Vacations are wonderful things. They are an opportunity to get away, to reflect and to think about how life is going and how we want it to go. Rosie and I are at Long Beach, North Carolina for the next two weeks, a beach where we had a beach house for a number of years, where the kids grew up and where we learned a lot about the ocean and how it affects the land.
There is no question that the ocean is in charge. When we bought our beach house in 1979, we stood out on the deck and we gave it to the ocean. That relieved us of a lot of worry over the years about what was going to happen to the place. I remember every time that there was a storm on the east coast, my stomach would tighten up and I wouldn’t calm down until the storm was passed. Ultimately, it was one of those storms that claimed the house. It was a very large nor’easter that dumped three feet of snow all over the east coast and produced winds of hurricane strength at Long Beach and the house never really had a chance. We had endured a number of hurricanes, one year two in one week, but this was a different sort of storm. We thanked God that we had had the place for fifteen years, and we had so many wonderful memories of the place; but we gave it up and realized that the ocean had finally claimed its own.
So we don’t have a beach house any more, but we have a lot more than that. We have the ability to rent a place down here and savor the memories and enjoy the beach without the worry. That is a great deal in itself.
Jesus never had a beach house. I’m not even sure that he had any house at all. The Gospels tell us about his ministry, but there is very little about his personal life. We know his friends and those whom he met and helped, and those who conspired to bring him down, but where did he live? All over the place is what I would suspect from the stories. Foxes have holes, birds have their nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head, he said at one point. That is certainly in keeping with how he directed himself and his disciples. There was no place to accumulate things, no dining room table, no kitchen. He lived off the kindness of strangers and got through his life as best he could. What was important to him was doing the ministry that consumed his life. Things meant nothing to him. People and their needs were all that mattered to him.
Ultimately, his ministry devoured him. He infuriated the powers that were important in his culture and they crucified him. He knew that this would happen, but he lived his life and conducted his ministry anyway. What was important to Jesus was showing all of us the compassion of God in the ultimate sense. That God Almighty could come down to earth in flesh and live life with us, even through death and still remain God. What is ultimately important is that the God whom we crucified rose from the dead and beckoned all of us to follow. That is the relentless beauty of the power of Jesus message to all of us. Do we think that we are unworthy? Certainly we are. We have broken every one of God’s commandments and we have treated our neighbors with scorn and judgment, but we are still welcome in our Lord’s presence and eligible for God’s forgiveness.
We are getting ready to celebrate the great feast of Easter when we remember the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection. The certainty of our own resurrection is also a part of our celebration. My hope for myself is that I can live my life in the light of that glorious miracle and show the love that God has given to me in the way that I treat all of those who surround me. What else is important? Certainly not a beach house.
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