Home is the Church, Too!

  These Sundays of Lent we are, one at a time, looking at the Five Principles of Life of the Church according to David W Anderson and Paul Hill as outlined in the book, FROGS WITOUT LEGS CAN’T HEAR.”  Today we explore the third principle: “The home is the church too, where Christ is present in faith.”

  Last week we heard that the meaning of the word “home” in biblical times meant “extended domestic relationships.”  It meant much more than merely your blood relatives living within the walls of your house, but it transcended blood lines and included neighbors, friends, relatives, employers, employees – a much wider circle of relationships.  So, when I use the “home” I mean it in this broader sense. 

 We also heard that the church is not this place, not this building, in which we meet, but that the church extends deep into the community, especially in and through our homes, that is our “extended domestic relationships.”  We that brief review, we now move ahead.

 Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part which will not be taken away from her.”   Luke 10:43

  This may seem like a rather innocent story, but I don’t think it’s innocent at all.  When we scrape beneath the veneer, I believe this story has radical implications.

  The first thing is that it feels like Jesus’ admonishment of Martha is a bit unfair.  He makes Martha come off looking like the fretting fuss-budget. 

  My mother is a “Martha personality.”  When it came to hospitality my mother was a champion.  Whenever my brother and I would show up with our unannounced friends, it was amazing to watch my mother go into action. Within minutes of our arrival she had put a three or four course dinner on the table – seemingly out of thin air. She had the gift of hospitality, and my brother and I saw to it she got a chance to exercise her gift as often as possible. I believe Martha had that gift too.   

 During Biblical times in ancient Palestine hospitality was paramount.  In 2005 America we scarcely have a concept of this.  In our deification of a fast paced, multi-tasking lifestyle of eating on the run and wondering how-we-are-going-to-find-time-for-everything, this is a totally foreign concept to us.  But if we don’t understand first century hospitality, we will not even begin to understand the power of this story.

 In biblical times if guests arrived in your village and on your doorstep it was a cultural obligation to provide hospitality that provided for the person’s needs. It was even considered a “right” of the traveler that hospitality be provided.  Hospitality was serious business and if you refused hospitality you could get in deep trouble with your neighbors because the home was considered the extension of the community, and the traveler considered within the circle of your extended domestic relationships.  Refusing hospitality to the traveler was serious business and could have alienated you from your neighbors and community. 

 Martha was merely performing the cultural obligations of hospitality that were expected of her when Jesus showed up on her doorstep.  I think if I would have been Martha, I too would have been a little bent out of shape that Mary was not helping but rather was sitting, all starry eyed, at Jesus’ feet.  I also would have been perplexed and put off by Jesus’ admonishment, good humored as it may have been.

 However, I also believe Jesus was not denigrating Martha or even being critical of Martha’s hospitality, but rather Jesus was pointing out that Martha had allowed some of her tasks of hospitality to interfere with things even more important.  In other words, he was not belittling Martha’s gifts, but how she had prioritized the use of them.

 One of the most common scenes in the New Testament is when the disciples are gathered around Jesus.  Repeatedly, we see the disciples gathered around Jesus, and the crowds are standing beyond them.  Jesus was the teacher and they were the church, if you will, sitting at his feet.  Sitting at Jesus’ feet was a primary expression of what it meant to be the church, to be followers of Jesus Christ.  Jesus’ affirmation of Mary sitting at his feet indicates she chose the primary expression of what it meant to be the church, and she chose it over the expected role of providing hospitality.  Jesus affirmed Mary’s stepping out of her expected domestic role of performing acts of hospitality and stepping into (or “sitting into” we might say) the primary posture of what it means to be the church, sitting at Jesus’ feet. “Mary has chosen the better part…” said Jesus.  I believe that is what he meant. 

 This story is many things, way more than I can talk about this morning. I will say two things about it.

 First, this is a story about household dynamics.  What are the dynamics of your household?  How would you respond if I asked you, “Write an essay and describe for me, in 150 words or less, what things are like in your household on a typical day, or typical week?”  What would you say? What would you emphasize?  What things stand out for you? If you were to give your 150 word description a title, what would it be?  Let’s try out some possible titles using famous movie titles of, let’s say, the last 50 years.  What might be an appropriate title for your essay?   How about something like:  The Wild Bunch (1969), or perhaps Apocalypse Now (1979), Fight Club (1999), or even Star Wars (1977)?  I love these possibilities: Planet of the Apes (2001), or, heaven forbid, even Animal House? (1978)   An appropriate title of my family of origin (the family I grew up in) could have been One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest (1975).

If those don’t work maybe something like Monsters, Inc (2001) or The Usual Suspects (1995) would be a more fitting title?

If those aren’t quite right you’ve always got Gone With the Wind (1939), The Great Escape (1963), Home Alone (1990) or Ice Age. (2002)

Perhaps none of those are even remotely close, and one of these more positive titles might work better:  The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), or It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), The Conversation (1974), or Singing in the Rain. (1952).

I don’t know, you choose. But if you could choose any title for your essay what would it be?  I have to wonder if any of us would choose something like, “Our Home is Church, Too, Where Christ is Present in Faith.”

Last week I talked about beginning to radically change the way we think about the church, and begin to understand and acknowledge that the doors of the church are not the doors at the east and west end of this building, but the doors of the church are our homes, that is our “extended domestic relationships.”   This week I am talking about beginning to radically change the way we think about “home.”

By over-emphasizing what happens in the church building as “the church” we doom ourselves to frustration, disillusionment, and even eventual failure.  By identifying what happens in the church building as real church we place unrealistic expectations on paid staff, volunteer leaders, and creative programming.  In the mindset that the church is what happens in this building, we will of course understand the role of staff and leadership to be that of basically entertaining and edifying us with good sermons, good music, and good programs.  In that scenario we become overly-dependent upon pastor, staff and other leaders, and the inevitable result will be exactly what we, in reality, are right now in this congregation: 20-25% of the people are really active, and 75-80% of the congregation at various levels of relative inactivity.

And, my dear friends in Christ that fact is never going to change until we begin to change the way we think of church and think of home, and that is my second point.   If the New Testament says one thing clearly besides that Jesus died for our sins, it is that THE HOME IS CHURCH TOO, WHERE CHRIST IS PRESENT IN FAITH!  

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet in her own household and was affirmed.  Mary moved sitting at Jesus’ feet ahead of even the critically important household tasks of hospitality.  Martha did not and was chastised.  Repeatedly we see in the New Testament Book of Acts that “church” was defined as a partnership and relationship between congregation and home.  They were not seen as mutually exclusive or totally separate but working in a close symbiotic relationship. 

What happens in church if we define church as primarily this place?  What happens?  In my mind four things generally speaking:  We praise God through worship. We grow spiritually through learning. We fellowship together in a range of conversations from social to serious.  We serve others.   Four things!

If we take seriously this Biblical model that is exactly what can happen at home.  Using this biblical model and mindset it is the role of pastor, paid staff and other leaders to empower and equip the homes and households of our congregation to be “the church at home too, where Christ is present in faith.”

Evangelism is not a committee at church, but is an activity that begins at home.  Evangelism begins when we worship at home, learn at home, fellowship at home, and serve out of our homes in the name of and in the presence of Jesus Christ. 

On Wednesdays during Lent we are, one at a time, discussing the Four Keys as a practical way to “be the church at home, too, where Christ is present in faith.”

The staff and leadership of Holy Love, beginning with me, are shifting our mindset about the church.  In the months ahead we will begin to explore, share and empower you with ways to be the “church at home, too where Christ is present in faith.”

You see, this is something we all can do.  This is something we must do.  Our homes, our extended domestic relationships which are often harried, stressed, conflicted and fragmented, desperately need this.  They need this for renewal, reconciliation and restoration.

Our gospel tells us that “Mary chose the better part.”  By sitting at Jesus feet in the confines of her own home, Jesus came alive for her in a wonderful way.  The same can happen for us.  I will pray that it will.  I will work to see that it will.  I invite you to join in so that we all might be able to say together, “Our homes are the church too, where Christ is present in faith.”