June 27, 2015

“And Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10

“In the revolutionary times ahead the greatest gift will be to know the security of a good home. It will be a bulwark against all dangers from within and without. The time when children broke away in arrogance from their parents will be past. Children will be drawn into their parent’s protection, and they will seek refuge, counsel, peace, and enlightenment. You are lucky to have parents who know at first hand what it means to have a parental home in stormy times.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945) Letters and Papers from Prison “For All The Saints” volume II (p. 146-147)

The “family homestead” doesn’t carry the same idea that it did 100 years ago. For example, I know that there is a home in Elizabethville, PA that was built by one of my Schreffler relatives — and I refer to it as the “Schreffler Homestead”. I am not sure how my father reacts every time I call it that, but it hearkens back to a time when a family built a home, and it remained in the family for many generations. And I know that my sons remember a home in Millersburg, the home I grew up in, the home my parents built and remained in for 40 + years — they most likely think of it as the “Schreffler Homestead”. Having a home — having a place, or a town, or a location to call home is a foreign idea for many people today. We are not as “clannish” as we used to be, meaning we don’t live in tightly woven clumps of extended family members dating back many generations.

Of course, the reality of the “Millennial Generation” is that children are remaining “at home” for longer periods of time after high school or college graduation — they are not so eager to move out or cannot afford to move out and find a place of their own. The flight out of the cities has reversed some – children are tending to come back home — either because they cannot find work, or they cannot afford to move into their own place due to a lack of “full-time” work. Maybe, as parents of millennials we have an opportunity to give more “counsel” and be a bigger source of “enlightenment” and share our “faith” with our children since they are living with us longer.

What “enlightenment” did you receive from your parents? What do you hope to teach your children about “faith”?

Pastor Dave