SPEAKER_00: Well, today's gospel is a bit of a curious experience for preachers everywhere, I suspect, because if you've been a priest for any length of time, really, you have preached on this passage, or a portion thereof, more often than likely any other passage in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Does anyone know where we often hear this piece?
SPEAKER_00: No clergy get to answer.
SPEAKER_00: It's in our burial rites, our funerals.
SPEAKER_00: While there are five options, I think, for gospel readings in suggested gospel readings for our funerals, I would say a solid two-thirds or so of the time people choose this, though again, a smaller portion of it for a memorial service for themselves or a loved one.
SPEAKER_00: So if I haven't preached on this passage nearly 50 times in 20 years, I'd be shocked.
SPEAKER_00: It makes sense that people choose it, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: There's great comfort in knowing that we or our loved ones have a dwelling place prepared for us, just as Jesus promises in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Older translations of Scripture used to say, in my father's house there are many mansions, which was certainly an appealing vision to me.
SPEAKER_00: It sounded lavish and special in a particular way that my childhood heart found compelling.
SPEAKER_00: But dwelling places tends to be a more faithful translation, and the message remains the same.
SPEAKER_00: There are places for each of us in the heavenly kingdom designed for us.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus will go ahead of us and prepare a place for us.
SPEAKER_00: And he will be there with us once again.
SPEAKER_00: And he assures the disciples, you know the way to the place where I am going.
SPEAKER_00: And our dear pal Thomas, doubting Thomas, is the one who says, What's probably on all of their minds, we don't know where you're going.
SPEAKER_00: How can we possibly know the way?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus replies with his famous line, I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: But he also continues, no one comes to the Father except through me, which is where our usual funeral reading ends.
SPEAKER_00: But I love that today we feature more of what comes after that point.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if you know me, you will know my father.
SPEAKER_00: And from now on, you do know him, and you have seen him.
SPEAKER_00: My preaching at funerals tends to pick up at that accept through me line before I address anything else.
SPEAKER_00: And while we don't read the next lines, I do try to incorporate the spirit of them into my preaching at memorials.
SPEAKER_00: Because while I think there is great comfort in the dwelling place being made and in Jesus being the way, truth, and life, many really stop cold at that no one comes to the Father except through me line.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, my mother, who was a deacon for over 40 years in the church, made it clear in her instructions for her funeral that she wanted this text, but there was no way anyone should read that last line.
SPEAKER_00: And the very kind bishop of Minnesota who presided over her funeral was kind enough to allow the change.
SPEAKER_00: And that it felt terribly exclusionary to her.
SPEAKER_00: He had included so many along the way, treating them with dignity and respect and honor.
SPEAKER_00: Why is there this barrier now?
SPEAKER_00: It would be impossible for her and for many of us to imagine that Jesus would say, we can't get to God unless we do something, unless we go through Him.
SPEAKER_00: So we have to do some excavating.
SPEAKER_00: To understand more fully requires that we take a lot of layers of religious life off of the top of that statement, and then we need to wrap it with the rest of the text that goes around it to paint a possibly fuller picture.
SPEAKER_00: Because as Christians, or because as quickly as Christianity was established as a group, we started making rules about who was in and who was out, how people were to be or to act or to give or to eat or to dress or to behave.
SPEAKER_00: We have said, and many still say today, do it all right or else.
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, some said, Well, this is right, and others said, No, this is right.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we have over 30,000 Christian denominations in the world.
SPEAKER_00: But I digress.
SPEAKER_00: So these layers that have been placed over the top of our scriptures because of all of those experiences have to be shed to really get back to the good news.
SPEAKER_00: Because there is good news.
SPEAKER_00: And the good news is that Jesus is actually telling them, you have seen the Father, you have come to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Haven't you been a paying attention?
SPEAKER_00: He says.
SPEAKER_00: The works alone should inspire you to believe.
SPEAKER_00: And because you believe in him, you're believing in me, and you'll do the good works out of that joy of believing.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you'll do even greater works than what you've seen so far, and I'll help you do it.
SPEAKER_00: I'll do whatever you ask in my name.
SPEAKER_00: So the very thing that people take as a barrier and almost a threat against them, believe in me or else, is really just an acknowledgement of a truth they're already living without even realizing it.
SPEAKER_00: Their belief and their following of Jesus' way and truth and life means they have come to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: It's in place, it's happening.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you see, Philip?
SPEAKER_00: He seems to want to say, you're doing it right now.
SPEAKER_00: The Father is right in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: You're completely engaged with God right in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: It brings to mind the Celtic and Gaelic understanding of the thin veil.
SPEAKER_00: You might have heard it said that when someone dies, they've just slipped to the other side of the veil.
SPEAKER_00: They are still as close to you as your breath, just not accessible in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: But they're right here, alongside us all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the veil thins even more, and we can experience their presence in new ways when we're attuned to them.
SPEAKER_00: This message from Jesus is like he is showing the disciples this veil.
SPEAKER_00: God is right here, as close as your breath.
SPEAKER_00: You've come right up to him because you have come right up to me.
SPEAKER_00: Which means that you are living the way that I've shown.
SPEAKER_00: To honor all, especially the last and the least and the lonely, to feed folks, to provide mercy, to welcome home the repentant sinner, to forgive, to pray.
SPEAKER_00: It means you're living the truth, that all are valued, all are included, everyone has a seat at the table, that even dogs deserve the scraps under the table, that we're all bound up together as a community.
SPEAKER_00: And it means that we're living the life, a sacrificial life of good works for the sake of one another and the world.
SPEAKER_00: Good works that he will make even greater because he will help us to do so.
SPEAKER_00: You've all experienced this.
SPEAKER_00: I know that.
SPEAKER_00: When you have made the brave choice, when you have done the good work, when you have loved as Jesus loves, forgiven or embraced, or shown mercy as he would have done, you feel closer to God, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: We do.
SPEAKER_00: These are the times when the veil is the thinnest.
SPEAKER_00: These are the times he is joyfully saying, You are seeing him.
SPEAKER_00: You have come to him through your connection to me.
SPEAKER_00: You are seeing the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He's but a hair's breadth away, because I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not a threat.
SPEAKER_00: It's an acknowledgement of how close we truly are to God the Father when we love the world, as God would have us love the world.
SPEAKER_00: We just have to open our eyes to see.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to say this one thing more.
SPEAKER_00: Our first lesson today from the book of Acts tells the story of the first martyr, Stephen.
SPEAKER_00: Stephen was a convert to the faith in a time well before following Christ was a popular choice, and well before Christianity was the global religion, followed by millions.
SPEAKER_00: There were a small sect in and around the Middle East, mostly worshiping in hiding, which remained true until almost the fourth century.
SPEAKER_00: The religious leaders of that time were threatened by Jesus claiming a higher authority than their own.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus' followers were an enemy to many who had power.
SPEAKER_00: Stephen had been raised up in leadership among the followers of Jesus in his time, and we understand that he was given to many good works amongst that community.
SPEAKER_00: He was known for delivering food to members of the community, perhaps just those in need for organic reasons, but also perhaps delivering food to those in hiding from persecution.
SPEAKER_00: And so the religious and likely state authorities too stirred the folks up against Stephen, and he was, as the passage today says, stoned to death.
SPEAKER_00: He lived his faith, and he died for it.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, he said.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, do not hold this sin against them, he said.
SPEAKER_00: Sound familiar?
SPEAKER_00: Into your hands I commend my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, Stephen, rather, Stephen chose to live the way and the truth and the life of Jesus out loud in front of a mob who hated him, hated what he was doing and what he was about.
SPEAKER_00: He was showing mercy and love to those in need during troubled times, loving his neighbor as himself.
SPEAKER_00: Here at Trinity, we started the rehumanization project about a year and a half ago as a way to also show mercy and love to those in need in our own troubled times, to build unity and promote dignity.
SPEAKER_00: That's looked several different ways over these months, but specifically lately, we too have been feeding folks who are in need, thanks to your generous donations to our new pantry, just as Stephen did.
SPEAKER_00: Now I do not believe we will be martyred for living the way and the truth and the life of Jesus in our time.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm also guessing it's possible that Stephen didn't think he would be either.
SPEAKER_00: But his courage and example are things we need to hold up in our own faith.
SPEAKER_00: We know that there are those out there who would call our love and support of migrants and transgender and queer folks and women and the poor and those of other religions somehow unbiblical or un-American or any other set of negative descriptors.
SPEAKER_00: But as Stephen did, and as Christ's followers through the centuries have done, we are loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves the best we can.
SPEAKER_00: We do it because it's where the veil feels the thinnest.
SPEAKER_00: It's where God feels the closest.
SPEAKER_00: And that shows us that we should keep following this way.
SPEAKER_00: I say this not to frighten us, but to give us a thread back to those whose love of neighbor was also misunderstood in their time.
SPEAKER_00: Are we prepared to stand up for the love we have chosen to share with the world?
SPEAKER_00: And if your answer is not yet, then we know we have some more work to do to strengthen our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus never promises it will be easy to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: But as we draw near to God through him, maybe he's indicating it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00: That it is always worth it to love our neighbors, and that doing so is indeed part of living the way and the truth and the life.
SPEAKER_00: It is where we see God, it is what Jesus taught us to do, and so we must carry on.
SPEAKER_00: So in this time of our norms and our community life being deeply challenged by many who are hurting others, let us find all the ways we can to sink deeply into living the way of Jesus and the truth of Jesus and the life of Jesus, so that when the hour comes for us to live our faith aloud for the sake of the world, we are ready.
SPEAKER_00: We know God is with us.
SPEAKER_00: We can pray for those who persecute us and be assured that there is prepared for us a dwelling place that He has made for each of us just on the other side of the veil.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.