Title: Hometown Thoughts
Content Title: Hometown Thought
Text: Hebrews 11:13-16
Today is Chuseok. The whole country is buzzing about going back to their hometown. As always, the road to homecoming is a hard road. Still, the faces of the people going home are always bright. That's because hometown is so good, and there is a longing for hometown in everyone's heart.
First of all, I hope you enjoy the Chuseok holiday with the whole family from your hometown.
Why do so many people visit their hometowns during Chuseok? Because it is the most comfortable and warm place to hug me. This is because the hometown is a haven for the heart, just like a mother's womb. Even though the years have changed, the hometown remains the same, allowing the tired bodies to rest. No matter how successful I am, no matter how famous I become, my hometown is where I treat myself as I am as a child. Also, my hometown is where the people I have always missed live.
I pray that the whole family will enjoy the blessings of God through their hometown this Chuseok. First of all, I hope you have a Thanksgiving Chuseok. Also, I hope that Chuseok is a time of forgiveness and reconciliation when you share love with the whole family.
Second, I hope that our church will become a <hometown of souls> on this earth.
There are many people who want to go but cannot go home. For those who have been evacuated and those who have no family, I hope that Seomun Church will become your spiritual home. There is a home on this earth that gave birth to me and raised me, and there is a spiritual home for the soul. That is the church.
What kind of blessings and comfort is the church? The blessing promised through the temple in Psalm 84 is
(1) It promises to bless you in the temple of the Lord. (2) Those who live in a right relationship with the temple promise to give them the blessing of gaining strength from the Lord. (3) When you come to this temple, it is said that there is a highway to Zion in your heart. Zion's Highway is a direct telephone line to God, who has nothing between him and me. (4) When you walk through the Valley of Tears through the temple, we promise that you will make the Valley of Tears a place of springs.
On the path of life as a stranger, the church is like an oasis in the desert. I bless you that Seomun Church will become your spiritual hometown and enjoy this blessing while you live in the world.
Third, our ultimate and eternal home is our perfect home in heaven.
Hebrews 11:16 says, “Now I long for a better home, which is in heaven.” The hometown on earth is the hometown of the body, and the hometown in heaven is the hometown of the soul.
The salmon travels to the distant shores of 16,000 kilometers and returns to the mother stream where they were born to lay their eggs. Just as this is the salmon's instinct, life is always created to live longing for that heaven. We must long for a better home. The ancestors of faith in Hebrews 11 are those who have made the kingdom of heaven their eternal home. This sinful world is not my home, my gold and silver treasures are in that heaven, open that heaven's gates and call me.
Every day we go to that high place. It is always overflowing with light and love.
Now let me conclude.
On Chuseok morning, it's a week with extra thoughts of hometown. I hope that all the saints who have already returned to their hometown and those who are returning soon or who will not be able to find their hometown inevitably, but will be spending time with their families, feel the hometown to their heart's content this holiday season, and bring the love of their hometown deep in their hearts.
While you live in this world, I hope that our Presbyterian Church will become your spiritual hometown, love and fellowship with each other, receive comfort and blessings, and enjoy the blessings of Psalm 84.
This world is like an inn where travelers stay for a while. Please prepare for that day, remembering that you must return to your better home, Heaven. Just as no one goes home without a gift, I hope that we too will live a life that leaves abundant fruit to be given before God.