‘for there is nothing dearer to a man than his own country and his parents, and however splendid a home he may have in a foreign country, if it be far from father or mother, he does not dare about it.’ (Homer, Odyssey, book IX)
I read that in the context of studying the exile of the Israelites and with out much need for interpretation it seemed true. The thing is as a Christian displacement is a part of the message. Jesus asked us to leave father and mother-the security and our idea of home is search for something better amidst the ages. Richard Hays addressing the ethical resolve of the book of Revelation says, ‘it calls them [the first christians] to an alert resistance to the seductive powers of the present age and an active obedience to a merciful God who wills to make all things new.’
So the question of marriage comes to me, and for some reason has been brought up more that normal these past few months. I think I am pondering the idea a bit more and people have groan worried about me-these happen to be my married friends. But marriage, the way I have seen it displayed, is partly a commitment to share home with the person you are committed to through union: sexual, monetarily, emotional…etc. And I can almost hear Paul, ‘those who are married be as if you are not…for the present age is passing away’ (1 cor 7). Or in other words, the kind of home you build with another person is not the kind of home that has all the typical characteristics as the homes of this world. They function differently with kingdom ideas or a come age filter that says yes to the right things. The beauty of it all and the reason why this Homer quote doesn’t quite fit is because the home God envisions, family or single or otherwise, is a home with his rule and reign in mind. That moves, willing goes into ‘exile’ because that is where the kingdom life shines the brightest, it is where kids get adoption and the widow is welcomed.
