In the Gospel Jesus is preparing disciples for his death. He tells them that, in part, his departure includes a benefit to them. He says, “I am going to prepare a place for you.” It should not be surprising, Jesus spent his life preparing a place for people here on earth.
Jesus was a homemaker. He started a ministry that helped make a home for people, the Community of God. It is a communion of diversity; men and women, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor. Not all people contribute to co-creating such a home. This includes self-titled christians of Jesus’ time and our own. Some of the men then stopped making a home and started making a courtroom. The spent their time making judgments on law, doctrine, and dogma. The men were committed to lawmaking while they rejected the task of homemaking. Widows, orphans, and those who were poor were being neglected in the Community of God because some of the men prioritized arguing points of ideology. They made the non-Christ-like claim that lawmaking is their primary ministry and they assigned others to the homemaking. Their claim resulted in perpetuating a non-Christ-like priestly class for a non-Christ-like institutional Christianity. Giving care to ideas need not be to the exclusion of giving care to people. Giving care to people, homemaking, is usually thought to be women’s work. It is often the name given to women, homemakers. Women prepare home for family, immediate and extended, and well beyond. Woman prepare home in houses no matter their size, in businesses no matter their importance, in prayerful spaces no matter their role. Women prepare places of welcome and warmth where sisters and brothers no matter their age can be nurtured in their identity. Men obviously do this too but are less affirmed for doing so. Let us affirm homemaking for men and women.
“I am a woman, and my place is in the home And my home is the whole wide world. We are world shapers We are change makers We are potters spinning clay We are dreamers of a new day … We are tenders of the earth We are women giving birth … We are stirring the pot We are keeping the fire hot We are holding a child’s hand We are the rhythms of the land We are laughing, crying We are taking the time to play We are singing, we are sighing We are making our own way Politician, volunteer, refugee, and engineer In the streets and on the air We are everywhere … We are rule breakers We are home makers We are healers of the earth We are mid-wives at the birth We are women, and our place is in the home And our home is the whole wide world.” (A Woman’s Place – Sara Thomsen)
Prayer: Spirit of Home, may we always be homemakers.
Question: How can I grow as a homemaker?
May 14, 2017 Gospel John 14:1-12 5th Sunday of Easter