“Return to your home,

and declare how much God has done for you.”

–Luke 8:38a

The verse above comes from a day when Jesus healed a man described as having many demons. That transformation was so dramatic that neighbors who had known the man for years asked Jesus to leave. They didn’t understand what had occurred and were frightened. In contrast, the healed one begged his benefactor to stay. Jesus declined and instead replied “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”  Luke reports that the man did just that.  

Recently, I found myself thinking about those instructions for an entirely different reason. Over the last few months, I had the blessing of being present for worship in each of the congregations I once served as pastor. In other words, I returned to three places that had been my home.

While I had been back to each of those communities for other reasons, it has been 18 years since I joined that Kentucky congregation for worship. 21 years had passed since last doing so with the saints of the North Carolina faith community. Even though we are living in the same community as my final pastorate, a year passed before I gathered with that congregation on a Sunday morning. It’s customary in the Presbyterian system for a retired pastor to stay away for a time allowing for bonds to form with the new pastor. I have honored that courtesy as my predecessor did for me. Thus, to be back with each of those bodies of faith in quick succession was both rare and wonderful. 

The circumstances for my presence in each place were unique. In Kentucky, it was due to the installation of a pastor friend at a nearby congregation. I was back in North Carolina because of a pre-wedding gathering for my youngest niece. Locally, I returned at the invitation of the transitional pastor to celebrate the paying off of a mortgage and three other times as my youngest grandson’s choir sang. Collectively, those visits gave me the concentrated experience of being present in three places where my life was changed.

“Return to your home,” Jesus said “and declare how much God has done for you.”

That occurred for me on those visits to KY, NC, and PA. In each place, I experienced the joy of re-connecting with people from our years together and seeing how each congregation includes many others who arrived after my pastorate. I spent time with individuals who are now parents, but were teenagers when we first met. It was a blessing to chat with the first babysitter for our children, Clerks of Session who taught and blessed me at each stop, and members who had welcomed me into their lives during painful and joy-filled moments. We drove by our literal home from each community and marveled at how the trees had grown, broke bread with special friends and witnessed the fruits of building projects made possible by parishioners’ sacrificial giving. My heart is full.

Certainly, your life story is different from mine. A few readers of this blog are clergy, but most of you are not. Some of you have lived in the same town forever while others would count far more than three locations in your personal and vocational lives.

Yet all of you have the experience of home; of people who have blessed you over the years. Whether it was your faith community or work setting, your neighborhood or civic group, alma mater or softball team or some other group, you have had diverse homes, too.  Many of those persons who made those places memorable for you could now be at rest with God, but others are still alive. Thus, Jesus’ instruction to a man he healed in the first century and my travels in the 21st, lead me to offer this suggestion.  

Sometime this week, make a list of five people who positively shaped you in a lasting way, yet individuals you have not seen in years. For those who are still walking this earth, write a note or give them a call. If they are within driving distance, schedule a visit and get caught up. Yet if those individuals are no longer living, include words of gratitude for each of them in your prayers; perhaps doing that with one person per day. 

However you choose to proceed, I’d like to hear about those people in your comments to this post. Even if you decide to keep their stories and impact to yourself, the intentional recall of them will have the same result. For whether your trip back home occurs in person or in your mind, whether it takes the shape of a conversation or just the recalling of a special memory, the outcome will be the same. As I guarantee that it will be impossible for you to take that kind of journey without finding gratitude arising in your heart. 

Jesus encouraged a man long ago and now us to “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” Enjoy the trip!

Carrier of Memories, I thank you for those special people in my past and present who enriched my experience of home. I am humbled by what you have done for me through them. Lead me this day to reconnect and offer the same gift to someone else. Amen.