The Fifth Sunday of Easter - May 7, 2023

Fifth Sunday of Easter
John 14:1-14
The Rev’d Charles Everson
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
Sunday, May 7, 2023

This passage we heard from the gospel of John is a favorite at Episcopal funerals.  I did a quick search of my sermon folder and wasn’t surprised that I’ve preached at no fewer than 10 funerals at which this gospel was read.  

Why is it so often chosen for funerals? 

Because it makes us feel good to hear these comforting words when we’re in sorrow and grief. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says. The disciples were more than troubled when they first heard these words.  Despite the fact that we’re in the Easter season, the setting is Jesus’ farewell address at his last supper with his disciples, and he has just told them that he is going to leave them soon. He has also predicted that one of them will betray him, and another will deny him. The disciples are understandably troubled and anxious. They don't know what is going to happen, or where Jesus is going, or how they will cope without him.
        
In the midst of their despair and anxiety, Jesus comforts them, saying,
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

It feels good to hear “Do not let your hearts be troubled” when you’re faced with grief at the loss of a loved one.  It feels good to hear that Jesus prepares a place for his followers and will come again and take them to himself so that where he is, there they may be too.  It feels good to hear these words when you are troubled.

Yet the disciples were still confused.  Despite Jesus assuring them that they know the way to the place where he is going, Thomas, in his characteristic bluntness and honesty, ask, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

We, too, ask, “What sort of place is Jesus going to prepare for us? And where in the heck is it?” It’s easy to say, especially when someone dies, “They’re going to a better place.”  Or “Heaven has gained another angel.”  This dwelling place Jesus is preparing for is not so much a place as it is a person.

I am reminded of my paternal grandparents’ home which was around for the first 23 years of my life. 8004 Tomahawk Road in Prairie Village, Kansas, where my grandparents Chuck and Trula Everson lived for over 50 years. I remember the phone number – 381-0555 – and this sounds silly, but I think I remember the smell.  No matter what was happening in life, I knew I was “at home” when I was there, and that all was right in the world.  Though I associate objects and smells with this feeling, the feeling wasn’t really about the place itself, but about my grandparents.  When I was there, I felt entirely loved and it felt like home. 

In response to Thomas’ confusion about how to find the way to follow him wherever it is he’s going, Jesus doesn’t respond with a map, or as set of doctrines the disciples should assent to mentally, or some abstract notion of what happens to the soul between the death of the body and the end times.  He responds with himself.  He says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

Jesus is the way to the Father by his death and resurrection through which he paid the price for our sins and reconciled us with God. He has broken down the wall of hostility that separated us from God and from one another and brought reconciliation and wholeness. In the waters of baptism, he has made us citizens of heaven and members of the household of God. Jesus is the way, not so much as a route to somewhere else, but as a pathway to unity with God.

Jesus has revealed the truth about God and about us. He has shown us who we are: sinners in need of forgiveness and redemption. And he has shown us who God is: ever-forgiving, ever-loving, ever-redeeming, not because we deserve it, but because it is who he is. He has shown us what life is about: empowered by the Holy Spirit – whom John refers to as the “Spirit of Truth”, loving God and loving our neighbor, day and in day out.

Finally, Jesus is the life.  As in “eternal life”, or full participation in God’s very being. He himself is this life, and it is in relationship with Jesus that we are invited to be fully united with God in this life and the next.

There are those in The Episcopal Church and other mainline Protestant Churches who cringe when they hear this verse because they are embarrassed because some say that Jesus is saying that only those who call themselves Christian and believe in him can get to heaven. Remember, Jesus isn’t making a public proclamation in the synagogue or before the imperial officials.  This isn’t meant as some sort of doctrinal proclamation about who gets to heaven and how.  Rather, Jesus is comforting his closest friends who were terrified as they were faced with the imminent death of their master and friend.  He continues, “If you know me, you will know my Father.”  And in case there is any doubt, he adds, “From now on you do know him and have seen him.” He is simply telling his disciples who he is.

It isn’t only Thomas who doesn’t understand.  Philip says, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”  Jesus’ humanity comes out a bit in his irritated response: “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?  Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus then echoes something from the beginning of John’s gospel: “No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart who has made him known.”

Christianity is all about relationship with a person, not about following all of the right rules.  Being a member of The Episcopal Church and St. Mary’s isn’t about genuflecting at the right time or supporting just political causes, nor is it about being able to intellectually understand and assent to each phrase of the Nicene Creed, as important as all of those things are – it’s about growing into a deeper relationship with God as he has made himself known to us in Jesus Christ as individuals and as members of this parish and the wider body of Christ.

Dear friends, when you are troubled, be comforted by these words that our Savior said to his friends:
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.