Our Father’s House
Gospel Reflection John 14:1-14
Where I grew up language and culture were different. I got looks when I just responded “yes” instead of “yes m’am.” There was no such thing as pop in the Delta; everything was Coke, Sprite Coke, Pepsi Coke, etc. And when we talked about where we lived, we talked about “staying,” as in “Where do you stay?” Or “I stay in Rolling Fork” or “I stay in a house on the Carter farm.” I read later in an autobiography of a Delta luminary, Unita Blackwell, the first black woman to serve as a mayor of a Mississippi town, she surmised that the language of “staying” was used because so much just wasn’t permanent. Floods, seasonal labor, and poverty, people just moved around; they were less rooted.
“I go and prepare a place for you.”
My parents are starting to think about where they’ll live next. A few years ago, they built an addition onto their house so that their laundry, their bedroom, and a full bath are all on the main floor. Their house works for them even better now, but still there are steps to the upstairs and the downstairs so they’re thinking. They’re leaning towards moving with my sister and her family to a third location, with my parents building something they’ll never have to leave. This kind of work and imagination requires innovation and preparation, patience and conversation with my sister and her family. None of this planning happens in an instant; all of it takes time.
“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”
A place. When I was maybe 8, we watched this bad movie all about heaven in Sunday school one week. The places that Jesus was preparing looked a lot like the homes that some of my friends lived in — a two story house with a yard and a playset in the back. But there are many different kinds of houses. When I got to go to Mwitikira, just outside of Dodoma in Tanzania, the houses were made of mud, with block bricks. This kept the house cool during the day when the sun was hot, and then the houses were warm at night when the temperatures dropped. I’m not the kind who wants a mansion, but if there was a “dwelling place” for me, I think I’d want a Michigan river cottage, where this time of year everything is a sea of green, with a redbud or a crab apple tree right next to the house.
I get the feeling like there are enough places, enough dwelling places for everyone. It’s not like Grand Rapids, where we have a housing shortage, or our country, where I’ve read we need between 4 and 7 million more housing units. In the Father’s house, we’ll have what we need, even if we can’t see the way..
“Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Some are born with directional awareness, others not. I am the second kind. Google maps made a deep change in my life; I don’t get lost every time I drive anymore. Remember those trip maps that you could get when you were a member of AAA? Helpful, but only if you were a good map reader. It’s a good thing that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, because otherwise there would be no possibility that I would ever find that place. And even though this conversation between Jesus and his disciples is a little opaque, we’re not left without directions.. Think about our baptismal vows, how we promise to respect the dignity of every human being, to participate in the breaking of bread, to return to God when we fall into sin, to faithful in prayer, to proclaim the good news, to strive for justice and peace, and of course to love God, love neighbor. No one said it was easy, but it doesn’t change from day to day. This is our way, our map, our path.
“If you know me, you will know my Father also.
One more on knowing. In the KJV of the scriptures, Adam “knew” his wife Eve and then Cain, again he “knew” his wife and then Abel. Knowing someone and being know is the best gifts of our world. It doesn’t happen all the time. It’s not always possible, but when the space between us melts, when the magic of friendship happens, when the miracle of falling in love happens, when you’re married or friends for 5, 10, 20, 40, or 61 years as Ken and Robbie VanSolkema were, or when your dog knows you so well that he knows when you’re going for a walk or upstairs, when your friends see all of you, know you, and still love you. That’s being known. And y’all. We know God. We know God Father because we know Jesus. We know God Father because we know the beautiful world, it’s called natural theology folx.
It’s not every moment I can say with assurance, I know the Father, but most of them I can. When Asher was young, he asked a lot of questions; I know you’re surprised. “How do we know them?” We go to church with them. “Did we always know them?” They’re your grandparents, Asher. They’ve known both of us our whole lives.
“How can you say, “Show us the Father?”
During my final years of undergrad, I took an absolutely amazing class, Female Saints of the Western Tradition; it was the first time I read Hildegard. We learned about how the Catholic Church views sainthood. Think about this logic a minute: in the Catholic Church, there’s this understanding. If you’re in the land of light and joy, also called heaven, you’ve got the ear of God, because you’re right there. This means you can ask God directly to heal the one who needs healing. We know that Jesus is up there; he can talk directly to God as well, but maybe you’re like me, and you’ve got a grandma there. It’s not just Jesus that knows the Father, it’s also our saints, the ones on the wall outside in the memorial garden. This means if you’ve loved a saint, or even if you’ve studied them, if you’ve read them, you’re only a half a step away from the father.
Another observation, there are not a few people of those so-called-saints sitting right in here in these pews, that if you know, you know. Show us the Father? I see little glimpses of God Father right here, right now.
The one who believes in me will also do the work that I do.
Some of the things that Jesus did, I have no desire to imitate, like dying on the cross. But what about the other works? I’d love to enter that mystery of feeding the 5000 and the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Or healing, especially when people need healing badly. Or listening. Jesus could listen and cut through all of the confusion, hear what needed to be said, and love. I know I am not alone when I say I desire this myself too. Or all of those times when Jesus called people into relationship with God, showing them what it means to be beloved. Jesus was the very one who lived God’s love to the world.
But y’all, this work wasn’t only for Jesus. It is for all of us. The world is a tough place right now, which means that we’re needed more than ever. We are all called to heal the sick, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, to share the hope that is in us, that hope that lives because we know the Father, because the Father knows us.
None of us gets a bye, all of us are responsible for our world, for loving, for feeding, for clothing, for healing, for respecting, for showing with our bodies that there is another way, that God is preparing that place for us, and also that that place is within us, as Jesus lives in our hearts, as we move closer to God and to one another, God’s hands and feet in the world today, proclaiming with our mouths, loving with our bodies, remembering that today and every day, we are with God.