Christian, Home is Found in the Church

The other day I had one of those aha moments. It was one of those palm to the forehead epiphanies that aren’t so much about learning something new but finally understanding what you already know. I had just told a friend that I felt homeless in my hometown. It is a strange feeling that I am still processing. But I also told him that I feel at home when I am with our Jesus community. And as we were praying for one another he said something like this: “Thank you God that even though we are exiles wandering this earth, you give us the church community to be our home.” It struck me as wonderful. I felt an abstract theological truth dislodge from my brain and come to rest in my heart. Prayer has a way of doing that.

If you are like me, feeling a bit of homelessness in this life, you and I are in good company. The story of scripture testifies to homelessness being one of the main problems of humanity. The story of redemption is largely about humans trying to find their way back home. From the Garden, to the Exodus, to the exile, the people of God have always been haunted by the nagging sense of homelessness. This is why Peter refers to the church as “sojourners and exiles.” We all just want to go home.

But where is home? A casual reading of the scriptures would lead you to believe that home is a place. And you’d be close in that assumption. It makes sense. Adam and Eve had the Garden and the Israelites had Canaan, and we look forward to New Jerusalem. The story of pursuing the promised land looms large in the Bible. And really you can’t have a very concrete understanding of the kingdom of God if that kingdom doesn’t really exist in a physical place. The on earth as it is in heaven thing makes no sense if on earth isn’t really on earth. And yet in our half saved condition what does home look like? We are exiles and sojourners until the new creation. Until the end comes we are left to wander about homeless. But can we experience home now?

We certainly can. Moses, the man whose primary ministry was to lead people home teaches us about what home looks like as exiles. The opening line of his prayer in Psalm 90 is this: “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” That phrase ‘dwelling place’ can also be translated as refuge. Through all their displaced wilderness wanderings Moses essentially prayed that God was their home the whole time. This is why he was so adamant about not even wanting to lead the people to their physical promised land if God’s presence wasn’t going to be with them (Ex 33:15). What we learn from this is that for the people of God, God himself is our home. 

But how do we live into that as flesh and blood people? How do we bring this nebulous concept close to the ground? This is where Jesus is helpful. Jesus the great teacher, used an analogy to demonstrate how to live into God as our home. On the eve of his betrayal he gathered with his disciples and washed their feet. This, he said, was to serve as an example of the kind of love they were to demonstrate toward one another. They were to serve one another in self sacrificial love, which Jesus perfectly demonstrated on the cross. And more specifically to our understanding of home, Jesus told his disciples that if they truly loved him, they would abide in his teaching, and they would love one another as Jesus loved them. And if they did that, Jesus promised that the Father, through the son, by the Spirit would make his home in them. To put it simply, Jesus taught that home is found in God. And that God is experienced through the church. The church is not God, but God promises to manifest home to the church when the church loves one another.

One of the uncomfortable implications of this for modern people obsessed with individualism is that we must prioritize the church community. If God makes his home in us and we find our home in him through living life together in a loving community, well, we better get into community. Because I don’t know about you, but I want to go home. I want to feel the nearness and security and the love that a true home brings. And I know that is only found in the presence of God. And the presence of God is found in the people of God loving one another. Isn’t that a wonderful idea.