22 September 2015 - homecoming

I rejoiced because they said to me,
“We will go up to the house of the LORD.”
And now we have set foot
within your gates, O Jerusalem.

We are called to the house of LORD, too. Do we rejoice? Do we realize that, in a way, we are exiles in the rest of the world? We are, because "our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (cf. Phi. 3:20). We are among those who "make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one" (cf. Heb. 11:14-16). Precisely because of this when we enter the house of LORD we are, in a sense, returning from exile. This is as close to coming home as we can experience here below.

The children of Israel–priests, Levites,
and the other returned exiles–
celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

This is because the house of God is no mere earthly house. When we come to his house we are entering heaven. Even if our eyes still see earth our faith tells us that we in fact stand in heaven.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (cf. Heb. 12:22-24).

Earth is exile. Heaven is home. And we get to experience this home here and now in the house of the LORD. If the house of the LORD is home, then the "compact unity" of the "tribes of the LORD" is the unity of family. We experience the truth that "you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (cf. Eph. 2:19).

So if this is the home of our family, in order to know this blessing, we must become those people who Jesus calls his mother and brothers. We must become people "who hear the word of God and act on it." What is the word on which we are called to act this morning? "[T]hey said to me, "We will go up to the house of the LORD."" It isn't something of crazy complexity or impossibly difficulty. "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (cf. Rom. 10:8). We are called and we go! We go rejoicing!

According to the decree for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the LORD.