[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 27/Dec/2020]
We are in the middle of the season when Jesus came and made his home among us; his arrival was to a place rather different to what he had previously known. From the ‘heavenly realms’ to a messy stable, in an obscure town, to which his parents had travelled at the command of an invading overlord.
However, perhaps home is not actually a place? Last week my dad’s bungalow was sold, and the site of over forty years of family history and memories is no longer a part of our lives. But Dad is not there any more, and those memories live on in us, his family. It is the feelings that remain with us, and bring comfort, and joy.
Margaret Thatcher once said, ‘Home is where you go when you’ve nowhere else to go’, and many took it as a derogatory comment about the significance of home to her. But what she meant was that when your world falls apart, and everything by which you measure your significance has failed, home should be the place you can go to for refuge; secure in the knowledge that there you have value and are safe. When his world had fallen apart, despite all his appalling treatment of his father, the ‘Prodigal Son’ knew the only place left to go was home.
Over the last few months, we have had very little access to the church building, and to many of our congregation going back into the building will feel like coming home. But have we always been at home when we have taken shelter under God’s wings? Jill Rowe from Oasis once quoted ‘in the end we’re all just walking each other Home’ –perhaps we can make people in our town feel ‘at home’ not by bringing them to a building, but by how they feel in our presence, as we try to show Jesus to them. A quote attributed to Francis of Assisi says, ‘Preach the Gospel at all times – if necessary, use words.’ And Maya Angelou said, ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel’.
So maybe home is when we bring a little bit of God’s Kingdom to our frontlines? That the people we meet will understand that they are loved unconditionally by God, because of the way we make them feel. That they will feel they have come home, as part of the family of God?
“From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed. lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me. Let me live forever in your sanctuary, safe beneath the shelter of your wings!”
[Psalm 61 vv 2-4. NLT Anglicised]
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Contributed by Brian Alton; © Brian Alton