more strangers and exiles

Better is one day in your house
Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere

Closely connected with the image of "strangers and exiles" is the vision of home. It appears in the song I quoted yesterday; those lines at the end are from Psalm 84, which speaks of the desire for home with God: "My soul longs, yea, faints for the courts of the Lord." It reminded me of some journal entries years ago about finding our home with God, in the presence of God, wherever we are.

I think much of the value of the "strangers and exiles" experience when we are among the various human social groups is how it stirs that longing for true home. And may spur us to seeking home (and community) in the presence of God.

The words of warning about becoming "strangers and exiles" (including Jesus' words about the world "hating" his followers, such as Jn 15.18-21) can be challenging to us or reassuring. Challenging if we have become too comfortable and assimilated by the societies around us. Reassuring if we are experiencing rejection or animosity for trying to follow Jesus closely. And if these words also help us turn towards home in God and help us see and embrace the community he offers us anywhere and everywhere, wherever his spirit inspires love (or works for our good) in the people we encounter, then we have found what we truly long for. A home not bounded by walls, a community not limited by human failings.

As Jesus said:

"Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life." (Mk 10.29-30)