Episode 1157: Home is a Journey

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,157 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Chris Mamula: I'm Chris Mamula. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to take control of your money is key.

[00:00:19] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

[00:00:26] Scott Maderer: There's no place like home, but it's not a place instead home. Isn't the destination. It's the journey. It's the relationship. It's the idea that we connect to others on our journey to a life in faith. Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your [00:01:00] talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:14] In today's spiritual foundation episode about investing in yourself. I talk with you about Luke chapter nine versus 51 through 62. I share how faith is about arriving home, but it is also about the journey away from home. And I also share how it's about following the both and of home. Luke chapter nine versus 51 through 62 says when the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jeru.

[00:01:43] And he sent messages ahead of him on their way. They entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him, but they did not receive him because his face was set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples, James and John saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come [00:02:00] down from heaven and consume them?

[00:02:02] But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village as they were going along the road. Someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nest, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head to another. He said, follow me.

[00:02:21] But he said, Lord first, let me go and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead. But as for you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Another said, I will follow you Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. And Jesus said to him, no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

[00:02:44] This passage is one of those that I struggle with at times. and it touches on some feelings that we have the idea of home, the idea of family roots of [00:03:00] having a connection to where you live and where you stay, making yourself at home, building a home, this longing, this feeling that we have to belong.

[00:03:12] And yet in this passage, Jesus seems to talk out about those things seems to be against those things, which at first glance it seems like Jesus, God would be in favor of us getting home of finding where we belong, finding the place where we fit in finding ourselves, arriving at home.

[00:03:37] And that's true. In some ways I. God does want us to have a feeling of belonging, a feeling of connection, a feeling of being safe and being home, but at the same time, the description of what those are and how we reach those the methodology [00:04:00] is different in some ways the methodology is about losing or giving up as opposed to gaining or arriving it.

[00:04:08] It's not about. Finding home. It's about journeying. We have a tendency to want to be settlers, to want to settle into place, to get comfortable, to be where we are comfortable. And God seems to want us to be pilgrims, not settlers sometimes. home, isn't home. It's a unreachable state or destination.

[00:04:38] It's an unrealized dream. Think about it. Jesus says this foxes and birds have a place, but I don't. Are we supposed to feel sorry for him in some way? And he basically says, leave your father, let the dead bury the dead. Let your parents deal with their own issues. And [00:05:00] yet we don't really want to do that.

[00:05:03] We want to take care of the people that we love and support them. We don't even, he's basically saying leave without even saying goodbye, but that doesn't feel right to us, but the Samaritans, he comes to their village and they don't wanna deal with. because he's turned his face to Jerusalem. It says. And because of that, they don't want to invite Jesus in and that kind of ticks off the disciples.

[00:05:35] They're like, let's call down fire and burn. 'em all up. They it's like everyone's on edge. Needs to go home and settle down, somewhat calm themselves down. Maybe if Jesus would just lighten up and stop driving towards Jerusalem, we would all feel better. But in this case, Jesus is putting an edge on things that maybe we [00:06:00] don't always see faith has commitment.

[00:06:04] Faith puts a demand on us and yes, we love the grace part of fulfillment. The grace part of faith, but we forget about the demand and the responsibilities and the commitment part. Sometimes we treat grace as if it's a, anything goes as long as your intent and your heart is in the right place. Rather, we look to things like, be like little children, it's okay to make mistakes.

[00:06:31] And it is, but we also forget that it also says be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Think about this here. Jesus is turning to Jerusalem and he knows the end of this story. He knows the cross lays at the end of this, and he seems to be pushing them to follow his here's a, he is a man without a.

[00:06:59] and yet he [00:07:00] knows that at the end of this journey, even though it's going to end in a hard place, it is a chance for him to return home back to the arms of the father. Maybe it's not that Jesus is frustrated and upset and tired, maybe it's that he knows something that he desperately wants us to know this idea that.

[00:07:24] You can't go home again. The idea that the nostalgia we have for the past, isn't really something real because the good old days, weren't the good old days. And yet that's how we remember it. And that he tells us in this passage, that home isn't a place. It's a relationship. The first follower says, I will follow you.

[00:07:53] and then he adds wherever you go. It became about a destination, not the journey it [00:08:00] became about where are you going? Not, I will follow you. It became about a place not following Jesus. The word made flesh. And the other two, they wanted the both end. They wanted to follow and stay behind at the same time, a both end that I don't think Jesus wants for us.

[00:08:23] They wanted to divide their focus. They wanted to be a follower of Jesus and commit to him, but also to be someone who could stay behind where it was safe and where it was sound and where they would be. Okay. Where everything would just work out because they could be both there and home. A lot of times we wanna fulfill the duties of Christ as long as they're easy, but here Jesus is saying that sometimes it's hard.

[00:08:57] There's no place [00:09:00] like home, but it's not a place instead home. Isn't the destination, it's the journey. It's the relationship. It's the idea that we connect to others on our journey to a life in faith. And sometimes that means we go backwards and sometimes that means we go forward. And sometimes that means we make mistakes.

[00:09:26] And sometimes that means we're not even sure where we're going, but at the end of the day, we're always heading home. As long as we're heading towards God, because home is where God is. Thanks for listening.

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