There's No Place Like Home

We’ve all seen the classic movie, “the wizard of Oz”... In this movie, Dorothy and Toto find themselves in a foreign but magical land full of strange scenes and exotic creatures. Though they meet some fantastic friends, they never quite find a place to call home in this place. Toward the end of the movie, Dorothy repeats that line that we all know so well, “There’s no place like home...There’s no place like home...”
There truly is no place like home...and I bet you can identify with Dorothy can’t you. We find that we are restless until we are finally at rest where we belong. Dorothy felt this way. I feel this way; i believe we all feel this way. We want to be welcomed home into that space where we truly belong. Some of us might have already been invited there...some of us might have even accepted that invitation...but others of us are still wondering.
That’s what we human beings have been doing for such a long time haven’t we...wandering...seeking....searching...looking for home even while we have places we call home. We know there is something greater for us...some greater mission we are supposed to be involved in....so even though we settle from time to time, we keep on wandering...much like Dorothy and Toto...repeating that phrase, “There’s no place like home....there’s no place like home....
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We once weren’t doing so much wandering ... so much searching for meaning...for our true home. There was a time when we human beings were home and satisfied. Oh what a time that must’ve been!
In the beginning, when the God began creating the world as we know it, His masterpiece was humankind. The Triune God formed humankind out of their rich love life. In love, we were made from the dust of the ground and breathed into by the Divine breath of God. Like a newborn baby who comes out of the womb and looks passionately in the eyes of her mommy, knowing immediately who is and who is not mommy, so the humanity Father Son and Spirit formed in love came into existence and looked into the eyes of God as if to say, “mama, dadda.” There was warmth in that look...trust...contentment. We were home...not in a temporary dwelling place like our houses, trailers or apartments, but in the place we are meant to be: in the life of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
That is our true home: to be in communion with our Creator. To receive all the good he gives to us in love and offer it back to him in thanksgiving. To experience that which we offer back in love to be transformed into communion with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...that is being at home as a human being! And there is no place like home. There is no place like home.
We click our heals together just like Dorothy, because whether we realize it yet or not, we are not truly back at home until we are living life in this blessed communion. Our entire being is to be in communion.
But that is exactly what we decided we’d take a chance on. The Lord warned us like a mother warns a child not to play by a certain tree because there is a hornets nest in it. The mother does not want the child to get stung or face the consequences of being stung by so many angry hornets. But we went outside and instead of playing under the good trees that provided shade for our play, we rebelled and began to stop trusting “mama” “papa.” We went and played under the hornets nest and the venom proved to be deadly!
The venom of sin’s sting has severed our relationship...it has broken our home. Like a rebellious teenager who wants it his way or no way, we packed our bags and ran away from home. When mama and papa came looking for us we hid. They made us clothes to hide our shame...but we kept on running...And we have not stopped running ever since!
Every human being that has ever lived since then has metaphorically clicked their heals together, sighing, “there’s no place like home...there’s no place like home...” ... “wherever home is...whatever home is...” We’ve been wandering in misery .... harming ... abusing one another, playing the role we were never made to play...worshipping the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever.
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Oh but mama and papa never forget that first look...when we looked into their eyes with so much love...so much trust...contentment...when we were home...and they know we have fallen ... they know more than we do....they know we have rebelled and ran away wanting it our way...and like a good mama and papa, they have not stopped reaching out to us...coming to us...making entrances into our chaos inviting us back home.

That’s what the entire Old Testament is all about isn’t it!?! It is The triune God calling us back home through Abraham, through Moses and Aaron, through Joshua, through Samuel Through the prophets. But no matter how much our Creator...our Father, our true Mother has called us back, our pride keeps us running like that teen that ran away from home and never came back...not truly remembering why he was so upset with his parents, but knowing that he cannot go back and face all the pain he caused. So in his pride he pretends he is right and everyone else is wrong. He keeps running, though deep inside through the layers of hardness that have developed over the years, his heals kick in the recesses of his being, “there’s no place like home! there’s no place like home!’
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And even though we kept running, our God, the Lover of us all, no matter how rebellious we have been, kept on seeking us out. And in the fullness of time, he sent His only Son, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, to make the most Holy of entrances ever made into our chaos. He came down to us, humbling himself, since that is the nature of our mama and papa, and becoming completely one with us...feeling the consequences of the sting of those hornets oh so long ago. He represented everyone of us in the life he lived, in the death he died and in the new life he opened through His glorious resurrection!
Like a big brother who sees his little brother or sister take a nasty fall, he ran to us and got down on our level, looked us in the eye, wiped away our tears, gently lifted us up in his loving arms, comforting us, all for the purpose of putting us in the hands of mommy and papa.
And that is what this feast of the ascension is all about. If Jesus doesn’t ascend, big brother doesn’t pick us up and put us in the lap of His Father! The ascension is Jesus, our sinless and victorious big brother who loves us and represents us all, lifting us up from our mess and uniting us with the Father once and for all!
That is why today is homecoming...Because Jesus became one with us...becuase he represented each one of us...because he took the full force of the consequence of our rebellion head on and whipped its butt through his death and resurrection...Because he took that which he assumed, namely the entirety of our wanderings as human beings and went back to the Father, now we can be at home ... where we truly belong! We can abide in God’s deep love for us like never before...
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Have you ever seen a mother or father look into the eyes of a child who came back? A child who stopped loving and once again started loving and trusting and finding contentment in their care? When we accept in the Spirit what the Father has done for us through the Son, and we go back home, OH THE JOY OF THE TRIUNE GOD! He remembers that wonderful day when he breathed His life into us, making us in His image and likeness...he rejoices knowing he gets to walk that journey with us again...the journey of becoming fully at home...becoming everything He already knew we could be.
Today there may be somebody here who has been clicking their heals together for so long wandering where home might truly be. Maybe today God has revealed to you that His life is your true home and that because Jesus has ascended into the heavenly realm, now our humanity has been joined with the life of God. Maybe you hear the Spirit whispering deep with you, inviting you to simply believe in faith that this story is true...that you can come back home...that he can restore that broken relationship and begin a journey with you of becoming everything he already knows you can be.
The invitation is open. Come home...big brother saw our nasty fall and came to our rescue...he has lifted us up to His Father and His Father wants to heal your wounds. Amen.