A Home For Us

 John 14: 1-14  Easter 5 May 3, 2026

 

Over the next three weeks, we will be reading

a portion of John’s Gospel that is called the Farewell Discourse.

This is the last discussion, sermon, monologue, that Jesus

shares with his disciples.  This is what he says at his last supper.

 

He has already washed their feet, and Judas 

has gone out to betray Jesus to the religious leaders. He told them that he was

going away, and Jesus just told Peter that he would deny him

three times before the cock crowed.

This would be the last time he and his disciples would talk.

 

And then Jesus starts his farewell discourse in Chapter 14.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.

In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”

 

This has been read countless times at funerals.

It’s used as a metaphor for heaven.

Basically telling people there is plenty of room for their

loved ones in God’s house. I have used it many times.

I believe that fact. It’s very comforting.

 

But is that what Jesus is actually telling them with this?

Is this what the disciples were worried about?

Were they worried about going to heaven?

Or were they worried about more immediate things?

 

They have left their own families and followed Jesus.

The disciples had made their home in Jesus, following

him around and doing ministry with him

and now he was talking about leaving them and going

where they couldn’t follow any more.

It seems like they were more worried about their

present life than their eventual death.

After Jesus left them, where would they find home again?

I think that longing to go back home is true for

a lot of people. A place where you belong and are comfortable.

That home with a capital “H”.

 

I found a lot of profound quotes about Home 

while I was writing this, some by Maya Angelou, 

William Shakespeare, Emily Dickenson. 

But the best one for me was from one of the series

of the children’s book that came out about 20 years ago

by an author who called himself Lemony Snickett. He wrote:

 

“One's home is like a delicious piece of pie you order

in a restaurant on a country road one cozy evening –

the best piece of pie you have ever eaten in your life –

and you can never find again. “

 

I’ve had that longing for home. Especially when I was young.

I think that’s true for a lot of people at that age.

I was born in Queens New York in a town

called Woodhaven. It was where my great grandparents

settled after they moved from Eastern Europe.

When I was a kid, milk was still delivered to people’s porches

there were parks and libraries and stores.

One of my second cousins owned the bar around the corner.

My great uncle lived a few streets over, our church was on the corner.

Walking along the street we would always

see at least one old friend or family member.

 

That was home to me. The elevated trains

the graffiti, the stores, the people, the whole thing.

 

But when I was eight, my father was transferred

and I was wrenched out of New York and moved

to Houston and I hated it.

I promised at eight years old while sitting on the

swings at our new apartment complex in Houston

that I would live in New York again one day.

  

I spent the next 20 years feeling out of place and not fitting in,

wherever my family was, Houston, then San Francisco,

and then 20 years later, I finally did it.

I moved back to New York.

And one of the first things I did was go back to Woodhaven.

 

It pretty much looked the same.

There were all of the same buildings, restaurants,

some of the same graffiti was there,

my elementary school, the five and dime store was still there.

The house was still there.--There were some changes,

but it mostly looked like the same place I had grown up in.

But it wasn’t the same at all.

 

And I went our family’s favorite pizza place

that we had eaten in 20 years ago,

and as I was sitting there eating this great pizza,

I realized that Woodhaven was not my home anymore.

The people I knew had moved on and I had moved on.

It just wasn’t the same.

It was not the enchanted place I remembered

The best I could do was visit and be a visitor.

 

It was not my home anymore.

But if Woodhaven was not my home, then where was my home?

For a while after that I was feeling really lost.

 

Maybe some of you can relate to that

A lot of people have longings to go home.

Whether it is a place, or a time, or a sensibility.

We have the need to go back to a place that we can call home.

 

This was probably more the fear of the disciples,

not dying, not going to heaven.

They had left their homes and found their home in Jesus.

and now that home was being wretched out of their hands.

Where were they supposed to go?

 

Sensing this, Jesus tells them that line. About Home.

Now the translations says: “In my Father’s

house there are many dwelling places (monai).”

Some translate that as many rooms,

the King James translates it as many mansions.  

 

The word is not a common word, when it’s used again,

it’s in the same chapter in verse 23 where Jesus says:

“Those who love me will keep my word, and my 

Father will love them, and we will come to them 

and make our home (monen) with them.”

So a better translation of our passage today might be:

“My Father’s house has many places to call home.”

 

Jesus is telling his disciples that their home

is not just one place, or one person, or situation

The home that they found in Jesus could be found elsewhere too.

And then Phillip asks Jesus to tell them how to get

to this new place of Home.

 

And Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life”

The Way of living that Jesus showed them when he was with them.

(Did you know that in the first century,  

In My Father's House
There are Many Mansions
Irving Amen

Christianity was called “the Way”) and Jesus said, if we follow that way,

we can find that Home again.

So if they were feeling lost they should do the things

that Jesus taught them: 

Grace, love, sacrifice, forgiveness,

healing, feeding, caring, 

that’s where they would find Home.

 

In the second reading from Peter’s first letter that we heard today,

he makes all kinds of metaphors about stones.

Which is appropriate, because Peter means rock or stone,

He says we should live like Jesus lived,

as “living stones” and he goes on to say,

“Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.”

 

Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house,

We ourselves – the living stones – make the house

all put together, the people of the church

make the dwelling place of God.

 

With Jesus as our cornerstone,

we follow the path and way of Jesus,

we share the welcome that he did.

And we become that Home for each other.

 

Soon after I moved back to New York,

and figured out that my childhood home

would not be my home anymore,

I found Trinity Lutheran Church of upper Manhattan

a place where I heard for the first time out loud

about God’s unconditional love and grace for us,

and where I saw people try to live it out in their lives.

And since then, I have considered the ELCA –

this denomination, with all its joys, faults and issues –

to be the place that I have called home.

 

And I know wherever I can find a place

where people follow Jesus call and way,

I know I can always find Home again.

 

Christ Lutheran Church is not a building,

it is not made of wood, and sheet rock, and stucco.

it’s not even just the people that gather here.

It’s more than that.

It is a community made of living stones.

God has gathered us into a spiritual Home.

 

Jesus promised the disciples that he wouldn’t

abandon them. Even though he was leaving,

he wouldn’t leave them alone.

And that promise is for us too.

 

Do not let your hearts be troubled,

believe in God and also believe in me.

In my Father’s house there are many Homes.

And there is a Home for all of us.

 

The Voice of the Good Shepherd

 John 10:1-10 April 26, 2026

 

The fourth Sunday of Easter is always Good Shepherd Sunday

Jesus the Good Shepherd
Francisco Barboa

and we always hear from some portion 

of John chapter 10,

where Jesus is telling people 

that he is the Good Shepherd.

He uses sheep and shepherd metaphors to talk about

himself and the other leaders.

 

Jesus said that the good shepherd uses the gate

to bring the sheep through.

But the bad shepherds, the ones that try to lead

the sheep astray jump over the fence.

They try to get in the another way.

 

The poor people listening to Jesus would have understood Jesus.

Even though it says that the some of the people in the crowd didn’t

 

The shepherds were supposed to be watching out for the

sheep and protecting them and caring for them spiritually and physically.

But instead they used their positions to gain

more power and more wealth for themselves.

They were thieves and bandits as Jesus said, using the cover of religious

authority to elevate themselves instead of protecting the sheep.

 

Jerusalem and the rest of Israel were under the rule of the

Roman Government. The religious leaders – the religious

and political rulers of the area – were cozying up to

and fawning over this oppressive Roman government

in order to make gains for themselves.

 

The people were being taxed and laden with debt

so they could barely eat and survive.

Instead of advocating for and protecting the sheep,

the religious leaders they were selling the sheep out.

 

On top of that, the people were told repeatedly

by the religious politicians how disappointed and angry

God was with them, that it was their sin and failures

and that’s why they were poor and sick.

They got the clear message that poverty was their personal fault.

They probably wondered if God cared at all.

Or maybe they had given up caring about that.

 

But hearing Jesus, a religous voice tell them that he wanted

them to have an abundant life instead of the meager fear filled

life they were currently living must have been wonderful.

Jesus was the good shepherd. The ones the sheep listened to.

 

It is ironic then, that since that time, Jesus and God and scripture

have been used to get powerful people what they want.

To support taxes, fees, the rights of businesses, 

money grabs, lavish lifestyles, usually at the expense of the sheep, the poor, the people.

 

And it’s been used to support wars, violence, and genocide.

Always at the expense of the sheep, the innocent people.

The current times are no exception to this.

 

Right now we have politicians who are using the cover of 

Christian faith and scripture to lead the sheep astray again and support

some decidedly unchristian things.

And again we have some religious leaders cozying up them

instead of walking alongside the people.

 

We have heard Christian scripture and faith to support

cutting funds to USAID, food and health care that we used

to provide to the poorest in other countries.

 

We’ve seen politicians pray on the floor of the capitol

after they cut food stamps and Medicaid,

healthcare for the poorest in our country.

All the while giving tax cuts to the wealthiest people.

 

And they’ve used religion and scripture to defend going

to war and spending billions for military actions which

kill innocent people.

 

I’m sure some of the people who are doing this believe they

are serving Christ, but they’ve been misled,

and in turn they’re misleading other people.

 

Religious conviction still has an influence over people

and they are using this influence to get what they want

like many people over the years have.

This is has proven to be a bad thing for public policy wherever

and whenever its happened,

but it’s mostly not good for religion and God and the gospel.

 

When we use God and Jesus and scripture to support things

that are opposed God and Jesus and scripture,

It manipulates and warps God and Jesus and scripture.

It changes the meaning of those things in the minds of people.

 

When Christian voices use God repeatedly

to defend war and killing of innocent people,

then we start to believe that God is vengeful, and that Jesus

was vengeful and that Christianity is at its heart vengeful and violent.

 

When you use God and Jesus and scripture

to support cutting healthcare and food stamps for those in poverty,

then people come to believe that

God and Jesus were not on the side of the poor

and that the poor are being punished by God.

Unfortunately, when you do it so long,

people forget about the real thing and just remember

the manipulation, just the warped picture.

Sometimes we even become the warped picture.

 

Ask someone who is not a part of any religion, or someone

who has left the church what they believe the church stands for.

The picture is not pretty.

 

As a pastor, this is warping of the Gospel is a big concern of mine

when I hear people use the tools of Christian faith this way.

 

I mean, first I worry about the people that are bearing the brunt

of these policies, but I also worry about the gospel itself.

 

When I was in seminary, I was told that part of my job as a pastor

was to “defend the gospel, to protect the message of Jesus

and make sure it’s not being manipulated, and I take that seriously.

 

And those that would use God for their own ends

without reflecting God’s will back into the world,

are trying to enter the sheepfold by another way.

The thieves and bandits that Jesus talks about.

 

When it was in his time or others.

The ones that heaped burdens on the poor

and exploited them without caring.

The ones who use God’s power for hate

while never sharing God’s. The ones who say

they’re for God’s peace, but then advocate for war.

They’re not going through the same gate as Jesus.

The one that loved through personal sacrifice

the one that lead by serving others.

They’re trying to skirt around it and take the easy route

in and only reaping the benefits of God’s power.

Jesus was sent from God and did not exploit or use the people.

He didn’t have any ulterior motive. He wanted them to have

life and have it abundantly. And when the sheep heard his voice

they knew that he was not like the others who had used them.

 

When they saw him feed 5000 people, when he healed the sick

touched lepers, and surrounded himself with sinners and thieves

and the outcast of society, they knew that he was

sent from God and could do some amazing things of course.

And they also knew that he was for them.

For the poor and disenfranchised.

They heard the Good shepherd’s voice and they followed that.

 

And throughout the centuries, people have followed

hearing that voice and have been inspired by it and drawn

to it. But often, the church doesn’t live up to Jesus voice.

It often tries to enter the sheepfold by jumping over the fence.

 

Rhett McLaughlin is comedian who has a very popular YouTube show

at one point he left the Evangelical church of his youth.

And he said this in a video:

"Your kids are not leaving the church because you didn't train them enough. Your kids are leaving the church because you trained them well enough to develop a sense for truth and justice. You let them read the words of Jesus - and they got it. And they've recognized that the church doesn't seem to be interested in those words. They're not leaving because they don't know the truth, they're leaving because they do."

 

The church and the politics that seem to be synonymous with the church,

has let them down. They’re wondering if God has anything to say to them

or maybe they don’t even care anymore.

But when they hear the Good Shepherd’s voice

coming out of someone, they still respond.

 

Recently, Pope Leo, arguably the Christian leader

with the largest stage, and voice, and reach in the world,

has been speaking out directly in contrary to the politics of the day.

 

Last week, he said boldly that 

“God does not listen to the prayers of leaders who start wars and have hands full of blood”. and he is asked “all people of goodwill to always search for peace and not violence, to reject war—especially a war which many people have said is unjust, which is continuing to escalate and which is not resolving anything."

 At an earlier time, he commented on poverty

Many Christians "need to go back and re-read the Gospel" because they have forgotten that faith and love for the poor go hand in hand” He said,

"Love for the poor -- whatever the form their poverty may take -- is the evangelical hallmark of a Church faithful to the heart of God,"

He went on: Top of FormBottom of Form

“We must continue, then, to denounce the ‘dictatorship

of an economy that kills,’”

 And in an overarching twitter message – “Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”

 

I mean we’re in a denomination that was kind of built on criticizing the

Pope, and my usual criticism of the Catholic church is that it has

stood silent on many things it should be talking about.

But this pope has been doing a pretty good job of being voice of the church.

 

Of course, in response to this, some people have said that the pope is

too “woke”, that he should 

“make sure his theological opinions are anchored in the truth”, 

and that he should get out of politics.

But this is not solely a political conversation.

When God is dragged into politics like God has been,

it is a theological conversation and he and all

religious leaders are compelled to speak out.

 

I mean we should be speaking out any time there is

injustice in the world and when the people of the world are suffering,

But we are compelled to speak out twice as clearly when God is

being used to justify and support injustice and horrors.

Part of our job is to “defend the gospel” to protect the message of Jesus.

 

To not speak out is just to let the sheep wander off

wherever they want and follow whichever voice is the loudest

and clearest off whatever cliff they might end up walking off.

 

And here is the interesting and hopeful thing in the last two weeks,

which is almost really what I’ve been leading up to this whole time.

On Reddit, which is a social media platform that is largely

made up of non-religious people and people who are atheist

or at least suspicious of organized religion I have read these comments

in response to this voice they heard in the wilderness:

 

I have waited so long to hear a religious leader say this.

 I might have to come out of Catholic retirement to support Pope Leo.

 I’m non-religious, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that Leo says the sort of things that are greatly endearing to me.

 

These are people who have basically rolled their eyes and

abandoned religion and even been hostile to it.

They are listening and having their hearts softened

by just one public religious figure being direct

and honest and reflecting God and Jesus into the world.

 

I don’t think it’s only because the pope

seems to be on their side politically.

I think they hear the voice of Jesus coming through.

They hear the compassion and care of Jesus and his love for

those in poverty and those outcast coming through.

There is power in that, and even if they’ve been

long gone from the flock, they can still hear

that voice and they respond to it.

 

Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

We have a shepherd who is compassionate and merciful.

Who sets out a table of love, and invites all people to it.

Who was not afraid to stand up against the powerful,

in order to protect the sheep.

Jesus’ voice pierces through the din of all other voices

And when they hear it, people will follow down

those paths of righteousness and mercy.

 

May always go through that gate, and follow the way of Jesus.

May we always walk with the poor and work for peace.

May we always reflect Jesus back into the world.

May others recognize the voice of Jesus when we speak.

May we lead all who follow to abundant life.