March 25, 2001

Fourth Sunday in Lent

Pastor Ole Amund Gillebo

My childhood is full of good memories about coming home.

I came home from play with my friends, from forest and mountain, from school and studies in Oslo, from traveling, domestic and abroad. My mother and father were always at home. Sometimes I stayed away from home for a long time, then it was a celebration on my return. Fortunately none of my brothers disliked it. All of them had the same experience.

It is good to come back home. Fine to be away for a while, but best to be at home, it is said.

Good to belong somewhere - Good to feel at home- To feel you are welcome.

The Christian faith and the fellowship at home with my mother and father had a great impact to my future life.

From there I carried a good image of God as my Father.

Jesus was the Savior and Lord who offered me true freedom, encouragement and joy. I really wanted to follow Him.

"Welcome home" is the title of a TV program in this country. It is about people coming home to church. Some of them tell about their journey. It is a story about faith and doubt, about longing and restlessness. They share about how they tried to find out from the Bible, by prayers, from different churches and denominations.

The Gospel for today about a Father and the two sons, the elder lived at home, the younger traveled far away, is a story about our life and our relationship with God.

Many people stayed with the church, and exercised their faith. Some immigrated, not only from their country but from the church, from their faith, they were seeking joy and happiness separated from God.

But they brought their childhood belief along.

They were sometimes longing for something else.

I heard someone say: You people belonging to the church, you have something I do not have.

Our life and our faith are not always at the same spot.

You are not there in your life now where you used to be 10 years ago, or 50 years ago. There is always a move. It is always a development. Every Sunday you take a new step.

Our closeness to God or our distance is not static.

Sometimes we want to be close or we rather want distance.

It might happen we do not care. We want a break.

We do not manage the faith.

Life is tiresome. Faith is tiresome.

I feel it hard to come to God with my life, so I prefer distance.

In church we sometimes limit each other. Some who have always been there put themselves in a certain spot in their life and their faith, they think they have some right which is not for the new comers who come from outside back home to the church, and to God. Sometimes the Pastor has set the standard and limits the members. But neither the Pastor nor someone else is asked to be the guard, but they are children of God and participants of the celebration.

The church is not only for the people of good standard and the successful ones.

Is it allowed to be angry and disappointed in church?

Is it OK to have a bad day?

Is an alcoholic, a man of color, a drug dealer, a prostitute, a criminal, welcome to church?

What really counts is to speak the truth about life and faith, and to live an honest and authentic life.

You are welcome just as you are! The Gospel says: As man or woman, as believer or non- believer, you have your free choice, and freedom to find your place.

You have the freedom to come home as you are and to be yourself.

In Baptism you became God’s child! You always belong to God! Do not forget that.

You are welcome home!

You are welcome to celebrate!

I heard a person say: "I am not a religious person, but I say my evening prayer every day".

Then I had to ask what do you think you are?

If you pray every evening you are on your way home. You are on your journey back to your Father.

To the big celebration!

The hymn we are going to sing now I think is one of the finest ones:

"Just as a child comes home in the evening, and finds a loving lap, that’s how it was for me to come to God, -I felt at home.

It was a place in God’s greater room, a place reserved for me. I knew: Here I feel at home and I want to be a child in God’s house".

Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716