Westminster Congregational United Church of Christ

Sermon for August 23, 2009

Coming Home

Pastor Andy CastroLang

Psalm 84

You have all been very kind in welcoming me back.  You cut me a little slack this past week, letting me move back into work slowly, without hundreds of phone calls or meetings.  I took a day to move my son down to his dorm room and the beginning of his new career as a student at the University of Idaho, and you have been friendly and supportive as my mother’s heart dealt with that.

But you have also asked, over and over; “well, what did you learn?”  “What stories do you have to tell?”

I suggest that we unpack that together, but not all at once, and not just on this Sunday, OK?  Worship would just go too, too long!

Let me share a couple of things I discovered in this sabbatical time:

1.     I have a much better understanding of how it can happen that a person might stop coming to church.

2.     Retirement could be a lot of fun!

3.     I have lots of interests that go beyond my interest in ministry.

4.     Relationships matter, and the work to keep relationships alive is soul work, and important work.  Relationships seem like an intricate weaving of countless threads, and the beautiful precious threads of lives that intersect with mine are a miracle and a gift.  On the spectrum from youth through old age, I find myself held in the intricate weaving of joined lives.  This weaving includes an amazing and diverse group of people who are my “family”.

5.     I am less patient than I might have been three months ago for I sense that our time together is not long.  Even if we have 97 years, it is not long.  Don’t delay to make peace; don’t delay to tell someone you appreciate them; don’t delay in letting those you love, know, that you love them.

OK, so maybe there is nothing new here.

Maybe my sabbatical was a three month lesson in re-learning what I already know, but have chosen to push to the back of my life while I let budgets and meetings, activities and commitments dominate my days.

Let me tell you about my first learning of this summer, and why I think it is significant enough to keep in the front of my consciousness, and even important enough to ask you to consider.

That first point: “ I have a much better understanding of how it might happen that a person can stop coming to church.”  I confess that there were weeks when I did not go to church on Sunday.  Especially when I was traveling, I heard myself say: “no one knows or cares if I am there, so no one will miss me.”  And when I was in town, yet unable to join you, I also heard a voice inside saying, “you can’t go there, and where else do you want to go that won’t be full of strangers and awkwardness and who knows what kind of a sermon, what kind of music, what kind of people?”   So, I took off on hikes, or went out to eat, or slept in late.  That is how easy it was, to stop going to church!  

And, as if that weren’t enough, I also went to church in Germany where I was culturally and linguistically challenged.  The Catholic Mass was foreign, the songs were different, the music slower, the preaching hard to understand, the people were strangers.  And again, I was struck by just how easy it might be to stop coming to church.

And it has made me sympathetic, instead of impatient, anxious, or judgmental.

And it has made me look around again, at this place, and at the United Church of Christ, it has brought new poignancy to beautiful pieces of scripture like this one, Psalm 84.

How I love this psalm!  How I have rejoiced to find a home with God, where, like the sparrow, I could raise my young.  How I have rejoiced to stand in the courts of God, among the diverse, loving people of the United Church of Christ, knowing that all of us are welcome, in all our rainbow variety.  Yes, with you, I have celebrated "a thousand days" in the sanctuary of God and known the joy and the love of celebration.

In my newfound understanding, I am sympathetic, and I am sorry.  For here in this place, just like that which we hear from the heart of the psalmist, I have found joy. 

And yet, there are many, very many who know nothing of this joy, this loving community, this communion between people and our mysterious God who calls us together, into His house, in such surprising ways.  But together, I have no doubt, we have been called.  And I am here again, because you call to me.  Because you welcome me home.  Because you tell me that I matter, that you have missed me, that my face, my presence are important to our life here together.

And I will tell you this: you make me want to come to church. Your generous and loving hearts, your challenging and creative minds…they call me back to this place.  In the three months I have been away from you I have never forgotten you.  And on sleepless nights when I was facing jet lag, my prayers were for all of you.  I have wondered about the babies growing, and the  health of our elders.  I have not forgotten you, because, I realize…it is with you that I find myself in “the courts of God”.  Though the psalmist wrote of a very particular place, the Temple in Jerusalem, I find that the particular place where God welcomes and meets and speaks to my heart…is in your company.

Yes, I realize, I want to come to church.  And I thank you for that. 

And I challenge myself, and I challenge you, to welcome others into this community, to open your heart to the stranger or the visitor who also is here, courageously here against all the odds, seeking joy and communion among the diverse people of God, who meet here, and call this place “the courts of our God.”

And yes, there is more: consider the people you know who are shy, or anxious, or alone, who are gay or straight or transgendered, young or old, sick or well, fat or skinny, clever or slow…consider them…and consider their loneliness.   Consider that they have not yet heard of, or felt the welcome of, this hopeful, joyful, goofy, unique place. 

You have been that joy and hope and goofy spirit of fun to me, and I pray I have shared that joy with you.  Is it not right that others find it, know it, and celebrate it too?

Invite them in, bring them in, welcome them in… welcome them home.