A Rocking Chair Dream

 

When young people come to me requesting to get married, I have a little project that I have them do individually that has them consider their family tree, family traits, beliefs, and the relationships within the family. The couple comes together to share and talk through their individual projects, with guiding reflection questions from me.  At the end of the session, I ask where the couple sees themselves in 5 years, then 10 years, and 50 years?

Along the way there have been couples who don’t include the partner in their 5 year explanation of where they will be or what they will be doing.  Those marriages usually don’t last.

In small towns and rural parishes, the answer – more than once- has been: ‘on our veranda, side-by-side in our rocking chairs.’ On further reflection – the couple points to ‘together’, whether that means in their own house, in an apt., a nursing home or hospital room. And if nothing else, side-by-side, in rocking chairs.

Isn’t that a beautiful image? To come to the latter years of one’s life with a relationship that can just be; where one can sit quietly in another’s company and simply watch the view; in peace, comfort, and contentment?

 

This morning we were told the story of Abram, along with wife Sarai, and nephew Lot, packing up their households and going to a God-promised-homeland, a place flowing with milk and honey --- a future dream where one can sit on their own veranda, side-by-side, with the people they love and watch their fields, the land; in peace, comfort, and contentment. Abram was a man of means.   He had the resources to be able to leave on a journey that would take months. He had pack animals to carry their possessions, provisions, and the people who went with him:  family, hired-hands, and slaves.

In the story we hear of Abram’s complaint of lacking an heir.  It seems crazy to take the risk of such a journey, to go to a new place, when one has no heir to inherit the land. Reading between the lines of the story, it is not that Abram doesn’t have an heir that is the most upsetting to him, it is an internal prejudice that his heir would be Eliezer of Damascus. In the Bible people whom one respects are referred to as so-and-so-the-son-of-so-and-so; here Eliezer is not the son of…; he is mentioned fatherless as, Eliezer of Damascus.  This is prejudicial language given to a slave, someone who is property; to use this term is to see a person as socially dead.

 

Regardless of this hiccup - Abram, whether or not he has a child, has the resources to live the ‘rocking-chair dream.’

 

But for many in Abram’s time a ‘rocking-chair dream’ was beyond imaginable. To lack children -an heir- would be problematic and cause a couple a lot of stress and fear.  It had nothing to do with having someone to hand on possessions to, but rather having someone to care for them as they aged, or provide food and shelter if they became sick or unable to work; grown sons were social security for wives/mothers and young children who had no income of their own. An heir was their social security net.

 

 

Translating the Abram story to the Canadian context, I think about the movement of people during pandemic. People leaving urban centres or busy lives--- being able to work from home was the incentive to take the opportunity to buy homes on the East Coast. It takes resources to move from one province to another. I have a couple of friends who did this very thing. My friends have an image that life will be good – flowing with milk and honey- as they transition towards retirement. They have the resources to believe in ‘a rocking-chair dream.’

 

But for many a ‘rocking-chair dream’ is beyond imaginable. Hardworking people in regular jobs are using more than 50% of their paychecks for rent. Rent in Halifax has jumped in the past year, where if you were lucky to have a 2 bedroom apartment for $1000/month; it is now over $1500 a month. The average 2 bedroom is approximately $2000/month. Renovictions are in the news too, where apartments are renovated, rents raised, and the people who had lived there can no longer afford to be there. Making minimum wage and working 40hrs a week for a month is just over $2100 a month. Regular workers are forced farther and farther from their jobs to find affordable places to live. And places to live -any kind of place- are in short supply.

Those who have relationship resources (families, friends, co-workers) have turned to multi-generational arrangements or communal living out of necessity, whether it is two households merging and sharing resources, or elders moving in with adult children, or adult children moving back home. There are people on constant journey: staying 3 months at one friends, then moving to a family member’s house for 3 months, then to another house for 3 months.

Thinking about the long view is troubling when facing survival in the present. Security is for those who have resources and this too can be troubling.  How many of you have done the math, to figure out if you have enough pension to last though to death? And if you live longer than the age you use to calculate your monthly pension, what then? 

The current reality is that verandas or front porches are inaccessible luxuries, even balconies are in short supply. A ‘rocking-chair dream’ is beyond comprehendible.  Sitting side-by-side on a park bench is difficult too, as benches in cities are becoming homes.

 

As always, the Bible doesn’t just tell a story, to tell a story; the story has a moment of turning, where the story and peoples’ understandings are flipped upside down. In the making of covenant with Abram, God tells Abram that he will have blood descendants and that there will be a period of 400 years where those descendants will be slaves. Abram’s prejudice toward ‘slave’ would become prejudice against his own. God is clarifying that lineage and slave do not disqualify people from inclusion in God’s covenant family.

 

By Jesus’ time, Abram’s descendants had been slaves in Egypt, been exiled/enslaved to Babylon, Assyria, Persia, and were now living in occupation under the Romans. The Gospel of Luke continually has Jesus sitting side-by-side with the widow, the orphan, the sick, the destitute, women.  He tells parables that turn stories upside down, where the theme includes breaking down prejudice and clarifying that lineage, slave, marginalized does not disqualify a person from inclusion in God’s covenant family.

 

From today’s reading Luke reminds readers that Jesus is connected to the prophets – living as a prophetic voice and acting prophetic action. Jesus tells listeners, “How often I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

The marginalized, the precariously housed, those sleeping on the streets, the underemployed, hear the words as comfort, because they have experienced Jesus being a mother hen to gather, shelter; giving comfort, hope, and promise to those who have been excluded from God’s house and covenant people. Those with resources ignore Jesus, and have no will to listen, because the listeners know the covenant and the image of God as mother hen is connected to God’s ‘rocking-chair dream.’  The ‘rocking-chair dream’ is about a living covenant: love God, love neighbour.

Early in the Gospel, Luke provides the theme and direction of the Gospel message by quoting a passage from Isaiah: the spirit of the Lord anointed me to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, give sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, and proclaim year of Lord’s favour. It is a message that is received by those marginalized; divisive and controversial to those with resources;  and dangerous for those who act out this Gospel – for Jesus’ it led to capital death.

 

In our context, when speaking of those seeking affordable housing, the precariously housed, the homeless – there is prejudice. God is clarifying that having resources or a lack thereof does not disqualify someone from inclusion in God’s covenant family. We are reminded of the importance of relationship – whether to friends, family, the enslaved, the marginalized- and that relationship is a resource.

How can we as individuals and a faithful community be life-giving and provide ALL with hope: to see and realize comfort and stability, able to participate in the ‘rocking-chair dream?’

Church relationships, sharing our spaces, being willing to give up personal freedom to lend a room, rent a room, house relations, immigrants, help youth and seniors find affordable housing, help off-set rent for someone in the community, offer a bed for 3 months, loan a trailer, have a live-in caregiver, combine resources with others, those who live alone consider sharing apartments- so apartments open up for others; and then outside our own homes to lobby, fill out HRM visioning surveys, advocate for a living wage, demand affordable housing. 

Are we going to allow the readings from today to unsettle our notions and prejudices? Are we going to allow the Gospel to up-end our practices to consider housing ourselves in different ways, to cooperatively act and live to relieve housing stress?

 

When I think about a ‘rocking-chair dream,’ in latter years sitting side-by-side in another’s company simply taking in the view; in peace, comfort, and contentment --- I can’t help but think of the sprawling verandas on farm houses where there is room for more than two rocking chairs. Where there is room for many, many chairs; many couples, many families, many relations.

 

This is the dream, the big picture, God is calling Abram to; calling us to be a part of;

Building – a veranda – where all are invited, all are included, to come and relax; in peace, comfort, and contentment – gathered together under God’s mothering wings.