Reaching or Home

A. Unabashed Pacifist:

More than a platitude, peace is a necessity.

B. Unabashed Christian:

Holy One,

Your voice can seem so faint, and we are so hard of hearing, having become accustomed to loud mouths, slick advertising and monotonous slogans. Still, we long to hear you – if you say what we think you should say. Otherwise, how can we recognize it as your voice?

We shut out the honest words from you. We increase the volume of our music of choice so that your whisper won’t interfere with our listening pleasure. We cannot even hear the dissonance between your sacred Word and what we pronounce as “truth.”

God, help us find comfort in the sounds of silence, where what you say comes as a word of challenge, hope and inspiration. Then let us hold to what we hear, so your whisper becomes our way.
Amen

C. Un-quoting Jesus:

“So, are you guys are ready for the tickets and concession stands at today’s revival meeting? You’ll probably sell a bunch of those WWJD bracelets.”

[No. His marketing techniques left a lot to be desired, unlike the evangelists who claim to follow Him.]

D. Blog: Going Home Again

I recently made a return to old haunts, old stomping grounds, an earlier place I called home. It was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, there is some comfort in the familiar. With it is a curiosity bout what changes have taken place. A sort of wistfulness arises in me, not that I’d like to stay, but that the setting is bound to its past, structures and systems in ways that seem neither healthy nor life giving for me. That brings a sadness to me. On the other hand, I feel grateful that the setting where I live now is both healthy and life giving for me. Thus, Tom Hardy, if we truly leave home, when we return, it’s only to visit, not to find home there any longer. We have moved on, but the home place does not.

This seems to me to be true not just of home as a place of familial nurture, but also of schools, jobs, relationships, social groups and religious groups. If we truly leave, we move on to another home. Ultimately, to union with the Holy One.