On Tuesday, Jamie and I are scheduled to close on the purchase of a house in Mills River. And in August our youngest daughter will move from her room off campus back into her sorority house for her last semester at Western Carolina. And then in September our oldest daughter will move to a different Boston apartment. For all of us, this summer is focused on figuring out where to make our homes and what those places will look like.
The first things I think of when I think about “home” are comfort and belonging, so it’s hard for me to hear Jesus’ words in today’s gospel. His words, and his home-less-ness, make me uncomfortable.
Our reading is at the beginning of the travel narrative that will consume the next ten chapters of Luke’s gospel. Jesus has told his followers what to expect from their adversaries and he has set his face toward Jerusalem, fully knowing that the costly journey will bring hardship, rejection and death.
Speaking to followers along the way, Jesus admonishes them that he has no place to call home. He tells one, “the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head…” Apparently, following Jesus isn’t about finding a home with comfort and belonging. Instead of homesteaders or even pilgrims, followers of Jesus are more like nomads.
Homesteading is characterized by self-sufficiency - growing vegetables and raising livestock for food, canning and preserving, using alternative energy and relying less on those around you. You stake your place and stay there.
Pilgrimages are journeys that have a particular destination. The journey follows well-traveled routes that have been followed over centuries. Pilgrims walk in the footsteps of history.
But nomads don’t’ claim a particular place for any length of time. They travel to different places according to their needs. They carry their belongings with them. They construct temporary shelter and move with the tides and winds, temperatures and time. They have their own languages, cultures and traditions. They find their belonging in their community.
So, while Jesus’ words aren’t warm and fuzzy, maybe that’s the point. Jesus never says that having a home or tending to parents or family are bad. What he says is that nothing can come before God and God’s kingdom. Before any other identity we may have, we are God’s people and our home is in God.
The grace in Jesus’ words here may not be as obvious as it sometimes is, but grace is there.
Grace
is there
in the in-between places when we aren’t sure where we’ll find rest and there’s uncertainty as plans are changing and developing;
in knowing that we can step away from the swirl of grief when it feels like a tether, tying us down;
in hearing that all the responsibility isn’t ours alone; we can rely on others to tend to the needs we see in the world, too;
in recognizing that we don’t have to have everything buttoned up and all the problems of the world solved in order to be faithful.
What a relief!
We make our home in God’s grace and love for us.
Knowing God’s goodness, we can believe that God will help us care for the people and things around us too. Because God loves us, we can have confidence that God cares about those whom we love too. Because God clothes the lilies of the field, we can be assured that God will tend to our needs too.
There
is freedom in trusting that God’s goodness is enough. Unburdened, we are free
to respond to God’s presence and loving action in the world. Leaving behind
what is dead or past, we are free to look for what is alive and focus on what
is ahead.
Life takes on a new shape when our self-sufficiency becomes God-dependency, our footsteps are ordered by God and our comfort and belonging are found in God.
This cross-shaped life can be disorderly, chaotic and turbulent. The movie “Blue Miracle” tells the story of a couple in Cabo San Lucas who run an orphanage there. They were caring for about two dozen boys who had come off the city streets. They found themselves in crisis, living in a building that needed repairs they couldn’t make and owing the bank payments they couldn’t afford. But as the story unfolds, you see them choose the good at each turn. There were opportunities to solve their problems by making other faster, easier but illegal or unethical choices, but they didn’t make those choices. Instead, they chose to continue to take the next faithful step and to look for what was good and hopeful.
I think that’s what following Jesus looks like – taking the next faithful step and waiting on God to see what happens.
I
believe that’s where we are at Grace too, as the call committee continues its
work interviewing candidates to find the next senior pastor and we are involved
in the life and ministries of the congregation. We are witnessing what God is
doing in the lives of our children and youth through VBS, camps and service
learning, and in the lives of our siblings in Christ in Durango Mexico as our
team serves there this week. We glimpse God in the many ways we care for each
other, learn celebrate and worship together.
The
challenge we have from this week’s gospel is to notice the things that
keep us from following Jesus fully and freely - attachments, responsibilities,
fears. And the invitation is to talk with God about those things,
trusting in God’s grace and goodness.
Let us pray…
Good
and gracious God,
Thank
you for your Son Jesus who makes hard journeys with us, guiding us and staying
with us.
Help
us surrender to a life of following Jesus and finding our home in you.
Take
away our fears and our “shoulds” and “musts” so that we can take the next
faithful step with you, wherever it leads.
We
pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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