Making Our Home

Jesus said, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

I am not sure about you, but whenever I go away from home either for a brief time to attend a conference or meeting, or for a longer time for a vacation or an extended visit, it is always a good feeling to return home.

When I have been away for a week or two and come back I am always interested in what has changed.  Whether it is progress on construction projects, repairing potholes on the roads, seeing new life at Springtime or the fabulous colors of the Fall season, there is always something to observe that is different from what it had been at the time I left town.

Jesus told his disciples that he was both going away and coming to them.  He said that the Advocate, the Holy Spirit of God would come to them and teach them everything.  He also reminded them of his gift of peace.  “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

The Rev. Anne Howard, and Episcopal Priest whom I knew when she was in seminary, now lives in Santa Barbara, California.  Anne is the Director of the Beatitudes Society, a Christian leadership development organization, and she is a gifted writer.  I quote her at some length from an article titled “A Word in Time.”  She writes, “In Jesus’ farewell discourse to his disciples, Jesus reassures his faithful followers that he will send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to empower them, and he promises them peace even as he leaves them behind.”

The author of John’s Gospel “writes with the metaphors of a good novelist as he spins the Jesus story, writing at least two generations after Jesus.  He uses words like Light of the World, Bread of Life, Good Shepherd, Lamb of God, the Way, the Truth, the Life.”

“John told…stories because his community needed them. The little band of Christians were, just like Jesus, already being killed by the Empire.  Their hearts were troubled and they were very much afraid.

“So John offers them his imagining, he paints for them a picture of Jesus at supper with his friends, so that they might picture the very first disciples huddled in a room, hidden from the authorities, just as they too gathered in secret, listening for the clank of Roman armor.

“In John’s telling of it, Jesus doesn’t say that things will get better. He doesn’t tell them about any silver lining in the clouds. He doesn’t talk about a bright blue heaven. He doesn’t offer them religion of any kind.  Jesus offers them something the temple and the Empire can’t: he offers them his presence, a new kind of presence.  He calls it “home.”

“We will come to you. (John shows us Jesus so close to God that he speaks of himself and God as ‘we.’) We will come to you. We will make our home with you.

“’But how will we see you?’ one of the disciples asks, ‘How will we know it’s you?’

Love each other, and we will make our home with you. Just try it.  When you turn toward your neighbor, you will turn toward me.  When you open your hand, and your heart, you will touch me.  I will make my home with you.  When you stop to notice, you will know me.

“I am with you when you hear your name and claim it as your own, as Mary did in the garden on the morning of the third day; I am with you when you discover the balm of being right at home inside your own skin.

“I am with you when you invite the stranger to supper.  I am with you as I was at Emmaus, whenever the bread is broken and the wine is poured.

“I am with you, as I was with Peter on his fishing trip, when your net is full; but even before that, I am with you in the dark before the dawn, when your net is empty and your strength is gone.

“With his mystical imagining, John is telling his friends… to be on the alert for that moment of beauty when… we feel like we’re not alone any more, we are home.  And it’s still and always Easter.”

Not long ago I had a conversation with someone who told me how she has learned to relax and reduce stress during times of anxiety and uncertainty.  She mentioned having an operation and feeling confident because she could trust that God was with her.  She recalls a favorite hymn and recites its lyrics in her mind.  It is for her the peace of God that surpasses understanding.  As Jesus said to his disciples he is saying to her, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

Her experience, and John’s stories of Jesus with his disciples can help us learn to be at peace during times of uncertainty when life is filled with ambiguity.  Think about your own experience and how you are aware of the peace of God in your life.  A s you reflect on God’s peace and what it means to be at home with God, I share with you a few verses from Psalm 85:

Show us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, for he is speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him.

Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall spring up from the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, and our land will yield its increase.

Righteousness shall go before him, and peace shall be a pathway for his feet. 

May God through Jesus come to you and make his home with you.  Amen.