Caring for our Guests

John 14
6th Sunday of Easter

I told you last week I was going to Washington DC but something came up so I stayed home. So I was able to go to the CHUM assembly on Thursday night. We saw the Habitat play, written and directed by a young woman named Rachel Ann Johnson. It contains interweaving stories and words from several homeless people in Duluth as well as some of the people who serve them.

At one point one of the men said, “They say home is where the heart is. I don’t know.” At the end of the play he says, “Heart is where the home is.”

I’ve been perplexed by that statement, can’t quite figure it out.

David Tryggestaad stood up to give the benediction and spoke for a bit about the scriptures for this Sunday. All of us clergy were thinking about these words of Jesus, “We will come and make a home in them”, those who love Jesus. David said that this word “home” is the same as when Jesus says, in the same speech, that his father’s house has many rooms and Jesus goes to make a room ready for us there. Jesus, the man without a home, says, right before his death, that he would be home in us.

The NT text for today also is about home, in a way. Paul was an itinerant preacher, moving from one community to another to start churches. He went to Philippi to look for people who would work with him and found women at the river, a place where the women would gather to pray. Lydia was not a Jew but worshipped God, and she listened to him and invited him to her home. Thus began the church that received the letter Paul wrote to the Philippians.
We’ve been thinking, here at Hope, about what it means to be home, to welcome others into this community, to be open to our guests. The leadership a few months ago, when we looked at our vision statement, made two important statements about this: we want to grow – which means we want to share what we have with others; and, we will do this by caring for our guests.

We’ve begun doing this in many ways: Igniting Ministry training, advertising, welcome table, new pew pads, applying for a Welcoming Congregation certificate. We’ve begun to recognize that we can’t take it for granted that people feel welcome here, and we are making a clear statement that we want to welcome people here.

There are several reasons to do this: first, we recognize that we have something wonderful to share here.

Secondly, we recognize that we have something to receive from our guests. I asked Rachel Ann how she felt about the play after working all these stories into this piece of art. She said it was her relationship with those she wrote about, and her relationship with the cast and those who saw the play, that was important. She is very young but already she has realized that when we welcome someone, when we open our hearts to them, we receive something.

Thirdly, there is something about welcoming the other that allows us to receive Jesus. Lydia welcomed Paul and received Christ. Jesus talks about being present when a few of us are together. He spoke time and time again about welcoming the stranger, and today’s text says when we love Jesus and follow his words he makes his home with us.
Now you might think this means we just put Jesus in a little cot in the corner, like a homeless man in the shelter. But you know how Jesus is…he will want a table, so he can host dinner parties. He will want room, so people can visit. Someone will cut a hole in the roof, more than likely. Unsavory sorts will find their way in. Jesus will want a party.

The homeless man was right. Heart is where the home is. At least if Jesus is there.