6th Easter
John 14: 1-31 adapted from Madsen
“Let not your hearts be
troubled. Trust in the power that leads you to the Fatherly Ground of the World
and to me. In my Father’s house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, how
could I have said to you, ‘I go there to prepare a place for you’? And when I have gone and prepared a place for
you, I will come again and take you up into the realm of my being and working,
so that where I work, you also may work. And you know the way where I am
going.”
Then Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know
where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I myself am the Way—the Truth— and
the Life. No one finds his way to the Father but through me. If you had really
known my Being, you would have recognized my Father as well. From now on you do
know him and have seen Him.”
Then Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father;
that would satisfy our deepest yearning.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long
and yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Does your heart’s voice not tell you
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not
just my own. But the Father, who lives eternally in me, continues to do his
works in them. Build your faith on the power of my Being that lets you know: I
in the Father, the Father in me. Or at least learn to trust through looking at
the works themselves that have arisen.
Truly, truly I say to you, whoever trusts in my
Being will also do the works that I do --and greater deeds will he do, because
I go to the Father. Whatever you ask for in unity with me, I will do it, so
that the deeds of the Father may be revealed in the working of the Son. When
you turn to me in prayer in the power of my name, I will be the Creating One in
all your works. If you truly love me, you will share in my spiritual goals. And
I will ask the Father and He will send to you another Counselor, who will stand
by you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth. The earthly world cannot receive
this Counselor, for it cannot perceive his working and does not recognize him.
But you know him, for he will live with you and will work in you.
I will not leave you desolate—I will come to you.
Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.
Because I live, you will live also. On that day, you will truly know
what it means that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.
Whoever bears my spiritual goals within himself,
and brings them to revelation in his working, is one who truly loves me. And
whoever truly loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will
reveal myself to him.”
Then Judas, (not the Iscariot) said, “But Lord, how
is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the people who are in the
world?
Jesus replied, “Whoever truly
loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will
These things I have spoken to you while I am still
with you. But the health-bringing Spirit, the Counselor whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you everything and will bring to your
remembrance all that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as
the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled nor let them
be afraid.
You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and yet
I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would have rejoiced, because I am
going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I am.
I have told you now
before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have
much to say to you, for soon the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power
over me.
But I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose,
as it was entrusted to me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
Do the same. Arise, let us be on our way.
6th Easter
May 26, 2019
John 14: 1-31
 |
| Charon Ferrying the Dead, Alexander Lytovchenko |
There can be many things in life that trouble us—economic
insecurity, difficult individuals, illness. All of these things are minor key
versions of the one big trouble, our deepest and most innate worry—the fear of
death. For in death what we really fear is loss of our own self, and loss of dear
ones.
This was indeed a valid fear in the time before Christ’s
coming. For it was a true threat—humankind was losing its share in ongoing
life. But since Christ’s death and resurrection, we need not fear being
extinguished by death. For He has already died our death for us and has
prepared a place for each of us to be in the afterworld. “Because I live,” He
says, “you will live also,’ John 14:19
 |
| Yongsun Kim |
We need only, again and again, try to follow his pathway of
life. He gives us the pathway on earth
by which to follow Him: our love for Him will guide us. He says, ‘Whoever bears my spiritual goals
within himself and brings them to revelation in his working is the one who
truly loves me.’ John
14:21
What are His goals?—that we come to trust in His power in
our hearts; that we come to live our lives as an expression of our love for
Him; that in loving trust we come to live in
Him, the giver of Peace. In loving trust our hearts are peace-filled, even in
the face of loss, of illness, or even of death. As Wendell Berry who lives
close to the heart of nature says:
When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the
night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my
children's lives may be,
….I come into the peace of wild
things
who do not tax their lives with
forethought
of grief. I come into the presence
of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind
stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world,
and am free.*
Nature can give us grace-moments of peace. But Christ gives us
the way to the truth of human life - he gives us a peace that comes from
another world.
*Wendell Berry, “The
Peace of Wild Things,” in The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry
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