Hello,
A couple of weeks ago I was in Chicago for my daughter-in-law’s
graduation. We flew into O’Hare
Airport and caught the Blue Line train into the city. When we got off the train and walked up the stairs, I look
around and I felt right at home.
Unbeknownst to me, the train dropped us off at the corner of Madison and
Dearborn, the corner that used to house First Federal Savings and Loan, the
place that I worked for 5 summers and several Christmas’ during my college
years.
Much had changed. The old
brick building that I had worked in had been replaced by a shiny metal and
glass one. Dearborn street now has a bike path marked on it, and
the building that was being constructed on the corner of Dearborn and Monroe
was completed (a long time ago, I am sure). But the First National Bank building stood sloped
and tall, and it’s courtyard housing the Marc Chagal mosaic had not changed one
bit (except it now bore the name Chase).
The Shubert Theater, also renamed, stood exactly as it had before, and
the Italian Village Restaurant still had the same façade and inside. Even though much had changed, that
which hadn’t gave me enough landmarks to help me know exactly where I had wound
up, and even feel like I was back at home.
I suspect that some of you reading this Bungee Cord have found
yourselves in worship nearly every Sunday for all of your lives, and the place
that you are worshipping now brings a warmth to your life and faith like only home
can. If you have been a longtime congregant,
you have seen some things change: pastors, people, colors, music,
formalities…..and although you remember how things used to be, having lived
through the transitions for you it is not the old things that make you feel at
home, but it is the new things that fit you so well that carries the warmth of
home.
Others of you, I suspect, have not found yourself regularly in worship
over the years. For those of you
who find yourself thus, I would venture to guess that the thought of going to
worship does not harmonize with going home. It may have been that when you have gone to worship, things
are so different now that it feels like an alien world. But let me invite you to look around
that worship experience with “Chicago eyes” and see if there are not still some
things that are still there that you might savor and make you feel at
home. A hymn? A face or two? Holy Communion? Baptism? Bible readings? Gathering of prayers? Amid all that has changed, maybe there
are still landmarks to gather in that pull you back to home.
Of course, some of the changes may resonate very well with where you are
at in life and fit better than the way things used to be. Maybe you remember when doubts and
questions were not very welcome….well in the church that I serve they are
welcomed with open arms. Maybe you
remember that it seemed like following rules was the central focus of the
Christian faith….well in the church that I serve being shaped by the grace of
God is primary. Maybe you remember
the feeling that the institution of the church with its budgets and buildings
seemed to be at the heart of things…well in the church that I serve I strive to
make the transformational abiding presence of Christ the heart of our existence. Maybe you remember a sense that the
church felt more like a club that had its eyes only on itself….well in the
church that I serve I do my best ( as most pastors do, I think) to keep our
eyes also upon the world and serve the world with the heart of Christ.
And, I suspect that some of you who are reading the Bungee Cord have
never gone to a Christian worship service, and the thought of doing so is not a
journey home but a venture on a unchartered trip. Certainly that is true….but maybe….just maybe you will
surprisingly find that although you may have never been there before, the love
of Christ that you experience there just might make you feel like you have
finally found your home.
In the Bible there is a story about two sons, often called the story of
the Prodigal Son. One son leaves
home and comes back…the other stays and never leaves….but to both sons the
father’s feelings are the same when he says to them both (paraphrased), “It is
great to have you home.”
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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