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. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Grace, mercy and peace to you all from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Dear family in Christ, if you knew Lucille at all, you probably knew she loved her Lutheran hymns. That was evident to me when I first visited her. Upon my visit I sang (as I love to do) a few hymns and was encouraged as I watched this woman who was struggling with her health, seek to mouth the words to the hymns she heard. Weather it was “Rock of Ages” or “Jesus loves me”, even in ill health, she wanted to sing.
We know God has blessed us in our Lutheran Worship with so many & various ways with which to praise and pray to God. But the hymns we sing are often what many will cling to in their last days on earth. For example in the hymn “Rock of Ages” we hear the words “let me hide myself in thee”. Lucille, indeed wanted to hide herself in Christ and she made that very clear to me when she asked me to pray with her that the Lord would take her home.
When Lucille’s family called me in the evening to tell me that the Lord did indeed honor our prayers for her peaceful release, I thought of a hymn. It’s the one we just sang; “Abide with me”. The words that stuck with me from that hymn were, “I need thy presence every hour” and of course I reflected upon the words that say, “Abide with me”.
With our brief time of knowing each other, Lucille helped me to see her longing as well as her love for Jesus. In the condition she was in upon most of my visits, she could not stand, she could not travel to go to church nor take part in a Bible Study or in the many and various services to God’s people and yet she was able to display the honest confession of a sinners need of a savior. All Lucille said to me one day was, “I want to go meet Jesus” and thus she said to me without words, “I need his presence every hour”. She needed Jesus’ presence when I offered her communion. She needed Jesus’ presence when we prayed and when we sang and in her last hours she needed Jesus’ presence to encourage her that He was indeed waiting for Lucille to take her home.
That is what Jesus has promised her and what he promises to all of us: That we have a place prepared for us, which we can call home. Our Gospel Reading from John 14 is one of the most comforting passages in Scripture, especially to those who know their time in this world is limited. The verse says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled”. Lucille’s only trouble within her heart was asking, “Why is Jesus delaying her access to our Father’s house?” She was ready to go. We prayed that God would also take her soon and the Lord our God, who answers the desires of our heart, heard our prayesr.
Her last words upon this earth were “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”. You know if this were a movie script, I could not write a better ending than that. Jesus wrote the same ending for you and I, and we who are left upon this earth must cling to the same words which Lucille clung. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” We too must trust in Father, Son and Holy Spirit so that our hope will be built on nothing less, that Jesus’ blood and righteousness. We too must trust in our Lord and know that God will see us through our pain, our sorrow, and the emptiness we feel when someone we love leaves this world. We must trust that when our Lord called us to own trouble free hearts, he would have at our disposal everything we need for hope, comfort, peace, and assurance in Christ.
Our text says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.” You know in this life rooms are not offered to everyone. A homeless person for example cannot just show up to the Marriot Hotel and ask for a room, where he or she does not have the money. In the same way, a person who has made a mistake in the past, might find room less available because of judgment and a lack of mercy and forgiveness from this world. Our Lord knows our sins, he knows our failings, he knows every mistake and stupid thing we have ever done and yet still offers us a room, not for rent, but for on the spot ownership. That offering to us, enables us in times like this, to say our Lord forgives. Our Lord heals. Our Lord most certainly restores.
I am going to share something with you that will probably make me tear up here as it did a few weeks ago and as it did when I wrote down this thought; When Lucille could not even open her eyes, she took hold of my hands and with great effort said to me, “I hope I see you there by my room in heaven”. I don’t think anyone has every said anything nicer than that to me in a long time. I said to her, “I hope so to”. The hope I referred to in that moment was of course the hope we have in Christ.
You see, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life just as it was said to us in this Gospel of John. The way was prepared for Lucille even as it is prepared for you and I. Upon our last days, we do not have to worry about the mistakes we have made in the past, we just have to hope in the work of Christ for our future. That is what Lucille did and that is what we do each day? Amen? Jesus has indeed prepared a place for you and Jesus has promised that he will come back to take us to be with him.
When it was said to me that Lucille said the name of Jesus, as if she was seeing him reaching out to her, it all the more strengthened Jesus’ promise to us all. What a wonderful gift our Lord gives us today. For in a world that often finds no comfort in death, we Christians can sing. We can hope! We can rejoice that Jesus will one day keep his promise to return and take us to his kingdom. That my friends in unconditional love that comes from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who suffered, died and rose again in order to save us from sins last triumph.
Here is another thought to take with you today. Lucille left us during the season of Lent and what a wonderful Easter celebration she will have. When that day of rejoicing comes, please celebrate with her spirit that Jesus has Risen and one day you will as well.
Amen
