Consumed with Thoughts of Home

July 3, 2018

Beloved:

I stayed home all day yesterday.  ALL DAY!  I emptied my pantry, wiped down the shelves and put everything back in the most orderly arrangement.  I moved on to the baking supplies cabinet and drawer.  My laundry room is newly organized and the garden is weeded and tidy too.  Also shipshape.  I prepped lots of healthy food — a task which I procrastinate endlessly over and then glory in for the next two weeks.


I suspect this industry was prompted by my current sermon series from Exodus, chapter 20, namely verse 17 which says, you shall not covet your daughter’s new house.  We organized her kitchen first and moved on to bedrooms, basement, etc.  It would be fun to move into a new house, said the insane voice inside my head.  To which my sane self quickly replied, Oooorrrrr, you could go do something about the one you already have . . . you know, the one that resembles a thrift store half-price sale?


In fact I love my thrift store half-price sale of a house.  Just the other day an overnight guest said, “Your house is really lived in,” which is my favorite compliment.  We were babysitting two extra dogs for a total of three golden retrievers and one black lab.  I have ten baby chicks on the screened-in porch.  My son and his girlfriend were there and my husband too.  Everyone was tripping over everyone trying to get coffee and breakfast.  Oh, and my kitchen fridge is out — so we run in and out from the garage to collect our milk and meat.  I’ve yet to get flowers into porch pots this spring, and now the spring is gone.  I’ve taken so long to weed one flowerbed I’ve decided just to mow it.


These days I am consumed with thoughts of home.  Of people stranded everywhere, whose one hope in all the world is to be half as home as me.  One tenth as home as me.  I cannot bear to listen to the news, to hear another person debate what must be done about terrified, broken families begging us for safety.  As if we don’t have enough to share.


I read again this morning Jesus’ story from Matthew 25, when the people are so confused about when they might have seen Jesus in need and refused Him.  Jesus told them:  “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  I have this vision of a little brown child behind a fence begging for her mama — but really she is Jesus in disguise, begging us to recognize Him and to turn from our wicked ways.  He isn’t being deceptive since He outright told us she is Him.  And the longer this drags on the greater is His mercy towards us – giving us yet another day to do what we know good and well He means for us to do.


We shall surely pay for the wickedness of letting children live in cages and turning away strangers while at the same time calling ourselves God’s own.  Matthew 25 portends eternal punishment, which the world has seen before, the falling of empires that thought themselves too big to fall.  And we who so relish the comforts of a home that we refuse to share will not be left untouched.
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On move-in day my daughter and I joked about not opening half the boxes to see how long she could do without the contents.  A really long time, we concluded.  The fact is, until we all decide to do more than joke and then dodge the question, we’d better hope the Lord keeps giving us another day to change our minds.  

~ peace & prayers,
pastor annette