with Rev Dr Chris Walker
Where is Home?
We live in a world in which many people do not feel at home. Thousands of refugees have been displaced from their homes due to war and the threat of violence in places such as Syria and the Middle East. Others have had to move from drought-stricken areas such as in Africa. Others due to relationship or mental health issues do not have a place they can really call home. In considering this issue of, ‘Where is Home?’ it is helpful to start by naming some of the qualities of ‘home.’ Home implies somewhere that is safe, that is familiar, that has people who care for us and we care for them, that has many of our own things, and that we can be ourselves in. Let me expand on this.
Having a safe place is important not only for children but for all of us. Home is the place where we can feel protected which enables us to venture out knowing we have somewhere to return where we can be secure. While we all like to have new experiences, it is imperative that we do have some known safe place. We also surround ourselves with familiar things we own and enjoy.
Home of course is not just about place but about relationships. ‘Home is where the heart is’ the saying goes. A major part of what it means to feel at home is having people who care for us and we care for them. While this can lead to excluding others, to tribalism, racism and xenophobia, it does not have to. If we have secure relationships hopefully that makes it easier to open up to including others who are different. In much of our lives we have particular roles to play. These roles can lead to a sense that the ‘real’ me is different to the person I appear to others, or feel I have to project to others. At home I can just ‘be me’. Famous people sometimes reveal that while admired by others in the general public, to their own family they are still just a brother or son, daughter or sister.
Our life, of course, changes over time. Few people live the whole of their lives in the same place. While most of us have a particular attachment to the area in which we grew up, it is possible to feel at home in another place. Usually that involves making sure other components of what it means to be at ‘home’ are present, such as familiar things and especially significant people in our lives. Maintaining those relationships is important. While adding new relationships is desirable, long term relationships have a special value.
As a Christian there is a sense in which I am not fully at home in this earthly life. This does not mean I do not value this earthly home. Australia is home to me in a way that the USA is not, despite having lived there for several years. I remember the home I mainly grew up in with positive memories. Now my home is where I live with my wife. It is not the home my children will recall as we lived in another city and state for their growing up years. Our current home does have many familiar items. I value the trees and landscape of east coast Australia where I grew up and now live.
Yet I also resonate as a Christian with the idea that this life is not all there is and that I am to some extent a sojourner or even an alien here for my citizenship is in heaven. The New Testament speaks of no longer being strangers and aliens but citizens with the saints as members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19).
The second century Letter to Diognetus seeks to explain Christians to others, especially those who would be critical of them or persecute them. In the early church Christians were often regarded as atheists for they did not participate in the usual religious rites. They were regarded as disloyal for they did not swear oaths to the emperor and did not engage in the military. They did not participate in some of the practices of the time which set them apart. So the letter says, in part, the following.
“For Christians are not differentiated from other people by country, language or customs; you see, they do not live in cities of their own, or speak some strange dialect, or have some peculiar lifestyle. …They live in both Greek and foreign cities, wherever chance has put them. They follow local customs in clothing, food and the other aspects of life. But at the same time, they demonstrate to us the wonderful and certainly unusual form of their own citizenship. They live in their own native lands, but as aliens; as citizens, they share all things with others; but like aliens, suffer all things. Every foreign country is to them as their native country, and every native land as a foreign country.
They marry and have children just like everyone else; but they do not kill unwanted babies. They offer a shared table, but not a shared bed. They are at present ‘in the flesh’ but they do not live ‘according to the flesh.’ They are passing their days on earth, but are citizens of heaven. They obey the appointed laws, and go beyond the laws in their own lives.
They love everyone, but are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and gain life. They are poor and yet make many rich…They are dishonoured and yet gain glory through dishonour…They are mocked and bless in return.
To put it simply – the soul is to the body as Christians are to the world. The soul is spread through all parts of the body and Christians through all the cities of the world. The soul is in the body but is not of the body; Christians are in the world but not of the world.”
Chris Walker
(National Consultant Christian Unity, Doctrine & Worship)
[email protected]
http://revdrchriswalker.wordpress.com/
Chris is currently serving the Assembly of the Uniting Church as the National Consultant for Theology and Discipleship.
He has served in a range of positions and places in the Uniting Church including local church ministry in three congregations in NSW, as a regional education and mission officer, and consultant for evangelism and discipleship, in Queensland, as principal of Parkin-Wesley College in SA, and as a mission resource officer for Parramatta-Nepean Presbytery.
He has a passion for theology, mission and discipleship. His interest in writing has resulted in various publications including five books, most recently Peace Like A Diamond: facets of peace (Spectrum, 2009) and Living Life to the Full: Spirituality for today’s baby boomers (Openbook, 2005).