The Way Home (Christmas service)
Sunday, December 21st, 2025 @ 6pm
Irish rock band U2 released a song in 1987 that was described in a music industry magazine as having “the power of spiritual conviction delivered from the perspective of the desert sojourn rather than the comfort of the Promised Land.” Inspired by both gospel music and Bono’s interest in the theme of spiritual doubt, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For powerfully expresses the longings in all of our hearts. We are all looking, we are all searching, but often our search is for what brings us temporary comfort, temporary assistance, temporary peace, temporary satisfaction. We humans experience a wide range of emotions, some positive (like joy, gratitude, serenity, hope, compassion), some negative (like anger, sadness, fear, jealousy, disgust). But when we’re too overloaded with negative emotions, we might turn to substance misuse, engage in emotional eating, or get too much or too little sleep. We might find ourselves procrastinating important tasks, withdrawing from friends and family, or vegging out on screens. We might grind our teeth at night, talk negatively about ourselves, or lash out at those around us. None of these unhealthy responses bring us lasting comfort, hope, peace, or joy. These temporary fixes do not satisfy the longings in our hearts.
This evening, we are gathered together to celebrate Christmas, a special season to rejoice in and respond to the coming of our Savior, Christ Jesus. We decided to have this celebration here in this room because we can sit together around a table, just like we do in a home. When we read about Jesus in the New Testament gospels, we notice that there are a lot of mentions of Jesus spending time with other people by sitting and enjoying a meal around a table. In the last one of these gatherings at a table, what we now call the “Last Supper,” Jesus said these words to his closest followers, in John chapter 14 – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life … If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth … he abides with you, and he will be in you … Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
These are incredible promises! Jesus said us that if we love him, if we keep his commandments to love God with everything we’ve got and to love people as well as we love ourselves, then God will come to us and God’s home is … with us! Jesus came to show us the way home. It’s not a limited, physical place like the homes we live in. No matter who or where we are, no matter what we’ve done, no matter how we feel, in Jesus, we are always invited and always welcomed to return to our true home with God. We are always invited and always welcomed to live a life of unending mercy, enduring peace, and abounding love. We are always invited and always welcomed to look forward to consummate healing, ultimate justice, and infinite joy. Jesus told us and showed us that Jesus is the way home. We have been created and designed as God’s beloved children. Our satisfaction is in God. Our true home is with God.
I really enjoy visiting all kinds of museums, whether they focus on science, history, art – there is no end to explorations! This week, several in our family (including our beautiful granddaughter!) had the pleasure of visiting Fernbank Museum together. How priceless to experience wonder, discovery, creativity, and beauty together! If you look in the center of your table, you will find a photo of a painting done in a style called Pointillism. The first time I encountered this kind of painting, in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image, I did not understand how to view it. Pointillism relies on the ability of the eye and mind of the viewer to blend the color spots into a fuller range of tones. And really, the only way to do that is to pause, step back, and see it with a new perspective.
Christmas is a time when we remember the story of Jesus who came to us as one of us, a baby born in the usual way in a town called Bethlehem about 2000 years ago. Jesus’ birth was usual in some ways, and completely unique in others, because Jesus is fully God and fully human. Christmas is a time when we see perhaps more clearly than at other times that in Jesus, God offers us a new beginning and a fresh start. All of us. You and me and every person on the planet! No one is excluded. Everyone is invited! Everyone is welcomed!
God is setting before you today a new canvas that is clean and fresh, awaiting brush strokes of goodness, truth, and beauty, chock full of possibilities. Just like those tiny dots in your pointillism picture, we are each invited to do small things with great love. Each dot is a dot of grace. Each small thing we do can build something good, true, and beautiful that is filled with the color, light, and radiance of God. God also invites us to notice dots of grace in other people’s lives, too – our families, neighbors, and friends. We can encourage them along the way, even as we keep doing small things with great love, reaching out to neighbors and nations, for the greater glory of God!
Jesus came to show us the way home. Listen to Jesus’ beautiful invitation from Matthew 11:28 – “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Eugene Peterson’s modern rendering in The Message puts Jesus’ invitation this way – “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life … Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
I encourage you to let Christmas remind you of Jesus’ invitation to us all: Come to Jesus, who is the way. Come to Jesus, our true home.
One of the ways in which we get to do that in a very real way is at the table of communion. Jesus did this with his earliest followers. And he told us to continue doing this because he wants us to always remember that Jesus is the way home and our true home. I want to invite you to commune with Jesus here and now. Everyone is welcome at Christ’s table. As we eat the bread and drink the cup, let us remember Jesus, who is God-with-us. May we each lean into the unforced rhythms of grace. May we each receive the grace that we need to live more freely and lightly. May we come to Jesus, our true home.
At the Last Supper, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to those with him and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” When you come forward, you will be given a piece of bread along with the words, “The body of Christ broken for you.” Jesus then took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” When you come forward, you will also be given a cup into which to dip the bread, along with the words, “The blood of Christ poured out for you.” I invite you now to come forward to receive the elements. Jesus Christ is present here with us. Let us celebrate the presence of the Lord and the body of Christ as we eat and drink together!
As we participate in communion, I want to share with you a highly descriptive poem that I hope will ignite fresh astonishment in us at what happened on the first Christmas.
Descent (by Malcolm Guite)
They sought to soar into the skies
Those classic gods of high renown
For lofty pride aspires to rise
But you came down.
You dropped down from the mountains sheer
Forsook the eagle for the dove
The other Gods demanded fear
But you gave love
Where chiselled marble seemed to freeze
Their abstract and perfected form
Compassion brought you to your knees
Your blood was warm
They called for blood in sacrifice
And victims on their altars bled
When no one else could pay the price
You died instead
They towered above our mortal plain,
Dismissed this restless flesh with scorn,
Aloof from birth and death and pain,
But you were born.
Born to these burdens, borne by all
Born with us all ‘astride the grave’
Weak, to be with us when we fall,
And strong to save.
