Easter 6B sermon--making our homes in Christ

Easter 6B May 13, 2012 Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” Our reading for today picks up immediately where our gospel reading from last week left off. Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure, and he says to them, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” I’ve been thinking all week about these two passages and wondering, “What does it really mean to abide in Jesus? For me, encountering a slightly different translation of these verses helped me gain some insight into this question; rather than hearing Jesus saying abide in me as I abide in you, what if we hear Jesus saying to us today, “ Make your home in me as I make my home in you.”? What a lovely image for us on this Mother’s Day! So what does it mean for Jesus to make his home in us and for us to make our home in him? We can begin to think about this understanding of abiding in Jesus, of making our homes in him by looking at what are some characteristics of home-making? What do you think? Feeding, hospitality, making things beautiful, honoring, nurturing, celebrating, a certain amount of sacrifice…these are all aspects of home-making to me…. So the question for us today is how are we called to be home-makers? To make our home in Christ as he makes his home in us, and to invite others to dwell there with us? I’ve seen so many images of those who are making their home in Christ this past week, in this church and in this community. In the women who worked to host and honor our seniors in the tea last Sunday, with such care given to beauty and detail. In the ECW who hosted the Coast clergy for lunch this past week, bringing plants from their own homes to make this place beautiful and inviting and like home. In the news story last weekend of the man who was in a boating accident with his daughter and in his last moments, he tossed the one life-jacket to her, so that she would live when he did not. All lovely and loving examples of self-giving, home-making in Jesus Christ! And in each example, the person has offering something of their own homes, of their own selves to help create home somewhere else. So we notice that there are two essential parts to Jesus’s command to his disciples: that they make their home in him as God has already made God’s home within each of them. One is a call to presence, to awareness. The other is a call to action, to sharing. Each one of us has within us a lovely home where God chooses to dwell. An important part of the call to make our home in Jesus is acknowledging and spending time in God’s home within us and offering parts of that home to those around us—bringing out those pieces of beauty and nurture that we encounter there—a rootedness in love, joy, and peace—and sharing those bits of God’s home with others. We must be at home with God before we can make a home for Jesus and offer a piece of that home to others. Each of us goes about this differently. For me, I encounter glimpses of the home where God dwells within me through silence, in prayer, and in writing. It is only in a rootedness there that I can offer pieces of that home to Jesus and to others through my actions and words. I invite you to ask yourselves this week what parts of God’s home within you are you being invited to share to make home for those around you and to make your home in Christ this week and beyond? In conclusion, I leave you with one final parable about making our homes in Christ as he makes his home in us. “There was a rabbi who wanted to see both Heaven and Hell. And God who has hidden from us the opposites and their unity, gave way to his pleading. The rabbi found himself before a door, which bore no name; he trembled as he saw it open before him. It gave into a room, and all was prepared for a feast. There was a table, and at its center a great dish of steaming food. The smell and the aroma inflamed the appetite. The diners sat around the table with great spoons in their hands, yet they were shrieking with hunger, and fainting with thirst in that terrible place. They tried to feed themselves, and gave up, cursing God the author and origin of their torment. For the spoons God had provided were so long that they could not reach their faces and get the food to their tongues. They stretched out their arms, but their mouths remained empty. So they starved because of these spoons while the dish of plenty lay amongst them. And the rabbi knew their shrieking were the cries of Hell. And as knowledge came, the door closed before him. He shut his eyes in prayer, and begged God to take him away from that terrible place. When he opened them again, he despaired, for the same door stood before him the door that bore no name. Again, it opened, and it gave unto the same room. And nothing had changed, yet everything. For with the same long spoons they reached to each other’s faces, and fed each other’s mouths. And they gave thanks to God the author and origin of their joy. And as the rabbi heard the blessings, the door closed. He bent down, and he too blessed God who had shown him the nature of Heaven and Hell, and the chasm-a hairsbreath wide—that divides them." iii Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. Make your home in me, as I make my home in you.” iii Lionel Blue and June Rose, A Taste of Heaven. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1977.