To Prepare a Place for You
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
April 24, 2005
Acts 7:55-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14
Acts 7 55 But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57 But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. 58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.
1 Peter 2 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation — 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 ¶ Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in scripture: “See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner,” 8 and “A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 ¶ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
John 14 1 ¶ “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In 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? 3 And 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. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 ¶ Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus 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’? 10 Do 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. 11 Believe 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. 12 Very 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. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
I. INTRODUCTION
A number of years ago, I was driving with my sister to Rochester, New York. Along the way we hit a massive snow storm on the Thruway. The snow was coming in so fast and so heavy that it was nearly impossible to see ahead. It was dark and the car’s headlights only illuminated a couple dozen feet in front of the car. The only thing that we could see was the lights of the car ahead of us and the tracks in the snow.
It was comforting to know that someone had come this way before us. That we could safely follow where one had gone before. We joked that we were safe as long as the car ahead of us hadn’t driven off the highway. It is helpful to have someone go ahead, mark the trail, show the way.
II. THE TEXT
Life is often like that. There are times in life that we can feel that we are in a blinding snowstorm, completely lost and without any ability to know the way. It is something that the disciples are no doubt feeling. In the reading from John we encounter Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper, at their final meal together. Jesus knows that the events that are about to transpire will shake the disciples to their cores. He knows that his crucifixion will make it look like evil and death are having their way. [1] He tells them not to be troubled—that is, not to be distressed to the point of losing faith. “Trust in God—Trust also in me.”
The version of the text that we read earlier reads: “In 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?”. But perhaps a better translation of that text is “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” He tells the disciples not to lose heart, not to be troubled—I am going ahead of you. I am going through death and life to prepare a place for you, in my Father’s house.
III. WHERE CHRIST HAS GONE
Thomas, ever the insightful disciple, asks Jesus where he is going—since how will the disciples follow if they don’t know where? Jesus responds, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It doesn’t seem like an answer to Thomas’ question but it is.
It is not a place, as Thomas thinks. It is not even a supernatural place, the way most people are inclined to think. That is, Jesus has not gone on ahead to make up our room in heaven, turning down the bed, and putting a chocolate on the pillow. It is a relationshipthat Jesus is describing.
Jesus is going into perfect communion with God. It is a communion that they have already shared in because they have known him, it is a communion that all Christians share because Christ has gone ahead and prepared a place for us.
At the farewell meal in the upper room, Jesus is telling his disciples not to fear. Even though evil and death look like they are having the last laugh, they do not—God is in control and the disciples will still yet be in communion with the Father because Jesus, the way, has gone ahead and prepared the way. Even though life can seem like a blizzard, obscuring our view of God in the world, Christ goes ahead, providing guiding lights and tracks in the deep snow that we might still come to the Father.
IV. WHERE THE BODY OF CHRIST HAS GONE
That brings us comfort. We can be at peace with the knowledge that Jesus has gone through death and life for us. He has gone before us, gone to prepare a place for us, so that we too are in relationship with the Father, as he is.
And yet, sometimes we are less distressed about the big things than the little things. There’s an old saying not to sweat the small stuff, and yet, that is most of what we worry about. And to be fair, there are a fair number of problems out there that while not exactly the biggest issues in the world, aren’t the smallest ones either. Questions about career. Relationships. The direction of one’s life. These are the pressing questions that can often defer our contemplation of the bigger questions.
It would be trite of me to say, “So long as you know that you are secure in your relationship with God, all the other stuff will work out.” That may very well be true, but saying it doesn’t always help. And sometimes God can seem so far removed from our problems that we strain to see the connection. If only Jesus had sat through one job interview in the Gospels and provided us with a model. (I did a search on ‘job’ in the scriptures and could only find a story about some guy who loses all his possessions in a bet between God and Satan). If only Jesus had spent some time on the difficult question of which graduate school to attend, or whether to move to a different city to be close to your girlfriend or to go to a graduate school far away from her. If only Jesus had spent some time in the Gospels wrestling with some of those questions, even a short chapter agonizing about whether he should leave the world of carpentry to enter the ministry—Mark is short and has room, it could have gone there. If only, then we might be able to say that when Jesus goes ahead of us to prepare a place for us, that he had gone before us in those circumstances as well.
A. Those who have gone before
As with so many things, this becomes our opportunity to step in and be the agents of Christ in our world. (In fact, I have to say, it seems like the system is designed to elicit the maximum of human involvement in God’s work). And with these issues of life and transition it is no different.
Many of you will be leaving college in a few short weeks. Your paths perhaps certain, perhaps uncertain. Questions linger on your mind as to the direction of your life, your plans for the future. It can all seem so big and overwhelming. Blinding, even, like a snowstorm that obscures your view of the road ahead.
And yet, many have gone before. Many have gone out into that big wide scary world and made their way. Somehow they found jobs, found direction, found spouses. Many have trod the path before you. In their example, you can find the way, see something of the road ahead.
B. Those who will follow
In the same way, when those of you graduating leave, you will be preparing a way for those who remain. Going out into the world to create communities, forge opportunities, challenge stereotypes, change thinking, so that those who follow will have a place prepared for them. And they will continue the cycle.
The community that you leave has been prepared for others as it was prepared for you by yet others, many of whom are forgotten. Downstairs, outside my office, is a wall of photographs that was put up just this week. It has photos of people you all know. And it has photos of people you don’t—but in whose footsteps you now tread. People who came before you and helped to build this community, to prepare it for you. Taylor Walters. Chrissy Lindstrom, Chris Slatt, Bradford Cheney, Lou Belsito, Stuart Denyer, Erin Trouth, Erin Taylor, Amber Pezan, Kate Moore, Kate Boustead, Katie Schroepfer, Dennis Rowe, Nathan Brownback, Holly Masters, Roza Guillaume, Danielle Dickey, Sidney Traynham, Ariel Schwarz, Gussie Abrahmse, Kim McClain, Bryan Colombo, Jason Reimer, Velda Jones, Sarah Anderson, Allen Hays, Patrick Elliott, and so many others. To that list will one day be added all your names, as you forge a community here and prepare a place for those who will one day follow.
C. Preparing a world
It is, ultimately, the work we are all called to do. In the Jewish writings, Pirkei Avot, the “Ethics of the Fathers” it is written that “It is not incumbent upon us to complete the work” (Pirkei Avot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 16). That is, we may not see the work we do completed ourselves, but that in each generation we do our share. Each generation prepares the way for those who will follow. Leaving a world worthy of promise for those who come after. Leaving the world better than we found it.
V. CONCLUSION
Life can be difficult. And there are times of life that we feel we are adrift, unable to find our way. Christ tells us not to lose heart, for he is faithful and true and goes ahead of us, preparing a place for us, a relationship with God that keeps us in communion with God our whole lives. And Christ goes ahead of us in the members of the body of Christ who have come before and go before. Who are at this moment preparing places for you in the world and who call you to do the same for those who follow.
[1] NIB Vol. IX, p. 740.
