Plenty Good Room

Psalm 31 p 439
In you, O LORD, I seek refuge; do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me.
Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.
You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name’s sake lead me and guide me,
take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge.
Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.
My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.
This is the word of the Lord: Thanks be to God



We’ve all done it, I think- or at least been on the receiving end –that speech, those final words, that try to imbue all the information and wisdom we want to give someone- when we’re leaving the kids for the first time alone—“don’t burn down the place, don’t let anybody in the house, here’s 5$ if you need milk from the store…” or when the children go away: “don’t drive too fast, wear your seat belt, call when you get there…” or even when we are undergoing something unknown, a biopsy or medical procedure, the nurse makes sure to walk us through: “you’ll feel a pinch, and begin to feel a little sleepy, and then the dr will come in, and the next thing you know, you’ll wake up in the recovery room. You’ll be fine.” This morning’s text from John is just that: Part of Jesus’ final words to the disciples: Listen now, for the word of the Lord
John 14:1-14 p 877
14“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
4And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.
12Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

This is the word of the Lord……Thanks be to God
We want to know—we want to be prepared. Jesus will soon go away, and he is trying to reassure the disciples, trying to prepare them. “Do not let your hearts be troubled…” Don’t worry, Jesus says. Really- it’ll be okay- why? Because I am going ahead of you, and I am going to prepare a place for you.
This passage is frequently used at funerals. In my Father’s house there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”
Trust me Jesus says. In fact the word used for believe- “believe in God, believe also in me” is really better rendered as “trust”- a trust built on a relationship.
The disciples have a relationship with Jesus. They have been with him for a while, now. This morning’s passage is set after Palm Sunday, after the foot washing, while the disciples are still sitting at the table, but after Jesus has told the disciples about his impending death. They are starting to get nervous-why is he talking like that? What can he possibly mean? What is this talk about going away?
Thomas- and here I want to call him Realistic Thomas rather than Doubting Thomas, asks a common sense question- “Lord, we do not know where you are going” Makes sense. Sensible Thomas wants a road map- where are you going, and how are we going to get there? Where Jesus is going is much less than a destination, and much more of a way of being, however. And Thomas’ words are actually- “we are not able to know where you are going”. It’s not a cognitive, fact based knowing- we are unable to know where you are going-
And Jesus has compassion for them- “I am the way” he tells them. You already know me, Jesus tells them, and in that relationship is all you need to know.
Robert Jenson says that “God is not known by us because he/GOD is amenable to the exercise of our cognitive powers. In a word made flesh, God…is disclosed in the self-giving, self-emptying love that is God’s Son.
Many scholars think the Gospel of John has post-resurrection statements interpolated into the text. That means that the faithful community went back and put in after-Easter, post-death and post-resurrection words into the gospel text. So that Jesus, in saying to his followers, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself-“ is the Jesus who has already died, and been resurrected, has already defeated death and sin, has already been raised to glory- and has, indeed, come again to take them to himself.
And where does he appear? In the midst of them, the faithful community. The word “you” in this morning’s text is always plural- you, the disciples, the “all ya’ll” you, the whole church you- not just to one of us, but to all of us, together.
Because did you hear what Jesus had to say? “In my Father’s house are many rooms….” There’s an African-American gospel song, Plenty Good Room. There is a wideness in God’s mercy, another hymn says, like the wideness of the sea. Plenty good room, says the song, plenty good room in my Father’s kingdom. We are called to have that largeness of heart, we are called to make sure there is indeed plenty good room in the kingdom.
If this message to the early church, and to us, is that in God’s house there are lots of rooms, then there must be room for all kinds of people. And there are all kinds of jokes about this: that a Presbyterian dies, and goes to heaven, and is taken on a tour by St Peter—and they pass one room, and there’s all kinds of music and singing: “Oh, those are the Baptists” says St Peter, and they pass another room, and they can hear through the door chanting and smell incense “Oh, those are the Episcopalians” says St Peter. And they go down the hall, and they pass a room, and St Peter motions for the Presbyterian to be silent. “Shh…those are the (fill in the blank denomination here) they think they’re the only ones who got in”.
So what are we to do in this roomy, capacious kingdom? Many point to this text as the text that shows just how wide God’s mercy and grace are, and point to it as a way for us to respond, with grace, to people of other faiths. If God has room in his mansion, if Jesus comes and calls other sheep that are not of this sheepfold, then how are we to think and live?
Shirley Guthrie, Presbyterian pastor and teacher, says this: If we look at non-Christians in light of God’s plan, we are permitted and required to believe that God is for them too- that God loves them, that God desires their salvation, too, that God works in their lives and in the world around them. It is not their unbelief and disobedience but the will and work of God in Jesus Christ that tells us what God’s attitude toward them is and will be. How can we Christians take non-Christians unbelief more seriously than we take what God has told us God plans and wills for them?
Rob Bell recently published a book called Love Wins. Rob Bell is a huge, huge big deal in the Emergent and Evangelical church. He is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a mega-mega church, by many people’s measure the mother ship of mega-churches, the epitome of success of what it means to be a Christian and a church. And in his book, Love Wins, Rob Bell writes that the church was doing a series of teachings on peacemaking, and having an art show, in which artists were to reflect on what it means to be a peacemaker. One of the artists chose to include a quote from Mahatma Gandhi in her work. A number of people found that quite compelling. But not everyone—someone attached a sticky note to the picture that said “Reality check: He’s in hell”.
And among Bell’s questions are: really? We have confirmation of this? Somebody knows this without a doubt?
Rob Bell is saying the same thing John Calvin and the early Westminster Confessions say: “We are to have a good hope for all”. We have that good hope because we rest in the graciousness, the wideness of God’s mercy.
Other sheep I have, that are not of this sheepfold. In my Father’s House there are many rooms, says Jesus.
But we also have Jesus’ words from this same passage- “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.”
Karl Barth, easily one of the most famous theologians of the 20th Century, was lecturing once to a group of students at Princeton University. One student asked him a question that has probably crossed your minds: "Sir", said the student, "don't you think that God has revealed himself in other religions and not only in
Christianity?" Barth's answer stunned the crowd. With a modest thunder he answered, "No, God has not revealed himself in any religion, including Christianity. He has revealed himself in his Son."
I am the way, Jesus said. The early Christians were not labeled “Christians”: they were called “People of the Way”. And what do we do, as people of the way? What do we do on our journey? Is heaven just a destination? Some of you may have heard that yesterday, May 21, was judgment day, according to Harold Camping. We understand that Jesus will come again—but that no one knows the hour, not the angels in heaven, not even the Son, only the Father. But we do rest in this relationship, this trust- Jesus says he has gone on ahead to prepare a place for us—and we trust him. So, as people relying on this trust, this relationship, living out this relationship, how do we live? Do we live out the Kingdom of God, right now, right here? The church is by definition the community of those who live by God’s forgiveness for guilty people. …It is the place where people can risk putting aside their defenses and masks, knowing that they will be accepted just as they are.
The truth is this: following Jesus means that we need one another in community, and that our life together is for the healing of the world. So what if this life we have in Jesus is as simple as sharing our lives and faith and serving people in our families, circle of friends, co-workers, and community.
Our life as Christians is this: the work we are called to is to help one another follow Jesus into the lives of people who are hungry and thirsty for life that is real and lasting. We offer others the same grace and love that has healed and changed our lives. Maybe, just maybe, this is how healing comes into a very broken world. And this is how Jesus intends for the Kingdom to advance.
Maybe, just maybe, that is what the church is called to be: a roomy place, a spacious place, where the wideness of God’s mercy, where the plenty good room of God is lived out for all the world to see. Amen.