When home searches for us

To take a walk through this past week’s “Bread for your Journey” experience, imagine stepping into a room buzzing with voices. There are a few more people here than usual… so there are introductions going on, and some are seeing old friends they haven’t seen in a while. It’s quite an exciting mix…

What you see when you step into this room at the Crowne Plaza is a circle of about 20 chairs with a small table in the middle decorated with candles and surrounded by woody vines. Though the vines are bare, there’s a kind of stark beauty there. Another table is part of the circle, and it holds a pottery cup and a colorfully tiled tray with a large loaf of hearty-looking bread… and the inviting aroma of this loaf fills the room.

When all have settled into their seats, some words of welcome are spoken and the central candle is lit. We cross the boundary from our many busy lives into this time and place with some centering prayer… thanking God for this gift of time, for the bread and wine, for all the ways we sense God’s presence.

Next we have a series of three readings which draw us into the theme of searching for home. Feel free to light your own candle after each reading, as we did in our gathering, and then join in the words of prayer which follow.The first reading is a quote from Sharing Silence by poet/author Gunilla Norris:

"Silent spaces invite us to go to the inner room—the room inside ourselves. By making room for silence, we resist the forces of the world which tell us to live an advertised life of surface appearances, instead of a discovered life—a life lived in contact with our senses, our feelings, our deepest thoughts and values. "

God, you welcome us to come inside ourselves, to find room for silence, room to be who we are and explore who we might be becoming. Come and make yourself at home in our hearts… and in this circle of people, this community gathered here. In your name we pray… amen.

The second reading is from the Bible, from John’s book about Jesus, chapter 15, verses 9 – 17. It’s from a discussion Jesus had with his followers soon before he was taken from them. (Click on the following link.)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2015:9-17;&version=65;

Teacher Jesus, your words are warm and inviting, home-coming words… and they are challenging as well. Move within us that we might truly make ourselves at home in your love... and that that love would extend outward through us to love your people… to give our lives for your people, just as you have given your life to us. In your name we pray… amen.

The third reading is taken from a poem/song by Shirley Erena Murray:

Loving Spirit, loving spirit, you have chosen me to be--
you have drawn me to your wonder, you have set your sign on me.

Like a mother you enfold me, hold my life within your own,
feed me with your very body, form me of your flesh and bone.

Like a father you protect me, teach me the discerning eye,
hoist me up upon your shoulder, let me see the world from high.

Friend and lover, in your closeness, I am known and held and blessed:
in your promise is my comfort, in your presence I may rest.

Loving Spirit, swirling around and within us, we see you in so many images of love and care. We thank you for mothering us and fathering us, for befriending us and holding us close to you. Help us to explore more fully what your love means to us, that we might become those who invite others into the home of your love. In your name we pray… amen.

The reflection/discussion time that followed the readings on Thursday is hard to capture, because the wonderful insights everyone had to share took us in so many directions! Here are some of the highlights:

What does it mean to be “at home”? (can’t assume it’s where you live)
~ to come to a place where I belong, de-stress, can be who I really am, feel energized and loved by the people who are there (or when I’m by myself)
~ to be challenged to grow and give myself, to be responsible and feel I’m needed there, to be connected to something larger than myself
~ it’s like going to your “home page”, a place where you want to check in and launch from there

The virtual world has a way of separating us into our own comfort zones, but it can also be a powerful connecting force… like in this video, where one person’s dream of connecting others through music becomes a force for peace:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM

How do you see God at work in such a project? In other such projects which help us see the whole earth as our home, and people across the world as our family? How is God our home, home for everyone?
~ Having God as our home can be very personal, like feeling held in comforting/challenging love
~ But it can also be very broad, energizing us to reach out beyond ourselves

In those times when we seem to be dis-connected from God, we find other “homes”
~ some “homes” are healthy: with friends and/or family who deeply care, or with causes that give us a sense of purpose
~ some are not so healthy: addictions that take the place of God, relationships that are abusive, etc.
~ How does God stay connected to us even when we feel cut off from God?

When Jesus spoke the words of our 2nd reading (John), he was talking about being connected no matter what happens next. He was talking to his dearest friends knowing that they were all about to enter into a time of immense stress, when Jesus would be taken away from them, arrested, executed.
~ So he knows they’re going to need some stronger-than-ever teaching to hold onto, so he gives them this incredible image of how he’s the Vine and we’re the branches (see earlier in John, chapter 15)
~ Then he talks about this organic relationship between Jesus and God and us:
I have loved you, even as the Father has loved me;
make yourself at home in my love.
~ Make yourself at home, where you can breathe deeply and know you belong, where you can be drawn in and be energized and sent back out… AND where you have some responsibilities: to love so deeply you’d give your life… to love so deeply that you’d feel a joy so complete that you need no other joy.

Besides giving us wonderful images of home and vine, Jesus also gave his followers (and gives us) something even more tangible to hold onto, to touch and taste and smell…

Jesus gave us bread — his own body going into our bodies — as God’s own being making a home in us. And Jesus gave us wine, to be his lifeblood flowing in us, his power of connecting forgiveness holding us in God, and energizing us to go out and bring the rest of God’s children home.

We passed the bread and the wine around, taking Jesus’ life into our bodies, reflecting on the beauty of searching for God and searching for home… that it’s not a one-way street search… it’s a dynamic energy stream, with God doing the consistent searching, and we… sometimes responding just as dynamically, other times relying on God to hold up both ends of the deal.

Peace be yours as you explore your search for home, and how God might be searching for you. If you have your own reflections to add, I’d love to hear them, either here on the blog or over a cup of coffee sometime.

~ Kari