“Making Our Home Among You”

 

If there were a biological jean for loving animals and having animals love you—It is missing in my DNA.  My younger sister seemed to get my share and then some.

 

From the time she was born, she loved animals and more importantly animals saw something in her that they liked so they were very friendly –uncharacteristically friendly to her. She was like a little Saint Francis of Assisi –you know like the cement statue of this monk with animals all around him. That was Jeanne.

 

For example, when Jeanne was about twelve, she found a little snake.  She affectionately named him Charlie Wiggles.  Now She and Charlie Wiggles would go everywhere together. 

 

You may be seen walking your dog.  Jeanne would go for a walk with Charlie Wiggles. And how they would do that is that Charlie would rap himself under her armpit or around her neck and they would both strut down the street.

 

When you would talk to her, it was like she had a snake finger puppet on her shoulder.  No, we never needed to worry about Jeanne, She and Charlie could handle jus about anything.

 

Once in a while Charlie would escape from his cage and one of us would find him in a house plant or just about anywhere.  An occasional scream was common place in our household. Believe me, Charlie wiggles was such a surprise.

 

Charlie was not the only pet receiving Jeanie’s affection. She had Don Quixote, a tarantula, and a bunch of fish –all with perfectly exotic names and other various creatures that lived in our yard—what was the dumping ground for any stray creature that lost its moorings into our suburban neighborhood.

 

Jeanne is currently a successful stable manager for horses.  No surprise there.

 

But what I want to talk about is our back yard—our ¼ acre narrow lot with a swale where Jeannie deposited all the living things that were incompatible to our indoor housing arrangement with Charlie Wiggles, Don Quote, and us secondary humans.

 

I always thought it was difficult to house animals in an unnatural setting and have them be really happy.  My disinterested perspective was that it was near impossible for animals to bread in confined or unnatural spaces—I considered our narrow strip of backyard an unnatural space.

 

But Jeannie was always finding tadpoles, frogs, turtles, and salamanders, and anything else and dumping them in our yard, that was an a slight imitation of the wild with scattered trees, wild gardens, fruit tress, and a cleared spot for a complete football game between 10 year old kids.

I used to walk to high school and go through the back yard and pick a peach or an apple and eat them on my walk to school.

 

On one particular morning, as I hurried off to school, I looked down as a creature moved along the blades of grass and I saw a turtle—I forget the name Jeanne called it---with little baby turtles in toe.

 

I was amazed. Here in this mock woods—the Johnson’s wild—this little turtle was breading—was happy enough to bread.

 

Jeanne had brought that turtle here and this turtle called it home. 

 

This may seem like no big deal in the vast beauty of land around here in Smithsburg.  It is not unlikely to have a family of ducks on the pond, or a group of deer running through the field, or a bird’s nest in one of your trees.

 

But while we here are surrounded with the beauty of the land—in my suburban home of my youth, we were surrounded by houses.

 

I had a different appreciation of the nature in our backyard after seeing that turtle and it’s little turtle. 

 

But it was a surprise to me that those creatures made their home with us.

 

It is that expression that I want to talk about today.  The expression of making “our home with us.”

 

Jesus used this expression in the passage today.

“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

 

For me these are powerful words.

 

At the start, I think of the turtles. They needed to feel at home—comfortable—they need to feel that there is enough food and water to make a life. They need to feel that there is no danger in living here. They need to feel at home.

 

Jesus is saying if you love me and keep my word, he will find that natural,

relaxing,

instinctive,

sense of belonging that is safe and

surrounded by love and will make his place among us—with us.

 

That he will bring his lawn chair and plop right next to us as a welcomed part of our household.

 

Can you see Jesus living in the dormer upstairs or Bill’s old room vacant after he left for college?

 

Can you see Jesus living with you, making his home amidst your household or as I described the suburban backyard Johnson’s wild?

 

Just as the power of God the almighty came to the Earth in Jesus, so does the advocate—so does the Holy Spirit and the power of God make his home with those that love him and keep his word.

 

When I was in Seminary I needed to write an essay on the presence of God in a church.  What I witnessed and talked about in that essay was the presence of God in a congregation—God making his home with them.

 

I said that a church needs to be the presence of God in the community. Because if you have a building that is locked up—boarded up—vacant on every day but Sunday morning.

 

If you have a church that draws people from miles around but does not connect within its own community—

Then what do the neighboring people see?

The ones who wait for a bus in front of the church

The ones that drive by the church

The ones that walk home from school by the church

What do they see?

 

If they do not see the presence of God,

They see the absence of God.

 

If they don’t see people finding ways to connect

If they don’t see people trying ways to reach out

If they don’t see people trying to make Christ presence known

 

Then they don’t see God where he is supposed to be.

They see God not caring for them.

They see God failed behind that lock door

They see a God that is not for them.

They see the absence of God’s love.

They see God finding a home somewhere else?

 

But when the presence of God is in the congregation you can see the angels dancing around the steeple.

You can feel the refreshing wind come from the church building morning, noon, or night.

You can feel the presence of God where God has made his home.

 

The same is true for our house and our heart.

It is not the Holy Roller piety that God looks for.

It is the loving spirit and joyful heart filled with kindness and all that is good.

 

It is the devotion toward sharing God’s love and listening –like listening to a trusted friend-- to God’s word that makes God camp out on your front lawn.

 

When you go home today, see if he is there—is the presence of God in a lawn chair soaking up the sun.  Ask yourself--Is God’s presence—the spirit of God in your household?

 

Be thankful if he is and it is desirous if he is not.

 

For it doesn’t take much for him to be like the birds of the air and make a nest or like the turtle that breads in your swale—it just takes sharing his love and listening to his word.

 

On this mother’s day we celebrate the goodness of our mothers—their self giving and nurturing—their love and devotion to family—their influence and their care.  We may even say, where would we be without our mother?

 

A mother is a reflection of the love of God.  A mother is a nurturer of life and a nurturer of faithfulness in Jesus Christ. After all Mother’s day ois the third largest Lutheran holiday, behind Christmas and Easter.

 

But as we thank our mother’s, let us also thank God for his presence with us.  Let us thank God for him coming and making his home among us. 

 

Let us be grateful for the love of God that surrounds us--

surrounds our families and has shaped our lives.