Hearth and Home – Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

HEARTH AND HOME

Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live,

a place where saints and children tell how hearts learn to forgive.

Built of hopes and dreams and visions, rock of faith and vault of grace;

here the love of Christ shall end divisions;

All are welcome, all are welcome,

All are welcome in this place.1

The council and representatives from the transition team had a wonderful retreat at the end of August. For one activity we broke into three groups. Each group chose a biblical story it felt Holy Trinity Lutheran Church was living and paired it with a hymn.

One group felt the story of Jesus blessing the children (Mark 10:13-16) best exemplified our community and chose Marty Haugen’s hymn, All Are Welcome as our theme song. Another group selected the hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, and referenced Ephesians 6:10-18 in which Paul encourages Christians to put on the whole armor of God. The final group said the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) described our community of faith.

There is a common thread. A Mighty Fortress is our God describes a safe haven, a God who will protect and defend us. The story of Jesus blessing the children is about welcome and finding a home in the arms of Jesus. And, the story of the Prodigal Son is a story about coming home to the welcoming and forgiving Father. All of these stories describe home in some way.

The consistency is fascinating. One of the findings of the CAT survey is that Holy Trinity is a Hearth and Home congregation. As a community of faith, we “value structure and stability” and serve “as guardians of honored traditions of the church, as a shelter from the frenetic pace of change in the world.” We offer a place for people “to come home to”. This can be a gift to many in our northern Virginia mission context where many are transient. This is a faith community that has “the expectations and rewards of a family.” These are our strengths.2

Equally striking is that the Bible story illustrating the both the promise and the peril of a Hearth and Home congregation is the story of the Prodigal Son, one of the stories chosen by retreat participants. The promise, of course, is that like the forgiving and loving father in the story, we will open our arms and our hearts to everyone looking for a home, regardless of their background. Like the father in the story, we will defy convention to welcome the lost. We will take whatever risks necessary to share the love of Jesus with the world.

Yet, since Hearth and Home congregations value structure, stability and tradition, the peril is that we can get caught up in judging others and enforcing the rules, much like the elder brother in the story. We may resist opening our hearts to those who are different, or who bring different gifts to our community, because to do so would mean we would have to change.3

One of the gifts the CAT survey offers is the gift of self-knowledge. Knowing our strengths and our weaknesses allows us to choose more wisely. When confronted with a decision we may want to ask ourselves, are we behaving like the loving father? Or like the elder brother? Such self-knowledge may help us discern what kind of a home, what kind of a community, God is urging us to become.

Let us build a house where all are named, their songs and visions heard

and loved and treasured, taught and claimed as words within the Word.

Built of tears and cries and laughter, prayer of faith and songs of grace,

let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:

All are welcome, all are welcome,

All are welcome in this place.4

Pastor Margrethe

2Russell Crabtree, Owl Sight, Magi Press; 1st edition (2012)

3Ibid.

4Marty Haugen, All Are Welcome, op. cit.