"There's a place for us, a time and place for us," so sing the lead characters
in West Side Story as they long to be able to have a relationship together without having to worry about being
caught, without having to deal with the problems of being related to rival inter-city gangs, without having to
explain their true feeling to anyone. "A place" where they can have the freedom to be who they really
are. It is a selection many couples make to have sung at their wedding as they begin to create a new place for
themselves.
In "The Wizard of Oz", Dorothy struggles with her own sense of place. She finds Kansas to be dull and
colorless. She is not sure that anyone loves her for who she really is. And so she sings of "a place"
over the rainbow where there are no troubles or worries. Her search for such a places leads her to be blown away
to a totally different land where she discovers that she had already been in the place where she truly belonged
and where she had been truly loved. She spends the rest of her journey trying to get back home. The "magic"
words that make the ruby slippers work? "There's no place like home."
So strong is this universal need for "place" and belonging that one of the definitions of conflict is
two ideas, people, or programs trying to occupy the same "place" at the same time. Just think of all
the ways we try to maintain our own sense of "place" in everyday life. We have a place at the table,
a favorite place to sit and read, our own side of the bed, our favorite place to visit, …our pew in the sanctuary.
If we are not in our rightful place it just doesn't seem the same.
For most of our lives we try to find our place as so and so's child, as one's spouse, or parent, or employee. We
can place ourselves at a certain address in a certain town, or at a particular place in life, or even at an active
and robust age…but all of these places, no matter how hard we try to make it otherwise, are transitory.
This struggle to belong can of course always take two directions. One is the destructive direction that leads to
global war and oppression. It leads one group to seek the ability to overpower another, as we see in the struggle
between Israel and Palestine at the present moment. It is the same struggle that leads to terrorism, teenage violence,
domestic unrest in the what seems like a comfortable home, painful divorce and the ongoing need for revenge. The
emptiness that one feels without a place can lead to attempts to fill the void with drugs, alcohol, other destructive
relationships, or behaviors that offer temporary satisfaction though the acquisition of "things." "Busyness"
can be such a behavior, and it can transform itself into a fanaticism with just about anything as well as a devotion
to one's work or career.
The second direction is the one that is found throughout our other readings this morning, where the longings and
desire are no less strong. It is the grounding of our sense of belonging in God's love. The psalm speaks of our
refuge and sanctuary, our sense of completeness. The epistle of being a "chosen people set apart." While
that separateness can be interpreted as exclusivity, it can also be read as a people whose intentionally has been
channeled toward a different goal…determined to find justice for all people.
We most often hear this gospel text as the traditional choice used to comfort the grieving at funerals. When else
does the need to feel that a loved one is in a safe
place make more sense than at the time when they have been removed from our ability to assure that forever? And
while there is validity to that concept finding comfort within the context of these words, Jesus scholars have
been trying to point out for decades that the Jesus of history was probably more concerned with the here and now,
then in another "place" which will come long after our opportunities to bring about change today are
completed.
Clearly he was preparing them for a new day, a day without his physical presence, but he was also trying to assure
them that the work God had begun in him was intended to be continued, to be "kept in place" if you will
by those who would "follow in his steps."
Just as we are one day going to be loved and accepted in God's gracious accommodations, "our Father's or Creator's
house," we are also drawn to show hospitality to others needing a home--physically, and spiritually right
here and now. We cannot turn our backs on the issue of those seeking a safe homeland in the Middle East or anywhere
else in the world right now, nor can we ignore those who feel insecure in their own family homes right here in
our own community. Our feeling "at home" in our relationship with God, urges us to continue in God's
Way as shown to us through Jesus who sought to assure us that our ultimate home is assured. Therefore we are free
to reach out and take risks on this journey now.
We don't have to wait until we die. Jesus taught us to pray and through prayer to find fellowship and a sense of
community such as we had never experienced before. "No one will leave, father, or mother, or brothers or sisters
for me and not find them a thousand times over in the Kingdom of God."
Unfortunately the church has been in the grip of "Christian imperialists" for centuries...those who suggest
there are only two choices open to everybody: Jesus or Hell. I would suggest that's a wrong way to read one of
the most important of Jesus' sayings. A reading recorded in the context of persecution and hostility from the synagogue
after 70 A.D. when finding a "place" for everyone was a very important issue.
In 1Corinthians chapter 9, verses19-22ff we hear Paul saying "I have become all things to all people, that
I might by all means save some." It's clear we are enlisted into a very important struggle…to find a means
of salvation for as many people as we can. We operate in and out of a Christian framework, and it is a reliable
framework for us. It has something vital to say about God and humanity, about our purpose in life and our ultimate
destiny. It is a way to borrow a phrase from Richard Foster's book on prayer, of "finding your heart's true
home."
But, just as "the way" is not a road to a destination, but a means of connection, the "dwelling"
is not a location, but a relationship. It's a relationship that we glimpse
here in our relationships among the body of Christ - but not in any way limited to that fellowship.
"Home" is a place of comfort to us, but not meant to be exclusive in the sense that it cannot be different
for others.
Jesus was addressing the problems connected with both moving on…and being left behind. It is relevant as one faces
a personal loss, or a national disaster, or even the shift that comes when one understanding of an idea is giving
way to another.
Jesus says I prepare a place for you in the rubble of that destroyed building, there in the debris of the lives
who have been so drastically been shattered, in the nightmare, in the horror, in the hurt. I prepare a place for
you, in the life of every confused and homeless soul seeking to find shelter for just one more day, in the lives
of the harried and the hurried and the lost. I prepare a place for you whenever hell appears to reign, wherever
hope appears lost, and with whomever appears to be the least.
I prepare a place for you so that you might find me wherever you are!
Believe me that I am in the Creator and the Creator is in me, but if you do not, believe me for the works that
are there waiting for you, in those places where you are. I am the way, the truth, and the life,…especially when
it might appear otherwise. I am the Paradox. I am the Lord. I AM. I AM so that you might BE.
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. Believing in God is coming to the place
in our faith journey where we trust God to be God, and accept the fact that God also believes in us.
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