When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

I want to continue to soak a little longer in the afterglow of last Sunday, in the presence of Christ at his table, I want to continue to think about all that has been said, recently, about us as God’s people in this place.

Things that were said formally by former pastors and things that we have said to each other informally throughout this Anniversary year.

I was thinking, late last Sunday night, about Robert Frost.

I know it is unusual for me to think about a serious poet, you know the kind who don’t play guitars, but Frost was one of the first serious poets that I ever read and I have always kept his classic poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, close to my heart.

He speaks of the value of stopping and staring and thinking.

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.

No, it wasn’t snowing last Sunday night, but it was a good and special time for stopping and staring and thinking.

In the movies last Sunday afternoon would have been the final scene, cue the music, roll the credits, turn up the house lights and leave everyone feeling good about us as a Church.

It was, as I have said several times since, simply the most remarkable and wonderful day in our congregational history. The work that Stephanie and Carol and Mark and Amy and Diana and Lynn- put into all of that was well worth it. The songs of the children and the choirs. The chance for all of you to meet and hear Sam Priestly, Al Poppen and Bob White, to see David Taylor, Paul Quevedo and Chris Heitkamp again, to view that emotional and inspiring video . . . I don’t think I was alone in the sense that we are trustees of something very special and very sacred. We have been deeply and well loved by God.

But the little voice in the back of my head said to me, even before Sunday was over, “OK, now what?”

And the answer is, we move forward.

We move forward together.

We move forward together differently

It is the same thing that we do after a wedding, a birth, a graduation, a job loss, a retirement or a funeral.

We move forward together differently

It is at those very moments in life – moments of joy and of sorrow - that the words of Christ become deeply personal and precious to us: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

The story of Ruth and Naomi is helpful here.

Naomi just wanted to go home after the deaths of her husband and two sons.

So Ruth traveled with her, for she had, I suppose, nothing to lose.

“Do not press me to leave or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.”

That’s how God calls us forward in life, linking us to others, feeding us off of their faith for a while, until it becomes our faith and we find ourselves feeding them.

And together they traveled to Bethlehem.

You know I can’t let that pass, because Naomi and Ruth traveled together as they went home to Bethlehem, there would be two others, centuries later, a man and woman who would travel to Bethlehem and . . . well, you know where that story goes, we start our journey at the end of this month.

And our visits to Bethlehem, together, each year, have defined the ways in which most of us understand “home”.

Home is a special word.

Most of us have traveled far, some geographically, some emotionally, some spiritually, pilgrims in search of that ever-moving, ever-evolving place where we know we belong.

Naomi was lost in sorrow, so she wanted to go home, she saw no future among the strangers and so, with the wisdom of her years, the knowledge that she would need some familiarity in her life, she ran away to home, she ran away to Bethlehem.

And Ruth, her daughter-in-law, ran with her. We aren’t told how Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion died or how long Ruth was married to Mahlon, we aren’t told how her family and friends viewed her marriage to this foreigner, this Jew.

But we are told that, in her time as a part of the family of Naomi, she found a place for her heart and when sorrow broke that heart it was only in the presence of Naomi that Ruth could find meaning for her life.

Whatever it was that Ruth saw in Naomi it was enough to convince her that home would be wherever this woman was. And so Ruth, in John Denver’s words, was “Coming home to a place she had never been before”.

You see Ruth knew that Home involved who was there more than where there was.

As we approach December and all of the things that will be said and sung and prayed and longed for, there is no doubt that we will hear – and I may even slip and say – something about Jesus being homeless.

It is a good sound bite, a good way to remind us, as the Youth Group will with next week’s lock-in, of our very real obligation to be the tools of God for those who are homeless.

But it is also inaccurate, the fact is that Jesus was not born homeless, he was born to loving parents, he was born in a particular place and he was born where faith was lived out no matter what the circumstances.

Jesus may have been born houseless, but he was never homeless, nor is anyone who trusts in God.

Jesus always knew how to go home, he knew it was more than geography.

When a scribe asked him about the commandments Jesus knew he was really asking for a road map home.

How, in a world with so many rules and regulations and traditions and tragedies and failures and joys and sorrows and sins and delights, how in such a world should we travel through the days and years and miles?

That was what was being asked that day.

And Jesus said here is the roadmap: love.

Love God.

Love each other.

Love the person in need.

All of that is there in Jesus’ answer and the scribe got it, he knew that what Jesus was saying, what Ruth and Naomi had experienced, was right. When all of the rules and rituals have been observed, when the burnt offerings and sacrifices have been made, when all of the Anniversery celebrations are over, when the theology and history have been studied, when the ethical and political decisions of life have been made, love is more important than all of it and love is only found when we are willing to travel together.

And Jesus saluted the scribe’s wisdom: “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

Clover Hill Reformed Church 1834-2009 A 175 Day Scriptural Companion Dear Friends, As we progress through our Anniversary Year, I invite you to join together in a shared reading of scripture. I have selected 175 passages, from Genesis through Revelation, that have had special meaning in our Congregational life. Go Here