Christ Episcopal Church
	Riverton, New Jersey
	HOMEWARD BOUND September 2005 Tonight I'll sing my songs again, I'll play the game and pretend. But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrityLike emptiness in harmony I need someone to comfort me.Homeward bound. As I recently listened to Paul Simon sing these words, I was struck by the sense of the emptiness, the loneliness of the life of a performer on the road and the emotional power that pulls on his soul as he longs to be ‘Homeward bound’. As I immersed myself in the emotion of this lyric, I had the feeling that I had encountered something similar elsewhere. Then I remembered: By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.On the willows there we hung up our lyres.For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying,"Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land? They are lyrics from Hebrew hymnal: the book of Psalms, number 137. The people who sang it had been exiled to Babylon (not far from present day Baghdad), their homes and place of worship in Jerusalem destroyed. They too longed to be ‘homeward bound’, their music mediocre and empty apart from the place that gave them life. They were separated from the location where they were immersed in the love of God … waiting silently for [them]. Both Simon and the Hebrews are in exile, one brought about through the necessity of making a living and the tragedy of war respectively. There are many in our culture, in our day and age who feel this same pull this same desire for a special home, this call of deep and present love. But they find themselves lost, looking in the wrong places. Others are in self-imposed exile, knowing where to go, yet either not having the energy, strength or discipline to return, or concern over whether they are still welcome. Where is this place? Well, God’s house, of course, specifically for us Christ Church, where for thousands of people the love of God has been present, waiting yet active for a century and a half. This September 11^th provides a wonderful opportunity for those who have been away for a time or a season to break the ice and renew again the relationships with God and neighbor that furnish life in its fullness. For we kick-off Christ Church’s 150^th birthday on that date, and join together to celebrate and rejoice in the gift of our baptisms: the rite which welcomes us into the family of faith. Come and make true the deepest wish of every human heart, and yours, and be Homeward Bound Home where my thought's escaping, Home where my music's playing, Home where [God’s] love lies waiting, Silently for me. See you in church?! The Revd Richard C. Wrede, Rector