Friday, August 7, 2009

Housekeeping & Remembering

"Work is sacramental as well. In a traditional Christian understanding, sacraments are points at which material and spiritual things come together and God is present and active in particular ways. Christians usher new members into the church by baptizing them with water. Christian worship is centered on a meal of bread and wine. These physical objects and practices remind Christians of God's past and present faithfulness and undergird their hope for the future: the wedding supper of the Lamb, the new life with which God promises to clothe each of us.

Other practices, while not sacraments properly speaking, may in a similar way allow physical objects and actions to link believers to Christian memory, hope, and present faithfulness. The work involved in making a home can be such a practice. The provision of home is a central aspect of God's creative and redemptive activity. Housekeeping can provide a way of remembering, anticipating, and participating in the kind of home-providing work that God does."

-- From "Keeping House - The Litany of Everyday Life" by Margaret Kim Peterson

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