Love:
A Home for God
Matthew
1:18-25
December
18, 2016
Mark
S. Bollwinkel
In
his book The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion (English
edition, Harcourt, 1959) Professor Mircea Eliade talks about doors;
specifically how human beings from the beginning of history have decorated and
designed doors as that which separates the sacred from the profane.
We
enter our home with a welcome mat greeting, or at this time of year with a
festive wreath of greens. In a number of
households as we enter our house we take off our shoes, not merely to limit the
dirt we track in. Our door customs honor
traditions that define the inside world of our homes as distinctive from the
outside world.
A
home is supposed to be a place of warmth and welcome. Home is a safe place where we can be
ourselves regardless of what the outside world thinks of us or has done to us
in the course of the day. The poet
Robert Frost once said, "Home is the place where, when you have to go
there, they have to take you in."
If,
God forbid, you have ever been the victim of a residential burglary you know
all-too-well that the value of money or items taken by the thief pales in
comparison to the value of one's security.
The sense of personal violation with property crime touches something
deep in our soul.
As
the English idiom goes, "Home is where the heart is." Home is supposed to be a place of peace, love
and comfort. We lock our doors, take our
shoes off as we enter or at times decorate our doors to erect a barrier between
that sacred space of home from the challenges and difficulties of the outside
world.
The
people of the Hebrew tradition place a copy of the "mezuzah" in a
decorative door ornament and touch it as the leave home and as they enter upon
return. They remember the words of the
Shema, or essential confession of faith, inscribed on the parchment "Hear,
O Israel, The Lord our God, The Lord is One" (Deut. 6:4-9). Hebrew Scriptures call to post those sacred
words on the doorposts (Deut. 11:13-21).
The
entrances of the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe were decorated with
extraordinary stone sculpture depicting the central tenants of the Christian
faith. In Paris at the Cathedral of
Notre-Dame, the entrance portals are marked by three amazing arches, the
central being a detailed expression of the Last Judgment at the End of Time
with the good being welcomed into Heaven and the bad being sent to eternal
punishment in Hell. Anyone, literate or
illiterate, immediately got the point about what was at stake as you entered
this sacred space...heaven or hell!
This door motif was repeated throughout the Gothic period on scores of
Cathedrals.
The
Meenakshi Temple is one of the largest, active Hindu temples in the world. It is located in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, South
India. Dedicated to the worship of
Shiva, there are scores of altars and idols for the millions that pilgrimage
there each year. The complex has 14
major gateways or "Gopurams" through which the worshipper
enters. These towers can reach 170' high
and have layer after layer of statues, all painted in bright colors, of the
pantheon of deities reaching into the heavens.
As you enter you can't help up look up.
Some of the towers allow the worshipper to climb up inside to see the
view, all a part of their worship experience.
At
the Red Fort Mosque in New Delhi, India, as in all Islamic mosques around the
world, worshippers remove their shoes and wash their feet and hands before
entering the main doors. This tradition
is not only about community hygiene.
Washing one's hands and feet is an act of preparation and purification
for worship. The sacred space of worship
and what one does inside is sanctuary for the worshipper from the pressures and
illusions of the outside world. Removing
the dust of that outside world helps the worshipper seek the divine in the
moment and in themselves.
Whether
it is the family home, our place of worship or sometimes even the place we earn
our living, we humans differentiate our sacred spaces from the outside world
with sign, symbol and ritual around our doors.
The
art, architecture and rituals of our doors offer a way to make a home for God. Rev. Jan Richardson in her book Through
the Advent Door: A Contemplative Christmas (Richardson, 2011) writes,” ...each form offered an invitation to the
sacred, beckoning it to come close and be perceived, touched, kissed,
met." Welcomed home!
Isn't
that what Christmas is all about? God finding a home among us. Incarnate love finding a home in the most
unlikely of places.
"The story of the Annunciation to
Mary tells us how, with her own body, Mary makes a home for God. The medium of her own flesh becomes a
habitation for the baby." (Richardson)
‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The
angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he
will be called Son of God.
Of
the word "overshadow" Pastor Richardson writes:
"...inhabit, dwell: this is how the
Spirit works, seeking to make a home among us and within us. A home that is not an exclusive residence or
walled shelter."
The
manger scene of the birth of the baby Jesus is the story of the doorway God
crosses to meet the human condition (Matthew 2). In a lowly stable, born to unwed parents,
about to become political refugees fleeing the violence of a mad king, God
finds home with us.
It
may seem ironic that over the years the faithful have erected layers of
liturgical walls around the place of Jesus' birth. But that is what people have always done with
the doors which separate the sacred from the profane.
The
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine was first built by Emperor
Constantine and his mother Helena in 327 CE on what was considered the actual
location of the cave in which Jesus was born.
After centuries of conflict, fires, building and re-building, today one
can go into the Grotto of the basilica, stoop below a very low door and see a
14 point silver star, claimed by a number of traditions to be the actual spot
on earth of Jesus’ birth.
As
fascinating as our comparative religions study of doors has been this
morning...at least it has been fascinating for me...let's get to the real heart
of the matter this fourth Sunday of Advent.
Jan Richardson writes:
"Here in the House of Advent, in
these weeks leading up to Christmas, we keep an eye turned toward the window:
watching, hoping, keeping vigil for the One who is to come…This is a
season of deep memory, a time to hear again the story of the God who has
journeyed with us from the beginning and who, in the fullness of time, took on
flesh and entered this world to walk with us."
"How is God seeking to make a home in
you this season... How does making a
home for the sacred help you find a place for yourself in the world?"
Among
the many things my mother taught me, one of the most important has been
prayer. As a small child we prayed
together each night at bed time. As a
family we prayed a table grace before each meal. My fondest memory of Christmas Eve was going
to the chapel of Simpson United Methodist church in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. My brother and sisters would pile into the
car on Christmas Eve. Dad would drive
us around to see the Christmas light displays.
Then we'd come to the back of the church. My Mom would have arranged for the pastor to
leave the back door unlocked so my family alone could go to the small
chapel. We'd turn on the stain glass
window and light a candle. It was dark
and quiet. My Dad would read the second
chapter of Luke, the Christmas story, and we would sit quietly and pray for a
few minutes. I don't know how my younger
brother or sisters remember these moments but for me they were precious and
sacred. Closing my eyes I can still
remember them today...and the stained glass window of that chapel...and the
painting that was the center of the altar.
There
are many versions of Warner Sallman’s famous painting of Jesus knocking at a
door, based on the scripture verse "Behold, I stand at the door and knock;
if anyone hears my voice and open the door, I will come in..."
(Revelations 3:20). [First painted by
English artist William Holman Hunt in 1853, inspired Warner Sallman’s version
during World War II which became the standard in Protestant churches in North
America.] And there have been many
sermons reminding viewers of this art that the door handle is inside. This door can only been opened from the
inside.
Opening
the door of my heart and mind to the reality of God as revealed in the life of
Jesus has made all of the difference in my life. Whatever you make of the Christmas
story...history or metaphor......and all of the expressions we have layered it
with…it all comes down to this; again and again love shows up in the most
surprising of places, in the most human of ways.
If
you don't know that yet, it is worth exploring. If you do know it, then you know quite well
why we celebrate Christmas.
It
is time to walk through the Advent door and find our way home.
"How is God seeking to make a home in
you this season... How does making a
home for the sacred help you find a place for yourself in the world?" (Richardson)
Amen.
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