Year A, Easter 5
John 14:1-15
“Do
not let your hearts me troubled.” I have preached this text more than any other
text in the Bible, but only once on a Sunday.
Every other time it has been a funeral.
It is appropriate for a funeral.
Not only does it provide these comforting words by Jesus, but Jesus
assures his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them---which most
people interpret as the afterlife, heaven.
When I read it this week, I had to laugh. Because the way I wanted to
start this sermon was, “Be troubled, be very troubled.”
We are in the midst of
the greatest crisis of my generation, and probably several generations. Just this week we learned that the
unemployment rate is 14% and 78,000 people have died…in 3 months. I will not bog you down with numbers and
statistics—my job is not to depress you more.
It is to provide hope---to find the good news. That is what the Gospel
is---the good news. Right now, I am having a hard time with that.
Have
you ever noticed that typically, when people tell you not to worry, it’s
because there is something you should definitely be worrying about? When Jesus told his disciples “Do not let
your hearts be troubled,” there was something very troubling that was going on. This gospel reading is part of the farewell
discourse. In the Gospel of John, Jesus spends several chapters preparing his
disciples for his death, more time than any other gospel does. It was a very
long good bye. This farewell discourse
occurs at the end of the Last Supper. It comes after Jesus washes the feet of
his disciples--- after Judas leaves to betray him --- after Jesus confronted
Peter and told him that he would deny him.
It comes the day before Jesus was to die a horrific death. Jesus had much to be troubled by. This is not some platitude coming from
someone who is safe and secure. This is coming from someone about to die a
violent death.
He
could have easily said, “Be troubled. Be
very troubled.” But he didn’t. Granted, he is God, but he was also human.
How was he able to provide such an assurance at a time like that? Jesus is not
known for empty promises. God always
kept his promises. The next words out of his mouth were, “Believe in God,
believe also in me.” Another
translation, is trust. He is asking his
disciples to trust him. He is asking
them to trust that whatever may happen, he will not abandon them. Not only that, he is preparing a place for
them.
Then
Thomas (good old Thomas) asks the question that was probably on everyone’s
mind. “Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way.” Jesus responds with, “I am the way, and the
truth and the life…” It is a beautiful
statement, but I don’t think it clarified things for disciples. They still had
more questions. Philip wanted Jesus to
show them the father. Jesus seemed a
little baffled by this question. After
trying to explain himself he finally said, “Believe me…” Once again, it comes
down to trust. Every time they pushed
him for more details, he told them to trust.
Right
now, we are all about plans. The federal
government is planning. The state government is planning. The local government
is planning. And even the churches are
planning. Our bishop recently put
together a task force together to create a plan with various scenarios. At our last staff meeting, we talked about
different plans. We want to know the way
out of this hellscape we are in. I get
it, I like plans. I really like plans. I am not one of those “go with the flow” kind
of people. I want to know where the flow is going, how fast it is going and
whether there any alternate flows. But
right now, I am having a really hard time with all these plans. Maybe it’s because there is so much
conflicting information. Maybe I just don’t like the plans. I am not sure.
However,
I find comfort in this reminder from Jesus when he is asked about his plans. He
doesn’t explain the plan. He says, “I am
the plan….” Actually he said, “I am the
way, the truth and the life.” That is
better than a plan. That is what I am holding on to right now. That is the good news we need.
At the very beginning
of this sermon, I said I was having a hard time finding the good news. That’s not quite true. I know the good news, but sometimes, I have hard
time holding on to it. However, in this
moment, I am confident, that (the way, the truth and the life) is what we
should be clinging to. I am not telling you to ignore all the experts out
there. I am definitely not saying that. What I am saying is that when you are
in the depths of despair, plans and details are not the good news that will
drag you out.
I
talked to someone yesterday who told me he felt lost. I reminded him of Jesus’
words here, not because I was trying to save his soul, but to let him know his
soul was already saved and the path was before him. It was only in reminding him that I realized
how lost I felt and how comforting and life giving these words truly are. “I am
the way, the truth, and the life.” That statement wasn’t meant to be some
litmus test for salvation. It’s an
affirmation for each one of us, that we are not meant to have all the
answers. We are not meant to know the
exact plan and the path. Like the
disciples who were with Jesus, our job is to follow the light, the light that
is Jesus. We are in a dark time when nothing looks the way it should. Our land seems foreign and ever so lonely.
Everything is changing so fast (yet somehow times goes so slowly). But our God remains a constant. The way. The truth. The life of Christ are
our constant. God is the only plan, the
only way that really matters.
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