My mom made the best baked chicken and dressing and rice and gravy in the whole world! Add a little cranberry sauce and what more could you ask! She made chocolate pies that were to die for! They started with a crispy, homemade crust. She stirred and cooked the chocolate filling until it was perfect. She whipped up an egg white topping, piled it high on top of the filling now in the pie shell. Then she baked it on high heat for just a few minutes until golden brown—really to die for!
When I went off to college mom mysteriously began experimenting with new recipes. I came home for visits and still had the chance to eat chicken and dressing and rice and gravy—enough to keep me going in my days away at college—but strange, WONDERFUL things also began to appear. She discovered the delectable treat called marshmallow cream fudge! I was happy to indulge her desire for cooking experimentation! Needless to say the marshmallow cream fudge helped me achieve my plus-fifteen pounds in the freshman year!
It’s great to come home—come home to favorite sights and sounds and smells and tastes—and especially to come home to renew relationships! It’s even great when you come home and realize that a few things have changed—like new foods suddenly appearing on the table or new colors on the walls or even new people sitting down around the table. The old and the new are all a part of God’s blessing.
And so it is with life in the church. We love the familiar sights and sounds and smells and tastes. We love the familiar faces sitting around the table. But isn’t it wonderful to also have folks from our past come and sit with us for a time? And isn’t it wonderful to have folks we’ve never met come and be in our midst? We can never imagine all the good that God has in store for us in a day’s time!
I look forward to this coming Sunday at Winterville United Methodist Church! It’s Homecoming—a day for the usual folks to show up, a day for folks from the past to come and join in, a day when folks who’ve never worshipped may come in and join the fellowship with God through Jesus Christ, with the fellowship of folks who call this place home!