Coming Home
by Jennie Valentine and Nicole Lamarche
God has been trying to get to us since the very beginning, God has been trying to find a home in us, since that moment when God sought intimacy, when He yearned for partners in creation, when God inspired the cells that became human beings, when She breathed us to life. God has been trying to get to us since the Garden of Eden when we were given possibilities beyond our imagination and we chose to know the fullness of pain and the depths of life. God has been trying to get to us since Abraham when God made an offer of faithfulness in exchange for the same from Abraham’s people. God has been trying to get to us since Moses and the Ten Commandments as a way to the best kind of life. God has been trying to make a home in us since Noah and the rainbow and the everlasting promise to give us another chance.
Throughout time, God has been trying to find a home in us, to find a way to get to us and the story of our relationship with God is long and filled with the kinds of ups and downs that can only be found in a deep and real kind of relationship grounded in love. Our narrative that spans human history is one in which God chases after us and finds us and we begin again. We mess up, go off course, fail to do what God tells us is the way to wholeness, we turn away and God chases after us again.
From the very beginning, God has been trying to find a home in us.
Every year, we welcome the baby, born in a manger, home again. He arrives as a gift to make a home with us. Immanuel, God with Us. As we celebrate his coming home tonight, let’s look at the homes he entered on that night, 2000 years ago.
Mary was, naturally, the first to find out that Jesus, the Son of the Most High, the Son of God would be born to earth. Mary lived in Nazareth, the capital of what we call Israel. It is in the north central region of Israel. The Aramaic word “nazir” means prince or crown. Could it be that the name of Mary’s town name foretold of the birth of the baby who came home to earth? Archeological diggings indicate that ancient Nazareth wasan insignificant agriculturalvillage housing only a few dozenfamilies. Digs have also turned up the remains of a stone house that may have been owned by Mary’s family. This in fact would make Mary’s family slightly more well-off because owning a stone house would have been more expensive. Mary and Joseph’s house, though, was that of a modest simplicity. The family earned money through Joseph’s trade. They lived the life of earnest Jewish families, observing both the religious laws and cultural norms. Jesus’ home in Nazareth was just plain normal!
The shepherds’ home was in the fields. Some translations of this passage say “there were shepherds abiding in the fields”. Abide is a form of abode, home. The shepherds lived in the fields. It’s where their responsibility was, and where they did their caring. Why the shepherds? They were situated pretty low on the social ladder. A life of subsistence, wandering the hillsides, they didn’t have much influence on the rest of the world. Yet their home was one of the first to get the news of the birth of the one who would be called Messiah. Their home made it possible for God to find them by approaching them in the night, where it was quiet, and there were no distractions.
We hear in some versions of the Christmas story of the 3 kings coming from the east. Where is their home? They were members of the priestly caste from the Medes community. Even though we call them the Magi, which means magician, they were not magic. The religion of the Magi was fundamentally that of Zoroaster and forbade sorcery; their astrology and skill in interpreting dreams was how they found Christ. The Medes were situated in the east, covering land that includes Persia and the surrounding area. So, technically they weren’t really kings. We don’t really know what kind of homes they lived in, but they were on a governmental council that selected the king. If that’s true, they probably lived pretty well since they had political power. Still, here are these powerful men who come before a baby and make a home for him in their life by dedicating time to traveling a long distance, bringing gifts, and also in essence, saving the baby’s life by not returning home via Herod’s kingdom.
God found a home in the heart of a willing teenager in a small town, an unlikely home for the one who was to be called the savior of the world. And he called others out of their homes to come to him, bring their burdens, calling them to be still and know that he is God. From the very beginning God has been trying to find a home in the hearts of the ancients and us.
From the very beginning, God has been trying to find a home in us. Our narrative that spans human history is one in which God chases after us and finds us and we begin again. We mess up, go off course, fail to do what God tells us is the way to wholeness, we turn away and God chases after us again. That is who God is, the source of life, the ground of being the energy that is always pulling us home. And this time of year, perhaps more than any other season, we are invited to remember that God is not only waiting to welcome us home, in Jesus, God got to us, God found a way into our very flesh by breaking through to humanity in the form of a baby. God found a home in Jesus to be able to speak to us right where we are.
We know that this love story that we have written with God is ongoing, because we know that God will never leave us alone, because we know that even when we turn away, God keeps chasing after us. God will never stop trying to whisper in our ears that we are loved. God will never stop trying to grab us by the heart and pull us deeper into love. God will never stop trying to find us. So the question for us on this holy night is not whether God will come home in us, but whether we will choose to make a home in God. How will we welcome the one who longs for fullness of life for us? How will we make room at the table for the one who makes room for us all? The heart of Christmas, the birth of Jesus, who came not in royal garb in the room of a palace but in the lives of two teenagers, with little home of their own, is about our dance with God being forever changed. The love story we are writing with God is never the same again. Christmas changes everything. From now on our question is not whether God is with us, not whether God will get to us because we know that is God’s primary work in the world, the heart of Christmas, the mystery and live changing circumstances of this night brings us home- but not to a building or a town or a scene where everything has to be just right, after this night, this birth, we see again as if for the very first time, that God will always find a home in us and now it is our turn to find a home in God. Amen.