Faithful Presence: Do the Work

6th Sunday of Easter May 5, 2024

The texts for this sermon are  John 14:1,8-14  Read also 1 Peter 2:2-10

We need to back track a few verses and look at verse 1 of chapter 14 where Jesus says:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Don’t be troubled?  Are we not troubled but what we’re seeing in our world today? Are we not troubled by problems within our own life, family and dear friends?

Jesus, though, isn’t telling us not to feel troubled by trouble. Rather he is preparing his disciples for his death---what would seem to them the end to everything. He is telling them that even though, in the days soon to come, all will look lost and that hope would be fruitless, it is not so. It is not the end of the Story. He says:
Believe in God. Believe also in me
Hold to what you know about God. Be strong, trust: do not surrender to your troubled heart.

Then Jesus goes on to say something we often misinterpret
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places;
If I go, I will prepare a place for you and I will come 
back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 

In our minds, we equate My Father’s House with heaven. But Jesus is re-appropriating that idea just like he has with other traditions and scriptural interpretations he’s talked about.  He speaks here of a habitation defined by the presence of God; a habitation meant to be shared in fellowship with others. And this habitation is expansive.

Who is to occupy those rooms?  Not just those who’ve gone to heaven but us, here, now. That Dwelling of relationship, of mutuality and reciprocity that God and Jesus enjoy? We are to enjoy as well. In our lives now.

When Jesus says he will come back: he’s not referring to the Second Coming but to his resurrection: I’m going away -- I’m going to die but do not be troubled because I’m going to come back and when I do, I will usher you in to the Kingdom of God: the long-hoped for Age; into the original Covenant, the Covenant of reconciliation. But this time, instead of that Covenant being outlined in the Law, it will reside in your heart; be written on your heart.

Believe in me, Jesus says; trust me, Jesus says.  As the Father dwells in me? and I in the Father so we will dwell in you.

But Philip, like we, has trouble with this concept. We don’t see the Father, Philip says. Jesus says to him, but Philip, have you not seen the work of the Father in what I’ve done? Believe that work if you can’t believe me. The work the Father has done in and through me? That work will also be done in and through you.

But we might ask a question similar to Philip’s: What work is that? What was it Jesus was attempting to reveal in all the miracles he performed?  He was demonstrating the nature of God. He was demonstrating what it means when God dwells so completely, wholly in the Son. That intimacy, that merged identity, is what Jesus was revealing. Jesus was giving tangible, concrete expression of the Presence and Character of God.

I am the Light of the world, he said: That Light, is the revelation of the Presence of God. And what is that Presence? Is it not the power that speaks order out of chaos? Light into darkness? Living breath into dust. Life from death? That Presence that speaks one’s name; the touches with healing; speaks comfort. It is the lifting, guiding, empowering agency of God.

And what is that Character? Is it not faithfulness, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, love?

So what is the Work Jesus is talking about? the Work to which his disciples and we are called? Is it not the work of giving that same evidence of God’s Presence? To give expression to God’s light-shedding, fear-refuting, burning love?

So, how do we move into that work?

There’s a hint in 1 Peter 2:2
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you 
may grow into salvation--- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Long for the nourishment God provides. This nourishment will ‘grow’ us into salvation -- we don’t work ourselves into salvation. God does this on our behalf. Salvation doesn’t just mean saved for heaven, but saved in the sense of being made whole--nurturing us to become who we were created to be---our true self, indwelled by God’s Sprit. 

Peter uses a metaphor similar to the one Jesus used: He talks about the living stone -- and he goes on to say:
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in
God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, 

A Spiritual House, the Father’s House, that abode on earth that reveals what God called God’s people to be from the beginning: to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  

Peter goes on to quote from Isaiah, Hosea and the Psalms:
“See, I am laying in Zion a stone, 
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be disturbed.” (Is 28:16)
To you then who believe, he is precious; 
but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected 
has become the very head of the corner,” (Ps 118:22) 
and
“A stone that makes them stumble 
and a rock that makes them fall.” (Isaiah 8:14)

They stumble because they disobey the word, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
     but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
     but now you have received mercy. (Hosea 1:10)

Peter calls us to remember Jesus’ words to his disciples: we are not to be troubled but rather, to rally as a royal priesthood, a holy people. Priests are people who mediate the grace of God, who make a way for others to enter into the Father’s House, that habitation of fellowship with God. And by God’s mercy we are not only invited, but equipped to work on God’s behalf.

But let us note his word of warning too: that failing to keep faith in this causes us to stumble. May this not be so but may it be said of us that we earnestly seek to be God’s Faithful Presence in the world.

Let us hear and take to heart these words from the Talmud: 
“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

Pastor L Quanstrom