This Week's Light Service Sermon

Light Service Sermons for the Month
The Voices of Christmas
The Voice of Christmas Future
DATE: December 19, 1999
TEXT: John 14:1-13

At Christmas time, anticipation is half the fun. I know for a few of you adults, this anticipation doesn't always include the possibility of getting a present. But for my children growing up, every morning of this season they would run to our Christmas calendar and count how many days were left until Christmas.
On Christmas morning when they were little, the chant would begin early, "When can we open the presents?" I can remember one year, Stacy came running into the room with "Mom; Dad. The tree fell over!" Yuh, right. Just a ploy to get us out of bed. "No, really Dad. The tree fell over!"
On a typical Christmas morning, we get up and have breakfast, talk a little, look at the stockings hung by the fireplace with care, read the Christmas story and then, finally, if we have time, we open the presents.
At Christmas time, anticipation is half the fun!
How much more, and in a much deeper way, anticipation is half the joy in life. We name "anticipation" with the word HOPE. Hope is that wonderful gift from God. When we feel trapped in a tunnel of misery, hope points us to the light at the end. When we feel over-worked and exhausted, hope is the energy that keeps us going. When we feel discouraged, hope lifts us up. When we're fighting an illness, hope gives us the strength to move on. Hope is essential to our existence.
Without hope prisoners of war give up and die. Without hope, students give up on their studies and they drop out of school. Without hope athletic teams get in a slump and keep on losing. Without hope, addicts go back to their habits. Without hope, married couples get a divorce. Without hope, engineers, architects, artists, inventors, and even preachers lose their creativity. Hope is not just another option for life; hope is essential to our survival.
We've talked about the Voice of Christmas Past, the Voice of Christmas Present, and today as we wrap up our theme, "The Voices of Christmas," we want to talk about the Voice of Christmas Future--the voice of hope. This morning, let's discover how God can give up hope this holiday season.
We're looking today at John, chapter 14. The followers of Jesus and his friends have all but lost hope. The word was out that this movement that they had been a part of these last three years was about to face some rough white waters ahead. Worse yet, the word was out that their friend, their mentor, their teacher, Jesus, would soon be leaving them. Panic set in. They were giving up. They were losing hope. And so Jesus offers these wonderful words of hope from John.
"Don't be worried. Have faith in God and have faith in me. There are many rooms in my father's house. I wouldn't tell you this unless it was true. I'm going to prepare a place for each of you. After I have done this I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together."
If I were to summarize the words of Jesus here, he is saying, "If you want hope there is no place like home. There's no place like home!" And I believe it. As you've been listening to Christmas Carols, I'm sure you've heard songs like "There's no place like home for the holidays" or "I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me." That was my motto when I was in college and indeed for many years after we were married. I knew that someway, somehow, I had to get home for the holidays.
I remember the second Christmas we lived in Connecticut. Linda and I were driving back home to Ohio for the holidays. Hunched in our little VW Fastback, creeping through a blizzard on the New York State Turnpike, my hands clenched with-knuckled to the steering wheel, creeping along the road, suddenly out of nowhere a wind started driving us toward the median and its snow bank. After hitting that bank our car flipped around, rolled over completely landing back on the opposite side of the highway. Within an hour after the police arrived and took the report, we had rented a car and were on the highway again. Yes, "I'll be home for Christmas. You can count on me!"
How many times did we make that journey from Connecticut, from Philadelphia, from Mansfield, from Akron to our parents' homes for the holidays? For all those years the desire to be home for the holidays was in our hearts. For my family and me, home has been a wonderful gift. It's been a place of rest. A place where people knew me, I could be myself and be accepted for who I was. It was a place where I knew I was cared for and loved. Home at it's best is just that. It's a place of acceptance, love, care and rest. God offers us that gift this Christmas. No matter where we live we can be home for the holidays.
In our passage today Jesus offers us three kinds of homes that we can enjoy that will give us hope. First of all, Jesus talks about our future home, the heavenly home. He says, "There are many rooms to in my father's home. I am going to prepare a place for you where we will be together." The Bible describes in many different ways what this heavenly home will be like--our future home--streets of gold, total absolute beauty. The Bible also says there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more pain. That's the home we look forward to in the future.
In years gone by, people talked about and sang about that home much more than we do today. As they toiled in the fields of the Deep South the African American slaves sang many, many spirituals about the great home that they couldn't wait to get to. They knew that life is tenuous. They knew that this life is short and painful. They yearned for their future home.
In our day and time, with our advanced technology, we somehow assume that we can live forever. We combat and often defeat sickness. We live longer on this earth. It's more comfortable. So we don't sing those spirituals so much anymore. But the fact of the matter remains, that even in this high tech world, life is short. Live is tenuous. Each of us is a just pilgrim passing through this world. There's a much better life ahead. We look forward to that future home--the heavenly home that God has promised us.
Many have lost a loved one this passed year. Maybe even at Christmas-time you've lost a loved one. I have great news for you today. God has promised and given them a heavenly home--he's prepared a place for them. And he's prepared a place for you where you know that you will someday be with them. Total joy. Total peace. No more pain. No more sorrow. A source of hope.
But we don't have to wait until we find our eternal home to experience hope. God has also given us a home right here. The Bible calls it the household of God. The home that God provides to God's people.
Mother Theresa was asked by an American reporter, "How do you survive, caring for all the ills and the diseases in India and around the world?" She replied, "You in America have the most crippling disease, the most difficult disease to cure. It's everywhere throughout your whole country. It's the disease of loneliness. You are so isolated from one another."
Isn't it true that we in our time and in our day and in our places feel that loneliness? But Jesus Christ offers the promise that as we believe in him he offers us a home right here.
When people ask me what I like best about being at Faith Lutheran Church, I always say, "It's the people." You people. Your handshakes. Your hugs. Your smiles. Your care. Your prayers. Even though most of the year my extended family is miles and miles away, I have home here with you. God has offered us that home, that care, that love through one another. Friendship in Christ--what a wonderful gift that gives us hope.
But most importantly, God offers us a home with God. Jesus says here very clearly, "Without me no one can come to the Father." The deepest desire of our heart--when we pull off all the layers, when we take away all the façade, when we remove all our denial--is to be home with God. It is to know that our loving heavenly Father accepts us, and that we are welcomed by him. We desire to be with God, for Him to know who we are and for us to know that we're loved. Jesus said that through him you can know the Father. That father can have home in your heart. The word Emmanuel means, God with us. Right here.
The first chapter of John says, "The word became flesh and dwelt among us." It means that God himself became a baby--he put on human skin--and made his home right here among us, to be with us, to be our friend. His momma called him "Jesus" which means "God is my salvation" but he wants you to call him 'friend.' God offers you that promise today. Through Jesus Christ we can know him and God can have a home in our hearts.
You've heard the story about the missionary who was lost in the jungle. He couldn't find his way back to the village. One of the villagers finally found the missionary and said, "I will lead you home." To the missionary followed the villager. They sliced their way through the jungle for such a long time that finally this missionary grew frustrated and said to the village, "Where's the path! Show me the path!" The villager turned to the missionary and said, "I am the path. Follow me!"
Jesus says, "I am the path. I am the way and the truth and the life. I am the way home." If you feel empty, if you feel hopeless, God's word to you today is, "Come on home! There's no place like home!" There's no place like knowing that you have a home in heaven forever! There's no place like know that God has given you a home right here, right now. There's nothing like knowing that the heavenly father has come to make his home with you.
AMEN