The mother of a groom sidled up to me one day not long ago to mention some-thing in passing. From what she said, I knew at once that she was wizened beyond her years. She said, “My son called me a while ago and said, ‘You know Mom, my fiancé isn’t very neat. I think our house is going to be a mess. I don’t think that she can hear it from me, and so do you suppose you might talk to her about housekeeping?’” The ever-sagacious mother of the groom knowingly replied, “As I recall your own room was pretty messy when you were younger, dear.” He answered, “Yeah, but the rest of the house was always neat.” She wasn’t going to go anywhere near where he wanted her to go, but knowing look told me that she had in mind mentioning that if her son was the one with the problem he’s the one, who ought to roll up his sleeves to do something about it. On this Mother’s Day: Here’s to all the moms in the congregation, who were compassionate enough to provide whatever was needed for their children, loving enough to care for their kids all along the way, and wise enough to draw the line to let them know whenever it was time to do it for themselves. More often than not our moms were the primary ones, who made us at home in our houses growing up.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus said, “If anyone loves me he will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our home with them.” I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it this way, but according to what Jesus is saying here, God is a homemaker – God’s intention is to make us into His home – for God to be at home with us and to help us be at home with Him.

Now as I recall my training in archetypical mental imagery for the interpretation of dreams in therapy and spiritual direction, one common and recurring image that comes up for many people in dreams is the image of a house. Sometimes they’re pretty and neat and tidy, sometimes they’re run down or falling apart, sometimes they’re warm or gloomy, sometimes we’re lost in them and trying to find our way or our way out and sometimes they’re actually on fire. The image of the house in our dreams usually represents our lives – the structure and composition of our lives – how we’re living and how we feel about it.

As the saying goes, a house doesn’t always make a home. People have to make them selves at home in their own lives, and they need to do it over and over -- as their lives change. But lots of times people don’t feel at home in their own lives. They may not feel comfortable in their own skin. They may not feel completely at home in the structure – in the composition and makeup -- of their own lives. Lots of times, too, people are quite content and at home within themselves and the shape that their lives have taken. Still, as with any real house there are things that need to be tweaked a bit from time to time. There’s cleaning, maintenance, repairs and improvements that need to be done in any real house, and that applies to the structure of our lives as well.

Then too, real houses have all sorts of different spaces in them – rooms, closets, cabinets, and drawers. Those spaces are usually dedicated to different aspects of life – to different functions. There are the rooms that we sleep in, prepare food, eat, clean our bodies, relax or entertain others in. There are storage spaces – closets and attics or basements too. Some of those spaces are open to public view – places we wouldn’t mind welcoming visitors to enter. But then there are other spaces, if your house is anything like mine, at least, that you wouldn’t want anyone else to venture into. They’re cluttered and messy. The basement in my house, for example, is such a space. It’s full of all sorts of stuff in boxes. I don’t even know what’s in those boxes, but it’s a mess – boxes scattered all over the place and piled here and there. I think about diving into them, but think better of it when I consider how long and arduous a process it would be to sort though it all – just to see what could be thrown away and what can be used. It makes me wish that I could just ask someone to come in and do it for me.

Well it’s the same with the houses of our lives, as well. Our lives have different rooms in them – different spaces devoted to different aspects and functions of life. And to a certain extent, like rooms, they’re compartmentalized from each other. There’s work, our relationships with our kids or grandkids, our relationship with our spouse, friendships, social activities, entertainment, exercise and recreation, community activities, church, our intellectual and cultural activities and spiritual exercises – just to name a few. Then, too, there are our inner thoughts and feelings, our memories and past experiences stored away in various corners or closets of our consciousness. Some are quite public and others are hidden or secret, perhaps cluttered or even messy, things we don’t often share with others. We may be at home with everything just as it is or some things may be out of sorts, possibly in need of throwing away, cleaning up, organizing, repairing or improving. But the very thought of delving into it all may seem overwhelming. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get someone to come along and tidy things up for us! Well we can. Jesus said, “We will come and make our home with you.” God is a homemaker. God’s Spirit is like a mother who comes to help us arrange our lives -- compassionate enough to provide what we need, loving enough to care for us all along the way, and wise enough to show us whenever it’s time for us to make repairs and improvements or simply to tidy up the houses of our inner personal lives for our selves. This is how the Spirit works. Jesus said, “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” God – Jesus – come to us through the Spirit. The Spirit is delegated with the responsibility to live within us. Since the Spirit is God, the Spirit is the one, who makes God at home within the house of each of our lives and makes us feel at home with God.

So picture this, and if it helps close your eyes: You’re standing inside the entry of a house. It’s the house of your life. The front door is closed, and a knock comes at the door. You open it and it’s Jesus. He says, “Hello, I’ve brought a homemaker with me, today, to help you with your house – to make it more of a home for God and to help you feel more at home here. She’s very experienced, but a bit shy. She’d like you to invite her in. How do you feel about that?” You agree. Then stepping out from behind Jesus is a vigorous little old lady with a twinkle in her eye, perhaps something a bit like Mrs. Doubtfire. Jesus introduces you. He says, “This is Holy Spirit. She’d like to come in and have you show her around.” Holy Spirit comes in and Jesus leaves. The Spirit looks around and says, “Oh, what a ____ house you have here.” How do you feel about that? Then the Spirit asks you to take her around to each of the rooms in your house – each of the various spaces and aspects of your life. Most of the time the Spirit simply looks around, but now and then she asks, “What do you think about that I can help you with that if you like?” It may have to do with cleaning something up or repairing something or better arranging something in your life. It’ll cross your mind pretty quickly and then pass away or it may keep coming up, but nothing will happen if you don’t ask the Spirit for help and pitch in as prompted by the Spirit. Then, of course, there are those storage areas – closets, attics and cellars – the spaces in your consciousness where you store memories, joys, sorrows, pleasures, thoughts, feelings, habits -- things you’ve been holding onto, but only waste space or actually mess up your life, and things that you’ve forgotten about or never knew you had and can use to make life better. Jesus sends the Spirit, you see, to help us with our housekeeping and to make the house of our life a home for us and for God. Let’s invite the Spirit to do the work -- compassionate enough to provide what we need, loving enough to care for us all along the way, and wise enough to show us when it’s up to us.