The LCMS church is having Wednesday Advent services this year. In the sermon today, the pastor talked about home. When he was growing up, he had to move every five years due to his father’s job. Eventually, his father settled down in one place, and soon thereafter the pastor would move around: to different schools and pastorates. His father and mother lived for decades in their house, such that it was home to them, but they had to move in with the pastor’s sister, due to circumstances.
The pastor said that home is supposed to be a safe place. It is the place that has to take us in! The pastor has lived in different places, and he has come to see home as the place where he is loved, wherever that may be. But the pastor acknowledged that there are many who lack such a picture of home, due to their having grown up in abusive, unloving, or unpredictable environments.
The pastor’s text was from Jeremiah. Jeremiah criticized people’s sins, and sin is what makes homes so unsafe. But Jeremiah also predicted God’s forgiveness of sin and acceptance of Israel. Through Christ, we can be at home with God: loved.
James' Ramblings 