Sunday Sermonizing: Something Better Than Home

Having lived in various parts of the country, and various parts of the world, I am reminded again this week about the complicated nature of the word "home".

It was good and pleasant to be reunited with children and animals after returning from a month-long sojourn in Southeast Asia. It's a feeling that a large and growing number of people in the world can't and don't experience. 68.5 million people in the world have been forcibly displaced from their homes. 25.4 million of those folks have crossed an international border and have refugee status. Another 3 million are trying to find a safe place for their families by seeking asylum.

We live in a world of turmoil, for sure.

I read Hebrews 11 this morning. I'm reminded that a life of turmoil is supposed to be normal for people who live by faith. Yet, it's not normal for most of us. Normal for us is climate-controlled homes, abundant food, family and loved-ones at hand, and Netflix. And it's not that those things are bad. They're not. They're our normal.

Yet, there is a sense in which none of this should be normal. Neither Netflix or the forcibly displaced.

According to Hebrews 11 Christians have a lot more in common with refugees than with the comforts of suburbia.  While the earth was created for us and meant to be our home, devastation, sin, and corruption have ruined everything. This isn’t home anymore.

And it’s okay.

Because we have the promise of something better. Something much better.

So we do fight for those who are not able. Live in the Gospel to redeem the devastation. And sojourn here by faith, knowing that home will actually be far better than any we’ve known on this side.