Holy Homesteading in the Ashes of Eden
St. John Chrysostom’s Vision of the Christian Home & Its Radical Mission of Hospitality

My wife and I just returned home from celebrating our 15 years of marriage on the coast of Lake Michigan. It was a wonderful time to walk along the sandy beaches and dunes and reflect on how God brought us together and where he has taken our family so far. Although our marriage and family are far from perfect, we are thankful that Christ holds us together despite our many shortcomings. This is why we chose 1 Peter 4:8-11 as the primary Scripture passage for our wedding and marriage:
“8 Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining. 10 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. 11 Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.”
We all need to be reminded, especially family members, that ‘love covers a multitude of sins.’ Why? Because we often sin the most against the ones we love the most. They are the ones who see us unmasked and who often take the brunt of our selfishness. Thankfully, God’s supernatural and sacrificial love (agape) is available to us so that our sins do not run rampant and destroy everything we hold dear. Sadly, many families are rejecting this life of grace, and therefore, they experience bitterness, divorce, and eventual collapse.
Clearly, we are no longer living in the Paradise that God originally intended nor can we recreate the innocence of that primordial garden. It has been lost and will not return until our Lord’s feet touch soil again. In the present, we raise our families in the ashes of Eden…between Paradise lost and Paradise to come.
So where do we go from here?
How do we raise a godly family that stays together and is filled with the warmth and light of Christ in an increasingly dark world?
How can we maintain our ‘spiritual fireplaces’ in a place that has frozen over and has become ‘always winter, never Christmas’?
How do we engage and evangelize a culture that has become increasingly hostile toward us and is even stealing our own kids away from us with its seductive temptations & false ideologies?
These are big questions, and there are many serious Christian families who are beginning to think about leaving the big cities and buying properties in the countryside in order to build ‘holy homesteads’ so they can survive the harshness of the upcoming ‘winter.’ They want to grow their own food and livestock. They want to be surrounded by fewer screens and more sunsets. They want to launch homeschooling co-ops anchored in Christ-centered values with other like-minded families. They want to form intentional communities within parishes or new parish missions led by a priest who authentically embraces Christian Orthodoxy in preaching, worship, and service. This is the vision of holy homesteading in the 21st century, and the overall goal is depicted beautifully in the Book of Sirach (25:1):
“I take pleasure in three things, and they are beautiful in the sight of God and of mortals: agreement among brothers and sisters, friendship among neighbors, and a wife and a husband who live in harmony.”
St. John Chrysostom (4th century), arguably the greatest preacher among the church fathers, also had a lot to say about family life, marriage, and Christian hospitality that I think will challenge young families to sharpen their focus on what really matters in building a holy homestead. The Ancient Preacher reminds us that the Christian family cannot simply be about the business of separating ourselves from the fallen world, because we are ultimately a part of it. We too are fallen and in need of grace. We cannot only look upon the evil in the world and flee it, but we must also look upon the evil in ourselves and be healed from it. And it is within the family drama and story that we find the ingredients to become healed and holy. To have a holy homestead, St. John reminds us that we must be focused on our ultimate Home—Heaven which is union with Christ forever in a renewed cosmos.
Chrysostom on the Holy Homestead as the Missionary School of Discipleship
“Always begin by telling her how much you love her... Tell her that you love her more than your own life, because this present life is nothing, and that your only hope is that the two of you pass through this life in such a way that in the world to come you will be united in perfect love. Say to her, ‘Our time here is brief and fleeting, but if we are pleasing to God, we can exchange this life for the Kingdom to come. Then we will be perfectly one both with Christ and each other, and our pleasure will know no bounds…”1
“Pray together at home and go to church; when you come back home, let each ask the other the meaning of the readings and the prayers... Remind one another that nothing in this life is to be feared, except offending God. If your marriage is like this, your perfection will rival the holiest of monks…”
“Be sure that you humble yourself and that your words are full of grace and kindness... If we order our lives in this way and diligently study the Scriptures, we will find lessons to guide us in everything we need!...”
“What sort of person do you think the children of such parents will be?.. For generally the children acquire the character of their parents, are formed in the mold of their parent’s temperament, love the same things their parents love, talk in the same fashion, and work for the same ends…”
“We are so concerned with our children’s schooling [and worldly success]; if only we were equally zealous in bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord… This, then, is our task: to educate both ourselves and our children in godliness; otherwise what answer will we have before Christ’s judgment-seat?”
“For generally the children acquire the character of their parents, are formed in the mold of their parents’ temperament, love the same things their parents love, talk in the same fashion, and work for the same ends.”
Chrysostom on Orphans & Strangers as Family Members of our Holy Homesteads
“Every family should have a room where Christ is welcome in the person of the hungry and thirsty stranger.”2
“He (Abraham) was putting ‘philoxenia’ (Greek word for hospitality literally means ‘love of the stranger’) into practice to such a degree as to be unwilling to entrust to anyone else in the household the task of attending to the guests; instead, although he had 318 servants and was himself an old man, having attained advanced years … friendliness involves sharing one’s possessions with all comers… Since he cast a wide net of hospitality, he in turn was judged worthy to welcome the Lord of all with his angels…. You see, if we practice hospitality, we shall welcome Christ here and He will in turn welcome us in those mansions prepared for those who love Him.” 3
The Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes the approach of Chrysostom in including orphans within the household of God:
“The Christians founded hospitals, and children's asylums were established in the East. St. Ephraem, St. Basil, and St. John Chrysostom built a great number of hospitals. Those for the sick were known as nosocomia, those for poor children were known as euphotrophia, and those for orphans, orphanotrophia.”4
The Apostolic Constitutions, written around the same time as Chrysostom, adds:
“When any Christian becomes an orphan, whether it be a young man or a maid, it is good that some one of the brethren who is without a child should take the young man, and esteem him in the place of a son; and he that has a son about the same age, and that is marriageable, should marry the maid to him: for they which do so perform a great work, and become fathers to the orphans, and shall receive the reward of this charity from the Lord God.” Apostolic Constitutions, Composed in 4th Century but containing earlier material from 1st-3rd centuries5
Chrysostom on the Church is our Ultimate Family & Homestead during Persecution & Trials
“The waters have risen and severe storms are upon us, but we do not fear of drowning, for we stand firmly upon a rock. Let the sea rage, it cannot break the rock. Let the waves rise, they cannot sink the boat of Jesus.”6 (Written while St. John Chrysostom was in exile and being persecuted by the Roman Empress).
“Distance separates us, but love unites us, and death itself cannot divide us. For though my body die, my soul will live and be mindful of my people. You are my fellow citizens, my fathers, my brothers, my sons, my limbs, my body. You are my light, sweeter to me than the visible light. For what can the rays of the sun bestow on me that is comparable to your love? The sun’s light is useful in my earthly life, but your love is fashioning a crown for me in the life to come.”7
http://www.scborromeo.org/papers/St.%20John%20Chrysostom%20on%20Marriage.pdf
Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl (Eerdmans, 1999)
https://issuu.com/jacobswell/docs/jacobs_well_spring_summer_2015/s/3548
From the office of daily readings for September 13, Memorial of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor. An excerpt of a homily by St John Chrysostom
From the office of daily readings for September 13, Memorial of St. John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor. An excerpt of a homily by St John Chrysostom