“Do You Know The Way?”
John 14:1-14
1 Peter 2:2-10
by: Rev. Ken Sauer, Pastor of Grace United Methodist Church, www.graceumcsd.org
I watched a sermon by an elderly black United Methodist Bishop this past week at our monthly clergy meeting.
This Bishop has been in the ministry for many years.
He’s seen it all.
Early on, when he was a young associate pastor, a woman called the church and said she hadn’t received her monthly check, and she needed food.
“Would someone from the church be able to bring me some groceries?”
This young pastor took it upon himself to do the grocery shopping and the grocery delivering.
He says that when he got to the apartment building the doorman was a bit taken back by the color of his skin.
Granted, this was probably back in the early to mid 1960’s.
The doorman had been made aware that a pastor was coming to deliver food to this white woman’s apartment, but he did not expect the pastor to be black.
Nevertheless, the doorman escorted the pastor up to the woman’s apartment and as he did so he mentioned to the pastor that the woman was blind.
The pastor sat down in the woman’s living room and they had a nice long chat.
Before the pastor got up to leave he asked the woman if she had a church home, and if she did not, his church would love to have her visit with them.
To this, the woman (who was blind) told the pastor, “I’m looking to move out of this area. There are too many niggers around here!”
That’s when this man who would some day become a United Methodist Bishop realized that he was going to have to have a whole lot more Jesus in him if he was going to be able to be Christ to all people!
We all need a whole lot of Jesus living in us in order to be God’s Royal Priesthood—God’s Holy Nation to the world!!!
How much Jesus lives in you, in me?
Are we able to love and minister to persons who insult us; are we able to love and serve persons who do not like us for whatever reason—perhaps they even hate us…just because of something as ridiculous as the color of our skin!
Is our relationship with Christ strong enough to withstand the evil of prejudice, put-downs, persecution?
In John Chapter 13, Jesus washes His disciples’ feet.
After this He tells them, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Are we able to love others like Christ loves us?
Remember, while we were sinners, Christ died for us!!!
Remember when hanging on the Cross, Jesus loved those who had crucified Him and prayed to the Father, “Forgive them…”
Can we love like Jesus?
Do we even want to try?
John Wesley, the Founder of Methodism, defined our ultimate goal as Christians on this earth and called it Christian Perfection.
By Christian Perfection, Wesley was not necessarily talking about perfection in the sense that we will never sin…
…what he was talking about…
…which should be our constant goal is this: Christian Perfection means to have a habitual love for God and for our neighbors.
It’s about relationship is it not?
It’s about relationship with God and relationship with our fellow human beings.
And it’s a loving relationship.
A relationship which consists of unconditional agape love!
There is nothing we can do to cause God to love us more than God already loves us.
There is nothing we can do to cause God to love us less!!!
This is unconditional love!!!
Are we nurturing an unconditional love for God and for other people?
If so, how?
Are we growing in our Christian journey?
In our Epistle Lesson from 1 Peter…
…and Epistle simply means Letter…
…In our letter from Peter that we read earlier…
…Peter instructs us to “crave spiritual milk, so that by it [we] may grow up in [our] salvation.”
And that means replace our thirst for selfish gain with a thirst for God, and to quench that thirst for God by reading our Bible, coming to Sunday school and worship, joining a Band Society, tithing our money to God’s Church, sharing our faith—putting our faith into action through love and words!!!
What an awesome way to live!
There is no higher goal.
There is no grander life!!!
The folks that Peter was writing to were a community of converted slaves, Jews who had been cast out of the synagogue, a few merchants or traders.
None of them had any power, status or religious standing.
They didn’t amount to much in the world’s eyes.
But in God’s eyes?
Well.
That’s always a different story isn’t it?
Peter says to them and Peter says to us: “you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness and into his wonderful light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.”
Can you relate?
Do you see yourself as having been chosen by God in order to declare the praises of God?
And if so, what does that mean?
How does that manifest itself in your life?
Our Gospel Lesson from John is part of what is generally called Jesus’ “farewell discourse.”
Jesus had been with His beloved disciples for three years, and in that time they had come to love Jesus intimately.
The disciples had put their Trust in Jesus.
They had left their careers, their homes…
Their former way of life, their former dreams and ambitions…
…they had left everything in order to follow Christ…
…Yes, they had put their whole trust in Jesus!
And now, Jesus is preparing them for the time—which will be soon in coming—when He will be crucified and then ascend into heaven and no longer be with them in bodily form.
Of course they don’t have a clue what He’s talking about at the time, but when the Holy Spirit comes…they remember and they understand.
In John 13:38 Jesus tells the ever-loyal disciple Peter that Peter will disown Jesus three times “before the rooster crows.”
Now Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God, trust also in me.”
It is an amazing act of love when a person does their best to make sure everything will be well for their loved ones after the person is gone.
It’s one of the most altruistic things we can do.
And this is what Jesus is doing here, but on a much grander scale!!!
“Don’t worry. Don’t let your hearts be troubled about my going away. You’ve trusted me ever since you’ve known me, trust me in this…”
“In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.
I am going there to prepare a place for you.
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.”
What does that mean?
Is Christ building tract houses in the heavenly realm?
Is heaven a place in this life or only in the next?
Is heaven a literal place, a spiritual state, a redeeming relationship…
…or all three?
I’d say it’s all three!
Heaven and hell are determined by our relationship with Christ.
Heaven is anyplace where the Lord is and Hell is any place where God does not dwell.
Is there any place in your life that God does not presently dwell?
Is there anyplace in your life where you are experiencing a kind of “hell”?
Is there anyplace where you are not allowing God to come in, sweep up, and take control?
And what is that place like, what is it about?
We often say that the devil uses weapons against us, and this is true…
…but do we not also use weapons against God?
And are not some of those weapons we use against God the weapons of procrastination; the weapons of excuses and so forth?
How about we turn things around and use those weapons—not against God, but against the devil?
When tempted, how about we tell the devil, “Not now!”
And when the tempter comes again and again how about we say again and again, “Not now!”
Let’s say, “Not now” to the devil, but say “Right now” to Jesus!
Let’s allow Christ to fill those desolate and empty…
…those hellish places in our lives with the relationship of love and obedience which God the Son and God the Father have one for the Other!!!
Jesus told the disciples, “The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work.
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…”
You and I can have that kind of relationship with Jesus!!!
Amazing, is it not?
In the Father’s house are many rooms or dwelling places, and Jesus has prepared a dwelling place for each one of us!!!
And these dwelling places are about our relationship with God.
They are about allowing Christ to live in us, and us in Christ.
Jesus has prepared our place in the Kingdom by His life, death and Resurrection.
And we are invited by Jesus to join Him in the Resurrected state—right here and right now!
We are to be the Resurrected people of God…
…not just some time in the future…
…not in some undisclosed location…
…but right here and right now where we live, play and work!!!
Are we taking full advantage of the room in the Father’s house which Jesus has prepared for us?
Have we even checked in?
Jesus has left the light on for us!
The Bishop I spoke of earlier faced many more struggles during his long career as a black minister.
He says he was called “nigger” many more times.
But he was still able to love and pastor those who both loved and hated him!
He said that now he could be called “nigger” all day long and it wouldn’t bother him one bit!
The reason?
Because he’s got a whole lot of Jesus living in Him!!!
And that’s what it takes to have life and have it abundantly!!!
In verse 4 of our Gospel Lesson Jesus said to the disciples, “You know the way to the place where I am going.”
And after Thomas protests, saying they do not know the way, Jesus simply says: “I am the way…”
Jesus is the Way in which we come into relationship with God.
And notice that Jesus, in being the Way, makes it even more clear that our dwelling place or room in the Father’s house is not so much a literal place as it is a redeeming relationship!!
And that redeeming relationship is to be the foundation upon which our lives are to be built!
Our lives are not to be based on money.
Our lives are not to be based on selfish motives and greed.
Our lives are not to be based on our careers or our desire to move up the ladder of social standing and worldly success.
Our lives are to be built on loving others as Christ has loved us!!!
And we can only do that by checking in to the dwelling place or room which Christ has prepared for us!!!
In John Chapter 17 Jesus prays for you and for me—for everyone—“that all of [us] may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us!”
That is the dwelling place; the room!
We are to have the same kind of relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that Jesus has with the Father and the Holy Spirit!
Wow!!!
What a reason to live!!!
When we are in relationship with God through Jesus Christ Church is not just something we do on Sundays—Church is who we are—every moment of every day of the week!
Love is not reserved only for those who love us back or can do something for us…
…Love is to be extravagant…
…it is to be shared with all…
…by all means…
…in order to glorify God…
…bring praises to God’s name…
…and as those living as a royal priesthood, to help bring others into the dwelling place in God which Jesus has prepared for every single living human being!!!
In a world with so much suffering and so many lost and unhappy folks there is no greater calling than to help others check-in to their room…
…into their relationship with God through Jesus Christ!
We are to be like the bellboys or bellgirls in a hotel—we are to carry other people’s baggage up to their room in order to help them get checked in!
Peter tells us that we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that [we] may declare the praises of him who called [us] out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
Once [we] were not a people, but now [we] are the people of God…”
Does this accurately describe your life?
Are you living in the dwelling place/in the room that Jesus Christ has prepared for you?
Or does that room remain empty.
It’s time to check in…
…And to get on with the good business of helping others to check-in as well!
