July 6, Communion Sunday

Lesson: Matthew 8.18-22

Sermon Title: Homelessness

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INTRODUCTION:

"If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else."

--Yogi Berra

  1. Where are you going?
    1. The immigrants to this country knew where they were going.
    2. They were welcomed the words from the The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus emblazed on the base of the Statue of Liberty.

"'Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"

    1. Many of them were homeless
    2. Are we homeless

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Jesus is approached by a Scribe who declares that he will follow wherever Jesus goes.
    1. The Scribe is a person of culture, education and station in life.
      1. He is applying for a position as a full-time disciple.
      2. It appears that he was probably an individual given to acting on impulse.
      3. He has not fully counted the cost of discipleship.
      4. The discomforts would be greater than he anticipated.
      5. The conclusion is in the response of Jesus.
    2. Jesus says to the Scribe, an incidently to all who would be disciples, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have resting places; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
      1. Jesus has no property.
      2. Jesus has no income
      3. Jesus is dependent on the generosity of others.
      4. Why follow him?
    3. He was homeless.
      1. His home was in Nazareth.
      2. The Nazarethites did not want him.
    4. He had a family.

Matthew 12:46-50, NRSVA

46While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him.

47Someone told him, "Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you."

48But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" 49And pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! 50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

      1. Jesus does not reject his family.
      2. Jesus expands his family.
      3. Why follow him?
    1. Jesus is an itinerant preacher and teacher.
      1. Why follow him?
      2. He is only going to make you homeless.
  1. Are the followers of Jesus Christ to be counted among the homeless?
    1. There is a certain amount of ambiguity in this question.
      1. I am a Yankee, define "Yankee"
        1. No, I did not play baseball for the New York Yankees!
        2. This is not about sports, but where one lives.

In an article Darn Yankee Robert W. Mayer, writing in the "Wall Street Journal", pointed out,

"The word Yankee is ambiguous-depending upon one's point of view. To people in other parts of the world it simply means someone from the United States; to people in the United States it means someone from north of the Mason-Dixon Line; to us Northerners it means someone from New England; to New Englanders it means someone from Vermont; to Vermonters it means someone from the Green Mountains; to Green Mountain Vermonters it means someone who eats apple pie for breakfast; to Green Mountain Vermonters who eat apple pie for breakfast it means someone who eats it with his knife." (1)

      1. The ambiguity is found in the answer to our question.
      2. It is a "Yes," and it is a "No!"
      3. It is at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian, a person of the "true faith."
    1. In Galatians 3:27-29, NRSVA, the apostle Paul writes:

27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

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    1. The promise is found in Genesis, but it is described so well in Hebrews 11: verses 13-16 and 39-40.
      1. Speaking about all the faithful mentioned in Hebrews 11 we read:

13All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, 14for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them...39Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect, (Hebrews 11:13-16, 39-40, NRSVA).

      1. So they were pilgrims and wanderers, homeless.
      2. Does this make us homeless?
        1. I have a family of origin, but I have a greater family.
        2. I have a wonderful wife, children and step-children
        3. Who is my family
        4. This is my family.
        5. It is as conflicted and confused as my family of origin, but now it has the potential to become the family of God.
      3. I have a wonderful home that is cosy and warm, filled with comfortable furniture and love, yet I am homeless.
      4. A follower of Jesus is in one way homeless and in another way the Christian has a home.
    1. We can let the poet describe life as it is lived within the context of Christianity.

This World Is Not My Home

This world is not my home, I'm just-a-passing through
My pleasure and my hopes are placed beyond the blue
Many friends and kindred have gone on before
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore

Oh Lord you, know, I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home, oh Lord what will I do
Angels beckon me to heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore

Over in glory land there'll be no dying there
The saints all shouting victory and singing everywhere
I hear the voice of them that's gone on before
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore

Chorus

He's expecting me, that's one thing I know
I fixed it up with Jesus a long time ago
He will take me through though I am weak and poor
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore

Chorus

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###

I've Got A Mansion Just Over The Hilltop
Words & Music By: Ira Stamphill

I'm satisfied with just a cottage below
A little silver and a little gold
But in that city where the ransomed will shine
I want a gold one that's silver lined

I've got a mansion just over the hilltop
In that bright land where we'll never grow old
And some day yonder we will never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold

Though often tempted, tormented, and tested
And like the prophet my pillow's a stone
And though I find here no permanent dwelling
I know He'll give me a mansion my own

I've got a mansion just over the hilltop
In that bright land where we'll never grow old
And some day yonder we will never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold

Don't think me poor or deserted or lonely
I'm not discouraged I'm heaven bound
I'm but a pilgrim in search of the city
I want a mansion, a harp and a crown

I've got a mansion just over the hilltop
In that bright land where we'll never grow old
And some day yonder we will never more wander
But walk on streets that are purest gold

###

I'm A Child of the King

My Father is rich in houses and lands,
He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands!
Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,
His coffers are full, He has riches untold.

Refrain

I''m a child of the King,
A child of the King:
With Jesus my Savior,
I''m a child of the King.

My Father''s own Son, the Savior of men,
Once wandered on earth as the poorest of them;
But now He is pleading our pardon on high,
That we may be His when He comes by and by.

Refrain

I once was an outcast stranger on earth,
A sinner by choice, an alien by birth,
But I''ve been adopted, my name''s written down,
An heir to a mansion, a robe and a crown.

Refrain

A tent or a cottage, why should I care?
They''re building a palace for me over there;
Though exiled from home, yet still may I sing:
All glory to God, I''m a child of the King.

Refrain

CONCLUSION

  1. Followers of Jesus Christ are not homeless, yet they are homeless.
    1. Our home is not of this world.
    2. Our home is being prepared for us by Jesus in the Kingdom now and yet to be.
    3. We follow a Savior as disciples, not like the Scribe, but like the faithful ones.
      1. He has no place to lay his head.
      2. We have to keep in mind the place where our head is headed.

1. As Robert W. Mayer, writing in the Wall Street Journal, pointed out,

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