July 26, 2023

Finding A Home

Dear Brothers and Sisters,


Last week Bonnie and I spent several days at Blackwater Falls State Park in northern West Virginia (close to Davis and Thomas). Those were days filled with blissful solitude and thorough enjoyment of the surrounding beauty.


On one investigative foray, we drove down a gravel road that paralleled the Blackwater River. We ended up at a secluded spot on the banks of the Blackwater. The sights and sounds of that place were almost surreal in their impact. Have you ever visited a location that spoke of another place, another time, perhaps endless time? A place that provokes a nostalgic yearning for created life as it was meant to be? I left that spot with those images deeply ingrained in my soul.


Over the last number of months, I have also been reading Henri Nouwen's devotional “Bread for the Journey.” His direct and simple wisdom has also ministered to my being. In one of his readings “Being Sent Into the World,” he says the following, “Each of us has a mission in life. Jesus prays to his Father for his followers saying, ‘As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world’” (John 17:18).


We seldom realize fully that we are sent to fulfill God-given tasks. We act as if we were simply dropped down in creation and have to decide how to entertain ourselves until we die. But we were sent into the world by God, just as Jesus was. Once we start living our lives with that conviction, we will soon know what we were sent to do."


John 1:14 says it like this. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”


And so, what does the yearning produced by the sights and sounds of the Blackwater River, Henri Nouwen and John 1:14 have to do with each other?


John penned these words of John 1:14 against the backdrop of several controversies, chief among them the belief among some of John's Greek audience that it was impossible for a God to take on human form. Jesus' body was not a real body and was but a phantom. Jesus could not feel human emotion or participate in the human condition, e.g., experiencing hunger. This is sometimes called Docetism and has been present in various forms throughout church history.


John's words resonate powerfully in responding to those claims. Not only did Jesus partake fully in our human condition, but in so doing he demonstrated the very character/essence (glory) of God. As William Barclay says in his Bible Study commentary on the Gospel of John, “In Jesus we see God living life as He would have lived it if He had been a man [human being]” (The New Daily Study Bible). Jesus' life, as a human being among us, revealed the very nature of God.


And so … On several occasions, I have identified a common theme that I have heard/sensed in the District. “I wish to have a place that I can truly call home” is uttered in a variety of ways—a longing for that place of belonging. The grandeur of the Blackwater River triggered that kind of response in my soul. A desire for a world that speaks of that kind of harmony, peacefulness and serene beauty. A place that speaks of the Garden thousands of years ago.


How do we respond to, what I believe, is that common longing among us? The Gospels do not stop with the call of Jesus and identifying his mission. At the end of John 1, a transition is already underway. Andrew, Cephas (Peter), Andrew and Nathanael were tapped on the shoulder by Jesus and became the first among others to be called.


To what end, you might ask? At the conclusion of the Gospel of John (John 21), Peter is asked three times whether he loves Jesus. Each time he responds, rather forlornly, you know that I do. Jesus instructs Peter, “Then feed my sheep.” Peter's instructions are clear. Continue the work of Jesus upon Jesus' departure.


Those instructions did not stop with Peter but continued with us. In the words of Nouwen, we are sent into the world just as Jesus was. Each of us has a mission in life that reveals to our world the very character of God. I cannot imagine a more sacred trust than that.


That yearning in our soul for a home is finally, most fully addressed, through understanding our call as human vessels containing the very nature of God. It is claiming our vocation, as Jesus did, to identify and live out the mission God has called us to.


These are not new words in the Church of the Brethren. However, may this serve as a reminder that our unity, our home, begins with our shared vocation as imperfect, sinful human beings carrying the glory of God in our beings.


In Christ,


John Jantzi

District Executive Minister

Shenandoah District

Continuing the Work of Jesus.

Simply. Peacefully. Together.

Contact the Shenandoah District

We are here to help!

Phone: 540-234-8555 | Email: districtoffice@shencob.org

Shenandoah District website: www.shencob.org

Staff Schedules: https://shencob.org/staff-schedule/

Click on the links below to email a staff member:

John Jantzi

Jon Prater

Sarah Long

Anita Landes

Gary Higgs

Debbie Munson

Rebecca House

Brenda Diehl

Scripture is taken from the

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.



New Daily Study Bible, Westminster John Knox Press; Large Print edition (May 15, 2019).


Email header by B. Diehl