From the Pastor: Sept 2026

Dear Friends,

Thomas Wolfe was a great novelist whose novel You Can’t Go Home Again still resonates, because the passage of time and life’s inevitable changes does make it impossible to capture the idyllic memories we have of our past.  A different perspective comes from Robert Frost’s poem, “The Death of the Hired Man,” which coined the phrase, “‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in… Something you somehow haven’t to deserve.”  Rather like grace, it seems to me.  But a third and even more powerful view comes from the word of God to King David in 2 Samuel 7, when David wants to build a great dwelling place for God.  God, in essence, says, thanks but no thanks—and says in fact, I will provide you a home.    

That’s a promise we can all hang onto.  God will provide you a home.  Now that doesn't mean necessarily that God will tell the bank to give you a loan, or that God will strike down your crotchety old Uncle Snipewinkle, leaving you his estate.  The Word is that in the love of Christ we find all our physical, emotional and spiritual salvation.  God is our resting and dwelling place.  And although this side of heaven life will always be imperfect, I believe that Christ calls us together as a community to meet each other's needs, and provide one another a home.  With God's help, we can do it, and are doing it.  Because we're human, we sometimes let each other down, but if we struggle together as a family, trusting in Christ's model of forgiveness and reconciliation, we can make a home in our hearts for one another--and maybe even make room for loving ourselves, which is often harder.

Fittingly, we start our church year each fall with Homecoming Sunday, this year on September 13.  We welcome back the choir, the bells, and all the folks who have been traveling, and we celebrate with a big picnic.  It’s a joyful time of celebration, but it’s not just about getting back into the routine of familiar patterns.  It’s a time to recommit ourselves to creating the beloved community together.  Home is not just where they have to take you in; home is where you feel a deep sense of belonging, and a calling to invite in all who would like to share in our amazing blessing.  I’ll see you on the 13th.  You CAN go home again.  

With joy and thanksgiving, 

Martin