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...