The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in social isolation for many. For too many it has become normal to rarely leave the house, to rarely have people over, to rarely interrupt our routines. Even among those who haven’t cut back so dramatically, there’s still been an extended period where we’ve gotten used to not being in person with people outside our household as often as we used to. It’s taking a long while for many of us to re-adjust and push back and find a healthy new normal.
Last weekend Jennie and I invited our parish admin Sarah Smith and her husband Steve over to our house for dinner. It was the first time we’d had non-family members over for dinner in we-can’t-remember-how-long. It was delightful. I got to show off my newish outdoor wok setup. Sarah played with our kids, who all love her. They showed off their rooms. They showed off their toys. They showed off their artwork. I talked local history with Steve, a lifelong Tulsan. Our oldest sat through some conversation I would expect him to find very boring, but took me aside afterwards and told me how much he loved it!
Yesterday I finally had a chance to meet Joy member Bill Allen’s mom Betty, who recently moved from Yukon to Bixby to be closer to them. We’d been trying to make that visit happen for months. Meanwhile, Jennie is borrowing the Humphreys’ backyard pool this summer for private swim lessons for the kids. Talk about inviting yourself over!
Here’s the thing: it’s considered impolite to invite oneself over to someone else’s place. But you know what? Jesus did it all the time. Watch him in the Gospels, over and over, he says in intention if not literally in words, “Hey I’m coming over for dinner.” And people do it to him, too–one time, at least five thousand people. So he fed them.
When we first arrived in Tulsa, many of you invited us over for dinner. These days with four relatively little kids, it’s sometimes easier to invite others into our controlled household chaos than to bring it with us somewhere else. Maybe the best place to start with is “Hey, let’s get together” and rather than say “soon” make it specific. Maybe even negotiate the when before the where. Be bold.
As we wrestle with establishing new normals, let’s all be bold about connecting and reconnecting. Honestly I couldn’t be writing this at a worse time. We’re taking our family out of state for at least a week at a time twice over the next couple months. Lots of us will be traveling. But when we’re not, can we be bold enough to invite others to intrude on our routines, or maybe even invite ourselves into others’? Who would you start with?
Pastor Jon
