“Our stories are all stories of searching. We search for a good self to be and for good work to do. We search to become human in a world that tempts us always to be less than human or looks to us to be more. We search to love and to be loved. And in a world where it is often hard to believe in much of anything, we search to believe in something holy and beautiful and life-transcending that will give meaning and purpose to the lives we live.” 

~Frederick Buechner, The Longing for Home

The theme of ‘Turning Toward Home’ is ending now for our faith community. We have walked through Advent with these words, been surrounded by images of homes for four weeks, sung songs that used lyrics that opened up what home means. It is Christmas Eve and Advent is coming to an end. And yet the work of turning toward home is ever present. As author and theologian Frederick Buechner reminds us above, we are living, breathing stories of searching, of turning toward what is the Home that always is calling us toward our lives, toward our fullest expression of the Holy One’s presence within us. 

In a few hours, I will be present to some who have turned toward home. In all of our worship services there will be those who have come home to our particular faith community to once again engage in the story that holds us. College students, young adults, grandchildren, those we have baptized and confirmed will once again make their way into the circle along with those we see nearly every Sunday. They will be joined by others who are guests and do not know the particularities of other stories being played out around them. Those who may have moved far away and have returned to family and friends often make their way to the church which once was a home for their questions, their doubts, their certainties, their celebrations. It will be for many as if they never left. For others, they will notice change which they will resist or embrace. It is always so and perhaps has always been. Home is not as static as we would like to believe, like to hope. All this is happening in nearly every sanctuary around the world.

What draws us to turn and return? Of course, there is the hope of seeing those who have walked the path with us for even a short time. We search for a touchstone that reminds us of who were once were or hoped to be. We look for faces that shaped our early years or provided a word of support or affirmation. We also stare into the places where someone once sat but is no longer present and it reminds us of how precious life is.

We are also drawn, I believe, by the deep desire to connect to this ancient story of the miraculous. Angels sing. Shepherds are awakened. A young woman and her husband give birth to a child under what seems hopeless circumstances. Stars guide even the Wise to what has come to be. We all search to find something of ourselves in each of these characters. Beauty. Humility. Courage. Fortitude. Faith. Hope. Love. Above all, love. We are drawn because ‘we search to believe in something holy and beautiful and life-transcending that will give meaning and purpose to the lives we live.’

And so may it be. As we light the candles of Christmas today, may we find some answers to our searching. May we embrace something of the Heart of the Christ Child, however we perceive it. May we turn toward Home and find a welcome there. And may it be for everyone.

I offer to you this blessing of John Philip Newell for this Christmas season. I also offer this image of the ‘The Flannel Nativity’ by Cindy McKenna which has graced the calendar I have consulted every day of December.

“O God of new beginnings,

who brings light out of night’s darkness

and fresh green out of the hard winter earth,

there is barren land between us as people and as nations this day,

there are empty stretches of soul within us.

Give us eyes to see new dawnings of promise.

Give us ears to hear fresh soundings of birth.”

A blessed Christmas to you all……