If you are struggling with the idea of whether to say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, especially during Advent, I’ve got a new one for you. What about Merry Almost Christmas? That is the title and the chorus of a song written by a friend of mine. It’s a song about the blessing of the time before Christmas, the time that we in the church call Advent (which doesn’t quite have the same ring to it), and it’s a song about celebrations, reunions, and homecomings.
Of course, the classic of that genre is “No Place Like Home for the Holidays.” Admittedly that one has been a little tender for me this year with my household divided as it is geographically. Having my family here today reminds me that home truly is where the heart is. It does make me wonder though, what makes a house a home?
With a quick search of the question, I found a survey of homeowners in the UK from 2018 which showed that about a third of those that responded think of the place they live in as a building, whereas the rest thought of it as a home. 50% of respondents said security was a factor in hominess. 57% said happiness makes a house a home. Only 22% said it had to have a big telly!
A more recent survey of US homeowners from 2020 said that having your own bed was important, which I find interesting. 48% of respondents agree with Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory that they must have their spot on the couch, and 79% feel that something is always left undone around the house.
Decorating is a factor in both of these lists, and there are plenty of big box and warehouse stores built around the idea that something always needs fixin’ and as stated by the incomparable Olympia Dukakis, in the classic, Steel Magnolias, “The only thing that separates us from animals is our ability to accessorize.”
Adornments certainly make a space feel more “at home,” and some of you have noted how quickly I personalized my office, but something that has made me feel “at home” in the church is our offering of hospitality to the Contributor. One of the joys of having my office so close to the Contributor’s office is that I can listen in from time to time on their care for their vendors. I usually can’t hear the vendor’s response, but I can hear the staff person ask the vendor where they’ve been selling papers and where they are staying.
Contributor staff members never press for details, but it’s a way to check in on the vendors. I must say that it is hard not to consider them as I think about houses and homes. If you have not visited their website in a while, I’d encourage you to review it. There’s a great video on the “programs” page with several vendors that say things like “Nashville is my town” and “We live here.” It reminds me that there are those whose home is a street, and it reminds me to say that there are people without housing, the unhoused if you will, who may not be homeless.
I don’t mean to elevate being unhoused to a virtue, but I think our language matters in relation to human dignity. Clearly, we want people to have housing – and I’ll go so far as to say that I believe that housing is a human right – which is one of the reasons we partner with the Contributor and serve Loaves and Fish meals on Saturdays. By the way, if you did not know, 70% of the vendors that sell papers for more than six months have transitioned to permanent housing.
I say all of this because there are activities in the church that some of you may not be as directly involved in, and I think we need to stop and celebrate them. Likewise, I can’t help but think of the church as our home for faith, our place of security, hospitality, and happiness.
As I read the scriptures I am also reminded how important it is to remember that the purpose of the building, and each person in it, is to glorify God. As good as it feels to say that this is our place of security, hospitality, and happiness, there are a lot of places that can offer those things. What makes this place a home for faith?
In 2 Samuel we hear from the Prophet Nathan, who first gives David the double thumbs up and then says, “Actually, God said, ‘Just who do you think you are, building a house for me? Twelve tribes, did I ask for a house? No! Where do you think I’ve been all this time? Who brought you out of the fields, shepherd boy? Tell you what. I’ll build you a house, a line, a family…without end.”
As followers of the way of Jesus, we understand this promise to be fulfilled in Jesus, but it’s worth noting that Mary’s song acknowledges a deeper commitment by God stretching back to Abraham. God’s commitment to David is no different than it has been and will be because it is in God’s character to be faithful to God’s promises.
What we find in this particular expression of God’s commitment is a reminder that God is not distant and passive. God is active and present, maybe not in a manipulative, chessboard kind of way but God is the source and the reason for David’s success, and God’s intention for God’s people results in their state of community and solidarity.
The other thing we know from the larger narrative is that David will not complete the temple, if for no other reason than to be clear that the temple was for God’s glory and not for his. That temple, this temple, and any other before or since are only holy in that they declare something greater than the architect or financier or founding members could imagine, and it causes us to move, like Mary, from “How can this be?” to “Wow, look what we’re a part of!”
At this point in the story Mary has gotten past, “How can this be?” and she’s moved on to the proof of her pregnancy offered by Gabriel in 1:36, “your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.”
Mary, of course, says, “Let it be so with me,” but I’ve always wondered about that conversation with Joseph before she heads out to see Elizabeth. Unfortunately, we don't have that, but clearly, he was supportive. What we do have is, as noted by @kaitlynschiess, “two pregnant women celebrating their new motherhood by passionately discussing the coming overthrow of every earthly empire.”
There is, of course, more to it than that, and in Mary’s song, we hear repeatedly that God is faithful, that God shelters God’s people, and that God is actively working to turn the tables on the powerful in favor of the powerless. Mary sings as though these things have already happened, and in a sense they have happened, and they are happening, and they will happen.
Surely as the world turns on its axis, the world is about to turn toward God’s favor! Every sunrise and every sunset reminds us that God is faithful and that we have been given another day to give God the glory. How do we do that at work; at school; in the day-to-day grind of life?
There are those, of course, who live their lives like a football player pointing to the sky and giving credit to God for every yard they’ve gained. I must say that I admire those who have the confidence of faith to praise God for everything from a parking space to a delicious meal. I certainly try to do that in my heart, but I’m also aware that there are those so wounded by hypocrisy that they can’t hear my praise without feeling terror.
A public witness is still important and valuable, and I think Mary’s example demonstrates how we can have a private witness that finds completion in community. The text doesn’t tell us much more about their time together, but we know that she stayed with Elizabeth up until the time she was about to give birth. Their time together demonstrates the importance of relationships in our response to God’s grace.
If belief in the faithfulness of God is the foundation of our home for faith, then reciprocal relationships of care create the framework. One of the places I have seen this most clearly is through the work of Living Waters for the World and the PC(USA) Cuba Partner Network. That’s probably a lot to get your head around, so I’ll just tell you about Nell. She was part of a delegation from the Presbytery of South Louisiana that went to Cuba to restore some old relationships and build some new ones, too.
At the time, Nell wasn’t actually a member of our congregation – and she still has some reservations about faith – but she spoke a little Spanish and she was passionately curious about the lives of the people of Cuba. Nell had a tendency, during downtimes, to go exploring on her own, and a few of us decided to make sure she always had a buddy.
She would strike up conversations with anyone, and I mean anyone! One such conversation was with an older woman who, on hearing that I was Nell’s pastor, took us to meet her pastor. We went behind a row of houses, and I began running worst-case scenarios in my head. We ended up in a little shack where there was a prayer meeting going on. After conversing about the water system we were partnering with another congregation to establish, I took a risk. I asked Nell to translate while he prayed for us and I prayed for them.
I gotta say, it was a holy moment not too much unlike the song of Mary. A PC(USA) pastor and a Pentecostal holiness pastor in a shack in the back of a village in Cuba gave glory to God through the voice of one with tenuous faith but great concern for God’s people. There are, of course, some obvious differences. Mary’s faith was not tenuous. Neither of the pastors was bearing the son of God…or so it may seem…
…unless you consider that God is active and present and in our midst; unless you consider that the thing that makes a shack or a street or a great and wonderful temple into a home for faith is how we use it to glorify God through relationships of care and mutuality.
You don’t have to go to Cuba to do that. You can probably do it just about anywhere. I can tell you it happens pretty regularly on Saturday mornings with our Loaves and Fish meals. I can tell you that God is glorified in the faithful attempts we make to glorify God together, but I don’t think that’s the end of faith. As I see it, David’s desire for a holy space was the beginning of something more than he could imagine. Mary’s song was the echo of what God has done and the announcement of what God is doing and will accomplish.
Mary’s very body became a holy space for God, and Elizabeth partnered with her to affirm and confirm what God was doing in and through her. Certainly, her child would bring about the reversal of tyranny, but not simply to make way for a new tyrant. The purpose of this birth was for us to know that God is active and present with us in our greatest trials and our simplest joys.
Perhaps it is just that simple. Perhaps the knowledge and expectation that God hears prayers in remote places and crowded halls may move us to long for the good in others such that we become the church that we have always longed to attend. Perhaps that happens anywhere that two or more are gathered in the name of the one who came to upend our bent desires for power and prestige.
The good news is that the world is always about to turn, and we are building on the solid ground of the faithfulness of God. The good news is that we have just a moment to wait before we unwrap presents and celebrate Jesus as our emanuel. In the holiness of that space, let our souls cry out as Mary, let us partner with one another as Elizabeth, and let us embrace the designs God has in mind that are far more than we can imagine, and let all of that be for one thing and one thing alone – all for the glory of God. Amen.
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