Easter 5

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Easter 5
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: April 28, 2002

TEXT: John 14:1-14 - Jesus' Farewell Discourse (Section)
"Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me 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 then these, because I am going to the Father."

ISSUE: Jesus’ work is to bring God's people to the Father. They like himself are to be at one with the Father. In this relationship they are able to do significant works as Jesus himself had done. This passage addresses a very difficult time for the early church. Jesus' farewell address is providing assurance and hope. His people presently dwell in peace with him if they accept him as Lord, and as the way to the Father. They'll never be abandoned. It is a message for our world in a period of great anxiety. We find in Christ the way and what is truly authentic and meaningful. Maintain a relationship with Jesus Christ.
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Today's reading from the Gospel of John is a passage, which is taken from what is called "The Farewell Address" of Jesus to his disciples. We have a portion of it read this morning. Farewell addresses are fairly common in the Bible. Jacob when he is near death, makes a farewell address in Genesis 49 to all of his twelve sons. Moses in Deuteronomy 31-33 makes a farewell address to his people before his death, and before the people cross the Jordon River into the Promised Land. Paul gives a farewell address in Acts 20. They tell usually what must be watched for and guarded against in the future. They are something like pep talks to the troops. So John tells us some of what he believes is the last words, or what he thought Jesus may have said to his disciples in his Farewell Address, in his last days before his death.
The Farewell portion of the address that we read today is in the true Johannine style. It is addressed to two specific disciples: Thomas and Philip. Thomas is Jewish, and Philip is Greek, and thus it is an address to both significant cultures of the period. True to the Johannine style both disciples appear to be dense, and express lack of understanding. Remember some of the other recent passages of John that we've read. Nicodemus did not understand how to be born again, and did you have to get back into mother's womb. The woman at the well could not understand how Jesus could be living water. Did that mean she would not have to come to the well again? The healing of the blindman is not aware of what has happened to himself, and has to encounter Jesus a second time to know that he is the Messiah, the Son of God.
In this passage, Jesus says to Thomas that he will go away for a time, and that the disciples will follow. But Thomas becomes very anxious declaring, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus has to reassure Thomas with his words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father expect by me." Philip also who has been very close to Jesus, brings another disciple, Nathaniel to him. But Philip, similar to Thomas who cannot imagine where they would find enough bread at the feeding of the multitude, asks Jesus to show them the Father. And Jesus somewhat impatiently must say, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." You get the impression that Jesus wants to shake these guys into a greater awareness of what is going on, and what they have been up to. They have a hard time catching on. The passage is also being addressed to new disciples who need to understand and who need constant encouragement.
As we read and study passages like this one we have to keep in mind what was going in this early Christian Community, when John was addressing his community.
1. All the eyewitnesses to Jesus' life and ministry were gone. It was imperative that true faithfulness be an essential part of the community's life together. There were dissentions within the church itself.
2. It was clear that in the Jewish community it was being declared that anyone who believed Jesus to be the Messiah were being thrown out of the synagogues. This excommunication was a significant threat to people's livelihood. To be excommunicated was to lose family ties, and to lose economic business connections, and I suppose to lose honor and standing in the community. Thus, the affirmation to Thomas the Jew that Jesus is the way, truth, life, authentic faith.
3. There were influences on the early church from the Greek and Roman cultures that included superstitions and questionable beliefs, and rooted in pagan gods unrelated to the life and ministry of Jesus. Thus, Philip is assured that to see Jesus is to see the authentic God of Love.
4. It was also a time when the early church was beginning to feel the pain of outright persecution for their beliefs.
Thus, John is writing in a style that works at repeating and clarifying, and saying things sometimes in an almost repetitious way to solidify the church's beliefs and to keep clarifying for newcomers entering the community.
As the passage reveals itself you see Thomas as a symbol of a very anxious community. But John is telling that anxious community: Though Jesus has died and appears to have gone away from them, his work has been to reassure his people that God has a place for them. That God will not abandon them. Jesus died, was crucified, rose again, and appeared to them. He is the living Lord and there is plenty of room for them. Though the world may reject them, i.e. their excommunication, God has room for all, and takes all into his family. God, Yahweh, is the Father of the family. Jesus is the truth about God. Jesus is the Way to God, and through him you have life, in spite of your fear of death. Remain faithful and be assured.
Philip is also dense, but John is impressing upon the community through Philip's questioning "Show us the Father." How do we know the Father? How do we know God is with us? The answer is that if you have seen Jesus you have seen the Father. Jesus is the expression, the incarnation of God, the in-the-flesh presence of God into human existence. Look at him, believe in him, and pay attention to what he has done. Be aware of the work that Jesus has done. Jesus is the full expression of God's love. He is redemption, the buying back of his people. Not a soul is lost from God, because Jesus has come to reclaim the creation for God.
Look at what Jesus has done. He is the profound expression of God's love in this sacrifice upon the cross. He dies for the world to show that he loves the world of God's creation. His ministry has been one of a healer, and one who enlightens the blind. He loves the least, the last, the lost, and restores them to a place of honor and dignity in the eyes of God. Jesus is a lover of true justice and works for justice among his people. Note the parables in which he honors and loves those who are beaten and down trodden. He calls for the last to be first. He calls for transformation of human existence and of the world of this time.
It is clear for John that if you accept Jesus Christ as Lord, if you see in him a whole new way of life. If you see in him the truth about God, God is love and grace, then you have life and hope without end. He calls his community into a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the restoration and the renewing family of God. Those who embrace and trust Jesus as Lord, who accept his love and forgiveness and live that way, will become able to do what he did and more. They are, in fact, called into partnership, fellowship, community with him. The love that John is talking about is the love of Jesus Christ that transforms people, and that gives them peace and hope, and an assurance in view of their terrible anxiety and uncertainty. Jesus is the expression of God. He is the hope that God is present and cares. He calls them each by name and loves them, and reassures them.
This teaching is often greatly misunderstood by our culture, and popular religion. Many people have come to believe that Jesus comes to the world and does some good things, dies on a cross, gets resurrected, and ascends to heaven somewhere in outer space to build a gigantic motel for good people. That concept was not the meaning of this passage, for John's time or for our present time. The point is that Jesus lived and died and came back resurrected to reassure the faithful community that God continues to live and be with his people, and that there is ample room in the Kingdom of God, now! Here in this present time. Jesus Christ has a place for each of us, an assigned calling in his mission and ministry. God in Christ and through Christ is with us.
The world we live in today is tricky, and we must be careful what we believe. We have never known a time in history when, at least in this country, there has been so much prosperity. Success and prosperity has often been the measure of godliness in the world. But our prosperity has not really saved us. It is also a time of great anxiety and uncertainty. It is an age so complex that it is particularly difficult to know the answers to some of the problems, issues, and involvements of the world. We hardly know what to believe. Our country is now engaged in a war and we hardly know what to make of it. We do not want to see peoples discriminated against, or murdered, because of their race or economic or religious beliefs. On the other hand we seem to become easily involved in using tremendous force through bombing, as a kind of solution to every problem, not to mention the use of force and abuse in families. We can't get at finding ways to negotiate understanding and peace. The Middle Eastern mindset seems unable, fixed in an eye for eye diplomacy. The hatred, prejudice, and warfare continue.
The events of September 11th still plague us. We live with the constant fear of terrorism, most clearly seen in our airports. We see innocent people suffer in our own land as well as abroad. We hear about the possibilities of threats on nuclear power plants, and the making of “dirty” atomic weapons. We are threatened with biological warfare with agents like anthrax. It is not a particularly happy time in the world today.
People and especially children have never before in history been so exposed to pornography, sex, bombs, racial hate, terrorism, drugs and alcohol like the world we know today. Violence pervades nearly every aspect of the human condition, from family abuse and violence, sexual violence and abuse in the church, to racial and national violence in the world. The wonderful and awesome internet has come upon us, and nearly everything that is good, and that is so very bad is at the finger tips of everyone of us. What are we to do?
What is the truth for us? What is the way for us? How do we find God. How do we re-enter into the family of God in the awful age of great anxiety. The foundations of our lives are shaken, aren't they? We have difficulty in finding what to hold on to for security. The very idea that someday when we die there is heaven in the sky is not a satisfactory response to our present basic human need.
Jesus said to Thomas who was really quite anxious, as we are. I'll be gone awhile through my dying and sacrificial love. But my work is to assure you and to prepare a place, a mission, for each of you, and I will come again and you will see me risen and alive. Trust that my way of love and forgiveness, my way of healing, my way of dying, and restoring is the way of God. Trust that I am authentically the truth about God, and the way to God, and you will have life, and a way of life that will alleviate you fear. We are in fellowship and community together.
Philip said in his anxiety: How do we know the Father, how do we know God. Jesus said to him if you have seen me, and know that I am with you, you have seen God; you have seen the Father. So embrace me as your Lord always.
The world, along with our selves, may well know fear and anxiety. Yet, we have a faith that calls us to trust that God is still with us. That God is with us. Embrace the Christ, embrace the Father; be in relationship with him and with one another. Be in union and love with one another. Carry on in the light of Christ and there will be healing, hope, and peace. We may not know all the answers. We may still be confused about the world. But we shall be in the Kingdom of God do our work with Christ, as the body of Christ, transforming the world into the Garden of God.
In that fellowship with Christ, with one another in fellowship and embracing the way, the truth, the life of Christ, we continue to do the work of the Lord, with the potential of doing even greater things in this age.

(This Sermon is largely based on the Sermon for Easter 5A, from 1999, with some editing and change.)