It was the funeral for President Gerald Ford where I first realized the importance of what this passage from John’s gospel was saying. There were former Presidents and other world leaders at the service and there were these words being spoken more powerful than the most powerful man in the world. Those words of promise, spoken in that atmosphere of power and influence, held greater value because of their simplicity and the intimately personal meaning they held for the one to whom they were directed. In this case, the President of the United States of America.
The truthful meaning of that promise drew the air of worldly influence right out of that gathering, Jesus has gone before us to prepare a place for us in heaven. Jesus has gone before us to prepare a place for us where we will be with him forever.
The extremely good news of these words and Jesus’ promise is that he has extended his power to include all of us, the highest and the lowest, Presidents and paupers alike. We all have a place with God in heaven. God’s power gives eternal life, and gives it abundantly.
John gets directly to this point in this morning’s gospel. “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?” Getting directly to the point in this case is comforting. Jesus tells us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” Do not let your hearts be troubled, no matter what happens, we have a place with God.
Growing up, all of us grandkids spent time living with my grandparents. It was the place God had prepared for us by the one who was looking out for us. It was such a safe place to be. When troubling waters began to swell at home our parents struggled with the gut wrenching feeling of separation, but they knew we would be safe with my grandparents. God had prepared that way for us.
There in Dickinson we always had a good and wholesome place to go, we always had a safe room where we slept, we always had food, clothing and a place to be where we knew we were unconditionally loved. We all needed that, unconditional love, because sometimes we could be little toots, as my grandmother would say. Despite being kids as kids will be, with my grandparents, we were free from all the hurtful drama life can bring. God had prepared our way and that is a very good thing for children, to be in a place safe and secure.
Not only was it a safe place to be, it was a safe place to grow. We all made it through our teenage years relatively intact. We learned quickly that with our grandparents everybody in their house had to work, everybody had to follow the rules, everybody had to carry their weight. We learned to live the right way. Did I tell you we were loved and safely cared for.
In her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek the author, Annie Dillard shares her childhood memory:
When I was six or seven years old, growing up in Pittsburgh, I used to take a precious penny of my own and hide it for someone else to find. It was a curious compulsion; sadly, I’ve never been seized by it since. For some reason I always “hid” the penny along the same stretch of sidewalk up the street. I would cradle it at the roots of a sycamore, say, or in a hole left by a chipped-off piece of sidewalk. Then I would take a piece of chalk, and starting at either end of the block, draw huge arrows leading up to the penny from both directions. After I learned to write I labeled the arrows: SURPRISE AHEAD or MONEY THIS WAY. I was greatly excited, during all this arrow-drawing, at the thought of the first lucky passerby who would receive in this way, regardless of merit, a free gift from the universe.”
It seems God has been drawing us arrows from the time of creation. Come here, live with your grandparents. Follow this way, find a penny. Follow this way and discover your savior, discover the unmerited gift of God’s grace.
There are many stories in scripture to remind us of God’s unyielding attempts to direct us toward God’s grace, toward God’s providence, toward God’s unconditional love.
For Abraham and the nation of Israel God attempted to direct them to the promised land. As the Old Testament reminds us, Israel had difficulty following God’s directions.
God even sent Moses to lead his people out of slavery, through the wilderness and toward the promised land. Yet, the people had difficulty following God’s direction.
God also sent Moses to give his people his law, yet Israel continued to stray, and found themselves exiled in Babylon.
God sent prophets to speak of a Messiah who would bring new direction to God’s grace. That messiah, Jesus Christ, came with completed directions to God’s grace and even paved our way to it. Yet we still have difficulty following Jesus’ way.
We often forget that Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah was a radical claim in the midst of first century Jewish life. The gospel of John is written by Jewish Christians in a Jewish Christian community. That author wants to leave no doubt, however, that Jesus is the one, chosen by God to invite us and then guide us to God’s grace.
Our text this morning comes with questions from two of Jesus’ disciples. They are fearful and Jesus attempts to calm them and give them piece of mind. Jesus wants them to be at peace about his imminent death, assuring them that he will prepare a place for them also. But Thomas responds, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus promises he is the arrow on the sidewalk that will lead us to God. Jesus promises us he is not only the arrow pointing that way, he is the grace to which the arrow points. He and God are one.
John is making here a radical claim for Jesus’ divinity. When we know Jesus, we know God, though we are frail and sin filled humans, we can experience God. Such good news comes for us from no other place.
Our life is to be ultimately centered in God’s grace. Jesus first points us in that direction, toward God and then Jesus offers us “the way” to God’s grace. Come and follow me, he invites. Leave everything you have, come and follow me.
This truth in John’s gospel was under attack and John felt it necessary to defend Jesus’ Messiahship. For our part, we need not take up that defense, we need not worry ourselves about defending Jesus, our job is to stay the course, to remain on Jesus’ way. When Thomas says he does not know the way to that place God has for him Jesus offers assurance and reassurance to Thomas and to us, Jesus alone is the way.
Just as Israel discovered the impossible task of following God’s directions, we too will struggle along the way. We too will
rebel and strike out on our own, and just like the Israelites, we too will become lost. Lost in the wilderness and seemingly lost from our God.
But we are never lost from our God. We are never lost from Jesus’ love for us and Jesus shows us his love again this morning as he invites us to redirect our lives to him and to realize his life for us. Jesus invites us to be strengthened in our wilderness of limited time and space and opportunity by being in a relationship with him. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” he says, “Believe in God, believe also in me.”
God doesn’t give up on us. Even when we make choices that should separate us permanently from God, God forgives. God forgives because God loves us, through thick and thin, in richer or poor, in sickness and in health. God love us.
John’s gospel offers another bold promise. “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”
The Reverend Dan L. Flanagan tells the story of a traveler from Italy who came to the French town of Chartres to see the great church that was being built. He encountered a workman, covered with dust and asked what he did. The man replied that he was a stonemason. He had spent his days carving rocks. A second man responded that he was a glass-blower, and spent his days making colored glass. Still another replied that he was a blacksmith who hammered iron for a living. Finally, the traveler came upon an older woman with a broom in her hand. She was sweeping us stone chips, wood shavings and glass. He asked what she was doing and she responded. “Me? I’m building a cathedral for the Glory of Almighty God.”
In his sacrifice, Jesus prepared “the way” to eternal life, and in his ministry, Jesus showed us how to live more fully. He has given us the ability to do
even greater works than he.
What are we doing, therefore, here at Genesis Presbyterian Church? Jesus would tell us we are building a cathedral for the glory of God. Jesus would tell us we are drawing arrows on the sidewalk to God’s kingdom. It’s time for us to bring out our brooms and our mops and our hammers and saws and perhaps even our sidewalk chalk and begin our work. For we are called by God to hide pennies in sycamore trees and in a hole left by a chipped-off piece of sidewalk and write with bold letters on every sidewalk we see, SURPRISE AHEAD, JESUS THIS WAY.
Come one, come all, to receive in this Jesus and his way, regardless of merit, a free gift from the universe. The unearned gift of God’s grace, the unconditional gift of God’s love and a heavenly place God has prepared solely for you.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen 051511.gpc
Additional sources:
“Lectionary Homiletics,” Volume XIX, Number 3, 2008, pgs. 22-24.
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