I picked up a book by Frederick Buechner at the library last week. It's called The Longing for Home, and so far it is an odd collection of memoir, fictional poetry, and a letter to Buechner's grandson, written when the he was born to be opened on his 21st birthday. This collection is one more article of proof that I am not the first and will not be the last human to be homesick for a place that doesn't exist.
My own homesickness hit me hard shortly after I left my childhood home, a punch to the gut particularly because after living in that home for twelve years, I moved out and my parents moved out as well and sold the house. I have been pining for it ever since and trying to come to grips with the fact that this earth, in its present state, is not my permanent home anyway. But I will continue this thought in a different writing. For now, I want to share three quotes from Buechner's collection.
In speaking of waiting for his writing to come, whether while he is writing a novel or a sermon: I am simply letting an empty place open up inside myself and waiting for something to fill it. He speaks to the process of letting the Holy Spirit bring what he could have never possibly written by his own power - and he speaks to the fact that often, his best writing catches him by surprise. He talks about how people write him letters to thank him for the works he has written, and he is rather embarrassed and doesn't want the credit, because he is only a puppet for the spirit of God to work through. This reminds me a little bit of Elizabeth Gilbert describing the Greek concept of a daemon, which is an irrational idea from a rational people and makes me believe in God.
The home we long for and belong to is Christ's kingdom, which exists within us and among us as we wend our prodigal ways through the world in search of it. The kingdom of God is already among us, in the simple and the ordinary, as well as the extraordinary - which, after all, the extraordinary is often simply the grace-filled continuation of the ordinary longer than we thought we would have it. And, we are searching for something that is already within and among us, yet the searching is a part of what we are looking for - it is a part of our humanity.
We search to believe in something holy and beautiful and life-transcending that will give meaning and purpose to the lives we live. If humanity is the icon of the Father's love for the Son and the Son's love for the Spirit and the Spirit's love for the Father - how magnificent - then humanity is already something entirely holy and beautiful just by being alive. We need not transcend life to find the meaning and purpose with which to live because life itself is the meaning and purpose - it is holy and beautiful and all of that. Amen.