LONGING FOR HOME

A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

August 24, 2003

Text: “My soul longs…for the courts of the Lord.” (Psalm 84: 2)

First Reading: 1 Kings 8:22-30, 41-43

Second Reading: Ephesians 6:10-20

My first experience with “longing” occurred at Central Presbyterian Church in Lafayette. One of the elders had graduated a number of years ago from Purdue, was now retired and had come back to serve in the alumni office of the university. Whenever I saw him at the school he was always carrying a big pile of books. It was as though he was back on campus and attending classes all over again. One day I asked him why he did that and he quite honestly told me that his days as an undergraduate were some of the happiest days of his life and he “longed” for those days to return. The closest he could come to them now in his retirement was to work for the alumni office, which brought him into daily contact with the students and the hallways he remembered so well.

Just this last week we brought Florence home from the nursing home. The six weeks she’d been in Genesis were spent “longing” to be home. At one point she had convinced herself that she would never see her house again and went into a depression. Now that she’s home we’ve seen some improvement in her attitude. She’s eating again. She seems more talkative and cheerful. She still has a long way to go, but at least some of the signs of her depression are beginning to dissipate.

What we have in our psalm this morning is the same kind of longing. Soon we’ll sing Arlo Duba’s hymn “How Lovely, Lord.” In it he’s picked up the psalm’s language and meaning in a very poetic way that enhances its meaning. “How lovely, Lord, how lovely Is Your abiding place; My soul is longing, fainting, To feast upon Your grace. The sparrow finds a shelter, A place to build her nest; And so Your temple calls us Within its walls to rest.”

Obviously, the writer of the psalm remembers fondly days spent in the temple and has found there God’s presence so strongly that the experience has had a profound effect on his life. While he cannot be there now for whatever reason, those memories are enough to sustain him. “How lovely, Lord, how lovely Is Your abiding place; My soul is longing, fainting, To feast upon Your grace.”

Arlo then goes on to paraphrase how God claims us as God’s own people. “The sparrow finds a shelter, A place to build her nest; And so Your temple calls us Within its walls to rest.” That’s what my friend at Purdue was saying to me. Even though he’d been away from the university throughout his professional career he’d always longed to return, because being a “Boilermaker” had been so important to him. The university had claimed him, just as the psalmist says God had claimed him. Now he found rest in his retirement working in the alumni office and walking the walls.

The other day, someone mentioned to me that they had just returned from Lake Tahoe and immediately I thought about summers spent at the Zephyr Point senior high camp. Each year about ten of us from the church looked forward to spending two weeks at the conference. There were always very able leaders, plenty of kids from the various high schools and churches in the area, and a good dose of what Presbyterians believed. If there were anywhere where God claimed me it would have to have been at Zephyr Point. All of that came flooding back as the person told how much she’d enjoyed visiting Lake Tahoe. “The sparrow finds a shelter, A place to build her nest. And so Your temple calls us Within its walls to rest.”

I have to admit that bringing Florence home is an experiment. It’s an experiment to see if now that she is in her own surroundings she will respond better to the home health care and the therapy that she’ll be getting every day. Nothing seemed to work in the nursing home. She didn’t do the therapy; she wasn’t eating; her socialization dropped to be almost non-existent. Often times with older people once they’re removed from their own space they don’t respond well to stimuli. They do get depressed and then want to stay in bed all the time, both of which are deadly to their sense of wellbeing. We’ll have to wait and see that if bringing her home will help her do the work she needs to do.

God’s claim on our lives does indicate that we’ve got some work to do as well. The second verse of Arlo’s hymn indicates such a change of life. “In Your blest courts to worship, O God, a single day Is better than a thousand If I from you should stray. I’d rather keep the entrance And claim You as my Lord Than revel in the riches The ways of sin afford.” Many times when young parents come in to see about having their baby baptized, during the course of the conversation, they’ll say how important it is to have the baby done! As though baptism is the culmination of the birthing experience. First you conceive, then get pregnant, have the baby and then have it done.

With that mindset it’s no wonder that the baptism doesn’t mean much the day after. It’s no wonder that people’s lives won’t change much just because the kid has been done. It’s no wonder that God’s claim on people’s lives doesn’t amount to much if everything that should have happened has already happened. But, that isn’t the case with baptism. Baptism isn’t the end of a process but the beginning of a process. Just like a child’s birthday celebrates his or her birth into this earthly journey, so also baptism celebrates the God’s claim on the child for her or his heavenly journey. The child isn’t done; the child has only just begun! And part of that heavenly journey is to be celebrated each Lord’s Day in God’s house. “In your blest courts to worship, O God, a single day Is better than a thousand If I from you should stray. I’d rather keep the entrance And claim You as my Lord Than revel in the riches The ways of sin afford.”