John 14.1-14 & 1 Peter 2.2-10
What do we
associate with home? If we are lucky it may be a familiar place where we feel
comfortable. It may be a productive place where we have what we need to do our
work. It may be a space where we are free to express ourselves by our choice of
décor and furnishing.
Home can also
mean much more than physical space. Fortunate people look back on their
childhood and even if they didn’t care much for the building that was home they
recall familiar smells, bread making or simmering stews that gave a sense of
comfort. When going through the difficulties and confusion of growing up home
may have offered the one place where security was a given, at it’s very best
where unconditional love lived.
There’s a TV
show called ‘Gogglebox’ which has proven to be an unexpected hit. If you
haven’t seen the programme it simply shows a cross section of British people in
their homes watching the week’s television. There’s an Indian man with his two
sons who are often making fun of him, a gently spoken gay couple, one of which
must think he’s in the swearing Olympics, an outspoken vicar who curls up on
the settee with her husband and their greyhound occasionally spilling their tea
and a well to do couple from Tenterden with a bar in their front room which
contains the widest range of alcoholic drinks outside of a hotel cocktail bar. Clearly
these people, even though on TV, appear to be relaxed at home and free to
behave without judgement.
Jesus was
moving on peoples thinking about what his Father’s house really meant. You will
be familiar with the time when Jesus overturned the tables of the money
changers in the temple telling them’ stop making my Father’s house a market
place’. He wants them to cease thinking that the temple is the only place they
can meet with God and expand their horizons to consider the possibilities of a
new relationship that gives access to God’s house via Jesus.
Our readings
today challenge those of us who find comfort and security in our homes by
suggesting that the world is not our home. Jesus describes a mansion so big
that there is space for many of us to dwell there with God. He’s obviously not
referring to a trip to John Lewis when he explains that he will prepare a place
for us and come back to take us there.
Peter’s letter
is for a diverse group of people who are starting to realise that Jesus isn’t
going to be taking them to dwell with God just yet. The impact of this is that
they will need to find meaningful existence on this earth for longer than they
may have planned for and this would include facing up to persecution because of
their faith.
Away from the
comfort of a secure building I heard a homeless artist speaking on the radio
this week that as long as he could set up and paint then he was at home
anywhere. He didn’t need a fixed abode just the ability to work.
Perhaps this
is a bit more like what God offers. He knows our physical needs and shelter are
much desired but when it comes down to it if we want to be at home with God we
find our security in different ways. It’s a sense of home available to
everyone, particularly those who have not been lucky enough to have a safe
peaceful home in their lives. When Thomas asks ‘how can we know the way’, the
way to God, Jesus replies with those famous words ‘I am the way, the truth and
the life.’ Effectively he is telling Thomas that if you want to know what God
is like, he is like me, and if you want a room in his mansion you will find it
through me. If we want to be at home with God we need to be at home with Jesus
and we don’t have to wait until we depart this world to move in.
We know that
God loves the world and it’s people and he shown us that there is no limit to
this. So as long as we are on this earth the way we live our lives gives us an
opportunity to respond to his love in the way we relate to each other
regardless of our differences.
In fact we
are told to get building straight away by Peter. He describes us as living
stones that can be built into a spiritual house. There’s nothing here that says
we can’t blob out on the settee and watch telly sometimes but if that becomes
what home means for us then we need to think again.
Kevin Bright
18 May 2014
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