There are times in life when we look forward to coming home. There are other times when we don?t look forward to coming home. In our story today, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin were excited to come home and wanted to get started on the right foot this time. They were going to build a central place to worship God?creating a temple to remind them of the importance of God in their lives, in the lives of those in the neighborhood, and to show their enemies where they placed their allegiance. Now, as with any homecoming, sometimes things work according to plan, sometimes plans get pushed aside, and other times, the plans don?t happen. Those who returned home experienced all sorts of encounters with their returning home and through these experiences, they learned more about God and one another. I invite you to pray with me over the sermon titled ?The Return Home.? Let us pray.
I have probably shared a little of this with you before, but I wanted to share it again. I was the 18 year old who left the state of Florida swearing I would never come back to this God-forsaken state?and city. For the 14 years I was gone, there were many times I even had a hard to visiting and those visits were normally very short. And then Emma came into my life. So we started coming home a little more to spend time with family. And after a few years, I realized that I needed to move home for my family. So when I crossed over the Georgia-Florida state line with my car full of stuff and the dog, I know God laughed with me as we both remembered those words from 14 years earlier?God won in this battle. As I crossed that border, I also remember praying and asking for God to provide a job where I could get out of debt and provide for my daughter. God took care of that request too. And has continued to do so. Then after a couple of years of healing from a divorce and working towards being in a healthier place, God brought Lamont into my life. Now that I have been home for 5 years, I am very grateful for the journeys I have had with my cousin through her cancer and divorce, with my mother and her fight with breast cancer, and the long journey with my dad through lung cancer. I had a vision of what returning home would be like when I moved here 5 years ago. I will tell you that what I had in my mind about returning home is nothing like what it has truly been like. It has been better than I ever could have imagined. And has been one of the best decisions God has led me to make in the past 10 years.
As I reflect on returning home, I will tell you I really enjoyed reading the scripture passages for this message. These passages have caused me to reflect on the past 5 years and the journey that God has taken me on. Many of you could probably do the same thing. But more importantly, it has caused me to think about the story of Wintergarden and how this building could be a central place for the community. So I want to tell you a story and this story is about this building and its location.
About 25-30 years ago, there was a group of people from Peace River Presbytery who thought purchasing land in the area of Murdock would be a great place for a new church to be developed. You see, the Murdock area was this new growing area in Port Charlotte, somewhere of a suburb. People were building houses, and starting their families in this area of Murdock. There was even a mall in the Murdock area of Port Charlotte. The group who was working towards determining a location for a new church to be built thought buying and building in Murdock would be a great idea, so a lot was chosen and a team was put into place to see how it would work. The first building was a double-wide trailer. Now this building was not glorious and didn?t have lots of bells and whistles. But it was a place for meetings and worship on the property. Eventually more and more people started coming and they outgrew their double-wide trailer. A loan was secured to build a bigger building and eventually the building we are sitting in was resurrected in this Murdock community of Port Charlotte. When the building was being built, people starting coming to check out to see what was happening. As the building was completed, more people came to worship and join the fellowship of Wintergarden. The attendance of people would ebb and flow, yet the building stayed visible. Then something happened. Now many folks still aren?t sure exactly what happened, but things started to change. One of the things that happened had to do with internal conflict with leadership and pastors. Another thing that happened was a little thing called Hurricane Charlie. And then the people in the church started to focus on themselves and forgot about their neighbors. And in time, the neighbors forgot about the building called Wintergarden. Many people in the neighborhood started to only care about what was happening in their own lives and many people in the building started to only care about what was happening inside their building. And the neighbors forgot about the building and those gathered in the building forgot about their neighbors. But one of the things that is hard, is that when I look back over the history of this building and this congregation, I wonder where God has been in everything that has gone on. When I read this passage from Haggai, I was struck by how simple and yet how true this passage is for Wintergarden. ?Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but you are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it (Haggai 1:5-6).? I think about how many times I have heard phrases such as, ?we have tried going into the neighborhood, but they never come. We have done that many times before, but it NEVER works.? And I wonder, I just wonder, is it because we have done things thinking we are doing them? Instead of trusting in God to lead us, and doing what God is calling us to do? Have we been the ones rowing the boat, or are we allowing God to sail our ship and lead us?
This building, is a building. But it is the only building in this neighborhood. It is located in a central point in our neighborhood. It could be a building that brings people together from our neighborhood. It could be a building where people know they can come together for fellowship, friendship, discussion, common interests, and more. It could be a building where people gather around inside or outside and grow in relationships with one another. It could be a building where people know they can meet God. It could be a place where people return home and experience a loving and authentic relationship with God. Or it could be a building that sits here, looking abandoned, weeds growing around everywhere, paint chipping off the walls, where lights are out, and things look run down and empty.