Friends,

Years ago, I sat in a classroom as our lecturer began his summer course by writing one word on the blackboard: home. He invited us to call out related words to his one. "Love. Peace. Plenty. Eating together. Family. Safety. Forgiveness. The place that when you have to go there, they have to take you in". He wrote our words on the board. He then turned to his classroom full of university summer credit students and gestured to the blackboard and asked, "And how many of you have any of this?" The room was silent.

The course was an introduction to Colossians, the letter in which Paul has a great deal to say about being Christians both in the world, and at home. But also about finding ways to be less "at home" with the power structures of the world, and letting the Spirit of God make its home in the community of the faithful; letting the Spirit of God form the community into that place of Love, Peace, Shared meals, Family, Safety, and forgiveness; that place where when you have to go there, they have to take you in.

For Christians, indeed, for all of us, the notion of "home" can be a complicated one. And I find many of those complications expressed in song. Randy Newman (or Chantal Kreviazuk) singing about searching for (but never quite finding) home in the arms of their beloved. Gonzo singing out his homesickness for a place he's never been, but longs to find. Songs about home often touch on this truth: that while so many of our best hopes are carried in that word, home is also the place we have to leave, or can't return to, or never quite found. And this season of summer travel often means that people are going either to, or away from home.

If your time in the Buckhorn area means coming 'home' to that place that you feel most like yourself, even though it is only your address for a short time, then welcome home. If your time here means leaving 'home' then may you find what you need here, to return back home rested, refreshed, or renewed. If you are a permanent resident here, and summer means that your 'home' transforms around you, then may you find joy in the transformation. Whoever you are, we invite you to gather with us on Sunday at 10am as we worship. We are a community that seeks love, peace, plenty, shared food, family, safety, and forgiveness.

Welcome home.

Naomi Miller, Priest-in-Charge