Happy Easter everyone!

I attended a funeral yesterday for the husband of Mother Lauren Ackland, the long-serving Rector of Grace Episcopal in Madison, where I first served as a seminarian.  George Hayman, or Mr. Lauren Ackland, as he sometimes referred to himself, was a good clergy spouse (and that is NOT easy), an avid golfer, and engaged in many parish and diocesan roles.  Mother Lauren, now several years retired from Grace Madison, formed many a seminarian along the way to their ordination. 

And so yesterday, there were a lot of clergy, clergy spouses, and diocesan folks at this celebration of George’s life.  The gospel reading was the first part of the one we read this morning, and I was not the only priest in the room hoping that the homily that Father Tom Murphy gave would be good fodder to help get this sermon written for today, since I hadn’t had a chance to write a single word.  Sadly, while a fabulous homily, and a fitting one for the occasion, I had to do my own homiletical work by the grace of God.

So, here we go…

To start, there is a reason that the first part of this passage from the Gospel of John is often read at funerals, and you don’t need a theological degree to see why.  Jesus said “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” and tells his disciples that where he is going, he will prepare a place for them. 

Yet, just as I do at funerals here, yesterday the gospel reading was ended with “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  The part left out, which was read today, was the next part of verse 6: “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The reason it is often left out at funerals is that it is not the time to address the misuse of this last bit by those who claim that only followers of Jesus – called Christians today – will ever hope to have relationship with God.  Funeral homilies instead are about the Easter moment for the deceased, and about the Good Friday moment for those who grieve.  As funerals are often attended by people of many denominations, other faiths, and no faith at all, such a passage, if not addressed, would be difficult for people to hear at a time in which they are grieving.  But today we read it, and because of that, we will spend a brief moment addressing it before we go on. 

“No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

Some people hear that and quote it to show that Jews will not “go to heaven,” and all that.  Door closed on all of them.  Really?  So, let me get this straight: if you follow the Jewish Jesus, and read the Holy Bible written by…wait for it…Jews, then it is only logical that this Jewish Jesus would be telling his Jewish friends that Jews will have no relationship with God.  Does that make any sense at all?

And not for nothing, but Muslims weren’t a thing then, still folks will throw them into that excluded bucket too, as well as any other faith tradition.  Talk about a clobber text (which is a term often used to describe the other snippets of scriptures people pull out of context to beat up and exclude LGBTQ+ folks).  This is when Jesus does a face palm – because this is when we make God in our image. 

Yet if you only read the full passage, you see that Jesus also says that if they have seen him, they have seen the Father.  So, to keep this short, think of it this way: Jesus is saying “No one comes to God, except through God.”  And we know that God, who created all humankind, also loves all of humankind, and will never exclude anyone. 

Setting that aside, there is so much we need to hear in this gospel and in the reading from Acts today, and part of it is the opening in the passage that is so comforting to us in our moments of despair.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” 

Why would he say this? 

Well, first, this is part of the farewell discourses in this gospel – really, really, long passages where Jesus tries to prepare his followers for his death, resurrection, and ascension.  Of course it seems a bit odd hearing it now too, given that we are in Eastertide, right?  I mean, we just moved through Holy Week, and over the past few Sundays we have been hearing about Jesus showing up to his disciples in a series of divine “I’mmmm baaaack!” scenes.  Now we get something from before he was crucified? 

Anyway, Jesus is telling them to believe in him, to know that where he goes, he will prepare a place for them.  Now older translations will have him saying that there are many mansions in God’s house, like Jesus is going to set up a really cool resort town up in heaven or something.  But what Jesus is saying is that they will be in relationship with him – they will be where he is, and he will be where they are.  This isn’t a construction project he is talking about – this is about relationship with him.

He then adds “Believe in God, believe also in me,” which is better translated “Trust in God, trust also in me.”  Jesus is really saying to set our hearts, our trust, on Jesus – and Jesus will be in relationship with us.

And here’s the thing – it isn’t just a promise for those who died.  In fact, it is really meant for those who are on this side of that thin place between heaven and earth.  Jesus tells his followers, whose movement post resurrection would be called The Way, to set their trust, their hearts, on him and he will be in relationship with them.  The Way, knows the way, by trusting in Jesus, and remaining in relationship with him.  Then Jesus adds this: that they will do greater works than what they have seen him do. 

Sounds good, right?  But don’t you just want to say – “Jesus, that sounds awesome – but while I would LOVE to turn water into wine, I am not sure about being able raise folks from the dead and all that.”  What is Jesus really saying.

Our proto-martyr Stephen shows us. 

We hear his story, or really, the end of it, in the small passage from the Acts of the Apostles we heard this morning.  Stephen was one of the chosen 7 – the first Deacons – selected by the apostles from among the faithful to serve those in need in the community.  Stephen was described earlier in Acts 6 as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit…full of grace and power,” and doing “great wonders and signs among the people.” 

Well, as with others before him, this did not go over well with some.  Long story short, they brought him before the council and the high priest with false accusations of blasphemy and acts against the holy law (sound familiar?).  His very long and eloquent defense is the beginning of this 7^th chapter.  It was heart felt, spirit filled, and spoke to the way that prophets had been killed through the history of their faith.  Basically, he said – look guys… why is it that any time somebody has some good news to share, the people in charge kill them. 

This, as you can imagine, did NOT go over very well.  And we heard today what happened.  As the crowd seethes with rising anger, Stephen looks upward and sees Jesus.  He sets his gaze on him as they bring him out from the council to stone him to death.  As he continues to focus on Christ in this hate filled and final moment of his life, he asks God to forgive those who are murdering him…which, by the way, includes that Saul guy (who we know later as that fabulous writer of many, many, letters to churches everywhere – Paul).

So, wait a minute, you might ask… Jesus said “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” and yet here is this good and faithful guy getting stoned (and literally, not by weed mind you).  How is this good news?

Here’s the thing.  Look at that setting in Acts.  Gangs of people filled with rage – even killing because they don’t like what someone is saying.  It doesn’t take much of a stretch to imagine this scene, not with all that we are experiencing in this post-pandemic world.  

Everywhere people seem to be ready to pop – like they have one nerve left and six people are getting on it before they even had their first cup of coffee.  Worse, some of those folks have access to weapons of war – AR-15s – and, well, things like last nights mass murder at a Texas mall happen practically daily in our country.

How then do we not let our hearts be troubled? 

How then do we live the Easter life we, as followers of Jesus are to live? 

We do as Stephen did, and as Jesus was telling his followers to do in the passage we heard from the gospel.

No, I am not saying you need to go get yourself stoned to death, though there may be some things thrown at you.

Nor am I saying your hearts won’t be troubled.  Of course they will.  And Jesus knew it too.

Look, Jesus knew what was ahead for him, and for all those who set their hearts on him.  As Stephen recounted before the council, for whatever reason, those who speak of peace, hope, and the unconditional love of God will tick off a bunch of folks whose heart has been hardened, and whose God is one that just so happens to hate the same people and things they do.  Jesus also knew our hearts would be troubled by what humanity is capable of doing to one another.  Our hearts should be troubled by poverty, war, oppression, neglect of the earth, and all the other ways we hurt one another and all of God’s creation.

Yet Jesus knew that the only way to live is set our sights on him – who is one with God and the Holy Spirit.  Jesus will be in relationship with us as we set our very hope on him, trusting in God, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us and fill our hearts.  Yes, our hearts will be troubled by what we see happening in the world, but rather than it infecting us with rage, which only entraps us in a prison that will destroy us from within, we will rest those troubles on God.

Now to be clear, this isn’t saying – yup, it’s lookin’ bad out there in Jesus.  We are down by 32 billion runs, Lord, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th – you’re up God.  Hit a homer, or a few trillion, okay, while we go sit on the sidelines.  No. It means that as we, the followers of Jesus, go up to face the stones flying all about, we will turn our face toward him as Stephen did.  And that will save us and change the world.

The thing about what is happening today is that we are far too quick to return anger for anger, hate for hate, violence for violence.  It is understandable.  We all feel it sometimes.  And it is right to be angry and to hate injustice, war, bigotry, greed and the other ways we marginalize, hurt, and oppress one another.  Yet when our hearts are troubled in this way, it is so easy to go down that slippery slope where we turn that righteous anger and hate against what is happening and turn it instead toward who is doing it. 

Stephen refused to do that. 

His face looking upon Jesus, he asked God to forgive those who persecuted him.  And that made all the difference.  For we know by our faith in Jesus that it is only love that can defeat hate, and only light that overcomes darkness.  By setting our faces toward him, our troubled hearts will be eased as we abide in his love and grace, and we will be kept free from the bonds of bitterness and hate. 

Free to speak as prophetically as Stephen did.

Free to feed those who starve for love.

And then, by the power of Jesus working in us as we are in relationship with him, we will be truly doing wonders as he said we would.

We may not be turning water into wine, but we will be raising the dead into the living.

For we will breathe new life into those who have lost hope.

We will turn over the tables of injustice.

We will heal the wounds of anger and hate by our love.

And while our work will have some stones flying our way as we go along, we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, trusting in God, and our hearts will not be troubled.

Amen.

For the audio, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here (also available on Audible):

Sermon Podcast

The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox

Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge

May 7, 2023

Fifth Sunday of Easter – Year A

1st Reading – Acts 7:55-60

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

2nd Reading – 1 Peter 2:2-10

Gospel – John 14:1-14