Sun, Kristen Marchetti ‘22
of the Gospel. The way Home is rooted in the quotidian calls
to mind the way Jesus’s ministry is also deeply immersed in the
ordinary. To illustrate the kingdom of God, Jesus draws not
on grand, fantastic imagery but on metaphors familiar to the
everyday lives of his audience. He talks about sowing fields,
throwing wedding banquets, and baking bread. He tells stories
about a lost coin, a mustard seed, and a wandering sheep.
Even some of his miracles address rather ordinary concerns.
His first miracle, for instance, involves turning water into wine,
providing a way for wedding festivities to continue and sparing
the host the embarrassment of having run out of drink.
Moreover, Glory’s use of food to minister to her family
echoes the ways Jesus feeds the hungry both spiritually and
literally. He provides food for the clamoring crowds that seek
him out for healing, and later he fries fish on a shore for his
tired disciples. In eating with all sorts of outcasts, from tax
collectors to prostitutes, he declares his love for them. Jesus’s
deep and sacrificial love is on full display in yet another meal:
the Lord’s Supper. He breaks bread, shares wine, and invites
all to his table. Taste and see, indeed, that the Lord is good.
Jack and Glory, throughout Home, learn to be present with
one another, living alongside one another and learning
about one another. Jesus is very much God present among
the people, God with the people, living alongside us so we
might truly learn who he is. From Jesus’s example and
from Robinson’s novel, we are reminded to be present
with one another in the ordinary things. We are reminded
that even the humble and the humdrum can truly be holy.
Naomi Kim is a junior at Brown studying English.
24 Fall 2020