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Luke 15:1-3; 11-32 The Message

By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently.

The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends."

Their grumbling triggered this story...

...Then he said, "There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to me.'

"So the father divided the property between them. It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country.

There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had...

...He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death.

I'm going back to my father.

I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.'

He got right up and went home to his father.

When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him.

The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.'

But the father wasn't listening.

He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it.

We're going to feast!

We're going to have a wonderful time!

My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!'

And they began to have a wonderful time.

Homecoming is a wonderful thing.

I don't know what that word means for you, but for me, it's laden with power and feeling.

"Homecoming" is a tradition in many churches, especially the small, rural, Southern variety.

Once a year, in the churches of my youth, a "homcoming" celebration was held. The idea was that folks who had moved away from their families and the small towns would come back to worship together on a Sunday morning.

Special music, special preaching, a special offering (of course, I mean what congregation's going to miss that chance with a full house, right?), and most importantly...the special lunch.

Homecoming involves food. All across the south, if you can find a good homecoming at a small church in June or July, you will experience masters of a dying art.

Down home, grandma-style cooking.

Homegrown blackeyed peas (the vegetable, not the hip-hop group), homegrown tomatoes, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried okra, yeast rolls, cornbread, corn on the cob (homegrown), and if you don't like your corn that way, there will also be creamed corn, cut off the cob and cooked slow with tons of butter, salt and sugar.

Folks, that's what homecoming's all about.

Food. And what the food says. It says, "celebration," and "this will always be your home."

We're going to feast!

We're going to have a wonderful time!

Well...all except Older Brother. But, we'll deal with him on Sunday.

See you there. And know that God is ready to run down the road and meet you, anytime. A homecoming feast awaits.

Grace & Peace,

Adam

Today...just a song about celebration. If you don't know about Robert Randolph and the Family Band, I'm sorry. You need to. Read this, and it'll help you out. He's a "sacred steel" player from the "House of God Church," and he's made the cross into blues/rock, and he's just about as good as it gets.

This song is "Homecoming," and it says, "Mama gonna fix me a plate, everybody gonna get 'em a taste. Come on and celebrate, I can't hardly wait."

If you can't groove to this folks, there's not much I can do for you.