May 22, 2011  Fifth Sunday of Easter

John 14:1-14

11 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Even with words we have heard many times, we must listen for what we have never heard before.  And with words we know we must listen for the unknown.

The words of John 14, which we often use to make out an exclusive defense for Christianity, were spoken in a powerfully intimate moment.  They are not meant to be used as a smug statement of egotistical arrogance, but  a expression of the extent of God’s love.  

It is through His love that all people come to the Father.  He who ate with tax collectors and sinners and forgave those no one else would forgive opens the door to God’s love for everyone - those who believe and those who don’t!

We are not called to save people; this is God’s task.  We are called to love people, as God has loved us. This is the greater work we are to do - trust in and live out the  way of love over hate, the truth of forgiveness over condemnation, and the life of faith which dares

keep compassion at the center of life.

An important emphasis of this text is that what it promises has already come to us.  We don’t have to live wondering how we are going to get there; we can live doing his work. And dare we say it, even doing greater things then he did because He is in all we do and makes more of it then we ever could alone.  

Greater works then Jesus - more accepting, more forgiving, compassionate, understanding, open to new possibilities then we would ever be left  to ourselves.