Home

home (hm)

n.

1. A place where one lives; a residence.

2. The physical structure within which one lives, such as a house or apartment.

3. A dwelling place together with the family or social unit that occupies it; a household.

4.

a. An environment offering security and happiness.

b. A valued place regarded as a refuge or place of origin.

5. The place, such as a country or town, where one was born or has lived for a long period.

6. The native habitat, as of a plant or animal.

7. The place where something is discovered, founded, developed, or promoted; a source.

8. A headquarters; a home base.

I've been wrestling with the concept of home lately. In the past couple of weeks I've needed to fill in official forms which ask the standard and, usually, simple question of 'Address'. Usually this isn't a problem. If I've bought something and want it delivered I have it sent to the college, where I live... but is it home?

My bank statements and voting papers and other official bits and bobs get sent to my parents' house... but is that home? It was for a number of very happy years, and in a sense it still is but it also isn't anymore.

I've lived in Geneva and in a tent in a campsite in France, neither of which were ever really 'home'. I don't feel 'at home' in the city where I was born, I don't feel I fit anymore in the towns I grew up in. All this has left me wondering where is my home.

I'm rapidly entering a period in my life where some huge changes are going to take place. In September, Kat and I are getting married. And this throws another huge aspect of home into my equation. We get the opportunity to create a new home, our home. We're not sure where that will be but, actually, it doesn't matter too much because 'home' will be where we both are. 'Home' is not necesarily a place.

C.S. Lewis wrote "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." Ultimately, I am a citizen of Heaven. I'm an alien in a foreign land and perhaps my quest for home will never be fully realised until the day God brings heaven to earth.

In the mean time my 'homelessness' continues... here's a video of me singing 'Home' by Michael Bublé.

Fifty

Fifty-two days ago Jesus was crucified.

Fifty-one days ago Jesus was dead in a tomb.

Fifty days ago God rasied Jesus from the dead.

The following forty days was like Jesus: The Resurrection Tour. He travelled around appearing to people to show he was alive. Ten days ago he left his disciples on a mountain top outside Jerusalem. He told them to go back to the house and sit tight because a few days later he'd send his advocate to them.

Today he did just that.

A sound like a hurracaine filled the place, like an express train thundering around them; something like fire spread across the room and just seemed to rest on them. Suddenly they could speak in foreign languages - they hadn't learned them, they weren't academics or linguists, the Holy Spirit gave them the words to say and they just said them. They couldn't contain themselves and burst out into the street causing havoc - a holy hullaballoo! (I love that word!)

They started talking about Jesus to anyone and everyone; the locals, the foreigners, tourists, business men on their way to work, men, women, children, anyone who would listen...

And so the Church was born.

3,000 people joined the Church that day. The believed Jesus died and was raised to life. They apologise for living self centred lives, for looking after number-one, and said they would live for Jesus from now on. They were baptised to publicly show the change in their lives. Things were different now.

2,000 or so years later, that movement, that inclusive community of people is still around. It looks very different now, lots of different styles and traditions but ultimately the purpose is the same. To tell people that Jesus died for them and was raised from the dead. That if they apologise for living self centred lives, for looking after number-one, and say they would live for Jesus from now on, they are saved and they too can have the Holy Spirit.

This is my fiftieth blog. It seems fitting that it lands on Pentecost, the day the Spirit first came to inspire the Church to do great things... and I don't think he's finished with us just yet!

Happy Holy Spirit Day.

Thoughts on Communion and the Church Part II

Communion is Inclusive

When Jesus shared the last supper, who was there?

The disciples.

The disciples were an odd bunch. And Jesus invited them to share communion with him. He knew exactly where they’d come from, what they’d done, what they were like as people, even what they were going to do... and he invited them to share with him.

Communion is inclusive. His message was always about including people and communion is no different. Peter was going to disown him; deny he ever knew Jesus. Thomas was going to doubt he was raised to life. They were all going to abandon him when he was arrested... but Jesus included them in the meal.

Some churches are guarded about who can or cannot take communion. They used passages like ‘if you eat/drink in an unworthy manner you drink judgement upon yourself’ as proof-texts to keep their exclusive communion for the ‘righteous’ few.
I think that’s missing the point. Those scary passages are all about inclusive communion not exclusive communion. Yes it’s about taking communion seriously and not letting familiarity breed contempt. A guy called Paul, one of the early church leaders and pioneers; he wrote those ‘judgement’ words to one particular church group in Corinth who were misusing communion. They were having every-man-for-himself communion: some were eating all the bread and leaving others hungry, some were downing all the wine and being carried out drunk... this is clearly not right! They’d missed the community aspect of communion.

Communion is inclusive: the invitation is for all who believe and want to remember what it is that Jesus has done for us. But when we celebrate communion it’s interdependent and it’s inclusive. Communion is Involved Firstly, it involves all us individually. Jesus calls us, elsewhere in the bible, to Love God with all your heart soul mind and strength. In communion he gives us a practical way of expressing that.

We love Jesus and He loves us – that’s our heart, that’s the intimacy we talked about earlier.
It is a spiritual thing – God is spirit and we engage with him in communion, that’s our soul.
We actively remember the Cross and the Resurrection – That’s our mind.
It’s physical food and drink – That’s our strength. We’ve shrunken the meal down somewhat from New Testament times [honey, i shrunk the sacrament]. This would’ve been an actual meal rather than the nibbles we use today.

It involves us completely.
Heart soul mind strength.

Secondly, The act of communion is hands on. This is not a spectator sport.

We actually eat and drink and remember and engage and in doing so we live out our faith in this action. And that living out our faith doesn’t stop as soon as the service is finished... we remember Jesus in communion and we are reminded of everything he taught and everything he did and we should be inspired to live it out every day of our lives in every aspect.

Communion is often called ‘Mass’ in other traditions. And Mass [is not the Motor Accident Solicitors Society, which is what appears if you Google it] literally means ‘Go’ or ‘Mission’.
Communion is our inspiration to live like Jesus lived. Involved in our wider communities, not a holy huddle in this building or hiding in small groups but active and meeting with people outside the church in the estates and the schools and in government and down the shops and on the tube or the bus... living the Jesus story... Communion is Involved.

Communion is Influential

And communion is influential. It’s about remembering everything Jesus has done for us. But it’s also looking forward. It’s the hope we live for. When Jesus said this is my blood, he said it was the seal on a new covenant between God and people. It was the invitation for a fresh start. Believe in Jesus and he’ll take your old, crappy sin stained life and give you a fresh new one that’ll last forever. And that life doesn’t just mean you’ll go to heaven when you die. It can start now.

Communion is influential; it gives us a hope in Jesus that can change the way we live right now, the way we vote, the way we make ethical decisions included. This is more than just bread and just wine/grapejuice.

This is an intimate expression of Love between you and Jesus
This is a meal that builds friendships and communities
This is a meal that welcomes anyone who wants to share in it
This is a meal that involves everything you are and inspires us to live out our faith
This is a meal that can change things.

It can change me and you... it can change this church, it can change this community, it can change this country...

It’s already changed the world.

Thoughts on Communion and the Church Part I

Imagine, you’re at a dinner party and your mate – not just any mate, but a guy that over the past three years has become the closest friend you’ve ever had – grabs the bread from the middle of the table, tears it into chucks and dishes it out... and he says ‘this is my body. It’s broken for you’

Do this and remember me.

And then imagine that after dinner he grabs the bottle of wine and begins pouring it into his glass – you move your glass towards him cos you want a top up yourself but instead he puts the bottle down again and passes his glass around saying ‘this is my blood. And my blood is going to seal a new covenant between God and human beings.’

Do this and remember me.

It is an odd ritual. Some might class it socially unacceptable behaviour these days. But it’s a ritual that has continued for about 2000 years.

What is communion all about?

Because this meal has been at the heart of Christian worship since day one and within this meal are the roots of the church.

At Church.co.uk, we have five key values that underpin everything that happens within the life of the church: Intimacy, Inclusivity, Interdependence, Involvement and Influence.

These values are at the heart of the church. In communion, we see Jesus establishing and demonstrating those values;

Communion is Intimate

This is a meal between friends. When Jesus initiated this ritual, he did so with 12 guys (and probably some of the others that toured with him) that had become his family over the past three years. They’d lived and worked together [imagine, 13 lads, touring around Palestine... it must’ve been a riot!]. And now they were sharing in his last supper with them before he went to the cross. John, who was one of the disciples who was closest to Jesus and who wrote one of the gospels, described how on that same night Jesus told them to ‘love one another... In the same way I have loved you, love one another.’

He told them that you know when someone really cares for you because they’re willing to die for you. And Jesus would follow through with that willingness to die for them the very next morning. And this meal was an intimate reminder of that love that Jesus had for his followers... and he includes us in the intimacy. Communion is intimate. It reminds us how much Jesus loves us. Not an airy-fairy ‘i love you’, not even a drunken ‘i love you’, but a real ‘I love you so much that I’m willing to die for you!’ Communion is intimate.

Communion is Interdependent

That last supper, or the first communion, was part of a Jewish festival - the Passover festival. It was when the whole community would remember the way God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. Everyone gathered together to hear and remember the story of the Exodus: Moses and Pharaoh, the plagues, the Red Sea, the Ten Commandments and all that. It was a community event; a coming together to celebrate their heritage.

The celebration of Israel’s rescue was good.

Jesus was about to rescue the whole world.

Through communion we have a way of coming together to celebrate not only our individual response to Jesus’ love for us personally, but to celebrate our collective rescue. Communion is interdependent, it’s relational, it’s meant to be shared – you cannot share a meal on your own! Whether it’s in a small group setting or as the whole congregation what we see in and through communion is God bringing people together through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Communion is interdependent. It is relational, it builds friendship and reminds us we are all part of the one church; we’ve all got different roles to play within that church but we are all on the same team! Which leads us onto our next value... inclusivity

Coming Soon: Thoughts on Communion and the Church

I'm preaching at Church.co.uk tomorrow morning (Sunday, May 2nd).

The theme is Communion.

"...Communion has been at the heart of Christian worship since day one, and within this meal are the roots of the Church."

Notes coming soon...