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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogMid-Week Missive |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 7/21/2010 10:12 AM | Greetings on this hot and going to get hotter day,
I have been thinking about home a lot lately. Not just the place I call “home” but the whole idea of what “home” really is. It probably started about two weeks ago when I was talking to my sister about plans for our annual family reunion at our cottage in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan at the end of July. 16 of the 18 members of the family will be there, the only 2 missing will be our nephew Daniel and his wife Rachel, who are expecting their first baby in September and so can’t travel from Seattle. It is always great when we can all get together, and getting together at Munuscong makes it all the better, because that is one of the places that I definitely think of as “home.” Summers growing up my parents ran a church camp that had once been a fishing and hunting resort owned by my Great Uncle and built by my grandfather. From the 1920’s on, it has been a special place for my family. Today, no less than 8 cottages on the river belong to family members, and come summer, it is our communal gathering place.
The other reason I started thinking about home was watching a video (re-watching really, I’ve probably seen it 10 times between the movie theatre and home video). The video is called “Standing in the Shadow of Motown” and is a documentary shining a light on the group of musicians that comprised the house band for Motown Records in the 1960’s. They called themselves “The Funk Brothers” and they played on hit records by the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, Stevie Wonder (when he was “Little Stevie Wonder”), The Contours, The Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell and on and on and on. Even though they played on more #1 records than Elvis, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones combined, no one knew their names. They were never given recognition or even had their names listed on the album covers. (By the way, this is one movie I would recommend to any music lover.)
While it is an amazing story, and is so moving to see the surviving members reunite for a wonderful concert in Detroit, it is the fact that it’s in Detroit that got me thinking about home. The video showed footage of the Detroit that I grew up in: the auto factories, Belle Isle, Tiger Stadium, downtown. And it made me just the slightest bit homesick. As I watched I couldn’t help think about my hometowns current problems: 20+% unemployment, bankrupt car companies, political scandals of the past mayoral administration, deteriorating housing stock. The city has lost more than half it’s population since I grew up and the Funk Brothers were tearin’ things up. But, even with all that, it is still home, and always will be.
The third thing that has gotten me thinking about home is the cluster meetings we have been conducting to get a handle on who we are, where we are, and where we want to go as a church. In all the groups, at least a couple of times, the same word was used to describe the community of faith that is Brookhaven Christian Church: home. We have heard people talk about this home being the place that provides the soft landing in the midst of crisis. We have heard people talking about being comfortable to come and just be in this church home. We have heard people talk about growing together in this home. We have heard how the church home can be a saving grace when we find ourselves far away from family and our other homes.
That is when it hit me: home is not necessarily about a place. It is about the people. It is about the people who love us and are there for us. Memories of home are sometimes about specific places, but they are always rooted firmly in the people who were there with us. Our place in the U.P. of Michigan is beautiful, but would not be nearly as special without the people who I have shared it with over my lifetime. Detroit has never claimed to be anything except what it is: a factory town that struggles mightily when economic times are tough. But when I think of Detroit, it is the people with whom I shared my hometown that make it an important place. Neighbors, church friends, relatives…they are ones that make Detroit home. And so it is with the church. We are proud (and rightly so) of this beautiful facility. But when it comes to what makes this place home it is the people we sit with in the pews, the people who lend their talents to the choir, the people who lovingly teach the children, the people who pray for us when we are unable to pray for ourselves, the people we enjoy spending time with, the people we share with in Bible study and other groups, the people who are in fact, the church.
When I first moved to Boston in 1985, I was one of two new faculty members in the Political Science department. They gave the two of us offices next to each other and we became good friends. Phyllis had grown up in New York City but had come to Boston for college, grad school and work. She had been in Boston about 12 or 13 years when we met. We were talking one day about where we came from and she was curious to remember what it felt like to be in a brand new city. “Do me a favor, would you?” she asked. “Let me know when you start to think of Boston as home.” I told her I would, and several months later, as I had become immersed in work and new friends and exploring the city and becoming closer to a number of people, I suddenly realized, “This is home.” And the reason it felt that way? The people who surrounded me.
I am happy to be going home this weekend. Carol and I will be gone until we return on Monday August 2nd, and we are looking forward to it with great anticipation. But make no mistake, when it is time to return, it will be to come home. And for that, I give thanks.
For an updated prayer list and list of upcoming activities, please go to www.brookhavenchristian.org
For your prayer list:
Judy Mowrey’s uncle, Kenny Davison, passed away yesterday morning after a long bout with cancer. Please keep Judy’s aunt, Emily Davison, and the whole extended family in your prayers.
Please keep the Spaeth family in your prayers, also. Emma, a four year old relative of Judy Mowrey, has been on our prayer list for some time as she continues treatment for leukemia. In addition, her younger brother has been diagnosed with severe speech problems that will require special therapy. Please keep the whole family, parents Phillip and Mariah, children Emma and Henry in your prayers.
Please keep Jim Knuckles in your prayers as he struggles with health issues
Traveling mercies for Carol and me as we travel north.
Announcements:
Don’t forget: a very brief congregational meeting will be held immediately after worship this Sunday, July 25. The purpose of the meeting is to ratify the board recommendation for filling the unexpired term of an elder and the board secretary.
Are you interested in a new initiative of our Evangelism ministry that simply requires you to be your friendly self? Then come to a meeting following worship on Sunday August 1st to discuss and plan our new “Welcoming Committee”. For more information, talk to Melissa Rodgers.
Our friends the Gideons do wonderful work placing Bibles around the world. For years they have worked to place Bibles n prisons, on college campuses, and as we have all seen, in hotel rooms. If you would like to honor a friend, memorialize a loved one, or simply let someone know you are thinking of them, the Gideons have made this easier than ever. On one of the tables in the main hallway you will find a rack of memorial, recognition and thinking of you cards placed by the Gideons. Inside, you can let someone know that you were thinking of them by donating a Bible. Included in the card is an addressed envelope for you to make your contribution. What better way to honor someone then with the spreading of God’s Word?
I hope you will be in worship this Sunday to once again celebrate the Lord’s Day together. Rev. Jennifer Heinz will preach and her sermon will be titled “Praying for Change” and the scripture passages are Luke 11:1-13 and Colossians 2:6-15. Have a great rest of the week…
There will be no Midweek Missive next Wednesday because one of the really nice features about our Michigan home is that there is no internet or cell phone access! While I am gone, if there are pastoral emergencies, please contact the church office, your Elder, Chair of the Elders Dan Womack, a member of the executive team or Rev. Jennifer Heinz and they will know how to contact me.
Be peaceful,
Brad | | | Permalink | Trackback |
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