The Other Side of Easter
(5/14/17)
Paolo Uccello, Stoning of Stephen
The Gospel lesson for Sunday, May 14th is John 14:1-14. This is a familiar text. I frequently use this when I officiate a funeral, though not the entire passage. One of the challenges is that this story is so familiar that we don't hear the whole thing; we don't hear all of what Jesus is saying.
Good morning. Well, that was a tough game last night. I
didn’t wear my Penguins jersey last night. When I wore it for Game 6 against
the Capitals, they lost, so I decided not to wear it for Game 7, and the
Penguins won. I’m baffled by this. I mean, they were supposed to win because I
didn’t wear my jersey. It’s like my wardrobe choices don’t have any impact on
the game. I don’t know if I can accept this. My superstitions have to mean something,
right?
Our Gospel lesson this morning is a familiar passage. I
don’t know about you, but when I read this passage, in the back of my mind, I
still hear the words from the King James Version: “In my Father’s house there
are many mansions.” That never made any sense to me. I grew up in a really
small house. The word mansion made me think of a really big Victorian house,
something enormous and fancy, a place where rich people lived. It was a fantasy
for us, we were poor. And the scale was completely off. Mansions were big,
houses were small. How could a house contain mansions? Of course, I was taking
Jesus literally, far too literally.
Scholars refer to this section of the Gospel of John as the
Farewell Discourse, that is, Jesus’ final conversation with the disciples. And
it’s a really long conversation; the Farewell Discourse goes on for about five
chapters and Jesus does most of the talking. He’s got a lot to say.
I often use this text for funerals; I suspect many of you
have heard it at a funeral, too. The words are soothing, comforting. And that’s
sort of what Jesus is doing—he’s comforting the disciples. Jesus is preparing
them for what comes next; Jesus is preparing them for life on the other side of
Easter:
Jesus’ farewell words to
his disciples in this discourse anticipate and assume the events that lie
ahead: the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension. Each one of these
realities is the result of the primary theological event in the Gospel of John,
the incarnation. The disciples are going to be faced with the end of the
incarnation, the end of Jesus’ presence on earth as God.[1]
So, Jesus has a lot to
tell them before he goes!
The disciples really don’t know to react to Jesus. When
Jesus tells them that they already know the way to the Father’s house, Thomas
responds: “Lord, we do not know where
you are going. How can we know the way?” Thomas seems to want a roadmap or
driving directions. Philip also has difficulty comprehending Jesus’ true
meaning; he tells Jesus: “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
Both Thomas and Philip are looking for literal answers, roadmaps, instruction
books.
Instead of giving them a set of directions for how to get
into Heaven, Jesus continues to instruct the disciples about relationship. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the
life. This is not just about the resurrection, this is about the “ascended life with God.”[2] Jesus then reminds Philip
that the disciples have seen and continue to see God in the form of Jesus.
Jesus tells them, they already know the way, they already know the father
because they are in relationship with Jesus.
But the disciples are fixated on the real, physical
presence of Jesus in front of them. When Jesus tells them that he is going away
from them, their fear is so great that they cannot comprehend the deeper level
of what Jesus is saying. They’re too hung up on the literal in the same way
that I was hung up on the difference between a house and a mansion. They
couldn’t quite grasp the idea that they would remain in relationship with Jesus
after his death, resurrection, or ascension. Their fear interrupted their
relationship with Jesus; their fear interrupted their faith. In the Farewell
Discourse, Jesus comforts the disciples, speaks to their fears, and builds them
up for their future, without the human Jesus in the world.
That’s why this Scripture is used at funerals. It helps. It
helps to remind us that we remain connected to our loved ones who have passed
on. It reminds us that we participate in the resurrection, and I think we take
comfort in that—perhaps too much comfort. We focus on our own resurrection and
our eventual reunion with loved ones, and it takes the edge off the pain, but
sometimes we focus too much on the mansions that we hope to move into. As we
dwell in those happy thoughts, maybe we miss the second half of this lesson.
Calming the fears of the disciples is not enough; they need
to carry on in Jesus’ absence. He tells the disciples: “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 than these.” Now on the surface,
this sounds crazy. No human can do greater works than Jesus; he’s God in the
world, God with us. But as crazy as it sounds, that’s exactly what the
disciples will do.
Remember, in the Gospel of
John, the reason for the incarnation, for God to enter the world in the person
of Jesus, “is to make God known, to declare God, to reveal God, to bring God
out so that God can be known and seen and touched.”[3] God
is made known through God’s physical presence in the world and the signs—the miracles
that Jesus performs. This is a demonstration that “God so loved the world.” The
disciples will continue to do this by witnessing to the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus. And yes, the disciples will also perform miracles. This
is how they will make God known to the world:
Every sign, every encounter, every conversation has been with that sole
purpose in mind, to make God known (John 1:18) so that a moment of believing
might happen. In these works, the disciples are invited to participate…. [Discipleship
is] based on their witness. To be sent is to witness…. Greater works will be
possible and have to be because God loves the
world. The entirety of the world has yet to know God’s love (20:30-31), and
so the disciples are charged with embodying God’s love and grace for the world
to experience.[4]
This is what a life of
discipleship look like after Jesus. That’s on the other side of Easter for the
disciples, and also for us. Beloved, there are so many places in this broken
world where people still don’t know God’s love. We share in the disciples’ work
of bringing God’s love into those dark places.
The other day, my friend Charissa—she’s one of my best
friends in ministry—asked me if I’d like to participate in a mentoring program
at the Allegheny County Jail. This is probably the second or third time she’s
asked me if I’d like to do this. Every time I tell her, “not yet.” And every
time, I feel a little bit guilty. I believe that we are called to preach
release to the captives; “not yet” feels like a really poor answer.
The main reason I haven’t done anything about this yet is
my call to interim ministry. I don’t want to begin a relationship as a mentor,
knowing that my next call to ministry might be too far away to remain in the
program. That’s a fair reason to wait, but I’d be lying if I didn’t also admit
that I’m very jealous of my time away from this congregation. I want my down
time to be relaxing; I don’t want to deal with other people’s problems. And of
course, when I hear myself say that, I start to feel more than a little bit
selfish. Lately, I’ve been wondering what I might be missing by not serving as a mentor.
I’m sure that I would have to walk with people who are in a
lot of pain, but I know that’s part of my calling as a Christian. Jesus is God
in the flesh, in direct relationship with humanity. The disciples were called
to witness to that and to continue the work of relationship and reconciliation
after Jesus finished his earthly ministry.
Think about being in prison. It means being cut off from
human relationships. It seems like the opposite of what we experience here in
church. In the Gospel of John, sin is the absence of relationship with Christ.
I am connected to all the different people and things that give me life. I am
constantly reminded of my human relationships as well as my relationship with
God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. While prisoners are not
completely cut off from all human relationships or from God, it has to be a lot
harder to know God in jail.
I’m not going to say that most of us have it pretty easy—I
know that we all have our struggles. But most of us have lives that are
relatively predictable. Most of us know where our next meal is coming from and
most of us feel that we are loved by God and by at least some of the people in
our lives. I feel confident that if something truly awful happened to me
tomorrow, I would eventually find a way to get through it. I have enough
relationships in my life; I’m connected to people who would support me in
whatever way I needed it. My understanding is that very few prisoners have
those sorts of connections before they’re incarcerated.
My friend Charissa gets to walk with these prisoners as
they reestablish their connections to the outside world. She gets to walk with
these folks as they are reunited with loved ones. Certainly, it’s not all joy
and light. But I get the impression that Charissa gets to see people as they
enter into the resurrection as a real and present experience. It is a
restorative practice for Charissa, too.
I don’t know when I’m going to volunteer for this mentoring
program, but I can feel my excuses crumbling. It is one more way for me to live
faithfully into my call to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
I’m not suggesting that any of you have to follow this particular call.
However, I would urge each of you to do some soul searching. Ask yourself what
blessings you might be missing when you decline an opportunity for ministry. Thanks
be to God. Amen.
Benediction
Now, beloved, as you depart from this place, remember that
we are called to be the Church, the body of Christ in the world, the world
today. Go forth and be instruments of God’s love and peace and reconciliation. Do
not return evil for evil to any person, but know that we are all loved by God,
and that we are called to reflect that love to everyone we meet. Go forth and
be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. In the name of Jesus
Christ, our Lord, let all God’s children say, Amen!
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