LOVE MAKES IT A HOME
Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19; 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 or 13:4-13; Luke 4:21-30
“Love is made up of three unconditional properties in equal measure: acceptance; understanding; and appreciation. Remove any one of the three and the triangle falls apart. Which, by the way, is something highly inadvisable. Think about it – do you really want to live in a world of only two dimensions? So, for the love of a triangle, please keep love whole” (Vera Nazarian, “The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration”).
Often in relationships and families, “the triangle falls apart”! We fail to understand, appreciate, and accept the other as he/she is.
Jesus experienced this when he returned home to Nazareth.
Jesus left Nazareth after 30 quiet years as a carpenter. After his baptism, life changed: he received a prophetic anointing and began ministering to people. Then he returned home and, in the synagogue on the Sabbath, pointed to himself as the fulfilment of the text from Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me…”
And the people’s reaction? Their first reaction is appreciation and astonishment, but then they remember his identity. They do not allow his wisdom to interfere with their memories of him. He may be the anointed one, may preach and teach, may perform miracles, but for them he is still the carpenter.
Perhaps his people had a vested interest in focusing on the past: it’s better having a carpenter than a prophet; it’s easier getting broken chairs fixed than being challenged to fix broken lives. They refuse to accept him, refuse to accept that he has changed.
Home is the place where I am accepted in love for who I am, and am encouraged to become the person I could be.
Are our homes such places? Are our homes places where parents allow their children to grow and become what they could and want to become; where children accept their parents as they are with their “old fashioned, outdated” ideas? Or are they places where we allow memories to block our relationships?
St Paul gives a description of what love is in his hymn to the Corinthians. Love has a tough program… it accepts all. Easy to say; exceedingly difficult to do! And so, we pray that our houses be homes where we experience understanding, appreciation, and acceptance.
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