The Son of Man may have nowhere to lay his head – but I hadn't realized until recently that he had a lake house where he could hang his hat. For years I never noticed this verse: "Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake…" (This week's gospel reading is here.)
It seems Jesus made this move from his mother’s house in Nazareth after learning of John’s arrest by Herod. Was Galilee a safer region than Judea? Or did he move there because it was home to several of his new disciples? Capernaum, where Peter and Andrew lived, became the place Jesus went back to when he could, the center for his new and growing community of followers.
From what we read in the Gospels, though, Jesus didn’t spend much time there. He was on the move, forward, alive to God’s mission, making the love and justice and wholeness of God known in word and action. I wonder how much time he actually spent in Capernaum, and whether he missed it when he was on the road.
Where is home for you? Is it where it’s always been, or new? Often the mission of God calls us out of the familiar into new places, as happened for me last year. We learn to pack light.
And where is home for you relative to your engagement in God's mission? Is it the place you retreat to, or the place from which your ministry comes, your base of operations? My home is both.
Do you have a place for prayer or worship in your home? Consider creating one – a corner of a room, a table and chair, a seat by a window… a place where you go to pray, light a candle, read the bible, give thanks to God, invite God’s Spirit to fill you and inspire your projects.
The letter to the Hebrews says our ultimate home is with God in the heavenly places, that the heroes of faith we read about in the Old Testament knew their homes on this earth were just rest stops on their journey to the heart of God’s love. Jesus must have known that the home he made in Capernaum was exceedingly temporary. I hope he enjoyed his while he could, knowing his final rest would be in the true Home from which he came, the home he has promised to prepare for us.
So let's enjoy home – and not get so comfortable we forget where we’re headed.
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