Fifth Sunday of Easter |
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Scripture |
John 14:1-1414 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And 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. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. |
Devotional |
John 14:1-3 are comforting words often used at funerals, but these words may also be a comfort and assurance for our troubled daily life. For the present time, I like to think of these dwelling places as something that can be experienced here and now. Teresa of Avila, the sixteenth century Spanish mystic, describes them as the Interior Castle with seven dwelling places. The first three groups of dwelling places are what is achieved through human efforts and the ordinary help of grace. The remaining four is a place of passive or mystical experience of the spiritual life. She refers to these as a place of contemplative prayer. In this castle there are many rooms, just as in heaven there are many dwelling places. It seems to me that Jesus was speaking of a human encounter with him as the Son which makes possible a new experience of God as Father. This seems a better use of these verses than an attempt to turn these same words into a weapon to use on one’s opponents. Gail O’Day describes the use of these scriptures in this way. “These words are used as a litmus test for Christian faith in myriad conversations and debates within the contemporary church. They are taken by some as the rallying cry of Christian triumphalism, proof positive that Christians have the corner on God and that people of any and all other faiths are condemned. They are seen by others as embarrassingly exclusionary and narrow-minded, and they are pointed to as evidence of the problems inherent in asserting Christian faith claims in a pluralistic world.” 1 It is troubling to me that so many today would understand this as only those who believe in Jesus, meaning Christians, can be saved. Can Jesus be seen in another way? “Is it possible that nobody other than Christians can be saved? That the God of the universe has chosen to be known in only this one way? But within John’s incarnational theology, the verse need not mean this. Incarnation means embodiment, becoming flesh. For John, what we see in Jesus is the way-the incarnation, the embodiment, of a life radically centered in God.” 2 The Father’s house is not a about location but about relationship. In this relationship there are many room, many rooms for a relationship with God through the incarnate Son, Jesus. Experiencing God in the incarnation of Jesus seems a better use of time than attempting to convince others that I have an exclusive corner on God. I think I will focus on Teresa’s Interior Castles and leave someone else with the chore of proving they have the exclusive corner on God. 1 Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, in The New Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 9. Nashville : Abingdon Press, 1994. p. 743 2 Jesus, Marcus J. Borg. San Francisco : HarperSanFrancisco. 2006. p. 221
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