On Thursday, our nation was treated to a delightful live television broadcast of The Wiz which is a Broadway production based on the classic tale The Wizard of Oz.   In this story, a little girl named Dorothy and her dog Toto are caught up in a tornado and transported to the mythical land of "Oz."  Upon arrival, Dorothy says, "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."  Indeed, Dorothy and Toto find themselves in a strange land.  A land with singing munchkins, a talking scarecrow and tin man, and a forest filled with lions and tigers and bears and wicked witches. 

What Dorothy encounters in this mythical land is familiar to many of us.  At times it seems that we're living in a modern day Oz, complete with talking lions and tigers and bears and wicked witches that seek to destroy us and our livelihood; An Oz where terrorism and mass shootings are a too present reality (more than one each day), too many of our children die senseless deaths in the streets, too many are laid off from their jobs, and too many are homeless and hopeless.  

What was Dorothy's solution to being trapped in Oz?  Her solution was to ease on down the road to see the Wizard with the hopes that he would make a way for her to make it home to Kansas.   However, upon encountering the Wizard, Dorothy learns that he is a phony, a fake, a sham -- a man behind a curtain pretending to be what he really isn't. Thinking about this story in terms of our daily lives, today we're told that if we can just consult with modern day wizards like Donald Trump that all our problems will go away.  But often the answers coming from these soothsayers are too good to be true, just as they were for Dorothy.

Ultimately, Dorothy comes to understand that she already has everything that she needs to make her way back home.  Indeed, all she has to do is to just click the heels of her slippers three times and saying "there's no place like home" each time and she finds herself back at home in Kansas with "Auntie M."  

This is also true for us.  We too have within in us -- through the Holy Spirit -- what we need to find peace and contentment.   Our pathway to peace is not found in clicking together a pair of slippers, as it was for Dorothy, but it's found in the precious blood of Jesus!  The Bible says that if we call on the name of Jesus that he will give us whatever it is we ask of Him. (John 14:13).    
 

Dorothy was right.  There is no place like home.  However, home for us is not in Kansas.  Home for the Christian is wherever the presence of the Lord is, and the good news is that the Lord is present not just in church on Sunday, but inside of our hearts each and every day of the week and we will dwell in His House forever!