There has to be love and community for a home to exist. (Natali_Mis/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The late vocalist Luther Vandross sang a song that featured the lyrics “A chair is still a chair even when there’s no one sitting there / A room is still a room even when there’s nothing there but gloom / But a house is not a home when there’s no one there to hold you tight / And no one you can kiss good night.”

What the singer suggests is that we may be in a dwelling; however, for that structure to be a home there are essential characteristics needed.

I want to suggest that a dwelling place, structure, nation, and global community must have essential characteristics if it is to become a home. There has to be love and community for a home to exist.

In our text, Jesus appointed emissaries to go into the mission field in order to proclaim the gospel. They were asked to go directly to the homes of people in order to share the gift of God’s love. Peace transforms a house into a home. The 70 are told to bring peace. Jesus also told them not to bring their baggage. “Do not carry your purse, no bag, no sandals,” move with a singleness of purpose. In other words, don’t bring your stuff to the house; only carry God’s peace and love.

Another characteristic that transforms a house into a home is hospitality. There has to be an openness, as the gospel lesson indicates, to receiving the lives, gifts, and contributions of others. Building a global house requires a willingness to open ourselves to “the other,” the stranger. It requires being open to learning new experiences, challenging our borders, and impressing ourselves with the experiences of others.

Love, Eliminating Our Baggage, Peace, Hospitality, and Being Open to the Gifts of Others are characteristics of creating a home where all are nurtured and accepted.

In 1852 Frederick Douglas gave a speech in Rochester New York during the 4th of July festivities recognizing the 76 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The title of his address was: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.” Douglas emphasized that the celebration of Independence Day is an affirmation of freedom. It is a day that represents our nation’s freedom from bonds of oppression to liberation. In fact, Douglas referred to it as a day of deliverance.

This liberation represented a break from the home government. When the founding fathers found its relationship with England too oppressive and stultifying, they broke away. They liberated themselves. This is similar to what Jesus told the missionaries. If you go to a home where there is no love, nurture, or acceptance, wipe the dust from your feet and move on. God does not expect us to tarry in places where we are not nurtured and affirmed; a place that is not a home.

Frederick Douglas was suggesting that America was not a home because it countenanced the enslavement and bondage of Black people within its national fabric. Enslaving people is antithetical to this soaring ideal of liberation and the idea that all men, all women are created equal. This idea, however, is still illusive for us even today. Douglas was saying that when the 4th of July truly belongs to all of us then yes America will be a home for all of us.

There is a doubling desire for freedom that stirs in our souls. There is a spirit at the core of our being that compels us to liberation. There is something in the soul that cries for freedom, for hope. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “there is a throbbing desire. There seems to be an internal desire within the soul of every human being. It is something that breaks out. Men and women realize that freedom is a basic right.” There is something in all of us that reaches for liberation.

In celebrating our freedom, however, we should never conflate God’s power and the authority of the Church with a nation’s power. Listen to God’s admonishment: “Be still and know that God is God.” If America is to become a home, it must be a place where all of us can grow and prosper. We must become a nation where all have an equal opportunity.

It is not enough to be concerned about what happens to a fetus when it is in a womb; our concern should extend to what happens when that child is born; our obligation should carry the commitment that every child will not grow up in poverty, has adequate health care, fresh food to eat and an educational system that enables them to develop their minds. Our call is to advocate for children in the schools of our nation, so that they do not find themselves on the other end of an AR-15 or any other weapon of mass destruction.

We are called to move out of the comfort of our sanctuaries to confer with the God of love, liberation, nurture, hope, and transformation. This is what creates Beloved Community, a Global House, and yes, a home.

Frederick Douglas said, “no nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot around in the same old path of its fathers without interference…. But a change has come over the affairs of humankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable.”

No church, no people of God can wall itself off from the cries of a people who seek liberation and hope. No church or faith community can be comfortable with people and spirits that are homeless.

Now let me tell you how to build a home. Creating a home requires vulnerability, stepping out of the usual baggage that we carry around. We must also be willing to be people of repair; this requires the creation of a new circumference of community where boundaries no longer keep us from the creative encounter.

Community building requires a theological vision, emotional capacity, and the formative initiative-taking necessary to live with others in mutual vulnerability. Our faith renounces estrangement and pursues reconciliation. When we live in a global home then we can experience transformation. God comes in the picture even when the Church won’t take a stand. God has injected a principle of freedom into the universe. God has said that all men and women must respect the dignity and worth of all human personalities.

This is how we create a home. There are people today who live in a house but not a home. Christ has a place where there is love and acceptance and promise. This is Beloved Community where home is found in celebrating our diversity and God’s unconditional love for us all.

Rev. Dr. Larry D. Pickens is Executive Director of The Pennsylvania Council of Churches