Daily Reading for April 30
As global citizens in the twenty-first century, we’re beginning to realize that none of us lives in a permanent and unchanging home, and that the way we treat our quarters—our oikos—has a big impact on all the other residents of this squatter’s camp. Our ecology and our economy—both have their roots in that same word for house—are dependent on how we live in this temporary house, this parish we call earth. . . .
Being on the road is what the early Christians called their community—“the way” or “the road.” They didn’t come to be called Christians for quite a while. They knew themselves to be aliens, wanderers like Jesus, and like him, they had no place to lay their heads.
The reality of resurrection sometimes comes to us in strange guises, and sometimes it even comes to us as we meet strangers. Most often it has something to do with hospitality—eating together, helping another to find a more stable home, building a community that says we can serve each other even if we’re still ultimately homeless.
From the sermon “Christ in the Stranger” preached in San Diego, California (6 April 2008), quoted in Gospel in the Global Village: On the Road with Bishop Katharine by Katharine Jefferts Schori. Copyright © 2009. Used by permission of Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. www.morehousepublishing.com