John 14: 1-14
Not too long after my father died suddenly in 1967 I had a
‘toll’ painted small plaque made for my mother with the words, “Let Not Your
Heart Be Troubled” John 14:1. It was her favorite Bible verse. The
plaque I still remember but, as with many items from the past, has been gently
laid aside, never to be seen again. It was a Robin’s egg blue color with
the words in a beautiful and serene typeface with some daisy’s painted around
the words.
I didn’t know back then that I would pray and read that
passage often at the bedside of dying people and at memorial or funeral
services as both chaplain and pastor.
I didn’t know back then that it would become a significant passage of
comfort to me, “Let not your hearts be troubled….in my father’s house there are
many mansions.”
For mom is was a reminder of God’s love that calmed
her from birth until her own death and that it would bring her closer to Daddy
someday. It brought it solace for
her broken heart. For me now it
has become a sweet reminder of my parents and that God, too, has claimed me and
has prepared a place for me too in the great beyond. And isn’t that our most burning desire? To know that there is a place for us,
that this life that we live is not in vain? We wonder, what does God have planned for me when I finally
take my last breaths on this earth?
In the grand scheme of the Gospel of John our scripture
reading today falls just after Jesus washes his disciples feet and foretells
his betrayal, so this is a pre Easter passage. The disciples have questions, they have fears, they have
doubts about their own mortality and in this farewell discourse Jesus attempts
to show them how to live once he is gone and to convince them that, in the
words of Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all
manner of thing shall be well.”
Let us hear those comforting words in the Gospel….
“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? 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. If you know me, you will know my Father
also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip
said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said
to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know
me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the
Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells
in me does his works. 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 than these, because I am going to the
Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
The disciples hearts are very troubled. They have come to the realization that
their time on earth with Jesus is limited now. Thomas asks, ‘Lord, we just
don’t understand where you are going, how can we know this?’ And then Philip also questions Jesus,
‘Lord, just show us the [father] meaning, God. Just show us and then we can understand and be
satisfied. Their hearts were truly
unsettled and troubled. They know
he is leaving but they don’t understand to where he is going.
Jesus tries to make it as pastorally compassionate and
direct as possible for them. It’s
pretty clear that the disciples and his other followers were to believe in him and
to live in his ways, that is to live into each day as a gift and blessing from
God and to live into the truth of who we are as God’s beloved and named
children. He was preparing not
only a home with many rooms, one for each but also showing them how to live after
he dies because he knows that life and death, living and dying are
intrinsically bound together.
Death has got to be the saddest reality of our living. It makes me sad to think of losing my
parents so very long ago, it horrifies and saddens me to think that I could
loose one of my children and it saddens me to think about my own mortality
because I love life, I love my life and what I choose to do with it. So it is in sad and distressing times
that the words of Jesus become powerful words of hope, “Let not your heart be
troubled”.
These words also encourage me to live boldly today and be
grateful for the gift that today really is and for the wonderful blessings that
are before me. The only time that
we have is right before us so it bids us to live, to cherish and dream, to be
content and to be grateful in the moment, and to love deeply, dearly, and
compassionately. To enjoy the
people around us as other children of God.
I want to share some reflections of Henri Nouwen, Catholic
priest and author,
“Hope and faith will
both come to an end when we die. But love will remain. Love is
eternal. Love comes from God and returns to God. When we die, we
will lose everything that life gave us except love. The love with which
we lived our lives is the life of God within us. It is the divine,
indestructible core of our being. This love not only will remain but will
also bear fruit from generation to generation.
When we approach our
deaths let us say to those we leave behind, "Don't let your heart be
troubled. The love of God that dwells in my heart will come to you and
offer you consolation and comfort."
We
often wonder how death will occur for us. Through illness, accident, war,
or a natural disaster? Will our deaths happen suddenly or
gradually? There are no answers for these questions, so we really should
not spend time worrying about them. We don't know how our lives will end,
and this is a blessed ignorance! But there is an important question that
we should consider: When our time to die comes, will we die in such a way
that those we leave behind are not devastated by grief or left with feelings of
shame or guilt?
How
we leave others depends largely on how we prepare ourselves for death.
When we can die with grateful hearts, grateful to God and our families and
friends, our deaths can become sources of life for others.
And so it is.
Our living can be a source of life for others just by looking and living
today as an abundant blessing of God’s love. Now don’t let you heart be troubled, there is way too much
living to be had. Let us be
grateful for our very lives and live them as a blessing to others.
Amen.
Rev. Suzanne Wagner
Orange Congregational Church
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