God's Dwelling

May 7, 2023
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

John 14:1-14[1]

If you have been to a funeral, you have probably heard this passage. It is one that I have used many times. In this passage from John, Jesus is talking about leaving the disciples. He is trying to prepare them for what is coming. Jesus gives them this vision of heaven. When Jesus tried to describe heaven, he used words that meant home: love, and peace, and family. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places… I go to prepare a place for you” (v. 2). There is a place prepared for each of us. We have a home that is beyond this world. A home filled with love and peace. A home where God welcomes us like a father or a mother.

When Jesus spoke of God, he used the word “Father.” Joseph, the human father of Jesus, must have been a wonderful father. His family must have been his true passion. Joseph loved his family so much, that when Jesus had to choose one word to describe God, he chose “Father.”

Jesus might have used the word “Mother.” After all, it was his mother who outlived Joseph, raised Jesus on her own for at least part of his life, and stuck by her son as he became a traveling preacher and healer. She even tried to get him to come home when she feared the authorities might come to take him away. Mary was even there at the cross, despite all the horror, pain, and loss. Mother was always there.

God’s love for us is unconditional, like the love of our mothers and fathers. Jesus assures us that we have a home with God, a home where we will be welcomed like a devoted child. There are many dwelling places in the house of God. There is room for everyone. There is a place for you.

These words of encouragement were part of the farewell message that Jesus gave the disciples in order to prepare them for what was to come. Their hearts were troubled, as Jesus told them he was leaving. What they had been expecting was not working out the way they thought. They had been following Jesus for so long, yet still they weren’t truly understanding his message, vision, and mission. They found the Messiah in Jesus, yet he was not what they expected.

They may have expected the Messiah to be immortal, but he was about to be crucified. They may have thought that he would lead them to liberation from the Roman occupation and restore the kingdom of David, but their defeat seemed assured. Jesus wasn’t rallying the troops, but saying goodbye. His death would mean the death of their hopes and dreams. Their understanding of who he was will be transformed. In that moment, they begin to grieve the loss of what they had known and believed.

And yet, this goodbye is not only an ending. In the upper room, death and birth are revealed. Rev. Shannon Pater, a minister in Atlanta, describes this moment: “In both the maternity wing and the hospice room, the family is changed—all things are being made new.”[2] What is old – who they have been, plans and dreams now shattered – is dying. Their sense of self, built over years of following Jesus, passes away. In that moment, what is new – the hope of the resurrection, the church, the mission of the apostles – is being born. In that in between moment, Jesus is the hospice chaplain and the midwife, guiding the transition.

Jesus introduces them to a new vocation: no longer followers of a teacher, they are to become followers of the Way. Jesus refers to “the way” several times in this passage. He does not name a specific road to take or a destination to reach. Jesus declares himself as “The Way.” The early Christian communities, fearing persecution, referred to themselves as “followers of The Way.”

It is important to note how this passage, especially the phrase “No one comes to the Father except through me” (v. 6), has been used to advance anti-Semitic ideology. Jesus did not renounce or denigrate Judaism. His critique was centered on religious leaders who create their own impossible standards for others to follow, who choose rigid adherence to established norms over the needs of real human beings, and who sought monetary gain from those seeking God’s grace. That critique should caution us all to beware of religious traditions and leaders that seek power and control rather than mercy and love.

The Way is a Person, not a path or a place. The Way of Jesus is the way of abundant and flourishing life in relationship with the Holy One and with creation. It is the way of living on earth as though we already live in heaven. The Way is Truth. The Way is Life. The Way is an invitation to new life in Christ, a way of being in the world like Christ.

As the world changes, and we change with it, leaving behind an old way that is dying, not yet knowing what is to come, we need the presence of one who reassures us as we transition. Just as Thomas asks “How can we know the way?” (v. 5), we too are unsure what the future holds for us. Like Phillip, if we could just see what lies ahead, that would be enough.

In the upper room, Jesus assured the disciples that no matter what happened, no matter the horror and loss to come, the most important thing would remain unchanged. There is a place prepared for you, with many dwelling places. I will come and take you there. The relationship you have with me, the relationship you have with God who is in me, will continue, even through all the change that is to come.

The change in the relationship the disciples had with God was a movement from outward seeking to inward dwelling. For all the time they had spent with Jesus, the still looked outward: who do we follow, where do we go, how do we find God? What they did not know, what they needed to be pointed out to them, was that God was always with them. Jesus begins with himself, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” I haven’t done all these things on my own. “The Father who dwells in me does his works” (v. 10). Are you looking for God? Look right here! “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (v. 6). You know God, and you know the way, because you know me.

In the days to come the disciples would lose much that they had known and understood. But they would witness the new birth of the God of resurrection. They would know the God of life that could not be extinguished. They would know the Holy Spirit, the presence of God dwelling within them. If we seek to know where God is, and how we get to the house of God, we need only look within. The Holy Spirit of God dwells within each of us. No matter what comes next, our relationship with God remains. Let the Comforter heal your hearts and strengthen you to stand firm in the coming transformation.  Amen.

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[1] The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

[2] Shannon Michael Pater, Pastoral Perspective on John 14:1-14 in Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A, Vol. 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, General Editors (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), p. 468.