Reading
That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
Ephesians 2:19-22
Reflection
God is always welcoming new people into the family, often in ways we don’t expect.
Like when we attend a wedding. Unless a family member or dear friend is getting married, most of us show up to weddings not expecting to have to contribute much. We’re there to celebrate, eat some cake, and maybe dance. But for followers of Jesus, weddings are not something we passively observe. They’re an occasion when covenants are made not just between the couple and God, but by the gathered family of faith as well.
In the United Methodist wedding liturgy, the pastor asks the people gathered, “Will all of you, by God’s grace, do everything in your power to uphold and care for these two persons in their marriage?” And the people answer, “We will.”
This is not a small promise. In fact, I almost wonder whether wedding invitations ought to come with a warning. We are asked to commit to do everything in our power to support the couple.
And thank God, because each of us—as individuals, couples, and families—need all the help we can get.
While two people can form a home together, the life we’re looking for—the life God invites us into—is much bigger than two people can create on their own. As writer Andy Crouch puts it, “We’ve always needed a community wider than the solitary nuclear family to thrive, and we surely need it now.”
This is the home God invites us into, and not just at weddings. God’s family is a household bigger than just our biological family, a family where everyone is welcome, a family that shows up for and supports one another in moments big and small, on days good and bad. God gives us a home and a family that is for us “a haven of blessing and peace,” to borrow another phrase from the liturgy.
Weddings are just one of the ways we say with God, “Welcome home.”
At the end of our wedding service, there’s a beautiful blessing: “Bear witness to the love of God in this world, so that those to whom love is a stranger will find in you generous friends.”
When we feel like love is a stranger in our lives, God gives us a home of people who show us God’s love through their welcome and care. And from that haven of blessing and peace, we can become generous friends that someone else needs. May it be so.
Prayer
God who makes a home with us,
You created the world
And made a home for us.
When we turned away
And ran away from home,
You sent your Son,
And he made a home with us
So that we might find our home in you.
Help us welcome all of those
Who don’t know yet that you are our home,
And that they are always welcome—
Because often,
We are those people, too.
Amen.
