“Come home”, “Come home”
These are the words I loved to hear growing up. Usually this would be when I was at my friend’s house down the street and my brother would be sent to call me home for dinner. These were good words.  Come home.
I also remember in 2nd grade I went to Camp Geneva. Now Camp Geneva is a great place, but I was the camper who wanted to go home. All the time I just wanted to leave. We would have quiet times, and during my quiet time, I would write letters home about how much I couldn’t stand it at camp. I just wanted out of there.  Now eventually my letters got home, and it was the day my older brother went to the mailbox. Needless to say, he takes his duty as an older brother very seriously, and reminds me and others of that letter frequently. Like during his toast at my wedding…
I just wanted to go home.  I think I was on to something.  And if I’m honest, I still have this longing. I still want to feel at home. As Grace and I have been starting our new life together, there is still a sense now that we want to be home.

Now in the passage from Isaiah we just read we find the people of Israel who also just want to go home. The people of Israel are in exile in Babylon. Do you remember this? We had a sermon series that came out of this story. Earlier this Fall there was the sermon series “For the Good of the City” which was about Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah said:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the Lord.
For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope.

He tells them he will come back for them. He tells them he will not forsake them, will not abandon them. Some day, one day, in God’s own timing, he would bring them home.  Some day God would say to them, “Enough. You have eaten from these gardens long enough. You have lived in these houses long enough. You have lived in this land of exile long enough. I will bring you back. I will bring you home.”
God is about to bring them home. Home for the Israelites wasn’t just a more familiar place; it was not simply a neighborhood they felt more comfortable in. It is not the difference from Holland to Grand Rapids. It is not moving from Michigan to Florida. It is deeply tied to who they are, and who they are to be. They were the people to whom God had given this land. They were the people who had been promised a home; and to be God’s people in this land. They were going  back to be who God had called them to be!

These were words they needed. These were words they longed for. These were water for the parched souls of these people. No more waiting, no more living in this foreign land, no more exile. They were going to go home!

Being in exile means you are not home. It means things are not right. We have that same sense and understand what it means to be away from home. We understand exile. We know what it means to be in a foreign land, to be unable to fully be the people that God has called us to be. And it’s because we’re not living in the land we are supposed to. Sin has caused us to wander off into a far country away from our God.  Because of sin, we too are in exile.

Sin really is the geography of exile. And we sense that we are in this foreign land:
-The doctor sits you down and says that one word you’ve been praying not to hear.
-Or your husband comes home late at night and says “I don’t love you anymore, I want a divorce.”
-Or after that hopeful interview, there is yet again no call from the employer.
-You wonder how she will ever forgive you for saying that
-Or how we just dread this holiday season because it hurts, because she won’t be there this year.
-It is as Eugene Peterson says: being where we don’t want to be.
We understand all too well what it means to be in exile.

That is why this passage in Isaiah is also clearly a message to us. “Comfort, O Comfort my people says your God. Speak tenderly to… well… us. In the season of advent, we remember that these words from Isaiah were words of comfort and deliverance to the people of Israel. But it is here too that these words are good news to us. For we see in advent the God in Christ has come to call us home. When he took on flesh, he entered into the far country we are in, the place we have wandered to because of our sin. And he entered it to bring us home.
He is calling us back to the wide-open country of Salvation. He is calling us back to the place where we can live and breathe and have our being in him. He is calling us back to be citizens of his Kingdom. He is saying to us, “Come home.”
But if we pay close attention to Isaiah we see that this highway back home is not prepared by us, but by God. God brings the mountains and hills low, God makes the uneven grounds level and changes all things to make his way to us. He has taken this dangerous and tumultuous terrain that separates the land of sinfulness and home and he has made is level. It has gone from the impossible Himalayas to the Great Plaines.  God has made this way home possible.
God also does not simply make the way from exile to home, then just sit at home and hope that we come to him. No! He comes to us. He comes to get us, he tells us as a shepherd he will feed us, but also that he will gather us in his arms and carry us in his bosom. So God is preparing the way, God is the one travelling the distance, God is the one who is gathering his people, and it is God who is bringing us home. This part of the story is really about God.
So what does it mean for you that God is calling you home? Where is he calling you home from? What is the landscape of the place you are in?

And centuries later we find that John the Baptist gives us some important insight as well. John uses this passage as he is talking about repentance. And in the season of advent, we remember the call to repentance.
God is calling us home. And part of coming home is the reality that you are not home. Part of coming home is actually having to leave this land of sinfulness. You actually have to leave, you have to move away from this life which is not real/good/true. We are not to remain in our bitterness, our infidelity, our doubt, our sin. We are to come home. We are to leave the land of sin.
This is repentance. But this is a repentance which is made possible by God. While God is calling us home, he is the one who makes the way home possible.  He is still our good shepherd who is guiding us every step of the way. He does not prepare the way and then wait for us to return, but he is with us, calling us home, and guiding us home, out of a place of exile.

That is why this word from Isaiah is good news to us to.
Comfort, O Comfort my people…
I will speak tenderly to my people…
I will feed my flock like a shepherd; I will gather my lambs in my arms, and carry them in my bosom.
I will take you home.

Friends, the Lord has come near, is coming near, to bring us back to that land which is expansive, the land which is real, the land which is where we are able to be those who are redeemed by Christ, through Christ, in Christ. For it is in Christ that we are always at home.

So come home. Come home.

Please pray with me.
Lord, We are grateful that you have entered into the far country to bring us back home. Help us to follow you to the place you want us to be. You are faithful to your promise, and you will not leave us.
We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen