The Reverend Barbara K. Briggs
April 20, 2008
The Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A

Caleb lives with me and my husband in the rectory in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts.  He is our son.  He is four.  His fears are those of a child, and they are real.  As a parent, it is my job to comfort him in times of fear.  Reasoning with him does not work.  When he is afraid to go to bed because of the monsters under the bed or in the closet, telling him that there are no such thing as monsters doesn’t end the drama.  The other day I told him that the monsters were afraid of Mommy and wouldn’t dare come out.  He still wouldn’t go to bed.  I finally let him fall asleep in Mommy and Daddy’s bed, and moved him to his own bed when he was safely asleep.

Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled...”  But if our monsters are real, how can we not fear?  And Jesus is not just talking about passing fear or confusion about Jesus and who he is.  The word “troubled” in the Gospel actually refers to Jesus’ own sense of disturbance, agitation and fear in the face of his own death.  Something along the lines of dread.  So it’s big – as serious and real as the monsters under the bed are to a four year-old.

What Jesus is telling us is similar to the wisdom of the child who runs to his or her parent in the middle of the night for comfort.  It is not the time of many words.  Just being there is sufficient.  Jesus tells us that in his Father’s house there are many dwelling places.  He tells us:  “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.”

We have often interpreted this to mean that Jesus is preparing a place for us in heaven.  While that may be true, there is more to it.  The good news is that it is for right now, not just in some far-off, (or maybe not so far-off) future.  When we hear “I am the way, the truth and the life,” we may be reminded of the story of the good Shepherd and what Don told us about last week:  Jesus is not only the shepherd to whom we come, but the gate, the door, the way in.  Jesus is guide and destination, the end and the means to that end.

What Jesus says next in today’s Gospel has fueled the fires of religious disputes for centuries.  He says, “No one can come to the Father except through me.”  But, there is no sense in having a competition amongst the world religions about which is the greatest.  Jesus doesn’t say that the only way to GOD is through him.  He is saying that for those who believe in the Son, the Son reveals the Father.  In other words, if there is a son, there is necessarily a father, and that through this particular son, through Jesus, we can know the Father, and we know the son and the father not through some esoteric philosophy or wisdom, but through relationship.

This is the meaning of the many dwellings.  The dwelling places that are prepared for us are each unique relationship into which Jesus draws us both individually and as a community.  We are brought into relationship with each other and with God.  Then comes the best and the perhaps the scariest part:  Jesus tells us that the one who believes in him will also do the works that he does – in fact, even greater works.  Greater works than what Jesus did?  Us?

YES.  It is our great work of the every day ways in which we carry on Christ’s mission of making God known to the world.  Our works are not necessarily meant to be flashy and spectacular, but they are born of an inner conviction that Christ is with us, empowering us, guiding us, working through us in every little detail of our daily lives.  Christ’s light shines forth through us to others.

Someone said to me last week that she was tired of hearing that our lives are centered in Christ.  “We need to stop talking about it and do something”, she said.  Yes.  Without a way to live it out, Jesus as the way, the truth and the life doesn’t mean anything. As Christians, we are challenged as individuals and as a community to find concrete ways in which to live out our faith.  We don’t have to stop talking about it, though.  Talking about it with each other is helpful.  Talking about it with God is helpful, too.  We can pray for help to see how God is calling each of us to take the risk of putting our faith into action every day.  What little ways can I adopt to let Christ’s light shine out for all the world to see?  Is there something I care passionately enough about to get others to join me in the effort?  Is that my ministry?  If God seems to be with you in it, then, go for it.  “This little light of mind, I’m gonna let it shine…let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”  Amen

© Copyright 2008 by the Reverend Barbara K. Briggs