Sunday Sermon 10th May 2020

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John 14:  FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

When
my eldest granddaughter Charlotte was about 4, she came with me to a nursing home.  She was quite fascinated by the number of people living there, and she asked me “nanny, why do all your friends live together in one big house”.  I always remember that particular visit when I read this Gospel passage from John, because Jesus talks about living together in His father’s house, in God’s house.  I am sure you will have heard this Gospel passage read at funerals,

Jesus is meeting with his disciples on the night before his arrest.  They have eaten together, Jesus has washed their feet and now he is explaining that he will be taken from them.  They have shared three years of their lives with Jesus, so naturally they are very distressed at the thought being separated from Jesus.

Jesus understands and shares their grief and our grief at being separated from someone we love and with whom we have shared our lives.  It is not easy to release someone we want to keep with us.

But Jesus assured the disciples and he assures us that he goes to prepare a place for each and every  one of us.  There is no one who is not invited to rest in God’s house.  It doesn’t matter who we are, what we have done or not done, whatever our age or our infirmities, how much money we have in the bank, we have a place of rest in God. 

And we have this new home not because of anything we have done, but rather because of the grace of God, who accepts us and loves each of us unconditionally.

We have this place in God’s house because Jesus has gone before us, and invites us to be with him.

Whether heaven is a big house where we all live together we have no idea.  But we do know that Jesus will be there to welcome us.

Jesus words remind us that for believers, death is not the end.  It is merely a new beginning – a beginning in which physical suffering and heartbreak will end. 

AMEN

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