While I was studying in seminary and during the years following, for seven years all together, I lived between both Montana and Minnesota. It was a strange time as it became harder and harder to know where “home” was. Anne and our kids lived and went to school here in Minnesota while my restaurant business, our parents, and the community we loved were in Montana. Over time, it became clear that “home” needed to be where my primary family was going to be.
This Sunday, we’ll hear a portion of the story of Ruth and her fateful decision to leave one home to re-imagine a new home. Ruth, newly widowed, leaves her community of origin to stay with her mother-in-law Naomi, also widowed. In the face of an uncertain future, Naomi encourages Ruth to stay behind. But Ruth responds,
“Do not press me to leave you,
to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people
and your God my God.” (Ruth 1:16)
I can identify with Ruth in how she prioritizes her understanding of “home” around the most important relationship in her life. I never doubted that I would make my home with Anne, Della, and Bjorn. I just had to work hard and make some harder decisions to make that a reality.
Ruth’s story underscores how God is at work in the central, life sustaining relationships of our life. As a result, being at “home” is much less about the walls and furniture you surround yourself with, but all about the people with whom you choose to be in relationship.
May God welcome you home today. -Pastor Peter
Let us pray… God of homecomings, help us to find our home in you and in the people you have placed in our lives. May these become the sustaining forces of our lives. Amen.