Trust (sermon, May 22, 2011)

John 14:1-14

At one time or another someone has said it to us. In the absence of knowing what else to say, we have probably even said it to someone else. At the calling hours, in the hospital room, after the funeral. “Well, at least he’s in a better place.” “We can be thankful she’s not suffering any more.” “He’s gone home to be with Jesus.” “She’s in God’s house now.”

If we ever wondered what Bible texts we get those sayings from, the number one culprit is probably our text from today. Of all the texts I’ve heard, this passage from John about a house with many rooms is one of the most common texts chosen for funerals.

Why is that?

Well, first of all, it paints a comforting picture. Jesus offers words that we all need to hear, even more so on days when we are grieving the death of a loved one and wondering how we are going to get along without them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Then, Jesus describes a place that sounds downright heavenly: God’s house, with room for everyone, and all the rooms prepared especially for us by none other than Jesus himself. In his translation The Message, Eugene Peterson has Jesus saying: “Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father's home. If that weren't so, would I have told you that I'm on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I'm on my way to get your room ready, I'll come back and get you so you can live where I live.”

What’s not to love about a promise like that?

The problem is, the gospel of John simply isn’t about what is going to happen to us after we die. This is the gospel that is focused on the incarnation, the one that begins with this mind-blowing announcement: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh and lived among us...” John’s gospel is all about the incarnation: God. In the world. With us. Here. Now. Today.

But just how exactly does this work?

That’s what the first disciples want to know. Thomas and Philip actually screw up the courage to ask Jesus what in the world he is talking about. “Lord, we don’t know where you going. How can you say we know the way?” questions Thomas. And Philip, “Look, Jesus, just show us the Father, show us God, and then it will all make sense.” Technically, Philip’s words are a demand, not a question, but what Philip is saying to Jesus is this: “what does God look like?”

And that is a question that good Jews are not supposed to ask. After all, the Hebrew Bible -- our Old Testament -- makes it quite clear that God’s glory is simply too much for human beings to behold. When Moses, the model of faith, asked to see God, God turned his face into a rocky mountain and passed by and Moses could see God’s glory all around -- even with his face pressed into a rock. Moses was finally allowed to turn around after God passed by, so that he could see the tail end of God’s glory. It is simply too much for us to see God and live to tell about it. (1)

So why would Philip ask for such a thing?

It might help us to remember the context of Thomas and Philip’s questions. This whole exchange takes place on the night of the Last Supper, after Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet, predicted Judas’ betrayal, and commanded the disciples to love one another. This is the night we celebrate during Holy Week, the night known as Maundy Thursday. Chapter 14 is the beginning of a section in John known as the “Farewell Discourse,” Jesus’ final words to his disciples on the eve of his death. The disciples are scared. They are disheartened. They don’t understand what is happening. And in the face of their fear and confusion, as they wonder how on earth they are going to survive if Jesus dies, what they want more than anything is to see God.

Will Willimon is the bishop of the Northern Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church. In his blog and on his podcast he has often criticized the organizational structure of the Methodist Church which he finds cumbersome. I didn’t know this until he said it, but apparently, the whole reason his denomination was originally named “Methodist” was because everything they did had a method.

But recently, Willimon published a podcast in which he repented of all that criticizing of the Methodists’ methods. In the wake of the tornadoes that ripped through northern Alabama in April, Willimon witnessed the benefits of that organization. Of the churches in his conference, fifteen were completely destroyed by the storms. Another fifteen were still standing -- at least partially -- but were not safe for people to enter, and so might as well have been destroyed. Churches that were undamaged immediately stepped in to fill needs for shelter and food for those hardest hit.

Willimon remembers when he first became bishop and toured the area of the conference. He was shown six disaster trailers, mobile units ready to be deployed to areas of need in the aftermath of disasters. He remembers wondering what in the world that small conference needed six trailers for...but those trailers were sent out as soon as the tornados hit, bringing much-needed supplies to devastated communities and showing the love of God to people in dire need of some good news. (2)

God. With us. Here. Now. Today. That’s what the disciples wanted to see that night. It’s what we still long for today.

Last year, on Maundy Thursday, at an army base in Afghanistan, the Christian chaplain there held a foot-washing service for soldiers who wished to observe Holy Week.

There were around 60 soldiers in the tent, the chaplain reported. Then, a general stepped forward, grabbed the towel, knelt, unlaced the dusty boots of his troops, and joined with several others in washing the feet of privates. (3)

God. With us. Here. Now. Today.

The version of this passage that I read today makes it very clear that belief is what is necessary for us to experience the incarnate God in Jesus Christ. But the Greek word that is translated as “believe” can also be translated “trust.” For most of us, belief is something we do with our heads while trust is something we do with our hearts. One John scholar says that the meaning of this goes beyond either of those English words, that what Jesus is talking about here is being in a relationship with him, a relationship that can handle our questions, our anger, our betrayal, even our fear.

Tony Campolo writes that “In striving to create the Kingdom of God here on earth one of our biggest struggles is fear. Fear of failing, fear of looking like a fool, fear of family and friends. The writers of the Bible were afraid as well. Because of this, fear is one of the most frequently addressed topics throughout the Bible.
“The words ‘fear not’ appear 365 times in the Bible. That’s once for every day of the year. Faith overcomes worry with hope...The devil wants us to worry. Christ wants us to trust him.” (4)

To trust Christ is to enter into a relationship with him. And relationships -- relationships that really matter -- are never one-sided.

When Derek and I got married, his aunt Jan, unbeknownst to us, asked all the guests to our wedding to send her a piece of advice for a happy, healthy marriage. She had all the advice typed up and bound into a book which she gave us as a wedding gift. It is filled with all sorts of wonderfully practical tips: don’t go to bed angry, have your own tubes of toothpaste, never start a serious discussion after 10p.m. But the one piece of advice that has really stuck with me over the years -- maybe because I find it a true challenge -- is this: no matter what your spouse does, assume the best.

This isn’t just good advice for spouses, of course. It works in all kinds of relationships. Assuming the best about the people we are in relationship with is really about trust. And what is so amazing about our relationship with God in Jesus Christ is that this trust, this relationship, is mutual. We don’t just trust in Jesus, Jesus trusts in us. “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus says, “the one who believes in me [the one who is in a relationship with me] will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these...”

Talk about assuming the best! Jesus knows that when we enter into a genuine relationship with him -- which means not just offering him reverence and obedience but also our questions and our fears -- when we do this, we are capable of doing all the things that Jesus did. And remember, what Jesus did was reveal that God is with us. Here. Now. Today.

Today after worship, the members of the confirmation class will go before the session to make a public profession of their faith. The process that has led up to this day has not been easy. There has been a lot to learn and a lot of hard questions asked as the confirmands have struggled to write their statements of faith. And that’s okay -- it shouldn’t be easy to put into words what we believe. Because when we focus on putting our beliefs into words we get into our heads. And faith is so much more than what we think. Faith is mystery, it is trust, it is entering a relationship with someone we can’t even see. Faith is living out that relationship by allowing God to work through us so that the world can see God, just as Jesus has shown God to us.

The confirmands are not professing their faith as some down payment on one of those rooms Jesus is preparing. Death should be the furthest thing from their minds today. Because faith in Jesus Christ is not about what’s going to happen when we die. It’s about entering a two-way relationship of deepest trust. As these young people go through the many challenges of adulthood, I want them to have a sure and certain sense that God is with them here, not in some far-off place, and that no matter what happens, God loves and claims them now. And even more, that God trusts and empowers them to reveal God’s love to the world just as Jesus did.

The wonder and comfort of God with us is not locked away in some mansion in the sky. God is with us...working through us...Here. Now. Today. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Endnotes:
1. Thanks to David Lose’s “Dear Working Preacher” article on this passage for these insights. Read it online here.
2. Will Willimon’s podcast from May 3, 2011, “What I’ve Learned.” Access it here.
3. From Mark Ramsey’s sermon “Eye to Eye” on April 24, 2011, Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Asheville, NC. Online at www.gcpcusa.org.
4. From a post on Tony Campolo’s blog entitled “Actualizing the Kingdom on Earth,” May 17, 2011.