FROM THE PASTOR

 

Home is the place we live, and the place we belong. But it’s not until our sense of home is impacted, that we realize how connected we are to it. This year ‘home’ has been in focus for a number of reasons. It's been hard for people unable to get home because of closed borders. Some have had to quarantine in hotel rooms before going home. Others have not been able to leave their home in lockdowns. For these and other reasons, our sense of home has been impacted in 2020.

 

Next year my daughter Christie leaves home to begin her first graduate position in Mt Isa as a Midwife. As her parents, Leanne and I will miss her dearly and our sense of home will change again. This reminded me that our sense of home is also impacted when someone leaves or is missing. As I reflected on the theme of home, I noticed the theme within the Christmas story for the first time. 

 

Mary and Joseph were required to return to their hometown for a nationwide census. They crossed the border and needed a place to stay. While Bethlehem was their hometown, it wasn’t their actual home. I doubt Mary would be travelling while heavily pregnant, unless her and Joseph had no choice. They would have stayed home to prepare for the birth, and remained in contact with a midwife! But instead they ended up in an animal stable, giving birth in the straw and using a feeding trough for a cot. 

 

The Christmas story in year 1, teaches us in the year 2020, that while home maybe a place we long to return to, or get away from, or the dynamics have changed, that it’s actually God’s presence that makes us feel at home. Sometimes it takes being unsettled to realize God is with us wherever we go, and how we can depend on his presence more than our surroundings. Our sense of home changes, but Jesus never does. Immanuel was born outside of a home, but his name means that God is with us. He is our home.     

 

This weekend over twenty of our teenagers are away from home on camp in Maleny. Bek Trevor couldn’t be more expectant about what God will do. Her own life changed when Jesus spoke to her on a youth camp, and she longs and prays the same will happen for our teenagers. Let’s be praying for Bek and the team, and for Pastor Dave Twigg who comes to speak. And let’s pray for all the precious young lives to encounter the presence of God with them, on this very weekend when they are away from home. 

 

From 2012 - 2019 The Grove were based in the house at 131, and we met in the school hall for Sunday services. It wasn’t God’s long-term plan for us, but it still felt like home. In 2020 we have been meeting in an office at Bridgeman Downs, and gathering for services in Mitchelton or watching online. Our sense of home as a church has been impacted this year, feeling more disconnected from the community we care about and are called to.   

 

Yet in this unsettled year, God’s presence has been with us regardless of our location. We are always the church, wherever we go. But perhaps it was important to feel more unsettled this year, to also gain a fuller appreciation of how important home is to the people we are called to reach. Our original call as a church was to resettle abandoned cities (Isa 54:3 MSG). It’s has to be God that the fulfillment of this calling and promise comes in 2021, following the year of greatest unsettling we have seen in our nation. 

 

131 Upper Kedron Road is the place Jesus chose to make his presence known in our community. Not because a building is able to contain God’s presence, but as a permanent home it stands as an invitation for people to come and belong. As they do come, we believe many people will discover that home isn’t a place, it’s a person, and his name is Jesus. Then they will go out knowing, that wherever life takes them, God is with them always. 

 

So church we have a calling to see people who feel abandoned and unsettled come home to God. In practical terms, we will use the building for that very purpose. There are many ways we can play a part in inviting people home.

 

• Letterbox drop a bundle or two of postcards to people’s homes, inviting them to come to Christmas Eve and the new building in 2021.  
• Come and plant trees on December 19 and sign up for the watering roster. Be part of making our spiritual home green and welcoming to everyone.
• We only need to buy another 65 chairs to reach our goal of 420! The chairs are for people to sit on and feel they have come home as they encounter God’s presence.
• Invite a family member or friend to watch or attend Christmas Eve, and to come to church next year. 
• Pray about how you can invest your time, gifts and resources for ministry in our new spiritual home in 2021. 

 

May you know God’s presence with you today.

 

Marty