Sabbath: March 11, 2018

What feels like home to you?

For some of us, home is a place. For some of us, home is people. For some of us, home is music, prayer, conversation, expression. There doesn’t have to be just one answer. Just ask the question. Give yourself time to listen to your life’s answer.

One of my favorite Randy Newman songs is “Feels Like Home.” He sings, “If you knew how lonely my life has been / and how low I’ve felt for so long / If you knew how I wanted someone to come along / and change my world the way you’ve done / Feels like home to me / Feels like I’m all the way back where I come from.”

What do you think of where Jesus came from? As Jesus’ Lenten journey continues toward the cross, I wonder if he ever drew strength from thinking about home. He had a troubled history of home: Luke tells that he was born in Bethlehem under less-than-stellar circumstances. For Matthew, a star is involved, but so too is a dangerous king who’s out to kill this newborn. Mark and John tell us that he came from Galilee, but when Jesus returned they wanted to run him out of town.

I think a lot of us have mixed memories of home. Maybe there are some precious things, but there are complicated things, too, and we’ve been dealing with them on the road from home ever since. What we seek now is Jesus’ gift of making a home out of this road we travel today. The hymnwriter Sylvia Dunstan wrote, “Divine eternal lover, you meet us on the road / We want for lands of promise where milk and honey flow / but waiting not for places, you meet us all around / Our covenant is written on roads, as faith is found.” Through this Lenten journey, may God meet us with the wisdom of home right here on this road to Jerusalem. Amen.

Drew Willson