John 14:1-14
“Way”
May 7, 2023
We have a way of filling any space we’re in, don’t we?
Regardless of whether we have a 600 square foot apartment or a 3,000 square foot house, we, like a vacuum, find a way to use up all the space we find ourselves in.
Of course, everyone has their own way of doing this.
For some of us, we have collections of items gathered over years, that grow with each new find on-line or on vacation or at a tag sale.
Whether it be photos or teacups, sports equipment or quilts, when we think home, we know there are treasures that we hold onto and that often take up much more space than our physical bodies.
The tiny house movement, with a much smaller footprint and room usually for just the essentials has taken off in the last decade, reminding us, at some point, to start looking around at wherever we call home and asking ourselves, how did I acquire so much?
The idea of space enough for us, every one of us, is where Jesus is going with this metaphor that each one of us can relate to.
Over the course of dozens of funerals that I have had the honor of being a part of, where the grieving have leaned into this passage, the notion that there is a space with our name on it in the kingdom of God as Jesus reassures his closest followers, even the questioning Thomas and confused Philip, has been a tremendous source of comfort.
We yearn for home, where we can be our true selves – nothing more and nothing less.
There are those who are far away from home on any given day.
Then there are those for whom home is wherever they can find a space to lay their heads tonight no matter how temporary, especially the members of the 1800 households that are currently reliant on the Emergency Shelter General Assistance Motel voucher program here in Vermont that will end for almost all of them over the course of the next 7 weeks.
We know home to be a state of mind but every person still needs safe shelter.
The idea of home, a place with my name on it, has been something I have taken for granted most of my life and which, as we approach the closing on our new home a week from tomorrow, is now ever-present on my mind these days. I know where I’m going when so many do not.
Jesus’ disciples are at a point when the fact that Jesus will not always physically be with them is weighing heavy on their minds and filling them with worry.
He wants them to rest in the knowledge that he is not abandoning them but rather that they will always be at home with him.
They don’t understand at first because they are listening for Jesus to be their GPS from here on out and what he is saying is that they already know the way home.
They just need to keep on living and doing what he has already shown them.
John, of all the 4 Gospel writers is the one who ties Jesus’ identity up as the Word which is a divine pattern of sorts.
If those disciples follow the new commandment he has taught – to love each other as he has loved them, then they will always be with him and he will be with them.
He is not scolding or ordering them but rather saying in his loving and consoling way that they don’t have to worry about losing him because he will always be with them.
The idea of our bodies and our very selves as being home for God to live in can be found throughout the Bible.
We are God’s home. We just forget pretty frequently that God dwells within each and every one of us and the way we nurture and keep God’s abiding presence alive is through our love for each other.
That means there is room for everyone.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled…I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again, so that where I am there you will be also.”
When those words are offered at a funeral, we can envision that the loved one it was so hard to let go from this world is now in their eternal home beside Jesus.
But Jesus most of the time was not talking about the next life but this one where you and me and all of us are reminded that the kingdom of God is right here – this is the place God has prepared for us.
We don’t have to wait until we cross over into the great beyond to see what God is all about.
We can see that right here, if we have eyes and hearts and minds open to the God within us all.
Whenever we have the chance to show love or receive love, God is present.
This is what Jesus has prepared for us.
All those rooms in that house?
That means that God intends for no one to be left out in the cold.
And one of those rooms would undoubtedly be a kitchen, the place where everyone gathers, where there’s a table, and bread and cup for all, and that’s the place where we remember Jesus and his words about never leaving us, always having enough for everyone and most of all, that love abounds and fills those rooms.
Take then these words of blessing from Jan Richardson as we come to the table with room for all:
As you step inside
this blessing
we wish to tell you
it is large enough
for you to lie down in…
Likewise it is true,
though you might not have
paused long enough
to notice,
that this blessing
is big enough
for a table—
quite a sizable one
can be accommodated—
where your guests
will want to linger…
One room,
many rooms—
in this blessing
it is all the same.
The point is that
there is space
enough.
Enough to make
a life, a home;
enough to make
a world.
Enough to make
your way toward
the One who has made
this way for you.
Amen.