Spring is coming and it's time to do things around the house.  Have you started your spring cleaning yet?  Maybe you'll have an inspection to see how winter affected it.  How about if I am your inspector, if I come over to see if there are any cracks in the foundation or walls that need paint?  I might even see what kind of books are on your shelves and do the white glove test for dust.

          What's that?  You don't want me coming over?  You want to clean first?  You think it's strange I want to look inside your house?  You thought today's sermon would be about spiritual matters rather than dust on your mantle?  Well, it is, but maybe I should be more clear.  I'm really not talking about your visible house, the one with a yard, the dog and the mortgage, the one built of bricks or wood.  I'm talking about your invisible house, the one built around your thoughts and convictions and hopes and dreams.  I'd like to inspect your spiritual house.

          We all have one, and no two are ever alike.  No builder sells spiritual homes, nor does a realtor sell them for a commission.  It's a house only you can describe.  It is quite unique and very private, rather like a castle where your heart lives.  Like your physical house exists to protect your body and possessions, so your spiritual house exists to care for your soul and your faith.

          Wouldn't it be wonderful if our house was perfect?  Wouldn't it be fine if we had one where the roof never leaked, the walls never cracked, the foundation never shifted?  Wouldn't it be fantastic if our house was the perfect size, and - here's the best of all - if someone else always cleaned it?  Wouldn't it be grand if our kitchen always nourished us, our study always guided us, our living room was filled with love and our bedroom gave us perfect rest?  And what if it were all paid for?

          Jacob, son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham, was leaving home.  He'd tricked twin brother Esau out of his birthright and knew his days there were numbered.  He knew as a fugitive he'd be sleeping under the stars, and would probably live in a tent his whole life.  Not until many years later, when son Joseph gave him a home in Egypt, would Jacob know what it was like to sleep in an actual house.

          A few nights after leaving home, the Bible tells us, Jacob had a dream, "in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it." (Genesis 28:12)

          Jacob's ladder has always been a mystery.  A Sunday School once told me that the angels on the ladder were taking prayers up to God and others bringing His answers back down.  I've never heard a better explanation than that.  Jacob was so impressed he gave the place a name, Beth - el (house of God), for "This is none other than the house of God."  God promised Jacob that his family would become great, as numerous as the dust.  If they remained faithful, they would become a great house, a really big family.

          Chances are most of us have never given thought to any other kind of house than the one we live in.  We build elaborate big houses for our bodies, but what do we do for our souls?  Our earthly house is filled with conveniences, but the house for our souls often has shaky walls that let in the wind and rain.  With spiritual walls so thin, is it any wonder the world is full of so many cold hearts?

          The Great House of God doesn't need insulation, just occupants.  It's not God's plan that we live in tents, like bedouins moving here and there.  He wants us with Him, under His roof where we'll have all the space we need.  You and I can only take up residence in God's house by faith in Jesus Christ, and there we can live in the very dwelling place of God Himself.  And we can do so because He's our father.

          You and I were intended to live in our Father's house.  Jesus once told His men that He was leaving them, going to His father's house to prepare a place for them.  "I go to prepare a place for you," He said (John 14:3), "And when I come again, I will take you to be where I am."  That would be in the Great House of God.

          Many people think God is separate from us, like He's at one end of the ladder and we're at the other.  Actually, God IS the ladder.  He's also the house, with its foundation and walls and roof.  "In HIM we live and move and have our being," said St. Paul (Acts 17:28).  Moses knew this.  He once wrote, "Lord, YOU have been our dwelling place - our house - from the very beginning." (Psalm 90:1)

          God is our Great House.  He wants to be the dwelling place of all people, not just church people, not just Americans and not just Lutherans.  He isn't interested in being a summer home or a vacation getaway.  He wants to be our Main House, our true home.  He wants us under His roof every day.  In John 14:23, Jesus said, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.  My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

          This is novel thought.  For most of us, God is someone to trust or to pray to or someone to discuss.  We don't think of Him as a place, but as a fellow dweller.  But He Himself is the Great House where all people can dwell, all except those who don't want to be there, those who think there's a better place to live.

          I grew up in a farm house.  It was a "kit house" sold by Sears Roebuck and constructed back in the early 1900's.  It wasn't much of a house, but it seemed great at the time.  It was cozy and warm inside where we lived.  It was a big thing when we finally got running water inside and a stoker to automatically feed coal into the furnace.  Today, it's sad to behold.  Its walls are leaning, the basement's caving in and it looks so small and frail under huge trees that could crush it if they fell.  It's no longer really a house, just an abandoned stack of boards.

          The Great House of God will never be abandoned.  It's the heart of God where His people live forever.  It's warm and sturdy, where the light is just right, the rooms are big enough, and the furniture never grows lumpy.  And the people all get along!  The Great House of God is perfection and eternity, and I long to go there, where there are no arguments, no unreal expectations, no tears.  The Great House of God beckons us all share a room together in eternal friendship and love.

          Jesus Christ is the host of the Great House.  He personally has purchased and won residency for us, not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death.  The House of God will be filled with those who love Him.  Jacob will be there with His faithful sons.  And Moses and Miriam will be there, and James and John, and Mary and Martha, and Luther and Katie, and Mom and Dad, and also, God willing, you and I.

          The Great House of God is where His love is.  Its dwellers rely on His mercy.  They live by forgiveness and rest in peace.  They never argue or worry about money or what time it is.  The Great House of God is eternal, and there we'll see all those we now miss.  Jesus is the way to get there.  He is the lamp for our feet and the light for our paths.  Come with me to live in the Great House of God.  Amen

Copyright © 2003 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.