Home is the most important place in the world. Part 2

If you have a perfect home with God, then you can afford to have this home bashed around a bit, the wall paper written on, something stolen, your peace and quiet disturbed. Your home belongs to Jesus and his home belongs to you. It’s an unfair exchange, because yours is going to last for a few centuries at the most, his will last for ever.

So, here’s what Country Life, Home and Garden, and TV makeover shows won’t tell you.

Offer hospitality. Opening your doors to people and allowing them in can be a humbling experience if you don’t have much. Likewise, if you have a lot, it can be humbling for the people who come in. Either way, get over it! Nothing builds friendship quite like sitting in someone’s house and talking about each others lives. It shows acceptance and appreciation. The people who Jesus ate with and spent time with must have felt honoured that he would come into their houses. Conversely, the religious leaders ridiculed him and were offended by accepting hospitality from the lowly and the “bad”.

When offering hospitality or accepting hospitality, don’t think entertainment. Entertainment requires time and effort, has to be arranged beforehand and usually leads to people being stressed and frustrated before, during and after whatever meeting is taking place. No. Hospitality is about being open. It doesn’t matter what state the kitchen is in, you still invite your friend round for tea because you want to know how they are. Don’t hide your life under the carpet, let people see it in all its madness and show them how you’re living for Jesus in it. Hey, get them involved (especially if they’re students) in helping you clean, in dressing the kids, in doing the gardening and talk to them while you’re doing it.

So, have people round for tea and coffee or the national equivalent, cook meals or buy take away if you’re rubbish at cooking.
Host parties where lots of people can meet together from all walks of life.
Have people to stay overnight who are visiting friends or travelling between cities or attending a conference in your area.

Look after someone else’s children for a day or a weekend.

Give a room to a homeless person.

Adopt children – it’s ultimately what God has done for us. To the world it might look foolish, or it might look noble for a while. But there aren’t many things that reflect God’s love than adopting children and saying, “We love you and we will love you. We are your parents and you are our child”, no matter what baggage might come with that or what might happen in the future. Helping out a children’s home is good, but adopting children is gospel.

Buy another one! Sorry? Yes. Can you mortgage the first, therefore freeing up cash to buy another house in which another family can live or some people with a lower income? Can you allow others to have a home that wouldn’t otherwise because of their financial situation (and perhaps have difficulties with benefits because of crime, not being nationals, etc)?

Sell it. Can you downsize? Do you need to live in whatever size house you live in? Is it good stewardship? Or would it be better to live in smaller home and allow some of the money tied up in the bricks to be used elsewhere?

Don’t build a castle where you keep people out, celebrate your own achievements, watch trashy TV and try to ignore the world that’s going on around you.
Build a home. It might well be messy but it might well lead to people feeling loved, to finding friends and family and to talking about Jesus and knowing about the perfect home waiting for them.
Open your doors!

Home is the most important place in the world. Part 1

Ikea says “home is the most important place in the world”. Indeed it is. But real homes can’t be made by screwing flat-pack furniture together. Real homes are like an old kitchen table – messy from the day’s activities – phone bills, children’s homework, letters to send, phone chargers. They are battered with the knocks of having been moved around or having things bang into them as the layout of the house is changed. They are a store of conversations from decades ago and have felt the elbows of the old and young. Homes aren’t built in day.

Actually, homes, or rather home, is built in six days. The Garden of Eden was home for two people.

I think a home has 2 parts.

1. 
   
   A home is a place of physical safety and security - i.e. brick walls, a solid roof, unlikely to be washed away, no threat of attack. Essentially a permanent shelter from the elements and the actions of men.


2. 
   
   A home is a place of relationships - i..e we aren't alone. Go and visit your parents house by yourself, spend a week without your wife, wait for your flatmates to leave. If you ever live alone, it can be fun for a while, but I think, as time goes on, you'll actually find it very lonely, frustrating and not what a home should be.

In the beginning of the Bible, we read about a couple - relationship - who live in a perfectly safe place - security. They are put there by God - he has relationship with them and keeps them safe and provides for them - it's his home. They are more than his guests, they are family. They are involved in maintaining the home, pruning the bushes, raking the leaves, hoovering, cooking, cleaning the grime from the shower.

These first homestays basically decided the landlord wasn't worth following and decided to disobey his rules. When you disobey a landlord's rules, he kicks you out and that's what happens. Bye, bye home, bye, bye physical safety, bye, bye perfect relationships.

Fortunately God is very hospitable, he wants to open his home to people. He wants them to enjoy his home so he says, "Hey Abraham, don't put your roots down here. Follow me and I will give you a proper home." It's a place of relationship - lots of people, and a place of security - it's got borders.

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Genesis 12:1-3

The rest of the Old Testament is about God building a home for his people in Palestine. But it's only a picture of what he is doing in a much bigger way.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth... they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:13-16

For about 30 years, Jesus makes his home with us. We don't like having God in our home, and so he was killed. Not very hospitable at all. However, Jesus is hospitable. In his home he allows criminals, prostitutes, traitors, basically, anyone who's able to realise they aren't sorted. He says, "in my house there are many rooms." He died so that we don't have to, and so that, when we get put in a small box and carried out of our house for the last time, we don't have to be separated from God for ever. Instead we can go straight home!

A place of perfect safety and perfect relationship.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:3-4

Jesus says, "come home". Stop trying to build your own silly flatpack home of a life that lasts a short time, is missing some screws, where the roof needs replacing and the mice run across your kitchen cabinets. Jesus says, "If you follow me, you have a perfect home. It is safe, I've built it, I've decorated it, and I am keeping it safe for you. Your room is ready.

This has some pretty serious consequences for our lives now as well. It's not just ethereal, make you feel warm and fuzzy nonsense. It leads to rough and radical living - of which I shall write soon...

Sunday in the City – It’s like Christmas

“So what do you think the Sabbath is for? What do you do?”
Is he testing my theological position? Is he looking for an answer to a question he is asking because he wants the chat or because he actually wants an answer? Does he work at the local kebab shop and is now asking, ‘Should I be there on Sunday?’
Actually, I knew my interlocutor well. He doesn’t work in a kebab shop and he probably has a much more strongly held and well thought through position than me.

“It’s like Christmas.” I reply. “It’s a time to celebrate. It’s a time to meet with people. It’s a time for remembering Jesus. It’s a time to stop what we do for five or six days a week and celebrate.”

Your week can be hard work, doing your job, writing essays, looking after your family, just making life happen or like me, spending most days looking for a job that in a couple of months I’ll probably say, “Oh, I wish I was on holiday!” Even though I’m out of work, I really look forward to my weekends and especially to Sundays. What, Sunday? Church? Singing? A sermon? Christians?
Yes! I look forward to Sunday a little bit like I look forward to Christmas Day. No one’s Christmases are perfect but generally speaking, Christmas Day is the one day of the year I know I’m not going to be at work, I won’t be writing an essay. I’m with my family, the people I love the most. We eat together, we talk together, we laugh at bad jokes, we reflect on the year, we eat good, wholesome food together. Both my sister and I no longer live with my parents, so going home to visit at Christmas is special. There’s always a lot to catch up and no matter what I’ve been learning to cook – Mum’s cooking and Dad’s choice of wine is always going to taste fantastic! We’re not a Christian family, so we don’t celebrate Jesus at Christmas but we celebrate each other and enjoy each others’ company and we enjoy life and the things we have.

When it comes to Sundays, and there are usually 52 of them each year, I have a similar enthusiasm. The week has perhaps been tough or perhaps really good – either way there are stories to share and people I want to share them with. There are people I want to know about because they are my friends and my family. I look forward to meeting them on Sunday at church. To hearing about their lives and to laugh with them or to cry with them. I look forward to saying by my actions, “God is in charge of my life so much, that for one day, I don’t need to look for a job, I don’t need to make phone calls or send e-mails or do internet searches.”

I look forward to celebrating Jesus with them. It’s Jesus who gives us unity together. It’s Jesus who ultimately gives us any reason to celebrate because he dies and rises for us so that we can have relationship with the living God. Together we sing about him and to him. We say sorry for not doing life very well and we ask for God to change us to do it better. We listen to his voice as the Bible is preached: We want to be reminded of how good God is and we want to know how to live well for the next seven days. We remember that a day is coming when all our labour will cease and those who trust in Jesus will be saved and will enjoy not a day of rest, but an eternity of rest with Jesus enjoying God!

After being together (or before if you meet in the evening) to celebrate we continue to spend time together, drinking tea, eating food and opening our homes. The ones with space in their house invite the students and those without space to have food with them. We share our belongings and our lives together. Or maybe we go to a café and those that can’t afford it are covered by the rest – because it’s Christmas isn’t it!?
Maybe afterwards we go to someone’s house to watch a film or we go and visit our friend who is ill. We comfort them and pray for their healing. It’s the day when you’re able to talk to your best friend without holding your newborn daughter or watching your toddler because people from the wider family in the church are looking after them, playing with them in the garden. Maybe it’s a day to take time alone or in a group to read a book on that doctrinal point you want to know more about, or to practice playing guitar, or to enjoy God’s creation by getting on your bike. Maybe it’s time to restore a broken friendship and say, “my friend, please forgive me for being an idiot. Can we be friends again this week?” It could be time to get your friends together and pray for your friends who don’t yet celebrate Jesus. It could be a time to pray for countries where Jesus isn’t celebrated very much and even less than the UK. Maybe it’s simply time to get to bed early in order to be able to work better during the week. Or maybe it’s time to get to bed early in order to fulfil some of your marital duties that you’ve been neglecting during your busy week!

Being a Christian and being a group of Christians is completely 24/7. But Sundays are special. Don’t waste your Sunday! Don’t waste your Sunday with work! Celebrate Jesus with Jesus’ people. It’s good for you and it’s a little picture of heaven.

City Walls - Photos

A model of the second temple - the one Jesus would have seen and the one he said would be destroyed.

The Garden Tomb. "He is not here, he is risen".

Bansky work on a wall in Bethlehem
The Security Wall around Bethelehem

City Walls - Jerusalem

I entered Jerusalem on a bus after spending a night and a day in Bethlehem. "O little town of Bethlehem how sweetly do you lie" it is not. It is the sight of military curfews and now a massive wall that encircles the town and area around. It was built to keep Palestinian "bad guys" in so they couldn't mount terrorist attacks in Jerusalem. It also keeps everyone else in, increasing unemployment amongst Palestinians who used to work in the capital.

One evening I stood on a hill with a local Christian man - a man beaten yet joyful because of Jesus - and looked out over Jerusalem. "I am like Moses," he said. "I can see it, but I can't go there".

Set against the backdrop of distant desert hills, medieval walls, medieval churches and mosques and contemporary architecture life in Old Jerusalem must be one of the most unique places on earth. Walking through the Damascus Gate, I hear "Allah Akbar..." - "God is Great..." - cry out from distorted speakers and I leave the sirens and horns to fight amongst themselves. The souks smell of raw meat, spices, and olive wood. You turn a corner, past a soldier and a police officer, both armed with an M16 or M14 and batons in their rucksacks and you arrive at one of the many churches, welcomed by "no gun" signs, the smell of incense, hushed voices, darkness, candles, glistening metal and priests and monks who act more like bouncers than spiritual guides. Getting the pilgrims/ tourists through the little hole that is supposedly where Jesus was buried is their main priority. I wasn't there for quiet reflection, just to have a look, but even if I had wanted to, we were quickly ushered out to keep the queue from getting too long.

Once again out into the bright sun - sunglasses back on - I turn down some smaller streets into the Jewish Quarter which soon reveals itself as wealthier by it's cleaner streets and quiet courtyards. Today is Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement - and so families are at home, shops are closed and Jews are making their way to the Western Wall. All are dressed in black and white, ranging from a fairly standard black skirt or trousers and white shirt, to full on black robes and huge hats that would suit the Russian Steppe in winter rather than the Middle East in late summer.

Turning another corner once again the evening sun glistens off the gold roof of the Dome of the Rock - without doubt Jerusalem's most beautiful building, surrounded by a courtyard and olive garden of peace and quiet in a busy, bustling city. It's only open to non-Muslims for an hour and I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.

Having re-entered the buzz and once I've passed through the airport style security run by young men with handguns 'holstered' rude-boy style in their baggy khaki trousers I enter into the area of the Western Wall, where a festival atmosphere reigns in the cool of the evening. Men and Women take to their respective sides to pray against the wall. Others use the library to read psalms. Set slightly back from the wall are plastic chairs and a Rabbi shares his views on something. Though I can't understand the language I watch him for a full 15 minutes. He speaks with authority, without notes, he speaks clearly, seems to repeat his points and makes his ever-growing audience laugh and nod their heads in agreement with his oratory eloquence. At times, bent over his lectern, he rubbed his bald head in a Marlon Brando manner as if massaging his mighty mind before standing tall once again to proclaim I know not what. As I leave some men have found a space to sleep under a blanket, perhaps tired after a long journey to be here, without somewhere to stay, or simply wanting to sleep near this sacred sight.

Rising early the next day I and my travelling companions head to the Garden Tomb. This is next to a bus station and outside the Old City Walls. In the late 19th Century archaeologists found this place and discovered a tomb. Unlike the traditional location at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - this fits much more the location described in the Biblical accounts. But as our guide made clear, "It doesn't really matter where Jesus was buried, because he's not there, he is risen and is in heaven. You can find him there." I walked into the simple tomb, smiled at the notice on the door "He is not here, he is risen", exited and joined my friends in reading about the resurrection and singing about it. This garden is a place of light, a place of joy in the truth of Jesus and in deep contrast to the dark, 'religious' so-called Christian churches in other parts of the city where 'reverence and sadness' seem to be the order of the day. It seems to me that even in the location of his burial, Jesus continues to challenge the religious leaders with his simple message of "come to me in simplicity and with rejoicing".

You won't find Jesus in Jerusalem, unless you're spending time with Christians, you're praying or you're reading the Bible. But you can do that anywhere!