May 7, 2023 – Easter +4A, John 14:1-14

“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. And you know the way to the place where I am going.”Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves.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. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

Wolf Blitzer spoke at my nephew’s graduation. As he spoke I sat there, waiting anxiously for a good joke, an amusing anecdote to share with you, and I was sorely disappointed that he gave me nothing of the sort. So we were sitting at the celebration afterward, and my brother-in-law leaned toward me and shared this story. He said that his nephew, little 4 year old Calvin asked his mommy one day what a version was. His mother, a good and solid college educated Catholic told her son that a version was different examples of the same thing – you might have this version, and then this version and then this version. Her son shot back at her, “Do you mean there are more than one Holy Mary?”

On my drive to church most Sunday mornings, I see a flock of turkey vultures sitting on a group of trees in Dauphin, along routes 322. They are usually just sitting there, watching and waiting – sometimes sitting there with wings outstretched either drying or warming themselves. In fact, one Sunday, I drove by and there must have been 30 or more sitting, watching. Every time I see them, every time, I think to myself “how ominous”. I can’t help but look at them, with their steely stare and large appearance, and appreciate how they have been understood for many years as harbingers of doom because they feed off the “recently dead” or its official name, “carrion”. 

Death is just that for us as humans – death is that thing that hangs over our head, looming, watching over us, like the sword of Damocles. We can’t help but fear death because there is so much about death that we do not understand – except this – as good Lutheran Christians, we understand death in dualistic terms: death is final, it is the end – but it is also the beginning.

Today’s text from the Gospel of John has so much good stuff in it that the good preacher has a multitude of material for three or four good sermons. We have these sayings of Jesus:

Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father’s house there are many rooms

I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life

One of the things that Wolf Blitzer did say to the Penn State graduates in the Bryce Jordan Center that day was this: “Don’t be afraid to hold onto and to follow your dreams.” And that will be difficult for many of them because these graduates are entering a world that is rife with things to be afraid of. Rising gas prices, a lingering recession, a suffering housing market, a shrinking job market, and on and on and on – the same things we worry about, Amen? There is so much to trouble our hearts, and yet Jesus says to us today “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” 

Jesus commands us to do this: be instruments of G-d’s love and mercy and compassion on this earth – before death comes knocking on our door. Yes, one day we will cease to enjoy the rooms of this life, on this earth – but in death, we simply are beginning our next journey knowing that Jesus has gone before us, preparing in heaven, another version of our favorite room on this earth. But, for us, that time hasn’t come yet, either we missed the rapture that Harold Camping predicted (look it up) or we have more time to learn G-d’s will in our lives. That gives us the opportunity to embark on this: looking for opportunities to “be the miracle in someone’s life”, or more simply put, to do works of love, mercy and grace.  What will those works look like?  Well, just like we each have our own favorite room, and they will not all be the same, so too do we all have our own individual gifts and they are not all the same.  But we need to use those gifts, we need to share our talents – we don’t want them to waste away, or worse yet, to be buried with us.

Let me leave you with these words from Martin Luther:

Christian faith is the utter submission to God’s grace which is …granted to us by…Christ.    Consequently, there is no repentance, no satisfaction for sins, no grace, no eternal life except by faith alone in Christ…faith that he…won…for us, and saved us.  Only then can we do works freely…”

Pastor Dave