Fifth Sunday of Easter | May 3, 2026 | John 14:1–14 | Ryan Mills |

[Jesus said to the disciples:] ¹“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. ²In 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? ³And 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. ⁴And you know the way to the place where I am going.” ⁵Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
⁸Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” ⁹Jesus 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’? ¹⁰Do 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. ¹¹Believe 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. ¹²Very 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. ¹³I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (John 14:1-14, NRSV).

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Allleluia! Christ is Risen!

Well this week we had a minor crisis at our house—on one of the beautiful afternoons my wife Kathleen and I decided to go for a walk, and one of our kids, who shall remain anonymous to protect the innocent, decided to bring her bike, now training-wheel free and come with us. We began our walk through a wooded park, and she zipped off at top speed, instantly out of sight. So we jogged to catch up with her, and followed what we thought was her probable route, but she was totally gone. We wandered around the park, split up to cover more ground, shouting her name, doubling back, with absolutely no sign of her. Finally, just as we were ready to call the police, off in the distance another couple approached, accompanied by a kid, our kid on a bicycle. She had wisely sat down and not moved, and they had found her and safely wheeled her to the parking lot. There were tears and explanations and incredible relief. My daughter summarized what happened: “I didn’t know where you were, and it was too far to go home.”

Too far to go home—can’t we all feel that? Because isn’t home what we long for? Isn’t home what we’re trying to find our way back to? Because at some level all of us have lost that place to call home, and we don’t really feel completely at home no matter where we are. Because maybe home for you is not just four walls, but the kids or grandchildren you can’t see; maybe home is the place you grew up that is now just a memory; or maybe home is that person who was once there to greet you and love you; and now that empty chair, that break in your heart, can never be filled. Ever since our first parents Adam and Eve lost their home in Eden, trusted overly in themselves and mistrusted God, and were kicked out of their paradise home, we have been people lost, on the run, in search of home.

But today in John’s Gospel we’ve heard from Jesus about the way home, in a part of Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse,” the longest talk, the longest sermon Jesus gives in the whole Bible, a conversation Jesus has with his disciples right before Holy Week about the fact that he is going away, leaving, and how he won’t be with them in the same physical way, so he is saying goodbye. For the three years of Jesus’ ministry he has been their most intimate friend, he has been their center, their rock, their Teacher, their Master, their Lord, their Home, and now he says he is going away, and already, like us, the disciples are homesick, anxious, they don’t understand why he has to go, they don’t want to say goodbye, they don’t know how they will find him again, they don’t even know the way to start.

And so Jesus speaks to them and to you and me today when he begins, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, Believe in God, believe also in me.” Jesus begins comforting us with the amazing claim to both trust God and trust in him Jesus, God’s only Son – he says that he is worthy of our trust, that he won’t let us down, and that when we trust in him, then we will find peace, that our hearts will no longer be so troubled, but we will find rest and calm like we’re cradled in our mother’s arms, knowing we’re safe in his mighty hands. And then Jesus promises, “In my Father’s House are many dwelling places.” This is one of the most beautiful lines in Scripture, in my Father’s house are many mansions, many dwelling places, many places to rest and be at home, all of our hunger for a lasting home finds an answer in the Father’s House, where like some incredible luxury apartment building there are many mansions within it, a place to dwell for each of us, a place to rest, and belong, and be loved and be at home, with room for each and for all.

And Jesus assures us that his going away, his saying goodbye, is so that he can go ahead of us to prepare that place for us, so that he won’t leave us alone but will come again to take us to himself, so that we can be at home with him.

When I was a child my father was a career military officer, so I grew up as an Air Force Brat and later an Army Brat—we moved a dozen times when I was kid, church became one of the few constant things in our lives. After we had lived 7 years on an air base in rural England, we moved back to the States, to the small sleepy village of Oakland, California. I still remember my dad being sent on ahead to Oakland, 3 months in advance of us, of course leaving my mother to tend to three kids and prepare an overseas move by herself! He sent postcards to us still back in England to tell us that in California they had not just 3 TV channels, which we were used to, but hundreds, that there was a bridge across the bay there that was made of gold, and that there was even a chocolate factory there, Ghirardelli, things we couldn’t believe, it all seemed made up, honestly, and seemed like he would never come back! But what was he doing but going first to prepare a place for us, and then, true to his word, he flew back to bring us back, and so as we got off the plane there was a home to go to. I remember we were so zonked from the plane ride and jet lag that he and my mom carried us into the house to put us into our beds that first night: “I will go and prepare a place for you and I will come again and take you to myself,” Jesus says, he doesn’t ask us to find him, he doesn’t expect us to chart it out and hitchhike and cross the oceans of this world by our own spiritual power, no, he comes to pick us up in his arms and carry us home, to the place he has already gotten ready, the place he has already prepared – he did it as he died our death on the Cross, he did it as he rose again on Easter and then ascended into Heaven, he has prepared everything, there’s nothing you or I need to do, but relax into trust in him, it’s all ready, he has already passed from death, to life, so that whether we live, or whether we die, we can be at home with him!

And this is why Jesus can claim today that he is the Way, and the Truth and the Life. He is the only way Home, the only Way to the Father’s House, because he’s the only one who went all the way to the Cross, all the way to Death and back for you, in order to prepare a place for you and take you to himself. And he alone is The Life, because he has beaten death on the Cross, and lives and reigns forever, and so he has life, eternal Life, to give and to share with you as a free gift. And he is the Truth, because only in him do we come to know the truth of the Father’s incredible love for ourselves and for all people, the truth is he is Lord of all, and we belong to him, and so wherever he is, we will find ourselves there at home with him.

Which is why we don’t have to wait until heaven to get home, to get where we belong, that’s what the church is for, wherever Christ is we are already at home, wherever we gather in his Name he is with us, wherever we hear and believe his Word we’re home safe with him, which is why we can call our church, Trinity, our church home, filled with our church family. Peter tells us today, “Come to Christ, a living stone, and like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” That’s what we are—living stones, a little rough maybe, a little chipped around the edges, but built together into a spiritual house, built on each other, and all connected to the central stone, Jesus Christ. It’s not the building, Peter, says, as beautiful as it is, but you and I together who make up our spiritual house. These beautiful pastel-colored stones painted onto our walls here, or the bricks or the cinderblock or whatever makes up our church buildings are all just a reminder that it’s each one of us, together, from different places and colors and backgrounds, who all come together to make up the spiritual house of our community, built on the rock of Christ himself, that deep foundation that unites us all closely together, that upholds us wherever we go, that living Keystone, the Cornerstone who was rejected, who was crucified, who was discarded, so that we could be accepted, and gathered, and be at home together.

Today, Christ who is our Home, who is your Home, who is our foundation and our final destination encourages and comforts us, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” And so we trust in him, until that day when he calls us to himself, and we are safely at home with him, forever.

For Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

And the Peace of God which passes understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Rev. Dr. Ryan Mills

New Haven, Connecticut