Together A Home: A Message for the Fourth Week of Advent
It took courage for Joseph to make a home with Mary
and Jesus. His rather straight-forward plan to settle into life together with
Mary is seriously disrupted when he finds out she’s pregnant. And not only pregnant, but seemingly
miraculously pregnant. If Joseph had a dozen
fearful questions, he likely had a hundred.
His conviction about Mary wobbled and collapsed. His plan derailed.
Joseph decides to back out. He’s a kindhearted
man, so he’ll break off his relationship without embarrassing or endangering
Mary. At least this is what he thinks
he’ll do when he goes to bed that night.
He has a dream.
An angel shows up. “Don’t be
afraid to take Mary home as your wife,” the angels says. “I know that all that the prophet said about
this wasn’t part of your plan. But go ahead—make God’s plan your plan. You, Mary, and Jesus—together make a
home.”
The angel didn’t have to say anything more. Joseph
got up the next morning with courage. He
still had questions but the fear they generated no longer charted his
course. He listened to God’s guidance
through his dream. He drew direction and
strength from it. And Joseph took Mary
home as his wife. He would continue to
be at home in his courageous heart with Mary and Jesus—yes, together a home, no
matter what, always, with God’s blessing.
Do we have the courage to make a home here,
together, with one another? Do we have
the courage to take each other home into our hearts? Do we have the courage to risk loving one
another in Christ and living together in community?
There are moments, days, and seasons when our
hearts fail us. Fear gets the better of
us. We decide that we’re going to back
out of this crazy collective relationship called church.
We quietly disappear.
Or we storm out, slamming the metaphorical
door. Or we go through the motions of
church, but inside we’re withholding ourselves, refusing to be wholeheartedly
present.
Or we might be here, really here and engaged, but
hurting from the many pinches and crunches we inevitably inflict on one another
because we are all human beings who are forever learning how to love and be
loved in Christ.
Or we are just beginning to get to know this
church family, easing into life together. We’ve got anxiety about whether we
can trust each other and trust God. Maybe,
more accurately, we’re wondering if we can trust God’s baffling plan—that we
deepen goodness within ourselves with and through one another, that we share
and multiply grace by making a home together.
Taking each other home to our hearts, making a
home together here is hard work and risky business. There’s no way around that reality. There are no perfect people—including
ourselves—or perfect circumstances. There
are no flawless churches. If we think so
and we’re holding out in whatever way for that, then we’re seeking a fantasy,
an illusion. We’ll be disappointed and
frustrated again and again. And, more
significantly, we’ll avoid the growth of self and community that can only
happen when we show up and do all that we can do to make a home together. We’ll miss out on opportunities to become
more like Jesus as individuals and a church family. And what that boils down to is missing out on
the very purpose of our life here and now.
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