It is really good to be back home here at the church with all of you these mid-summer weeks.  It has also been good to be with family and friends at our summer home in northern Minnesota.  The thrill of being in worship again and to experience the joy of music this past Sunday under the blue and changing evening sky for our first Summer Sunday Sounds in two years truly touched my heart.  Being home is not so much a location but being in relationship to what holds us and to what we hold dearly.  

Here’s how Henry Van Dyke put it in a poem.

A Home Song 

I read within a poet's book 
A word that starred the page:
"Stone walls do not a prison make, 
Nor iron bars a cage!" 

Yes, that is true; and something more
You'll find, where'er you roam,
That marble floors and gilded walls
Can never make a home. 

But every house where Love abides,
And Friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home-sweet-home:
For there the heart can rest.

I don’t know where home is for you – it may be the street address where you live or it may be someplace else.  But wherever it is…I hope this summer you can rest and find renewal - and be home - with yourself, others, the creation and God.

Peace,

Rev. Dr. David D. Young
Senior Minister

This article appeared in the Wave on July 21, 2021