Sometimes being a pastor and being a dad can intersect in interesting ways. Recently, my son was commenting on my sermons. Surprisingly, he seems to mostly appreciate my preaching, but in our most recent conversation he remarked, “Dad, you talk about depressing stuff a lot in your sermons.”

What followed was a good conversation about what kinds of things are important in sermons, and more generally the ways and places that God meets us and gets involved in our lives.

Over the past few weeks, we have heard stories about Jesus meeting people in a variety of places. Jesus was walking along the seashore and calling fishermen to be his disciples. Jesus met them where they were working. Jesus went preaching in the Synagogue in Capernaum. Jesus met folks where they worshipped and gathered as a community. This week Jesus goes to the home of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and heals her there. Jesus meets people in their homes.

There has been a habit among Christians over recent decades to draw distinct boundaries between the places and times where we talk about God and where we don’t. Hence the idiom, “We don’t talk about religion and politics in polite company.” Religion, God and faith have been portrayed as private matters; churches are often seen as exclusive clubs where only members are privy to the content and conversations.

Yet, as we can see from the biblical witness, Jesus didn’t seem particularly limited about where he went and talked about God.

When we limit the places where we are willing to invite our faith into the conversation, it means that many people might never hear about God unless they enter into the right places at the right times. Similarly, because we are neither practicing nor in the habit of talking about God, it can quickly get uncomfortable when it is time for God to be the conversation topic.

But perhaps most importantly, when we limit the places where faith can be part of conversation and lives, we quickly forget that God has something to do with all of life – the places we work, the places we gather, the places we worship and in our homes. 

And in those places, there has been a lot of struggle lately. Struggle globally, locally, and individually. My response to Oscar’s comment was that my sermons have a lot of depressing things in them because the world has a lot of depressing things going on. But just naming the depressing things isn’t the point. Rather, naming them reminds us of the hope found in God’s love, mercy and grace, opening up a way to meet us in all areas of our lives. Wherever we struggle and suffer, God comes to meet us, bringing the promise of new life.