Sermon: from John 14:1-14

April 28, 2002

In the TV game Jeopardy, an answer is put on the board and the contestant has to come up with the pertinent question. So if the answer is: George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson--the question is: Who were the first three presidents of the United States?

In like manner, the 14th chapter of the gospel of John seems to be filled with answers. In sentence after sentence, Jesus seems to be giving one answer after another to life’s most profound questions. The trouble with the 14th chapter of John is that we have to come up with the questions that the answers are answering.

When Jesus says, "believe in God, believe also in me," we might ponder, "that’s a good answer, but what is the question?" What IS the question? And who would be asking that question? And what might be going on in that person’s life that would cause the question to be asked in the first place?

We know from the first words of the scripture today that Jesus is addressing troubled people. His disciples have just learned that Jesus is leaving them. They have learned that there has been a betrayal by someone in their inner circle--but they don’t know who. They have seen that Jesus is troubled. And so the followers of Jesus are troubled.

What troubles us? And when we are troubled, do our everyday questions tend to change? On a good day--not a troubled day--but a good day--I have my questions. On a good day, I ask: What did the Cubs do today? What will the weather be? What are Mindy and Alison up to? What’s in the refrigerator for supper? Any phone messages while I was out? What’s all that noise coming from the neighbor’s house? Ordinary questions. You know the type.

But when I am deeply troubled, my questions become more profound, more penetrating, seeking deeper insight and understanding. When I come face to face with death, I feel troubled. And my questions become more penetrating and profound than normal. When we die, what is beyond? That is a profound question!

When things around me don’t make sense; when things start breaking that I didn’t expect to break: this marriage and that marriage, this friendship and that friendship--my heart is troubled. And my mind begins asking questions that probe beneath the surface of appearances.

When the future takes an unexpected turn, when dreams are shattered, when common expectations suddenly become foolish assumptions--my heart is troubled. And in the agitation of my mind, new questions began cogitating: What is the world coming to? Where are we going with all this? How is all of this going to work out?

When my heart is troubled, when I feel depressed, when I am descending valleys of doubt, I want to know the truth.

When I feel lost and confused and face circumstances I haven’t faced before, I want to know the way.

When I see despair, when I see people lose their joy, when I see people unhappy, when I see people just going through the motions, when I see people who have no quality friendships, when I see people who are lonely--or when I feel any of those things myself, I don’t ask mundane questions. I ask: what is life?

When I pick up the newspaper and see the children of Palestine hovering in fear behind battered automobiles; when I see the collapse of the World Trade Center, when I see children in the Philippines living in slums in houses made of cardboard, when I see schoolchildren murdered in the classroom by a classmate with a gun, when I hear of little girls with malignant tumors--my questions don’t have anything to do with the Cubs, or what’s for dinner, or does my checkbook balance...

I want to know, where is God? I want to know, "how can I get to God?" I want to know, "Who is going to do God’s work here on earth? Who is going to pick up the hammer of justice? Who is going to know how to use that hammer? And who is going to change the things that need to be changed? That’s what I want to know!

When my heart is troubled, my questions change. Do yours?

The 14th chapter of John consists of answers to the profound questions, the penetrating questions, the prickly questions.

They are words of assurance for people whose hearts are troubled. What should we believe? Jesus says, it’s good, when our hearts are troubled, to believe in God, and to believe in him. When our hearts are troubled, it’s good to place our trust in God. When our hearts are troubled, it’s good to take a long look at Jesus and trust that what he did a long time ago in the gospel stories--he will continue to do in the stories that are unfolding in our lives.

When our hearts are troubled about what’s ahead in life, when we wonder where we’re going--Jesus has an answer. We are going to the Father’s house; a big house; a house with many rooms, a house where the rooms are prepared and ready for us.

Now we Christians need to start being more careful about how we talk about the Father’s house. We’ve made it out to be this beautiful mansion just beyond THIS life, and if you’re good you get to go there whenever you die. But that’s not the way Jesus pictures it in the 14th chapter of John. When Jesus talks about where God lives, its NOT a mansion, its in the hearts of his followers. He abides in all of us! From John 14:23: "Jesus said, Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them."

In other words, you don’t need to croak in order to make it to the Father’s house. The Father’s house has many rooms, each room the heart of yet another person who has come to follow Jesus! What is ahead for us--room in each other’s hearts--for all who are committed to loving God. And what if we are at the precipice of death itself--what is ahead? The same blessing: the hearts of the saints who have gone on before us, whose hearts have been restored and preserved by God, whose hearts are the dwelling place of God, whose hearts await our arrival in the mists of worlds beyond what we now know.

When my heart is troubled because I am wondering if anyone really cares about me...After all, everyone is so busy with their own concerns and problems, would anyone even know if I was missing? Sometimes we execute what I call the "Quit" test. When we feel unnoticed, unimportant, unappreciated, we threaten to quit. People are all the time threatening to quit the church. It’s because they don’t feel that they really matter to anybody. A little child feels invisible, and threatens to run away from home. And maybe we shouldn’t laugh too much at these children, because when WE feel invisible, its a serious problem. How many people have just left the church and nobody went after them? Jesus told a parable about a good shepherd who goes after the sheep when they wander away. If you wandered away from a relationship, or an organization, or the church--would anybody go after you? Or does nobody really care that much about you? The sad truth is, sometimes, nobody does care!

Except Jesus. Jesus says, "I will come to you--and will take you to myself--so that where I am--you may be also."

Sometimes my heart is troubled because I don’t know which decision to make. Sometimes I don’t know which way to take. Do I try harder--or do I try another direction? Do I take the risk--yes or no? Do I embrace what is happening--or do I fight it? Do I hang on--or do I let go? Do I handle it myself--or do I turn it over to God? Sometimes I don’t know whether my reasons for a decision are grounded in truth--or whether they are just illusions and rationalizations. Sometimes I don’t know whether a particular decision will be life-giving or not.

And in my wondering, Jesus answers that he is the way, the truth, and the life. And in him giving me that answer to my profoundest questions, he invites me to examine the life he lived, the things he said, his actions--and in looking at him--experience the marvelous mystery of finding my own answer--the way for me, the truth I need to know, the path that is life-giving in this decision.

When my heart is troubled because I am wondering how to get to God, when I need to get to the one who heals, when I need to get to the one who can forgive me, when I need to get to the one who delivers justice, when I need to get to the one who bestows wisdom, when I need to get to the one who pours joy into my heart, when I need to get to the Prince of Peace, when I need to get to the fountain of love--when my heart is troubled because I need to get to God---Jesus says, I am the way to the father. And Jesus says, the WAY is simply to do this: to love one another. Jesus has the answer for my troubled heart.

And finally, when I wonder what I can do--when I am overwhelmed by low self-esteem, when I question my abilities, when I feel alienated from the powers that be, and when I feel devoid of power within, when my heart is troubled at my own inability and powerlessness, Jesus says, "the one who believes in me will do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these."

I don’t normally like people who walk around with all the answers. And I have to be honest with you, every time I read the 14th chapter of John I get a little irked, a little turned off. Anytime I read just one answer after the other, I tend to roll my eyes. The religions of the world have enough canned answers. But when I discipline my impatience and dwell for a spell in the 14th chapter, I begin to see that the answers are a profound, comforting, and exciting gift to the profound and penetrating questions life itself is continually evoking in my mind.

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