Refuge

THE POINT: God cares for the one who must leave home; so can the church.

• We have been on a journey - Advent was the anticipation, culminating in Christmas Eve, and now we’re in Christmas time. We sit within the Christmas story for a couple weeks, until we celebrate Jesus’ baptism, and then we’ll spend a few week in Epiphany - what is it like to realize that Jesus is the Christ? We’ll think through that by being “at home."
• But for now, we have a chance to stretch out and view this time with a little more reflection.
• Many of us are in the midst of a travel season.
  • AAA had reported that this would be a record breaking season for travel - more than 115 million Americans were on the road this year.
  • We go to places of warmth, of safety, of comfort, or perhaps of requirement.
  • Today’s group is here because of celebration. Even if you didn’t travel far, you’re here for reason.
  • I think when we make these journeys, we’re aware of what it means. We often don’t make travel arrangements just because. We have a method, we have a destination, we have purpose.
  • The wise men, not necessarily knowing what they’d find completely, still had a purpose.
• And it seems just as soon as we get to Christmas to reflect on the manger scene, we’re headed right back out again.
  • As far as we can tell, Jesus had just been born, just a few weeks old, and is already having to leave his birthplace.
  • He remained there for just somewhere between a few weeks to a couple yeras, but wasn’t able to return to his birthplace, but then to Nazareth.
  • Of course, the purpose of this trip was different - this was to save their child’s life. To save the king.
• I find it helps me to connect that journey with the journeys I take. I leave here today to head to my family in Youngstown, then to Georgia to celebrate a wedding.
• I lack the existential risk, though. I’m not worried about my life, or of my children’s. We’ll come home to a safe place. Jesus could not return to his same home. And there may be some of us here that can’t return to their home. There are certainly people right now in the midst of refugee crises that will never be able to return home. But we are all people of journeys, and within our story we carry the stories of refugees, of asylum seekers.
• So what can we do? How do we live this story out?
  • What is it like to be a place of refuge?
  • I look at folks who have been here for decades - Max being one of them - who we can celebrate. But it’s folks like him and so many other that have helped this church be a place where the doors are open. Where people on their journeys might take a rest.
  • The church has to be an Egypt for those who are fleeing the rage of the King, even if it’s a few weeks, or maybe a couple years.
• This church is our home, but it’s never just our home. It welcomes the weary traveler with open arms and cares for them away from the violence of the world. And if we can celebrate them, so much the better.
• As we sit in this time, this Christmas-time, let’s look to 2020 with a fresh recommitment to that here at Old Stone, and wherever we’ll return to. Let’s be a safe haven for all who are seeking shelter.