Trusting In God Along the Way of Jesus
John 14:1-14 Easter 5 May 7, 2023
“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?”
Are there any
more comforting words in all of the Bible?
How often it is, for instance, that these words provide solace when we
gather for the funeral of a loved one: how comforting it is to think of being
welcomed into a heavenly rooming house, safe and secure in the care of God the
Father.
“Believe in God,” says Jesus to his followers, “believe also in me.” What if we translate that word to be “trust?” “Trust in God,” Jesus is saying to his
followers; “trust in me.” To me,
“believe” refers to intellectual activity; I’m in my head. To trust, though: that’s something different. Trusting God means that, in the midst of
mystery, I can rest in God’s presence and protection and guidance, even when I’m
not able to understand.
Do you know
that Jesus’ followers are full of anxiety and fear, as they listen to Jesus
speaking these words? They’re gathered around
the table for the last supper that they will eat with Jesus. Jesus has told his followers that he will be
leaving them! He’s trying to prepare
them for a future without him.[1] And, in only a few hours, it will get worse! In a dark garden they will watch while Jesus
will be arrested by Roman soldiers and taken away to be charged with treason.
So, let me read
again from the beginning of this morning’s verses in the gospel of John. Listen to how Thomas gives voice to the
anxiety and fear that all of them are feeling because Jesus has told them that
he’s leaving them, and they don’t understand what Jesus means!
“Do not let your hearts be
troubled. [Trust] in God, [trust] 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.”
That’s why
we’re reading this passage this morning, it seems to me: because of those last
words. Jesus
said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me.”
We’re about
two-thirds through the season of Easter.
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
So what?
The season of
Easter addresses that question.
For instance,
compare our own anxieties and fears with what Thomas is giving voice to. Are they any less? Let’s see, just from this past week’s news:
any of us is in danger of being shot to death at any time and any place; our
nation is heading for a fiscal cliff, and the way our national leaders are dealing
with this is by playing chicken with each other, so we’re in danger of a
catastrophic default; climate change is already causing weather catastrophes
and we’re at the point of no return from the permanent damage that human beings
have caused; … Need I continue?
Christ is
risen! Alleluia! Here is the “so what?” of the Easter
proclamation: Life wins! Even in the
midst of the anxieties and fears that Thomas and his friends are suffering in
this morning’s passage, there will be resurrection! Jesus is saying, “Trust me.” Even in the midst of the anxieties and fears
that you and I suffer day-to-day, there is resurrection. Jesus is saying to you and me, too: “Trust
me.” “I am the way, and the truth, and
the life.”
The Easter
proclamation is that the way of Jesus is the way to live. It is the way of the cross. It is the way of the risen Christ. And as we act and speak on the way of Jesus,
others see and hear in us living resurrection.
“Trust in God. Trust also in me.” It is certainly the case that you and I need
to trust deeply, to live on the way of Jesus – because it is so countercultural
to the way of the world! That’s why it’s
so important to band together with other followers of Jesus on this life-long
journey on the way of Jesus. It is why,
in Christian community, we support and encourage and motivate each other in
practices of the faith – such as worship and study and prayer and service – not
for the sake of these practices themselves, but so that, through them, the
Spirit can form you and me to live in God’s grace and forgiveness, in
salvation, trusting God, and responding to this grace, for
the sake of the world!
“I am the way,
and the truth, and the life.”
To my
thinking, in the many lists that he includes in his various letters, St. Paul
provides the best description of what our response looks like, of the way of
Jesus. Think of this: on the way of
Jesus, as we practice the faith, God the Holy Spirit forms you and me in these
counter-cultural Christian practices and virtues: Love. Joy. Peace. Patience.
Kindness. Generosity. Gentleness.
Hospitality to strangers. Inclusion. Perseverance in prayer. Self-control.
Compassion. Humility. Meekness (which means courageous resistance
against the impulse to respond to violence with violence). Forgiveness.
Thankfulness. Offering blessings
rather than curses. Sharing in others’
joys and sufferings. Associating with
the lowly. Loving and feeding your
enemies. Responding to evil with
goodness.[2]
Think of some
of these. What are your experiences of receiving
power from the Spirit to practice joy – during periods in your life when you’re
experiencing demands that seem overwhelming?
What are your experiences
of receiving power from the Spirit to practice kindness and compassion in your
day-to-day life? (What about when
someone is not treating you with kindness or compassion?)
Think of how
much we need to receive humility from the Spirit in the midst of hot button
issues: the ability, first, to listen and process, instead of reacting with
angry judgment against those you disagree with.
Here’s another
one. How are you at living, day-to-day,
in patience?
Is it easy to
live according to these practices, on the way of the risen Christ? No, of course it isn’t! And so, the primary practice on the way of
Jesus is to gather in community, with other pilgrims on the way, for worship
and conversation and consolation, because we need each others’ support, and
encouragement, and motivation! In
worship, we are constantly confessing because we fall short – and we are
repeatedly receiving forgiveness, because God’s love is unending. We are receiving Christ’s physical presence
in the bread and wine, week after week, because we need it that often. The Spirit is forming us by God’s Word in
Scripture and preaching. It is the life-long
journey of conversion, in community, on the way of Jesus, as the Spirit works
through us for each other and for those in need that we encounter outside of
these walls.
In the
process, God transforms our lives. We
are living resurrection!
Thanks be to
God for what is happening in this community named for St. Martin.
In the name of
God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Andy Ballentine
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