PJ’s Page –
Recently Bruce and I went to see the movie “Finding Dory.” If you haven’t had the chance to go see it, (and I don’t care how old you are), you should head to the nearest theatre. It’s a very funny, very sweet sequel to “Finding Nemo.”
The theme of this latest Pixar film (no spoilers here) is going home. Dory is trying to find her way home. Along the way she meets friends and foes, takes detours both expected and unanticipated, and forgets to remember things. Any of this sound familiar?
The mystic and poet Rumi says that we are all just “walking each other home.” I think that is true. Eventually we will all find ourselves at home – whether it’s that first house you buy; the first apartment you rent; that dream cottage where you retire or the home you remember from your childhood, home is a place that sometimes eludes us but always beckons to us.
Or perhaps we think more deeply about home. In Hymn #782 (ELW) My Shepherd, You Supply My Need, the last stanza speaks beautifully of home:
The sure provisions of my God
attend me all my days;
oh, may your house be my abode
and all my work be praise.
Here would I find a settled rest,
while others go and come;
no more a stranger or a guest,
but like a child at home.
I am reminded, in all of this thinking about home, that there are small children and tall children in our neighborhood who do not have homes. Where they will find that settled rest for the evening is always in question; and when that is so, it is often difficult to trust in oneself, one’s community, and perhaps even, in God.
I have returned from sabbatical with renewed conviction that our collaboration on the housing development is the work that God has called us to do, because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through the Holy Spirit we are empowered for this work and equipped with all that we will need to see it to completion.
In addition, Bruce and I are making plans to move back into the neighborhood, after our experiment in downtown living. It has been great fun (lots of places to eat and things to see). It has been frustrating (tourists and traffic.) But it’s time to come home. (We do not plan to move back to the townhouse, so if you know of/hear of homes in closer proximity to the church, let us know!)
In these long summer days, may we know that our true home is never far from us, although it may seem so. It is as close as our breathed prayer, as near as our neighbor….it is the heart of God alive within us.
With great hope,
Pastor Julie+