Dwelling Houses – places of meaning
Every fortnight people from a farming background, or who have a heart for the countryside in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, offer a personal reflection on faith and rural life. They hope that you will be encouraged by it.
The use of the term ‘dwelling house’ is perhaps more commonly used in the countryside than in towns and cities. Growing up, I remember directions to a field to work in might have been, “go past the dwelling house and it’s the next field on the right”. Perhaps in other areas of life, it may seem like an unusual term of reference but it is significant in farming circles.
The dwelling house, or dwelling place, would have referred to the house where people lived, as opposed to where animals might be kept - the pig house, hay shed, byre or the cattle house, for example.
There is a beauty in the word ‘dwell’ - it means to slow, to linger, take time to ponder. A dwelling house therefore is more than just a shelter from the elements. For farming families, it is a place of business, where debates arise over new investment, where paperwork is filed and FQAS records kept in order.
Our homes, whether we are based on farms or not, are more than just places we go to sleep and have our meals, they are places that we dwell. They are important places to enjoy family time, celebrate special occasions, rest and recuperate.
The Bible also uses the term dwell a lot - in the poetic Psalms as well as in the New Testament. Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”
Whilst it is the desire of Christians to dwell with God for eternity in heaven, God hasn’t left us on our own. He has given us His Holy Spirit to help and guide us through our days here and now on earth. Tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday and it is observed 50 days after Easter Sunday to commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and other followers of Jesus. The Holy Spirit is referenced throughout the Bible as an advocate and comforter, a helper for Christians as they navigate life.
It was the famous English preacher CH Spurgoen who referred to the Holy Spirit as “the adorable third person of the divine trinity”, the others being Father God and Jesus the Son.
Pentecost Sunday is a reminder to the wider church of how the Holy Spirit connects us and how together, we are to be ‘dwelling houses’ for the Holy Spirit. Written in Ephesians 2:22 is the concept that Christian lives are woven together collectively and metaphorically to form a building that the Holy Spirit can dwell in. “And in him [Jesus] you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Perhaps God, through the Holy Spirit, has been speaking to you in the circumstances you find yourself in and you have heard the gentle call to follow Him. The promise of the Holy Spirit to dwell with you is a great comfort through the challenges that life brings us, both on and off the farm. The beautiful invitation to be part of God’s dwelling house is one not to be turned away. There is peace and joy to be found and eternal life.
Rebecca McConnell was raised on a mixed farm in Rathfriland, County Down and is a freelance PR and social media consultant, running her own company, Purple Rain, since 2011. She is a member of First Rathfriland Presbyterian Church and is an officer in their Girls’ Brigade Company.
If you would like to talk to someone about any of the issues raised in this article, please email Rev Kenny Hanna, PCI’s Rural Chaplain at [email protected] or call him on 07938 488 372.