5Easter2008

Fifth Sunday of Easter April 20, 2008

Deuteronomy 6:20-25

Psalm 66:1-8

1 Peter 2:1-10

John 14:1-14

N.T. Wright, Bishop of Durham in northern England, tells a story from his adolescence. He and a bunch of his friends were on their way back to a friend’s house. There were two carloads of them, relaxed and happy after a soccer match (which most of the world calls football,) They were in high spirits because they had won. The match had been at another school several miles away, and rather than going back to their school, and from there to their homes, they had arranged to stay with one member of the team who lived much closer to where the game had been played.

He said, “There’s plenty of room for all you.” But there was some concern. They had been imagining that he lived in an ordinary house on an ordinary street. Even with an extension built on the back, as some of their friends had done, ordinary houses only had four bedrooms, five at the most. How could he manage to squeeze in ten of them? Were they all going to sleep on the living room floor? What would his parents say?

They turned into the driveway and then they realized. This wasn’t an ordinary street and it certainly wasn’t an ordinary house. It was a mansion. His friend grinned a bit shyly.

“Told you there would be room, didn’t I?”

They all tumbled out and he took them upstairs: Long corridors, lots of rooms. Wright and his teammates couldn’t believe it. It was like a hotel. His father’s house.

That’s the image Jesus is using in this morning’s Gospel lesson. He is going away, and the disciples are naturally anxious about where he is going and whether they will be able to follow him.

If you would turn to this passage from John 14, we can take a look at this. This is from a section of John's Gospel called the "Farewell Discourse." Jesus is not speaking to the world, as He does in the first part of John's Gospel. Here He is in retreat in the upper room at the Last Supper and there are many things that need to be said. Although He makes reference to what's about to happen to Him, His primary concern is about giving comfort to His disciples.

I want to focus specifically on the first couple of verses.

If you note, there is an interesting sequence of commands and promises. "Jesus said, '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." (John 14: 1-3)

It's an interesting sequence between command and promise.

Let's look first at the commands.

Don't let your hearts be troubled

Believe in God

Believe in me.

Then there are three promises.

In my Father's house there are many dwelling places

I go and prepare a place for you

I will come again, and I will take you to myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

First the commands.

1. "Do not let your hearts be troubled." In the English translation, this seems like an earnest plea, but it really is terse instruction. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Remember, Jesus is talking to committed disciples, not just to folks who admire Him.

Imagine that you are in the upper room with Jesus right before He is to be scourged and crucified. Most church art and secular film portray this as a serene scene. It's an environment of utter calm. All the disciples are murmuring quietly and slowly. Jesus is chuckling and telling amusing anecdotes. His speech is low and captivating.

I don't think so. I'm guessing that the air was electric with tension. I think the sweaty, adrenalin-pumped smell of fear permeated the room. I think that the disciples' voices were high pitched with anxiety. I think their gestures were sharp and rapid. Jesus is saying, rather forcefully, "Calm down! Calm down!" Do not let your hearts be troubled!

2. Then he says "Believe in God." Again, this is an imperative. "Stand firm. It's going to get tough, but God will empower you in the midst of this maelstrom that is about to hit." As an aside, I would remind you that to say that you believe "in" God is quite different than saying that you believe that God exists. It's like me saying, "I believe in you." That is a lot different than saying, “I believe that you are sitting in that particular pew." To believe in God implies that you trust God.

3. Jesus then says, "Believe also in me." Again, this is an imperative, a command. Underlying this is the central theme of John's Gospel, which is that Jesus is God. Eventually, we have come to understand that Jesus, as the second person of the Trinity, is actually the full presence of God.

But I can assure you that the disciples were not pondering this carefully nuanced argument about divine substance and person that came to be the focus of the church 300 years later. Jesus was telling them this. Just as you believe in God, believe in me.

Don't let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe in me. I think that you would be able to feel the tension in the room deflate as everybody exhales.

He then gives them three promises.

1. "In my father's house there are many dwelling places." Some of you may remember the old King James translation of this passage, "In my Father's house there are many mansions." This is from the Latin "mansiones" which Jerome translated from the Greek "mone." I think the translation I would have used is "nice digs." Don't you think that rolls off the tongue well? In my Father's house, there are nice digs.

Whatever, the promise is that as baptized disciples, people who are committed to Christ, we will have a place that we can call home. All of us know what it's like to be in a house that's not our own. Maybe you've spent time in barracks or a dormitory. Very few of us have not spent the night in a motel room.

It surrounds you: strange sounds; strange smells; strange lights. For me, the worst part is the bed. It's not my blankets, it's not my pillows and the mattress is never quite right. Jesus's promise is that these digs will be yours. Whether this passage is metaphor or literal truth, the promise is that you have a place, you belong.

2. His second promise is that He will prepare a place just for you. This is where it gets very personal. The best illustration I could come up with is, "Have you ever had custom made clothing?" Here's one of my experiences with it.

I used to be a power weight lifter. There was a period about 35 years ago when I had a 51 inch chest and a 34 inch waist. When I'd try to buy a suit off the rack, they'd have to get a coat large enough for my upper body, but they'd have to cut the pants down so much that the pockets would literally meet in the back.

Then I met Sal Puma, master tailor. Sal had worked in tailor shops since he was 6 years old. His father in law needed heart by pass surgery, but there was a big foul up with the Medi-Cal system in California where we were living, and they would not cover him.

I went to work and got the guy covered and Sal wanted to express his gratitude by hand sewing me a tailor made suit as a thank you gift. It was a navy blue 3 piece wool suit and I wore it for at least 3 times a week for about 10 years.

Off the rack suits are made for a million guys. This one was made for me. No alterations, no bulges, no pockets touching in the back. Perfect.

If you think that suit was nice, just imagine the tailor made place Jesus has just for you.

3. His third promise is that He will come back and take us to Himself so that where is, we may be also.

He adds a curious caveat to this promise. He says, "If it were not so, would I have told you...? Why did he say that? I think that Jesus saw doubt in the eyes of his disciples. We all can read skepticism. It's so easy to say, at least to ourselves, "Yeah right. That's going to happen."

So here is the place for trust. Jerry Bridges in his book appropriately named "Trusting God" has some important observations for us.

He writes:

"Whenever I teach on the subject of a personal holiness, I always stress that we are responsible to obey the will of God, that we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit for the enabling power to do it. The same principle applies in the realm of trusting God. We are responsible to trust Him in times of adversity, but we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit to enable us to do so."

"Again, let me emphasize that trusting God does not mean we do not experience pain. It means that we believe God is at work through the occasion of our pain for our ultimate good. It means we work back through the Scriptures regarding His sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness and ask Him to use these Scriptures to bring peace and comfort to our hearts. It means above all that we do not sin against God by allowing distrustful and hard thoughts about him to hold sway in our minds. It will often mean that we may have to say, 'God I don't understand, but I trust you.'"

Sometimes the only way to really get in touch with this is to go on a retreat. To physically get away, to go to a place of prayer and reflection can set the stage for God's wonderful acts of love to penetrate our lives. The disciples did it in the upper room.

I encourage you to find some place, maybe even in your own house, where you can be away from the demands and intrusions of the world, and ponder these comforting words from Jesus.

"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 and prepare a place for you. I will come again and will take you to myself so that where I am, you may be also."

Amen.