Sermon: Homecoming Sermon
This sermon is adapted to fit – Homecoming Services, Reunions and Celebration Gatherings as we 1. Embrace One Another’s Healing and Transformations 2. Practice the Grace of Forgiveness 3. Accept and Enjoy One Another’s Diversity
Scripture: Mark 5:18-19
“As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, ‘Go home to your own people and tell them how much the LORD has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Homecoming.
The mere mention of the word brings up all kinds of thoughts and images.
+A Day of Celebration – Eating, Singing, Talking and Sharing Life
+A Day of Reunion – Seeing and being with old friends and acquaintances – seeing new faces and old faces.
+A Day of Remembrance – Reflecting on yesteryear:
+Thinking about all the people that have walked through the doors of the Church.
+Thinking about all the people that have sat in the very pews that are still being used today. All the people that have taken Holy Communion, listened to a sermon and called this place their home church.
+Thinking about all the people that are now gone. Those that worshipped in the building just a few miles from here. Those that are now resting in the Mt. Zion Cemetery or some other cemetery.
+Homecoming can even be a Day of anxiety
+Am I ready to see certain faces again?
+Will I hear the same stories about what I did or didn’t do years ago?
+What will people think of me – my family – what I am now doing in life – where I am in life right now.
+It can be a Day of questions
+Is the music the same as it was years ago – is that the same carpet, what has changed and what has not changed?
+Who is the new minister – is the church growing, staying the same or on a slow decline?
+I wonder what the future will hold.
+Oh, I wonder what we are going to eat today. I hope ______ brought that cake, pie or desert. I heard that there is going to be some tenderloin.
Homecomings bring a lot of joy, celebrations and questions and anxiety. There are always some knowns and unknowns. There are always some
‘How are you doing’ ‘I see you still think you are something’
‘Look at me now’ ‘why again did I show up’
and ‘I am so glad that I am here with my family’.
I am sure it was that way for the man in our story this morning.
Jesus was sending him home. Jesus was telling this man whose life had been radically transformed that he couldn’t go with him. Jesus wanted him to go home. He needed to go back to his family and friends. Jesus told him that the best way that he could serve him and Kingdom of God was to go back home and share what had happened to him.
One of the hardest things any of us can do in this life is to live out our faith around those who know us best or who at least think that they know us best.
At times, most of us like a fresh start.
More than once I am sure most of us have thought – I would like to go someplace where no one knows me or my past. I would like to start fresh. Make new friends, have new experiences, and put some things behind me forever.
However, often we find ourselves in what we could call “homecoming moments” – moments where we need to return to our roots. Moments that we are required toa face the people of our youth. Where we may have to endure hearing old stories we no longer want to hear or want our loved ones to hear. Where we have history – good or bad – we still have history.
This morning, how do we make Homecoming for ourselves and for others a most wonderful experience? How do we make Homecoming truly a time of Celebration and Joy? Not just Church Homecomings but Homecomings that happen in our families and among our friends.
1. Homecoming allows us to Embrace One Another’s Healing – One Another’s Transformations
Can you imagine this morning all the things that happened the day this man returned to his home?
He had to wonder if he was going to be accepted. He had to wonder if he was going to be able to stay.
For years he had been a terror to his family, his friends and his community. How many people had he attacked over the years. How many people had he frightened through his words and actions.
For years his family had endured who he had become and what he was doing. It could not have been easy to have been his spouse, his child, or his friend. It could not have been easy to have been associated with a man who was known as the town’s demon possessed man running around naked in the local graveyard.
And now, through the power of Jesus:
+His mind had been healed
+His life had been transformed – Jesus had radically transformed his life
I think that his family rejoiced as they began to embrace his healing, his transformation, and his new life in Jesus.
+They embraced the hope that this time this man really was different – what Jesus had done in his life was more than a moment but the change of a lifetime.
The Bible tells us that more than once the community had tried to help this man but each time he would return to his old ways. Each time he would go back to living in the local cemetery, harming himself and being a threat to others.
+They had to look at one another and decide that they were going to do everything they could to help make this new beginning permanent.
+They had to come together and learn again what it meant to be a family.
No doubt, a lot of words had been spoken and a lot of actions had taken place over the past few years. Words that may have been cruel, hurtful, and full of anger.
What Jesus had done in this man’s life provided them an opportunity for them to be able to come together and rejoice.
What Jesus had done in this man’s life brought them hope.
Homecoming (Church – family – friends) can provide us a wonderful opportunity to embrace a time of healing and wholeness.
+Homecoming can provide us a wonderful opportunity to embrace and rejoice in one another’s growth and transformations. It’s a time to share our life stories of how the LORD is continuing to help us become the very people He wants us to be. It’s a time to invest in one another and encourage one another and support one another.
2. Homecoming allows us the Opportunity to Practice the Grace of Forgiveness
There is no one who has grown up in the church or has been a member of the Church, a family, or a group of friends very long that doesn’t have some history that is let’s say – not perfect. A history that has not always been Christlike and sometimes that has downright rotten, surly, arrogant, prideful, and foolish.
Homecoming allows us the opportunity to forgive and practice forgiveness.
The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Church of Ephesus:
Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Paul wrote those words because he understood that at times, we can all get a bit bent out of shape.
He and his friend and mentor, Barnabas had gotten out of shape with one another. He and a large part of the Church at Corinth had gotten out of shape. He and the Apostle Peter had gotten out of shape. Paul understood that at times people just get out of sorts with one another. Sometimes that is just what happens when people get together and start sharing life. Not everyone sees everything the same way.
That’s why over and over again as he wrote to this church and to that church, he reminded them of the importance of practicing the grace of forgiving one another.
I think it is also why Jesus included forgiveness in the Prayer He gave His Disciples:
“Forgive us our trespasses as we also forgive others of their trespasses.”
I think in our story this morning this man had to forgive himself, his family and others. I think his family had to forgive him, themselves, and others around them. And I think the community at large had to forgive him and themselves.
For years this man had lived an insane life. He had no doubt brought a lot of pain and suffering. But now, it was time to forgive – to practice forgiveness. And as we all know that is not an easy thing to do – but it is a necessary thing to do.
Now, I am not saying that there has been any insane activity in the Church, or your family or among your friends.
What I am saying is wherever we experience a time of Homecoming – in the Church, in our family or with our friends we have a wonderful opportunity to practice the grace of forgiving one another. Of doing just what the Apostle Paul writes:
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
3. Homecomings allow us the opportunity to Practice the Grace of Acceptance
Not everyone stays the same over time. Our lives may have changed a little or a lot. Our surroundings may have changed. Our attitudes and philosophies of life may have changed. Our appetites may have changed. Our positions and opinions may have changed.
The family that this man left was gone. His wife had changed. His children had changed. They had to learn to accept a new normal of life. Now, they were having to accept a new normal of life again – I am sure it was quite an adjustment those first few days, weeks and months.
Homecoming (Church, family/friends) allows us to practice the grace of acceptance. We get the opportunity to accept everyone and rejoice in their diversity and difference of opinions. It allows us to enlarge our umbrellas of life and welcome one another in the name of Jesus.
Homecoming is a time when Yellow Dog Democrats as they would say in Eastern Kentucky and Maga Republicans are able to practice the art of accepting one another, despite their being a world of difference between the two.
Homecoming is a time for those who have different musical taste – Traditional, Gospel, Contemporary Gospel, Rap Gospel, Southern Gospel and everything in between to accept one another and rejoice in the fact that God is the God of Yesterday is also the God of Today and Tomorrow. After all, who knows what type of music the Holy Spirit will teach His Church in the future.
Homecoming is a time when the Body of Christ recognizes that it is different – it is diverse, and instead of rejecting all the diversity to rejoice in the diversity.
That doesn’t mean that we throw out the 10 Commandments or what the Bible teaches. We certainly do not want to do that. It does mean that we accept each other where we find one another. We accept each other’s faith walk knowing that the God we serve is the same God that others serve.
Paul would simple tell us that:
Body of Christ toes are different than Body of Christ fingers and Body of Christ fingers different than Body of Christ eyes and ears. But at the very top – the Head – it is the Head of Christ who is Jesus Christ our Savior and LORD.
Homecoming (Church, family/friends) provides us a wonderful opportunity to practice the Spirit of Pentecost – the Spirit of seeing how the Holy Spirit is working in and through one another. Homecoming is a time where we rejoice and relish each another’s faithwalk. Homecoming is the time when we become more than separate parts but we all become a Part of One Another.
4. Homecoming is a time of reflecting on the past and looking towards the Future.
There is an interesting story that happened when the Children of Israel were entering into the Promise Land – we find this story in Joshua chapter four.
The LORD God Almighty had instructed the Israelites after they had crossed the Jordan River to pick up 12 stones from the middle of the Jordan River and make a monument on their side of the River.
Those 12 stones were to stand as a reminder of God’s faithfulness and His promise. His faithfulness for being with them the past 40 years – watching over them, providing for them and walking with them. They were also to stand as a reminder that the God who was with them in the past would always be with them in the present and in the future.
They were to take their children and allow them to see the stones. They were to take their grandchildren and do the same.
Each generation was to remember the stories of the past – how God was faithful to His People and How God would be there with them in the future.
Today, after service and before you go home – walk around the Church – the sanctuary, the class rooms, the Fellowship Hall and the grounds. Reflect, share the stories of the Church – of those who built, watched over and provided for the buildings and grounds that we have today.
Reflect over the prayers that have been said, the songs that have been sung and the people that have walked from their cars to church Sunday after Sunday.
Rejoice in what has happened in the past.
But pray for the future – look at the Food Pantry – hear about some of the new things that are going to happen – and pray for the future. If you would like – be a part of future – invest in prayer, in worship, in sharing and in promoting.
Today, is a good day – It’s Homecoming –
+It’s a time to embrace the good things that are happening in each other’s life – to embrace what God is doing – how He is transforming all of us more into His image.
+It’s a great day to embrace how God has forgiven us and how we can forgive others.
+It’s a great day to encourage one another – wherever we may find ourselves in our present walk with Christ – it’s a day to rejoice in our uniqueness and diversity.
+It’s a great day to praise God for the past and to pray for the future
Now, let’s have prayer and go and be the Church as we eat, as we laugh, as we share life and as we enjoy one another!
