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.
