{"id":2667,"date":"2020-05-06T08:48:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T06:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/static\/wp\/?p=2667"},"modified":"2020-05-06T08:48:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T06:48:23","slug":"easter-five-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/easter-five-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter Five"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifth Sunday of Easter – Easter Five (Revised Common Lectionary)<\/span> – May 10, 2020 |\u00a0Sermon on John 14.1-14 | by Carl A. Voges<\/span> |<\/h3>\n

The Passage<\/p>\n

\u201cLet not your hearts be troubled.\u00a0 Believe in God; believe also in me.\u00a0 In my Father\u2019s house are many rooms.\u00a0 If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?\u00a0 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.\u00a0 And you know the way to where I am going.\u201d\u00a0 Thomas said to him, \u201cLord, we do not know where you are going.\u00a0 How can we know the way?\u201d\u00a0 Jesus said to him, \u201cI am the way, and the truth, and the life.\u00a0 No one comes to the Father except through me.\u00a0 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.\u00a0 From now on you do know him and have seen him.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Philip said to him, \u201cLord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus said to him, \u201cHave I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?\u00a0 Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.\u00a0 How can you say, \u2018Show us the Father\u2019?\u00a0 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?\u00a0 The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.\u00a0 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the words themselves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.\u00a0 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.\u00a0 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [English Standard Version]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYou are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God\u2019s own people, in order that you proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 [1 Peter 2.25]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019re eight weeks into this virus – How is everyone doing?\u00a0 There are concerns and prayers for the medical people who are dealing with it directly; there are sympathies and prayers for those who are infected by it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These weeks have revealed how messy and sloppy is the world\u2019s life, leading us to ask –<\/p>\n

Are we really at the mercy of a life run by feelings (describe your favorite) or politicians (take your pick) or the world\u2019s versions of love and hatred (again, make your selection)?<\/p>\n

The twistings of the world\u2019s life are brutal and merciless; they have disrupted the usual observances of Mother\u2019s Day on this weekend!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thankfully, today\u2019s Gospel gives us an uplifting and terrific glimpse of the Holy Trinity\u2019s Life.\u00a0 It is relief, then, to come into today\u2019s Liturgy, recognizing that the Lord\u2019s people are beginning the fifth week of its seven-week Easter season!\u00a0 This means that the realities of the Son\u2019s resurrection are continuing to push into our lives and the life of this world!\u00a0 We are grateful for these realities because the virus is still seeking to swarm highly vulnerable people, freezing nearly everyone into fear and anxiety.\u00a0 Making our way into today\u2019s Liturgy, our Lord pries our eyes and ears, our minds and hearts, loose from the realities of this virus so we can be reminded that Easter\u2019s Great Fifty Days are still pulsing around us.\u00a0 These Great Days assure us that the Lord\u2019s Life continues to storm into ours through the Son\u2019s crucifixion, resurrection and soon to be observed ascension eleven days from now on 21 May.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Life of Holy Trinity is described well in today\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Many of us are familiar with the first section of the passage because it often serves as the Holy Gospel for the Burial of the Dead.\u00a0 Today this passage strikes us even more because we also get to run on into its second section!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The passage opens with Jesus encouraging his disciples to not be troubled \u2013 Why is that?<\/p>\n

The Greek word for \u201ctrouble\u201d has been used earlier to describe Jesus\u2019 reaction to the word of the death of his friend, Lazarus.\u00a0 Jesus was stirred powerfully within himself because death belongs to Satan\u2019s life (the life naturally expressed in the world and sometimes unleashed in devastating ways!).\u00a0 Putting Jesus to death on Good Friday is the final act of hostility on the part of the world and Satan, its leader.\u00a0 Because of Jesus\u2019 death (and our Baptisms into it), hostility will remain between the world and the followers of Jesus that does not go away until we pass through our own deaths.\u00a0 Thus, the troubling of the disciples\u2019 hearts is not simply a sad or sentimental emotion, it reflects the \u00a0struggle between Jesus and the world\u2019s leader, Satan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jesus is speaking these words from John 14 on the night of Maundy Thursday and its momentous events are beginning to unfold.\u00a0 The disciples are eating the Passover Meal with Jesus (the Meal that is being transformed into the Lord\u2019s Supper).\u00a0 They sense something ominous and mysterious is occurring \u2013 Judas has slipped off into the night; Jesus has given his disciples a new commandment of loving one another as he loves them; and Peter has promised that he will never deny Jesus.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the following verses Jesus reminds us that belief in the Father is the same as belief in him.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 demand that his disciples have faith in him is more than a request for a vote of confidence.\u00a0 The disciples\u2019 faith conquers the world by uniting them to Jesus who is conquering the world!\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 death the leader of the world is thrown out, a victory made obvious by Jesus\u2019 Spirit to those who have faith.\u00a0 When the world is facing death triggered by this virus, fear is the instinctive response; when the Lord\u2019s people are facing death, such fear is replaced by faith in him!\u00a0 When this virus slams trouble and affliction into our lives, we tend to let it pull us away from the Lord\u2019s Scriptures and Sacraments.<\/p>\n

But, for the Lord\u2019s faithful people, that same trouble and affliction turns us into his Scriptures and Sacraments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jesus points out that there are many dwelling places in his Father\u2019s house.\u00a0 While the picture of a huge building is a rich one (remember that the eternal city, Jerusalem, is<\/p>\n

described in Revelation as a cube that is fifteen hundred miles high, wide and deep!), the Father\u2019s house is better understood as a permanent union with the Father in and through Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus is on the way to be reunited with the Father in glory, making it possible for others to be united with the Father.\u00a0 His Cross is how he prepares for this union.\u00a0 His return to the Father after the resurrection and ascension is so he can take his disciples into<\/p>\n

union with himself and with his Father!\u00a0 Now he prepares his people for that by making them understand how it is to occur through the Cross.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our Lord initiates this understanding after Thomas complains that they don\u2019t know where Jesus is going and they don\u2019t know the way.\u00a0 The Lord\u2019s Cross reveals that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life.\u00a0 He is the Way because he is the only avenue of salvation for the world\u2019s people \u2013 sorry, world, your attempts to do salvation on your own just don\u2019t work!<\/p>\n

He is the Truth because he is the only revelation of the Father who brings about such salvation \u2013 sorry, world, your idea of different religions all leading to the same God is not based in authentic reality!\u00a0 He is the Life because he is the real Life that he gives to those who believe in him \u2013 sorry, world, your insistence that your life is the real one just does not square with reality!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Since the Son lives in the Father and the Father lives in him, he is the conduit through which the Father\u2019s Life comes to the world\u2019s people.\u00a0 Jesus pleads with his disciples to believe that he is in the Father and the Father is in him.\u00a0 By uniting the followers with Jesus and the Father, belief gives them a share in the Lord\u2019s power.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The greater works in this passage refer to the actions that take place after Jesus\u2019 crucifixion and resurrection.\u00a0 In the Gospels there is a significant difference between what the disciples did before the Cross and after his resurrection and ascension.\u00a0 Before, those actions were pointing to the Cross; after the Cross, the actions are revealing Jesus\u2019 glory!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 followers will share in his judgment because he is giving them the power over sin and is giving them his Spirit who will prove the world wrong about its assumptions.\u00a0 The world always insists that its way of self-centering is the only way, but it will be proved, now and in the Last Days, that it is totally wrong.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 followers also have the mission to bring his Life to others.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The most extraordinary part of the passage\u2019s second section is the promise that asking in Jesus\u2019 Name will always be granted!\u00a0 Because the follower is in union with Jesus and Jesus is in union with the Father, there is no doubt that the follower\u2019s request will be granted.\u00a0 If we attempt to offer up a prayer outside that union, then prayer is not going anywhere except to converse with ourselves (for example \u2013 asking for a good parking space outside Lowe\u2019s or Home Depot!).\u00a0 But that\u2019s what happens when we blurt out prayers without being immersed in the Lord\u2019s holy places of the Scriptures and Sacraments.\u00a0 This union with Jesus also implies that the requests of his followers are for the heavy realities of life (for example \u2013 asking for the deepening of faith and trust in the Lord God when your life is being squeezed and broken down).\u00a0 Such requests continue the work through which Jesus glorified his Father during his ministry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This passage, then, lets us know clearly that the only Life worth living is the one given us<\/p>\n

by the Lord God at Baptism and sustained by his Scriptures, Forgiveness and Supper.<\/p>\n

While the world continues to swarm us with its instinctive realities of illness and death, our Lord pries our eyes and ears, our minds and hearts, loose from the realities of the world\u2019s life so we can be reminded that Easter\u2019s Great Fifty Days are still pulsing around us! \u00a0\u00a0While the world used to put this weekend together to honor its mothers, the Church gathers today to acknowledge that, because of the Lord\u2019s grace and mercy, the mothers in its parish communities are able to imitate Jesus \u2018 mother, reflecting the Life, the Love (that is, Agape) of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0 Easter\u2019s Great Fifty Days are reminding us that the Lord\u2019s Life continues to storm into ours through his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension because it is only the Life that rescues!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our<\/p>\n

hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifth Sunday of Easter – Easter Five (Revised Common Lectionary) – May 10, 2020 |\u00a0Sermon on John 14.1-14 | by Carl A. Voges | The Passage \u201cLet not your hearts be troubled.\u00a0 Believe in God; believe also in me.\u00a0 In my Father\u2019s house are many rooms.\u00a0 If it were not so, would I have told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,157,173,108,110,345,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-2667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-johannes","category-beitragende","category-carl-a-voges","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-14-chapter-14-johannes","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2668,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2667\/revisions\/2668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2667"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=2667"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=2667"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=2667"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=2667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}