Reflection for the 2nd Week after Pentecost, 2022
Scriptures: Psalm 22:19-28; Luke 8:26-39
Key Verse: “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” (Luke 8:39)
Have you or anyone you know seen the movie, E.T., a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg? Because I loved that movie so much when I was a teenager, whenever my little cousins and friends visited me, I would rent that movie, the VHS tape, and watch it with them. I don’t remember how many times I watched that movie, but I do remember that I cried each time when the little boy, Elliott, said to E.T., “You could be happy here, I could take care of you. I wouldn't let anybody hurt you. We could grow up together, E.T.” The relationship and trust between Elliott and E.T. grew fast in a short period of time. Still, E.T. wanted to go home.
What is home? What brings me peace or makes me feel safe might be different from what brings you peace and makes you feel safe. Nonetheless, I believe that we all want to have a place like ‘HOME’ where we can return to. After staying days or weeks in a hospital, we all want to go home. After traveling for days or weeks, we still want to go home even though it was a good trip. After having a hard time at work or at school, we want to go home at the end of the day.
However, when a place that we once called home doesn’t bring us peace and make us feel safe, it is no longer a home to us, right? And the way we picture or define our home might have changed since the pandemic. The majority of us have spent more time at home because of mandated lockdowns and quarantines or working remotely. But for some, their perception of home hasn’t changed much, especially for those who have been homeschooling or working remotely before the pandemic. How about homeless campers these days? The numbers of homeless campers have increased tremendously since the pandemic, and the size of their campsites have kept expanding like a huge household, their place to call home.
That made me think of the increasing number of refugees due to the current ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. To many, those two beautiful countries that many once called home are no longer their home. No more peace or safety. Last week, my mom shared a YouTube tourism video about Russian that was documented on May 9, 2019. It was Victory Day, celebrated annually to commemorate the Soviet Union's victory over Germany's Nazi forces in World War II. My takeaways from that video were the two values that they believed in and proudly shared with people around the world.
The first value was promising love through a committed relationship, shining through thousands of padlocks hanging on a line of metal trees standing along the banks of the Moscow River. You wouldn’t miss this tourist site if you were there. It's amazingly beautiful! The second value was trusting a loving God whom they worship, expressed through the architecture of Russian domes and its people. The colorful and magnificent domes are well presented throughout Russia. Ironically, the current behaviors, including the war, certainly don't align with the values that they once proudly shared with all the new immigrants and visitors from around the world -- promising love through a committed relationship and trusting a loving God whom they worship.
In today’s reading from Luke 8:26-39, we read that Jesus and his disciples crossed to the east side of a lake opposite of Galilee. Galilee is a Jewish village, and on the opposite side of the lake, Decapolis is a Gentile city. A man from Decapolis was possessed with demons, called Legion. He had no clothes on and was chained among the tombs. No one including his own family knew how to deal with all that he had to suffer under the power of the demons. He was homeless, isolated, abandoned, and maybe forgotten by many.
What caught my attention this time as I read was that he didn’t want to return to his home but begged to stay with Jesus after being set free from the demons. While suffering under the power of the demons, he must have thought of the place that he once called home but was no longer a home to him. Like homeless campers in our time, we don’t know their stories just as we don’t know the man’s story in Luke in terms of their relationships that they had with their family or friends. So, my question is: what have we all learned today from Jesus’ way of doing ministry? Jesus told him, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And what did he do? He became the first disciple of Jesus from the Gentile city called Decapolis. His coming home had a great purpose. Being a home missionary, he proclaimed how much Jesus had done for him throughout the city.
There is a Spanish phrase that I have never forgotten since I learned it: Mi casa es tu casa. I loved hearing people say it to me while I lived in Mexico and visited people’s houses. This statement made me feel that I was welcomed, I belonged, and I was given permission to be me. And if I end up having no place to go, this household would be my last resort, my hope.
What do we mean ‘mi casa es tu casa’ as people of faith? It’s a powerful faith statement to say: where we belong is where you belong. What brings me comfort and makes me feel safe will also bring you comfort and make you feel safe.
Since all that we are and all that we have come from God alone, God is everyone’s home no matter how different our socio-economic status are; God is everyone’s home for all to return to no matter how bad or how good our life situations could be; God is everyone’s home to return to no matter if we are included or excluded by anyone. What God has said and promised count! But not everyone remembers this good news - God is everyone’s home, my home, your home, and their home, whoever that is and that God loves, too. Therefore, we all are home missionaries as people of faith.
What’s your story, being touched by a loving God who is our home that we all return to each day? What are you set free from? If nothing comes to your mind now, let's take notes from now to remember.
This summer, I encourage you to meet with your siblings in Christ as small groups to reflect on you own awareness of prejudices and biases. Throughout the process, we will see how our behaviors and attitudes are not fully aligned with the values that Jesus commanded us to follow, to love God and ourselves as we love others. Those misalignments are our stories telling how we are touched and transformed by God’s love and set free by the power of the Holy Spirit.
My dear siblings in Christ, we all are home missionaries. Who would be the person that awaits our invitation and receives the Good News, which is that God is always with us and lives in us as long as we love God and ourselves as others. Could we say something like Elliott’s words from the movie E.T. to someone who has lost a sense of having a place called home?
Those are beautiful words from a little kid. We could say something like, “You could be happy with God and me, we could take care of you. We wouldn't let anybody hurt you. We could grow in love and faith together.”
Remember the labor of love story that I mentioned last week? The saving plan from our Triune God is a love of labor. It is contagious. Through our testimony and proclamation, we are joining the labor of our Triune God’s love. May God bless our summer! May we all be equipped to be storytellers and welcome people home. AMEN.
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