Homecoming

heatherreba
3 days ago
6 min read

Sermon: January 25, 2026 . Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito

We gather together today to celebrate a wonderful homecoming after being displaced by construction for 25 weeks. We’re back on the familiar benches, under the umbrellas, in the open air, among friends who we care about. Not only is this our first service back in our beloved amphitheater, but our staff are now using our remodeled administration building, and our library is once again becoming a center for meetings, learning, and spiritual renewal. We’re not completely finished with our transitions, but we’re close and today certainly feels like a blessed homecoming. Despite the information we continue to get out of Minnesota, despite the ICE activity in our own community, despite the fact that we have very recently been through a congregational vote that has resulted in complicated feelings of displacement and concern that this fellowship may change, the principles our faith was founded on will not fade in time. They are the foundation, the essence that draws us here. This home will continue to be here to offer love, support, and acceptance while we journey together toward a better future.

Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein's song "Somewhere" from West Side Story promises a better future… Somewhere… It’s a lovely thought, a time and place that’s just for us. Many of us gathered here today have sought such a place… where there is peace and quiet and open air… where we can be together, to learn and to care… where we can find a new way of living and find a way of forgiving. Although it seems to be a place we are eternally searching for, it also sounds familiar, doesn’t it? To me, it sounds like home.

The instinct to return home is strong. We’ve all felt it at some point in our lives, the need to fly back to the nest and nestle into safety and comfort. We sometimes feel that need at the end of a long day when all we want to do is walk into our house with its familiar sights and smells, take our shoes off, and find a comfy place to sit. Some of us may have felt it after time away from our families, a yearning to be once again surrounded by those you love and who love you. You may have also felt it when you’ve strayed from your true self. It is a kind of homecoming when you once again connect to who you truly are. Regardless of what kind of home you seek, the return home is often a sacred journey.

Occasionally, we seek home without knowing where we’re headed. The journey can be long and fraught with disappointment and frustration. It can be lonely and difficult to hold onto the faith needed to keep your feet pointed in the right direction. During these times, we look for others on similar paths, seeking companions who search for the same kind of home we desire. With hope in our hearts, we journey together, toward our “somewhere” until we realize that somewhere is actually where you make it. Somewhere is the place where you have the support and care of others, where you can learn and grow in an environment of acceptance. When you realize that somewhere is in fact right here, then you know you’re home.

Although the idea of home is often accompanied by thoughts of security, safety, and a strong foundation that cannot be moved, homes can change. They may get a fresh coat of paint, a wall might be torn down, a patio could be built, but regardless of physical changes to a space, the essence of home remains. I remember coming home from college after my first stint away from my parents house for more than a few weeks. I walked into the living room and there had been visible upgrades. My mother had the mantle above the fireplace redone and the walls were painted a new color. But the reassuring tick of the clock on the wall and the familiar scent I can only describe as “home” flooded me with a sense of homecoming. The feeling it evoked was tangible. Despite the changes, the essence of home was present. I knew that within those walls, I would be supported and loved, despite life’s challenges.

Coming home to a place you know will support you, with people you have learned and grown with, can be one of the most precious experiences. Khalil Gibran says that home should not be like an anchor but instead like the mast of a ship. Indeed, you don’t want home to be so heavy that it keeps you from moving forward, instead home should be a strong center that supports the sails that allow you to move through the world with ease. And there will be times when you venture away, to find a new life, to find happiness, to find yourself. Although we may find success and greatness elsewhere, there is always a part of us that looks back toward home. As philosopher Pascal Mercier says “We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.”

If it’s true that there are parts of ourselves we can only find by going back home, then it stands to reason that there are parts of home itself that dwell within us. And although we may journey far and wide during our lifetimes, often searching for ourselves, we can forget that we can return home again by returning to our truest self. Author Katrina Kenison says, “Now I see that the journey was never meant to lead to some new and improved version of me; that it has always been about coming home to who I already am.”

The older I get, the more “me” I become, the less I apologize for the “me” I am, the more at home I feel in my body and spirit, and thus the more at home I feel in my surroundings. This inner journey toward “me” doesn’t stop me from learning and growing, in fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s that I’m learning to peel away the bits and pieces I’ve added to myself over the years, the little nuances and habits I’ve accumulated, that have stuck to me like static cling. As time goes on, I grow out of the defense mechanisms, I peel away the posturing, I strip off the reactivity, and I continue to work my way closer to coming home to myself, to a spirit not restricted and caged in by human expectations and reactions, but a spirit released and free. The closer I get to home, the less I judge others, the less disappointed I am, the less frustrated, the more tolerant, the more patient, the more understanding, the more at peace.

As I journey toward myself, I begin to feel more at home wherever I am because I have created my own inner supportive and safe environment. I find the less defensive I am, the less I need those defenses. The closer to home I get, the closer I get to setting down my baggage, to taking off my shoes, and to sitting comfortably in a cozy chair. And the further I journey, the more I explore, learn, and grow, the more I realize I’m actually journeying toward home. And when that journey is surrounded by others on similar paths, who catch me with love when I struggle to peel away my own defenses, who see past my human reactions to accept me regardless of the habits I have yet to discard, I know I’m home.

M E G I L L M U S I C

Homecoming

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