but there is a sense of HOME in spite of it. You remember the times you came to family reunion and say, “I am still welcome. It’s HOME. I matter.”
2. A Need to FEEL Worthy to be a Part of the Family of God: A sense of family is important.
ILLUSTRATION: There was a student minister who had to commute to a little church on Sundays and this arrangement required that hospitality be extended to him for his Sunday meals. He said that one deacon and his wife told him, “There is always room at our table for you.” These people made him FEEL a part of their family. He BELONGED at their table. He was a part of the family and not an outsider.
God is saying to us today, “there is always room at my table for you.” Will you trust me, will you believe that when you receive Jesus that you are “accepted into the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). That He gives you “the power to become sons and daughters?” (John 1:12). You might say, “Maybe I’m not included.” Scripture tells us “WHOSOEVER will may come.” Just as the deacon told the student preacher, we also have a standing invitation to come. Revelation 22:17 tells us, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say come and let him that athirst come. And WHOSOEVER will let him take the water of life freely.” When you come home to family you can COME AS YOU ARE. You don’t have to try to make a good impression on family to make them like you. They just DO. They might squabble and fight, but there is a BOND of family.
What does it mean to come home? You know that you are always welcome at the table. Family will make the food stretch for you.
Jesus’ disciples were overwhelmed with the tremendous need for so much food to feed all of these people. It didn’t bother Jesus in the least. He just told them to take inventory. What do you have? Only five loaves and two fish. Jesus said, “YOU feed them.” They didn’t think they could begin to feed that crowd let alone finish and have leftovers. Jesus is saying, “We’ll make the food stretch for you.” When you come home, you’re family. A family knows how to stretch the meal for you. Pull up a chair--there’s an extra potato in the pot for you, there’s a handful of beans in the pot, a cup of water stirred in, maybe even some hamburger helper.”
The provision in our story was ordinary--bread and fish. Not some gourmet dinner. It wasn’t fancy. It was just good old plain bread and fish, but it was satisfying and nourishing to these people who had come to Jesus with longing, emptiness, and apprehension. Jesus had them to sit down in groups of 100’s and 50’s. He organized them and there was plenty of room at His table for everyone.
ILLUSTRATION: One time there was a college student who would come to eat with us once or twice a month. He always wanted to eat off of a chipped plate. Why? Because it made him feel like family. I don’t know if they were served that day from a chipped plate or not; but they were made to FEEL that they were family and that they were worthy to be there.
Jesus knew how to create this feeling of family as He ministered to their needs. They needed to feel His love and care as He taught them and as He healed them. Why do we come home?
We come to reaffirm once again that we are a part of the family. We see where we have been, where we are now, and refocus on where we are going. We evaluate how we are doing in the process. If we have gone off track and drifted into a far country as the prodigal son did, we can refocus on what adjustments we need to make in our present lives.
In what ways do we need to sense the presence of God in our barren lives? What areas have become a desert wilderness to us and we didn’t even realize it? Come home to family. There’s always room at the table for you. Someone once said, “In our desert places the presence of Christ will turn a wilderness into a paradise.” Come on home.
3. A Need to be FILLED: The people in the gospel account had a need to be filled. They had a physical need for food for one thing. They followed Jesus out of the cities to hear Him preach, and it didn’t occur to them to bring food with them. They were in a hurry to get to Jesus and the day got away from them. Now they were hungry. It has been said that “Christ came into the world to be the great feeder as well as the great healer.”
Jesus didn’t intend for any to go away hungry. Even though it looked like there would be no way to feed all of these hungry people, Jesus took what resources they had and lifted them up giving thanks over the bread and the fish and then gave it to His disciples to distribute among the hungry crowd. Vs. 42 says, “They all ate and were FILLED.” The NIV says, “They all ate and were SATISFIED.” Vs. 44 says there were even leftovers. Jesus saw to it that they well were fed and that nobody was overlooked. It was His intention that everyone should have ENOUGH--a second or a third helping if they wanted it.
Jesus met those immediate needs first. He knew they were tired, and they were hungry. He knows our frustrations when we are trying to meet the needs of our daily life and we run out of resources. He knows how to stretch what we have when we come to him and put our life and resources into His hands and His care. He can take what looks insignificant and multiply it in miraculous ways. We’ve got to trust Him to do it for us. Sometimes we say, “Well, I don’t believe that.”
There is a saying,
“Doubt and do without,” and another one that says, “Believe and receive.”
We make choices on what we want to do.
There was a need to be filled, and the multiplication of the loaves and fish tell us that Jesus is very much interested in our daily, temporal needs. We pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and He provides that.
He wants not only to meet these physical needs but also to preserve and nourish our spiritual lives. In Him there is enough for all who come to Him. Enough to fill the soul. We don’t have to be impoverished in our souls. We can come home to Jesus, the Giver and Sustainer of all life. There is more than enough. There are leftovers.
CONCLUSION: What does it mean for you to come home? Come home to a reunion, or to come home to Jesus? I believe today we can get our questions answered just as the people did on that day on the hillside.
Does God care about me?
Do I matter?
There are memories of a home you need to return to. Oh, maybe the building is not there anymore or it doesn’t look the same, but there is a place you can return to that says, “Yes, I know where my roots are. I know where I started my journey of faith.” I may have traveled a long way from home, may have become careless and lax in my ties to home, and to God, “but I can once again come home and pull up a chair to the table where I am always welcome. There will be plenty of food for me because I am FAMILY. I can FEEL a part of the natural family as well as FEEL worthy to be a part of the family of God.
I know where I am now and I can make some decisions about where I want to go in the future.
In coming home I can satisfy that deep need to be filled--with dinner on the grounds as well as the deep spiritual needs of my soul.
Today, the question is “Won’t you come home? Won’t you come home to Jesus?” The choice is yours.
Let us Pray:
