Vessel & Altar

There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written. - John 21:25

John ends his Gospel by naming its incompleteness. The whole world could not contain what was left out. What you have been given is sufficient for faith and life - and it is a fragment of the whole. The knowing that is eternal life is infinite in its depth, and the Gospel you hold gives you the door into it.

Paul ends his journey in Rome receiving all who came to him. That image is worth sitting with: the open door, the received guest, the complete assurance with which the Kingdom is proclaimed to whoever arrives. The woman whose household is that kind of place - who receives all who come, who has the Gospel available for whoever needs it, who is unhindered in what she gives - is living Paul's Rome in her own domestic church.

Tomorrow is Pentecost. The Easter season that you have been living for fifty days is ending. What was given at Easter begins to be lived out in ordinary time. The long green season is the season of receiving all who come, of tending what the Spirit gives, of following without comparing your path to anyone else's.

He received all who came. Who are the unexpected visitors in your life right now - the people who show up needing something you did not plan to give? This week, receive one of them with complete assurance and without the hindrance of resentment or preoccupation. The open door is the domestic witness.

Lord, let my home be a place that receives all who come, with complete assurance, without hindrance. And let me follow you without asking what is happening to anyone else. Come, Holy Spirit - fill tomorrow's Pentecost with everything you have been preparing. Alleluia. Amen.