August 12, 2025 -- John 15:4 -- From homelessness to homed in Christ

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People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

Abide in me, and I in you.   John 15:4 ESV
 
Many of the incarcerated men who attend my Bible Studies are the same people who wind up in homeless shelters after their release. There are many reasons for it:

  • family members have after years of trying to help, have given up, and there is no where to go

  • where the men are released is no where close to their home communities, sometimes not even their home province and they have no money to get back

  • poverty

  • past crime cycles have so exhausted the resources of family, friends, there is no home left to go to

  • Christian community seems out of reach (unfamiliarity with the practice of going to church, not knowing any local churches, not feeling worthy, no transportation, no appropriate clothing, no disciple-making mentors to guide them, etc).

 
As a Christian who grew up in a loving home, who was part of a strong Christian church, homeless is bewildering to me. It remains so. Though I have for more than 20+ years dealt with homelessness as a foster parent. It was painful when youths graduated out of the foster care system with no supports except welfare. Now as a prison visiting pastor I am constantly confronted with homelessness. It is a massive, complex, many faceted problem.
 
I have been reading “Beyond Homelessness”, and here is a quotation that grabs me, spiritually, and inspires renewed hope.
     For Henri Nouwen, the Christian life is a journey from the house of fear to the
     house of love. As Jesus indicates in John 15, the house of love is a place of intimacy,
     fecundity, and ecstasy. But Nouwen describes our times as an age of homelessness:
     “Probably no word better summarizes the suffering of our time than the word ‘homeless.’
     It reveals one of our deepest and most painful conditions, the condition of not having a
     sense of belonging, of not having a place where we can feel safe, cared for, protected
     and loved.” In contrast, Jesus offers us a home: “In my father’s house there are many
     dwelling places,” and “Abide in me as I abide in you” (John 14:2; John 15:4). This home
     is a “place or space where we do not have to be afraid but can let go of our defenses
     and be free, free from worries, free from tensions, free from pressures…Home is where
     we can rest and be healed.” Whatever else the sojourning Christian community is (and
     there are many kinds and shapes and sizes), it is an embodiment, frail and fragile to be
     sure, of the love of God in Christ.
     Steven Bouma-Prediger, Brian Walsh, Beyond Homelessness. Grand Rapids: Wm B.
     Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008. Page 300-301
 
It seems to me so many who are in church pews have themselves experienced homelessness. Becoming a Christian has isolated them from family. Becoming a Christian means their circle of friends changed. Activities shared pre-Christ are now a violation of what it means to be in Christ. Jobs required moves to new locales. Christians, of all people, know the pain of spiritual homelessness and therefore, of all people, must be the most passionate and urgent and persistent in welcoming strangers into the place of rest and healing, the local church. The place where Christ is the Head and the Spirit applies Jesus’ reconciling work such that strangers become family and know themselves to be dearly loved sons and daughters of God. Ultimately that is the move from the house of fear to the house of love.
 
Father in heaven, thank You for Your love so rich and full. Thank You for Jesus, through Whom we intimately and intensely know Your love and discover ourselves to be home. Thank You Spirit of the Living God for grafting us into Christ so that rich or poor, sick or well, young or old, we know all things come to us not by chance but from Your Fatherly hand. Teach us, as those who are given home, safety, and protection in Christ to be a refuge to the rootless, homeless ones in our local communities. As we abide in You, Lord Jesus, cause us to be bold witnesses and evangelists to what it means to be in Christ, home, safe, welcomed, loved. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/05jKxv8ApuI?si=gPWpX7bN9eKYvWtP My worth is not in what I own
 

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