Reflection on John 20:19-23 (from Sunday, May 27th, 2023)

 

What if I told you that in Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit descending on you, God has given you one of the most important gifts that you could possibly have?

It all has to do with that flame. The Bible indicates that the flame that came down on the disciples on that day of Pentecost is access to God and access to God’s gifts.  The flame is access to God and God’s gifts?  How is that so?

In the very beginning of the Biblical story, in the very first pages of the Bible, we see the flame for the first time.  It is when the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, are cast out from the garden for not trusting and obeying God.  They ate the fruit of the tree from which they were not supposed to eat.  Because of that, they were cast out from the beautiful Garden of Eden.  They were cast away from eating eternally from the tree of life.  They were cast away from fertile soils that would grow and produce without sweat.  Probably, the hardest of all, they were cast away from walking and talking directly with God.  They were cast out of the gates of the garden and behind them was set a sword of fire to guard the gate. 

That fire that separates humans from God comes back again and again in the Bible as God arrives on the scene and tries through various ways to connect with God’s people in a meaningful way.

The fire is there when God calls out from the burning bush to Moses and asks him to step upon some holy ground.  The fire is there as God connects with Moses.

The fire is there when God invites Moses up the mountain in order to get the Ten Commandments, the law that has the potential to bring peace upon the people of the world, if only they would listen and follow.  But, God is behind the fire, trying to connect in a meaningful way.

The pillar of fire is there above the tabernacle, God’s tent home in the center of the Israelite encampment that God promises to dwell in as the Israelites wander through the wilderness.  The Israelite people follow that fire wherever God wants to lead.  God is behind the fire, trying to guide in a meaningful way.

The fire comes down on the Temple in Jerusalem when it is dedicated, God new home, where God will dwell with God’s people.  It is the place where blessing and forgiveness will be granted by God through a sacrifice of fire.  God is behind the fire, working to connect with God’s people in a meaningful way.

Do you see a pattern going on here?  The Bible is telling us that it is through the fire, going all the way back to God’s home in the Garden of Eden, where the world is able to connect with God and all the gifts God shares.  It is through the fire where God connects with the world.

And that brings us up to the day of Pentecost.  Previously, God’s dwelling place, beyond the fire, was in a garden, then in a bush, then on a mountain, then in a tent, and then in a temple of stone.  But, on Pentecost, God’s dwelling place is made in Christ’s people.  The fire of God comes down from the heavens and lands upon the followers of Jesus Christ, making them the new temple; making them the new dwelling place of God; making us the new dwelling place of God.

The Holy Spirit, the fire of God, comes and makes Christ’s followers the gate of access to the divine.

Have you ever considered that biblical truth; that you, as a member of Christ’s body…Christ’s church…are now the gate of access to the divine? 

I know, I know, I can hear the jokes already: “Well, I might be God’s gate, but I am a rusty one!”  “So and so might be a gate of to God, but they seem to always be closed!” 

That is closure can be true though.  Jesus was well aware that this could happen.  Jesus says in John 20:23, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”  Jesus is well aware that his people might close the gate. 

I am positive that is why he tries to teach us things like: “Knock and the door will be opened to you,” and “You must forgive seventy times seven times.”  Jesus wants to impress upon us that we are the only gates that he has, and if we are not willing to remain open, people will suffer.

But, those early Christians did not close those gates.  No, those early Christians were immediately open to using the gifts that the Spirit wanted to share with the world. 

They immediately spoke in people’s own languages on that day of Pentecost so that everyone could hear the saving news of Jesus Christ.  Peter did not close his gate as he stood to speak of Jesus and preached the promise that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).

We see the apostles, Jesus closest followers, gifted with many powers that can only be described as coming straight out of God’s life-giving garden. 

After the Spirit’s fire landed on the disciples, not only were they given the gift of this breath of life that can speak in other languages, but some went from Jerusalem and did many amazing things in Jesus name, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  They did things like healing the sick and preaching with power in the face of danger. 

Peter was even given the ability, by the power of the Spirit, to bring someone back to life: Tabatha. Tabitha was beloved by her community because she clothed the poor and assisted those in need. And when she died, Peter was given the power through the Spirit to bring her back from death to life. 

 

This is all tree of life power!  This is all Jesus walking around on earth in these people kind of power!  And, the Bible says that this power was poured out on “all flesh.”  Peter preaches, “In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:17).  That means that these gifts of the Holy Spirit are poured out on all kinds of people, including even you and me.  Imagine, even you might have the power from Jesus Christ to raise someone from the dead, just like Peter!

I did it once! I too brought someone back to life, kind of, or so it seemed.

You see, when my granddaughter, Trinity, was very little she loved caterpillars and one time we collected one of these soft little things and put it in a jar with holes.  She loved that caterpillar like a pet. She would take it out and let it walk around on her fingers, tickling her the entire time. She loved to just sit and watch it move around mesmerized by that little piece of God’s creation.

Unfortunately, even though we put leaves and water into the jar with it, apparently, we had not chosen the correct leaves for a caterpillar to eat.  One morning after I came back home from driving Trinity daycare, I looked in the jar and saw that Trinity’s tiny little pet had died.

I felt so sad and so heartbroken for Trinity.  So, I did what any other loving grandfather would do, I brought it back to life by going outside and finding a replacement caterpillar. Those things are everywhere this time of year. And, with that, it was back to life!

OK, I did not quite bring it back to life in the traditional sense. I kind of just replaced its life, but who cares about the details, it was alive again and Trinity would continue to live happily with her little pet.

You have no idea how happy; because when she came home and looked in the jar she screamed a scream of joy.

“What is so exciting?” I asked Trinity.

“Before I went to preschool, I looked and saw that my caterpillar was dead. So I prayed that it might come back to life.”

“You prayed that it would come back to life?”

“It did, Opa!” she proclaimed.

Like Peter, she prayed that her friend would come back to life, and it did.

Needless to say, this morning just might have some hard truths about certain gifts of the Spirit that a certain girl may or may not actually have.

But, lucky for her there is a whole list of other gifts from the Holy Spirit that she might actually have.

The Apostle Paul teaches: “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the benefit of everyone.”  Then he lists the gifts: the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy (or truth telling), the discernment of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.  Each one of us does not have all of these gifts, but together as a community we have them, and together, when we use them, we allow people the opportunity to peek through the fire and experience God.

However, there is one gift that Paul inexplicably does not put on his list, but Jesus does.  It is the gift that every single one of us is able to share with the people of the world.  And, it is the most important gift of the Spirit of God that you could possibly have; the one that I promised to tell you about at the beginning of the sermon. 

Jesus blows this gift of the Spirit onto his people very soon after the resurrection as the disciples are locked away in a fear-filled room.  John 20:21-23 reads, “Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

The most important gift that you have been given, the gift that previously only God could provide, but now you can provide since you are the temple of God, is forgiveness.  The Holy Spirit has given you the gift to forgive as if it comes directly from God.

Never underestimate the power of this gift.  God thinks it is the most important gift.  In fact, God’s son went to die on the cross in order to forgive.  Jesus thought it was so important that he staked his life on it.  Forgiveness has that power to keep someone chained up when it is withheld, and has the power to set someone free from a life of despair when it is granted. 

Never underestimate the power of the gift of forgiveness.

The man knocked loudly on the door of the church a few years back and I wandered upstairs, expecting to see the UPS delivery man.  But, when I opened the door it was not the UPS man, it was a man completely disheveled and distressed. 

“How can I help you?” I asked.

“I need to talk” he responded.

And, talk he did.  For an hour he talked about how his life had been one bad choice after another, causing hurt and pain everywhere he went.  It was certainly sad, and I felt for the man, but it was all stuff that I had heard before.  The next words out of his mouth I had never heard before.

“And, it all started the day when I was younger, I was happy then, and my younger brother and I went out on the four-wheeler.  He loved doing that with me.  But, I went too fast and turned too sharply and the four-wheeler rolled onto my younger brother.  There was nothing to be done.  My parents never forgave me, and I never forgave myself.  I have just tried to drown the pain away ever since.”

Now, experts say that you can forgive someone too easily.  It is possible to just heap forgiveness onto someone, not because it is the right time for them to hear it, but because the pain of their story is too much for you to bear and you just want it over.  But, as I sat with this man, all I saw was how almost four decades of withholding forgiveness had completely crushed this man.  And, there was no one left to forgive him.  His parents were both gone and, of course, there was no possible way for his brother to forgive him. 

So, I decided to do the one thing that I had the power to do.  I decided to use the gift that the Spirit has blown on all of us Christians: the divine ability to forgive.  Jesus was rebuked for using this gift of God, as if he were trying to claim that he was God.  But, he was God’s power on earth, and he knew that forgiveness literally has the power save the world.  Forgiveness could also save this man.

“As a called and ordained minister of the church of Jesus Christ, and by his authority, I thereby declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, even the death of your brother, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

“I never thought I would ever hear those words,” the man cried.  “I never thought I would hear those words.”

As a called and ordained minister of the church of Jesus Christ, I have that authority to forgive, as if God is forgiving.  But, so do you.  The Spirit of God has landed on you with fire, and through the fire in you, the world can peer in and see and connect with God.  Through you, God’s holy temple, the world can experience the greatest gift ever given: forgiveness.

Reflection on John 17:1-11

 

Years ago I was sitting, waiting for the symphony to strike their first note.  I am sure you have heard the chaos of noise that fills the hall as the great variety of instruments start tuning up and mouthpieces start to get warmed.  Some musicians just strike random notes as they prepare, others play their own little tunes. 

As I sat there listening to the cacophony of noise, I distinctly heard the “Imperial March” from Star Wars come from the trumpet section while a violin gave a muted rendition of “Happy Birthday.”  Happy Birthday to Darth Vader?  It made no sense, but when all of the players are playing their own songs, none of it is going to make sense.  The musical chaos continued until the conductor came strolling out and everyone but a distracted tuba player put down their instruments and became silent. Tube Blast!   It is always the tuba player!

Order soon emerged out of the chaos, though, as the conductor lifted his baton and set the beat.  The beauty of the instruments soon filled the air.  The piece was beautiful, everyone contributing their own musical harmonies to the overriding melody; the diversity of instruments and tunes playing as one.  The glorious thing about the symphony is the beauty that comes from unity.

And, it is unity that Jesus prays that we, his followers might have.  “Holy Father,” Jesus prays, “protect them in your name that you given me, so that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:11). 

As Jesus’ last moments on this earth approached, I imagine that Jesus could have prayed for a great many things.  He could have prayed that someone else go to die on the cross.  He could have prayed that his followers live moral lives and strive for moral perfection.  He could have prayed that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups be free for the world to enjoy…and that they be invented before he died.

“That is a ridiculous prayer, Pastor Jira,” you are undoubtedly mentally chastising me, and that is the point.  What Jesus prayed during his last moments on earth was not frivolous.  Quite the opposite, Jesus prayed the one thing that he thought was most important before he left: that his followers be one, that they have unity.

Now, why would he pray that?  It is not like there is any division and disagreement in the world or in our nation.  It is not like Christians would ever disagree and refuse to worship together.  It is not like the Christian church could possibly fracture into 41,000 different Christian denominations.  That is the current number by the way.  Christianity has splintered into 41,000 different ways to be Christian worldwide.

I hope that you heard all of that as sarcasm, because our world is anything but unified. 

Did Jesus know that would be the case?  Did Jesus realize that we would become so fractured as a world and as a church; so unable to pull together?  Is this why Jesus prays for our unity so fervently?

There is a reason that unity has been so elusive for us Christians: and it has everything to do with that symphony that I described.  We tend to live our lives as if we are tuning up, playing our own songs.  It is like we have convinced ourselves that our own individual songs are what are most important in life.  It seems that we have forgotten that we have to look up at the conductor, and join in the music that he has chosen.

In fact, this very thing is what Jesus prays for first: that he be glorified (that he reflect the heart and purpose of God the Father), and that his name be made known to those the Father has given him.  I know that the prayer as we read it from the Bible gets a little confusing here, so simply put; Jesus prays that we stop playing our own songs, look up at Jesus, and when we look at him we will see God.  When we look to him we will lift our instruments and become a part of God’s glorious symphony.

That is what living life in harmony with the eternal is all about.  Jesus prays, “This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). 

But, this is hard.  We love our own songs.  And, some of your songs are awesome.  Some of your songs drip the sweat of hard work and effort.  Some of your songs have a melody that others love to hum, again and again.  Some of your songs become an ear worm that plays over and over and over and over again until they eat away at your brain and soul.  “Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive…”  You are welcome.  There are other words to that song right?

I am telling you the truth though: ideologies, and philosophies, and traditions, and personal spiritualities, as beautiful as they can be, are so often out of tune with what our conductor is trying to have us play.  Jesus is up there directing a song of love for God and neighbor and we are sitting there playing Darth Vader’s theme song.

Pastors are not exempt from this either.  For another project I am working on for a children’s ministry, I Googled the phrase, “Ten Bible verses every child should know.”  And, one of the most prominent preachers in our culture, a preacher who will remain nameless, had a blog that read, “Ten Bible Verses Every Child Should Know.”  You cannot get a better Google hit than that!

So, I clicked in to the article and read through the list of Bible verses.  There were lots of really good ones in there.  “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you,” from 1 Peter 5:7.  What a great reminder.  “For the Word of God is living and powerful,” from Hebrew 4:12.  Having just preached that you all should fall in love with the Bible again, I certainly agree there.  But, as I went down the list I was shocked to find something missing.  There was a voice missing from the list.  With exception to one lonely Bible verse, none of those words came from the mouth of Jesus Christ. 

How could that be?  Jesus is the one we look to so that we can together play God’s symphony.  It is Jesus who reflects who God the Father is, and it is Jesus to whom we look to find out about the things that God cares.  How is it that a list of the most important Bible verses for children to know almost completely lacked the words of Jesus?

As harsh as this seems to say, it appears that even this highly regarded, national preacher was singing his own song.  He was taking bits and pieces from the Bible to construct a symphony that was his own.  Somehow this preacher of God’s Word almost entirely forgot to look up at Jesus and listen to his song.

Now, I am not picking on him, because we all do it.  We all tend to pick and choose the tunes that we want to hear rather than participating in the song that God has written for us.  It might be that we do not always agree with what Jesus has to say.

This has hit home so clearly for me as I frequently allow one of my children to choose the music in the car.  She will remain nameless, but her name rhymes with Xfinity.  She is much better about it now, but about a year ago when she got to choose the music, we would start listening to a song, I would start to get my groove on as the was beat established, and I would just be getting into the song when she would change it!  She kept changing the songs half way through!

“Why did you change the song?”

“I don’t like that part!”

Understand, I do not have that great of a groove to begin with, so destroying my groove is not a good thing.  But, this nameless child was not interested in my groove nor anyone else’s for that matter.  She was more interested in creating her own monstrosity of a musical creation.

And, we do that.  We create our own symphonies with their own movements, and we expect everyone to like them and we expect everyone to jump into our grooves.  More than that, we hear other people’s music, and we decide that it needs to be changed because it is not to our liking.  Entire cultures and peoples are disregarded and disrespected because their music is not like ours.  And, so we fight over what music we should be playing and, what we continually forget to do as we fight about our music is to look up to see that there is a divine conductor, leading us in another, more beautiful song.  And, that song has different parts, but when the parts are played together, it transcends anything that we could have done alone.

The conductor has arrived on the stage, and we recognize him.  We know him.  We see Jesus.  We know him.  Further, when we pay attention, we know the song he wants us to sing.  We have heard Jesus and his song before, many, many times before.  Jesus prays, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word,” (John 17:6). 

We are his people.  We are his musicians.  We know his song that has movements of forgiveness, and love, and grace, and justice for the downtrodden.  We know the movements of his song.  We have played it before.  If only we could bring ourselves to quiet our instruments and look up so that we could, together, play the Lord’s song…so that we could be the Lord’s symphony.  If only…

I guess that is why Jesus is praying.  We are that bad at it!  It is like we are in rehearsal mode rather than performance mode.  And, that is OK if we are rehearsing Jesus’ song.  There is nothing wrong with rehearsal.  You have to try and fail, and try again and fail again in order to finally play your part well in coordination with others.  The fingers and the brain do not always want to function together, and you sometimes you play it all wrong.  But, the best conductors are very forgiving because it is only through forgiveness and trying again that they symphony starts to resemble a sound that is heavenly.

Jesus is very forgiving.  He died on a cross so that we could start again, and again.  Jesus is very forgiving, and hopeful.  Jesus is very hopeful.  Jesus prays that we be one just as he and God the father are one.  Jesus is very hopeful that God will be able to catch your attention, raise your head to see the conductor, Jesus, and make your unique part be a part of God’s larger symphony of love and abundant life.

To that end, let us join our Lord in prayer. 

“Lord, we join in your prayer.  We are your people, and you are our Lord, you are our conductor.  We are the best when you, Lord Jesus, are glorified in our lives.  Lord, help us to play your song, and only your song.  You are no longer in the world, but we are in the world, and so is your song.  Help us to practice and play your song well.  Protect us and protect your song, so that we may be one in the same way that you Lord and the Father are one.  Help us to join your symphony of love.  Amen.”

Reflection on John 14:15-21

 

Do you know where your Bible is?  Do you currently have a Bible that you can read and understand?  If you do not, please talk to me because I want to make certain that you have one.  Because, I am challenging you to fall in love with the Bible once again.  After-all, the Bible is the primary way that the Spirit of God still talks to us today.

Right now my favorite Bible is the one that my wife bought me recently.  It has a soft leather binding and is light in weight.  But, what is even more special than the fine, leather exterior is that within its pages the Bible carries to us the words of Jesus.  The Bible allows Jesus to talk with us, even though Jesus ascended into heaven almost 2,000 years ago.  It is the primary way that the Spirit of God allows Jesus to walk and talk with us even still today.  Before we dive further into that; a story.

“Mom, what can I do for you?” the son asked as he slid the car keys into his pocket and joined his mother at the side of the hospital bed.  The mother looked at him with the loving smile that you can only get from your mother and said, “You being here is all I need.”

We need to have those we love beside us.  We need those who love us to be close. 

When looking at the entrance to the haunted house for the very first time, with sounds of ghosts and screams piercing our ears through the doors, I remember a small Trinity (my granddaughter) holding onto my hand.  She gave a little shriek.  “Are you sure that you want to go in?” I asked her for the tenth time.  She nodded “yes” for the tenth time, but the expression on her face said “no” for the tenth time.  I assured her that I would be with her the entire time, walking right next to her.  We entered, and she squeezed my hand tightly, knowing that someone who loved her was beside her the entire time. 

We need to have those we love beside us.  We need those who love us to be close. 

That kind of presence is what the disciples desired more than anything when they learned that Jesus’ final hours of life were fast approaching.  How could he possibly die on a cross and leave them?  They needed Jesus to be there, just as he had been in the past.  In the past, they were literally able to follow Jesus.  They went where he went.  They trusted that he knew where he was leading them.  When Thomas asked where Jesus was going, that he did not know the way, Jesus responded, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  Jesus was the one who walked along beside them.  How could they follow him if he was gone? 

When Jesus was with them, they literally listened to his voice and listened to his teachings.  How would they learn anything with him gone?  When trouble arose, Jesus was right there to guide them through the tough times.  Who would guide them now?

Jesus knew the fear and sadness in the disciple’s hearts.  Would it surprise you to hear that Jesus also knows the fear and sadness within your heart?  Would it surprise you to hear that Jesus finds a way to walk with you, just a parent does a child entering a frightening situation?  Jesus promises:

^“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever,” Jesus says. ^“This is the Spirit of truth.”  Just as Jesus hands his mother over to the care of the beloved disciple as he takes his last breaths on the cross, so too Jesus hands us over to the care of his Holy Spirit.  We are not forgotten.

Pressing the point home, Jesus continues, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.”  

Jesus finishes by declaring that those who love him are those who keep his commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.”  Jesus says, “and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

And, this is where those Bible come into play here.  Yes, it is comforting to know that Jesus loves us and promises to walk beside us through hard times.  Sometimes, being next to someone through the hard times is all that we need.  But, we all know that any real relationship is a two way street; it has conversations that go back and forth. 

Have you ever been in one of those conversations, which is not so much a conversation, but listening to a very, very long monologue?  You know how these conversations go; at first you are fascinated by what the person is saying, and as you take a breath to share something of your own, they just keep going.  These types of people would be great underwater divers because they seem to have no need to take a breath.  And, after about five minutes of constant talking your mind begins to wander to the shopping list and the conversation you had with the store clerk yesterday.  After twenty minutes you snap back and realize that you have been staring at the person’s lips this whole time, but you have no idea what the person is saying.

I have been there so many times that it is not funny. 

I wonder how many times Jesus feels that way with me?  Most days I have so many things to say to Jesus that it is just one big monologue.  I am not certain that I often stop to consider that Jesus just might have something important to say to me.  But, Jesus does have something to say, and when we crack open that Bible and read the stories and words of Jesus; the Holy Spirit guides us to hear what we need to hear. 

Jesus does not leave us orphaned, even on the days when it seems as if we have been left to fend for ourselves.  Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to walk beside us and speak to us through the scriptures.  The Spirit walks alongside us.

Parents do that too.  Parents try to walk alongside their graduates as they go off to new places and new lives.  Some parents try to walk beside by sending daily texts.  Some call at 9pm every single night.  All of this, of course, can elicit the response of “Come on Mom!” or “Geez Dad!”  But, these parents are right to do so, because in this crazy world where up is now down and down is now up, you need someone to walk beside you.  These parents are simply acting out of the love that has been given them from the one who walks beside them, Jesus Christ our Lord, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Greek word for “Holy Spirit” actually means, “The one who walks beside.” 

You, O people of God, have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit.  You, O people of God, have the one who walks beside.  You, O people of God have the one who allows Jesus to speak to you through the scriptures.  You have the Spirit.  And, as the mother in the hospital said to her son, so we say to the Spirit, “You being here is all we need.” 

It is enough.  It is enough, in the face of a confusing world to know that the Spirit of Jesus and his glory and power is with you.  It is enough, in the shadow of loneliness, to know that Jesus walks right there, beside you through the Spirit.  And, it is enough to know that even if you start walking on the wrong path, there is someone bedside you, full of forgiveness and love to help you to see a new path to walk. 

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”  Jesus says.  The message cannot be any simpler. The Spirit will accompany us. The Spirit will be our companion.  And, in these uncertain times, this love through walking beside is exactly what we need. 

Perhaps, walking beside is also what we need to do.

Love is making the call or showing up.  Love is being present, because Jesus is present with us.  Jesus says, “Love one another, as I have loved you,” and, so, we do.  We too walk beside others, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Reflection on John 14:1-14 (from Sunday, May 7th, 2023)

 

I do not know why she specifically targeted my friend for her soul redeeming work, but there we were, standing in the auditorium of the High School theatre during rehearsal talking about being saved by Jesus.  Just so you understand, my friend had been going to church since he was a baby.  He certainly loved Jesus and Jesus certainly loved him.  But, one of our classmates started questioning if he had ever gotten down on his hands and knees and earnestly prayed that Jesus save him.

“I know that Jesus saved me.  I’ve been taught that forever.  Why do I need this prayer?”

“I’m afraid that if you don’t pray to be saved that you won’t get to heaven,” the classmate responded with conviction on her face.

My friend looked at me and I shook my head to indicate that I didn’t know what she was talking about.

“So, if I don’t pray this prayer I won’t go to heaven?” he asked skeptically.

“You need believe in Jesus and pray with me so that you can be saved,” the classmate urged.  “I don’t want you going to hell.  I want you in heaven.”

“I believe in Jesus.  Why would I be going to hell?  Who do you think you are?” he answered, starting to get mad.

Another classmate, who always seemed just a little off, came near and put in her two cents, “I think heaven is like, when all of our energies merge together, like when the all the energy and pressure of the earth merges together to form a diamond.”

The first girl just stared at her.  She stepped toward my friend.

“You need to pray with me so that you can go to heaven.  The Bible says, ‘That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’  You need to pray with me so that you can go to heaven!”

Why was she so insistent?  Was this some sort of weird, new tactic to ask someone out?  Did she secretly want to get married to him and spend her time in heaven with him?  What was her deal?  Was she given a quota by her youth pastor for how many people she needed to pray with during the week?  It was so bizarre.  Why was she doing this, at school, and at play practice?  I looked at my friend and his face had become inflamed.

“Heaven, I don’t care about heaven, I care about people,” he shouted and stormed away.

Crystal energy girl said, “Jesus didn’t care about himself either, just people.” 

The first girl gave her a look so full of crust that she nearly made herself blind.  She stormed away.

To tell you the truth, I was good with that.  I had no desire to be the girl’s next target.

I think about my friend’s words every once and a while: “I don’t care about heaven, I care about people.”  It was true.  He did care about people.  He went into a caring for people career.  He truly did not care about the place he was going.  When choosing a college, he did not are about which school it was, just who would be there with him. He genuinely did not care about where he was going; he cared more about the people around him.

In contrast to that, I think about the funeral of an acquaintance where the pastor read today’s reading from the gospel of John, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places,” and he preached about how Jesus has gone to prepare a place for this man in God’s huge house with many room.  In that house, the pastor explained, Jesus prepared a room in such a way as to welcome a guy who liked fishing, playing cards at a rickety old table, and relaxing in his recliner. 

We all sat there and imagined that Jesus had prepared a room that had fishing rods hung on the walls, a card table with new decks of cards stacked on top, maybe a mini-bar in the corner (he would have loved that), and, of course, the beloved, comfy recliner with the shape of his back end already imprinted on the seat.  The pastor assured us that Jesus had prepared this place for him because Jesus truly knew him.  Jesus had not forgotten him.  In fact, Jesus had done the opposite; Jesus had prepared a spot just for him, even before he arrived because he knew everything about him.

It was a comforting image.  It was a good sermon.  Heck, I have even preached practically the same sermon myself.  But, so much of that sermon is focused on a place; the room with the recliner, the card table, and the fishing gear.  And, all of this talk of a “place” once again aroused the memory of my friend’s words: “I don’t care about heaven, I care about people.”  My friend did not care about the place, but cared about the people.

Why am I telling you all of this? 

I only mention it because the memory of those words, “I don’t care about heaven, I care about people,” rushed back to me once again while I was studying John 14:1-14 in preparation for delivering the good news of Jesus Christ to you this morning.  The memory was triggered when I took a deep dive studying Jesus’ line: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”

For some reason, the Holy Spirit drew me to look closer at that word, “house.”  So, I did. 

The first thing that struck me was that in the ancient world, there is no difference between the ideas of “house” and “home.”  In our culture, we tend to say something like, “This place is my house, where I sleep, but my home is miles down the road.”  The idea is that houses are things made of wood, but homes are made of people and memories. 

I want you to keep that in mind because, in the ancient world, there was no difference between the building and the people and memories.  These ideas were all jumbled up into the same word. 

Furthermore, in the Hebrew world, houses and tents are the same word.  In other words, in the ancient world, your home can be a portable tent.  You can take your home with you wherever you go.  Home can be wherever you are. 

Keep that in mind too, as you further discover that the word that means both “house” and “home” also means “household.”  A “household,” of course, means all the people included in your home; your spouses, your children, your elderly parents, your dogs and cats, and (in the ancient world) even your slaves and paid servants.  Your house includes everyone in it.  Think in these terms: “The House of Windsor” does not refer to a building, but to all the royals and their associates who reside with them.

So, this is where it all hits home for me, because when Jesus says, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places,” he is not only talking about a place.  He is talking about people.  Another way to rightly translate the words is to say, “In my Father’s household, there are many abiding places.”  A modern way to read this Bible text would be to say: “In my Father’s family there is space for you to live and grow.  If that wasn’t the case, would I have mentioned to you that I go to make some space for you? And if I leave in order to make space for you, I will come right back and will pull you along with me, so that where I am, you can be right there also. And you know how to get to where I am going.”

It is like Jesus is saying, “I care about people.”  In fact, it is not “like” he is saying that, he is saying that!  Jesus is saying, “I care about you.”  Jesus is saying, “I don’t care what others think, or if others would bring you into their family; there is a place in my family and in my home for you.  I am going to prepare a place for you.  I am making space for you.  I am going to the cross to forgive you, and I am going to the Father so that you can tag along too.  I am the way, the truth, and the life.  I care about people.”

People ask me all the time what heaven is like.  When I was little I wondered too.  I wondered if I could jump as high as I wanted in heaven and not get hurt.  I loved jumping and bouncing around as a kid.  It was great!  Just ask my mom how great it was. 

When I was little I wondered if I could skydive without a parachute and be just fine.  After-all, I was too scared to try it, but I wanted to.  Eventually, a member of the church roped me into it.  You can ask me about that experience later. 

When I was little, I wondered if I could eat all the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups I wanted in heaven and not get fat.  I still wonder that.  So, just like all of you, I wondered what heaven was like.

But, in answer to that question, the Bible actually does not say much about “the place.”  It hints that it is like the Garden of Eden.  It is a holy city that comes down to earth, has streams spilling from it that restore the earth, and within the city’s open and welcoming gates it has a garden with a tree that heals all people and all nations.  According to the Bible, heaven is God actively restoring the earth to what it should have been all along.

But, the most important feature about the Bible’s depiction is that God is right there.  Revelation 21:3 reads, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them…”

The most important thing about our Father’s home is that we are all drawn and pulled by Jesus to dwell with God.  Jesus does not care if you get to heaven, as a place; Jesus cares about you being brought to the heart of God, in a relationship.  A better way to say it might be: for Jesus, to care about heaven is to care about people.  Another way to put it: God living in you, and you living in God, is what heaven is all about. 

This is what Jesus is preparing for us: God being our home, our life, and our existence.  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” Jesus says.  “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”  Jesus’ life is about drawing us to exist in God.  And, like the tents that the ancient Israelites used, God desires more than anything to be at home with us no matter where we are or when we are. 

In God you will always have a home.  Jesus has prepared a place for you.  Your sinful past cannot keep you out.  Jesus has prepared a place for you.  Your rejection by others is not shared by God.  Jesus has prepared a place for you.  You have a home in God because Jesus made a space for you to be a part of God’s family.  In God you will always have a home.

“This is heaven!” the young man said.  He had a huge smile on his face while he sat at the table in his new church, a plate piled full of food sitting in front of him.

“Eating all this food is heaven?” the pastor asked, to the chuckles of the people gathered with them at the table.

“The young man giggled for a full fifteen seconds and then said, “No!”  Then he typed something onto his electronic tablet.  You see, the young man had a disability that did not allow him to speak clearly.  The disability made life very lonely for the young man because few people were willing to take the time to learn to understand him.  They were too embarrassed that they could not understand what he said, he guessed.  He did not hold it against them, but it still made him a very lonely individual.

Then a member of his future new church sat down with him at a community meal in the local fire hall.  When she could not understand him, rather than cutting the conversation short, she got out her electronic tablet and told him to type what he wanted to say.  And, that is how they got to know each other for the next hour, him typing his life into the tablet so that she could learn about him and understand.  At the end of the meal, she said to the young man, “This was a wonderful conversation, why don’t you keep the tablet, so that we can talk again this Sunday at my church.”

Months later, with a pile of food in front of him at the church the young man giggled when the pastor asked, “Eating this food is heaven?”

The young man said, “No!” and then typed something into the tablet, the woman who gave him the tablet among those gathered with him at the table, smiling.

He showed the tablet to the people at the table.  It read, “Being with all of you is heaven.”

That is the way of God family.  It is a household of those gathered by Jesus, forgiven, saved, and restored to live this life with one another.  It is heaven, right here on earth, where all are gathered by Jesus to live in God’s ways of love.

“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes [who trusts] 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,” Jesus said.  And, the followers of Jesus Christ do.  The followers of Jesus Christ, as the body of Christ sent down to this earth, have gathered more people into the forgiveness, love, and life of Jesus Christ than Jesus himself could have ever done while walking this earth.  The followers of Jesus Christ desire to be what God made them to be, a household where Jesus has made space for everyone to live.

“In my Father’s household, there are many abiding places.”

“In my Father’s family there is space for you to live and grow.