See! Hear! Work!

SCRIPTURE TEXT:  John 14:1-14, Rev. Monte Marshall

I begin with a question:  What troubles our hearts this morning?  This past Thursday, I asked myself that question.  I needed to come up with a Prayer of Confession for this week’s bulletin.  I spent way too much time searching through a variety of worship resources looking for just the right prayer.  I didn’t find one, so I wrote one.  The result is the Prayer of Confession in this morning’s bulletin.  This is what I wrote: “There is much to trouble our hearts, O God.  We know the way of Jesus, but when people disappoint us, enemies threaten us, leaders deceive us, and institutions fail us, we veer off course.  We give up on love, write people off, cling to grudges, bad-mouth opponents, abandon hope, and hide from ourselves, unwilling to take a hard look at the gathering darkness within.  It feels as though you have failed us, deserted us, and even tricked us with false promises.  No matter how many Easter Sundays we celebrate, we seem stuck on Good Friday.  We admit it:  a life lived like this, is life ebbing away toward death.  What are we to do, O God?  We’ve lost sight of where you are and where we’re going.  Reorient us, O God, to the way of Jesus.  Amen.”

As you can tell from this prayer, when my heart is deeply troubled, I often feel alone and on the edge of despair.  I usually start questioning God, doubting the efficacy of my faith, and looking for something else to hold on to that will pull me through.

Later in the service, we’ll pray together this prayer that I wrote.  It will become our common confession before God even though it doesn’t begin to capture the diversity and depth of the individual troubles that may burden our hearts today, hence the question: What troubles our hearts this morning?

If our hearts are indeed troubled, then we have an important entrée into this morning’s scripture reading from the so-called Farewell Discourse in John’s gospel.  As commentator David Lose notes: “At this point in the story, it’s Thursday evening, the night before Jesus’ crucifixion.  In John’s account, Jesus not only knows that he will soon leave this world but also tries to prepare his disciples for the events about to transpire.  In fact, after the last supper he shares with his friends, Jesus spends the next four chapters of John’s Gospel talking about his imminent departure, and these verses come right at the beginning of that long and dramatic scene.  A few moments earlier Jesus told them that one of them would soon betray him, and now he’s just told Peter that he will deny him three times.  It’s in this context that Jesus says…’Do not let your hearts be troubled.’”

David Lose imagines the disciples’ response: “’What?’  The disciples must have asked.  ‘Do not let our hearts be troubled?  Are you kidding us?  You’ve just told us you’re going to die.’”[1]

And what does Jesus say?  “You have faith in God; have faith in me also.”  To the community of disciples whose hearts are troubled, Jesus urges continuing trust—trust in God—and also, trust in himself as one intimately connected to God. 

Jesus then speaks of God’s house, the many dwelling places within that house, and his work to prepare a place for his disciples so that they might be united with God as Jesus is united with God.  This is not just a promise reserved for “the sweet by-and-by.”  This is a promise intended for the concrete here-and-now as Jesus “comes back” to his disciples in the gift of the Spirit to take them into a more intimate relationship with God that provides an inward place of rest and comfort for their troubled hearts. 

Jesus then says to his disciples: “’You know the way that leads to where I am going.’”

Thomas replies: “’But we don’t know where you’re going.  How can we know the way?’”

Jesus then uses three “I am” statements to emphasize his union with God.  And as you may recall, in the Hebrew Bible, “I am” is characterized as Yahweh’s name, given to Moses at the burning bush.  Jesus says: “I myself am the Way—I am Truth, and I am Life.  No one comes to Abba God but through me.”’

Now as we all know, many of our siblings in Christ see these words of Jesus as “a declaration of prohibition” and “an indication of God’s judgment, exclusion, and absence,”[2] to quote Karoline Lewis.  Speaking personally, this is not the God of radical inclusion that I have come to know in Jesus.  After all, I seem to recall that John’s gospel proclaims God’s love for the whole world—and not just the part of the world that follows Jesus.  For me, God’s all-inclusive love is the way, the truth and life that is revealed in Jesus.  Anything less brings me no comfort; on the contrary, it troubles my heart!

Jesus then says: “’If you really knew me, you would know Abba God also.  From this point on, you know Abba God and you have seen God.’”

This time, Phillip responds: “’Rabbi…show us Abba God, and that will be enough for us.’”

It’s then that Jesus invites his disciples to see, hear and work.  Jesus invites his disciples to see Abba God in him and in the works that he does: “’Whoever has seen me has seen Abba God…Believe in me that I am in God and God is in me, or else believe because of the works I do.’”  Jesus invites his disciples to hear Abba God speak through him: “’The words I speak are not spoken of myself; it is Abba God, living in me.’”  And Jesus invites his disciples to continue his work: “’The truth of the matter is, anyone who has faith in me will do the works I do—and greater works besides.’”

So how are we to deal with our troubled hearts?  See, hear and work.  Trust the God revealed in Jesus.  Find comfort in God’s house—in that soul-space prepared for us by Jesus, where we know ourselves united with Abba God, with the Christ, and with the Spirit that is present among us even now.

In case we’re wondering what a life lived in this way looks like, let me share with you a story I came across in a sermon by Samuel Wells.  The story is about Leonard Wilson.  Wilson was living in Singapore in 1942 when the Japanese captured that island fortress from the British during World War II.  He became a prisoner of the Japanese.

As we might imagine, the conditions of his captivity were horrific enough to trouble anyone’s heart.  For many months, Wilson suffered regular beatings and torture.  Leonard’s response to this suffering was determined not by his troubled heart, but by his trust in the God he had come to see in a crucified and risen Christ.  He had heard the good news.  He knew the work that was his to do as a follower of Jesus.  So he prayed constantly for God to grant him patience, courage and love.

And God provided.  In the middle of an episode of torture, his Japanese guards asked him if he still believed in God.  He said, “I do.”  So they asked, “Why doesn’t your God save you?”  Leonard said, “God does save me…[but not] by freeing me from pain… [God] saves me by giving me the strength to bear it.”

Day after day, Leonard had to cower in the face of his persecutors…Yet he looked at their faces as they each took turns beating him.  Their faces were hard and cruel.  Some of them even seemed to enjoy tormenting him.  But Leonard pictured them as they had been—as little children with their brothers and sisters and happy in their parents’ love.  He saw them not as they were, but as they were capable of becoming—and that stopped him from hating them.

As hard as it is to believe, Wilson found new life and a profound sense of peace in his captivity.  And this is what he learned through his ordeal, in his own words:  “God is to be found in the Resurrection, as well as in the Cross, and it is the Resurrection that has the final word.”[3]

Quite clearly, despite all of the troubles that Leonard Wilson faced as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, he lived from within that dwelling place in God’s house.  He lived in the way, the truth and the life of Jesus, even when it was hard.    

So what troubles our hearts this morning?  Whatever these troubles may be, John’s gospel encourages us to look to Jesus and see God at work.  It invites us to hear what Jesus says:  “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.  You have faith in God; have faith in me.”  It challenges us to do the work that reflects Christ and reveals God to the world.  So may God help us!  Thanks be to God!  Amen.