April 20, 2008

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church

Pr. Per Inge Vik                  

Text: Joh 14,1-14

The many dwelling places

At my home place, Brattvåg in Norway, there is a brand new nursing home, where each of the 60 patients has a room of their own. In the western way of thinking this is important: No one should have to share space with another person without choosing it by oneself. In the same building there is also a care center with 24 apartments, where my mother has been living for the last two years.

In the text for today, Jesus says: In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. Now and then I have wondered if church architects in earlier centuries have forgotten that sentence. Isn’t the church supposed to be mirroring heaven? They constructed churches with only one room, plus the narthex. The sacristy came as a later addition.

We who are users of the churches today see a variety of needs for rooms. Mindekirken’s addition from 1999 made this house more practical than before, with offices, rooms for teaching, committees, Bible studies, a couple of kitchen corners, restrooms etc.

Anyway, the point in Jesus’ words is that in heaven there is room enough for all. That God is generous. There is a room for you. But then welfare development and individualistic ideas in the Western world has given us “images of heaven” where one-person-rooms got the focus. Well, there is at least no doubt that in God’s heart, every single one of us has his or her own place!

But I wonder if what we need the most, is good fellowship rooms. Perhaps there are enough private rooms now. For it is communion, fellowship we are created for. “I believe in… the communion of saints”, we confess every Sunday.

The text for today, where Jesus calls himself the way, the truth and the life is taken from Maundy Thursday night. The disciples’ hearts are troubled. Not surprising, since Judas has just been pointed out as the betrayer, Peter has become aware that he is going to deny, and Jesus has prepared the disciples that he is going to leave them.

So Jesus says Do not let your hearts be troubled! That is the start of our text today. They felt they were standing in front of the catastrophe, with all the things Jesus had predicted. I have reflected on these troubled hearts. I find it to be a natural reaction. In our time we have diagnosed the troubled hearts as illness, that needs treatment.

On the other side, the industry of entertainment flourishes with fear creations. As a father of 4 I have had a few movies in the house in the last years. Videos that depict the terrible. The catastrophes. There will  be new catastrophes in the world all the time. Not only in movies. The bridge collapse has left deep tracks with many persons here in Minneapolis.

Only a couple of weeks ago there was an avalanche accident in Ålesund, with 5 dead. Many people are left with troubled hearts after such experiences. In Storfjorden, an hour from our house, a big piece of mountain is moving, and geologists predict that sooner or later it will slide into the fiord, creating a giant tsunami, as happened in Tafjord in 1934 and in Loen in 1936.

Then I think about Jesus here speaking openly about   coming events that he sees creating fear. What Jesus offers, is a way through the whole thing. He wants to lead all those who put their trust in him, towards a goal on the other side, where nothing can do harm.

He is our way back to our God, our Father and originator. I am the way, the truth and the life. Here Jesus offers an invitation. Some critics see it as a flight away from reality. Other people are provoked by the exclusive words, No one comes to the Father except through me.

But isn’t it the opposite? A person who knows that life is not surrendered to the powers of death, that there is a way through chaos, that person is empowered to fight for truth and good! And isn’t it as we know our Creator, isn’t it as we have our sins forgiven, that we can cope with our troubled heart, handle it and see into future?

We know the way, the way further! Therefore: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. Thus our Master speaks. Faith in God and faith in Jesus, parallel. And the reason is: I and my Father are one. So Jesus is not only the way to God. But he himself is our Lord and our God. As Thomas finally found out, after being able to see the nail marks of the Resurrected one. Then he exclaimed: "My Lord and my God!"

In today’s text it is Thomas and Philip who are leading on. We know Philip also, all the time from the day when Jesus called him. Even if he is not the one who is most often in the spotlight of the 12. Philip, he had found the Messiah, and said to Nathanael: Come and see! Philip, the realist, who saw, but wasn’t satisfied. Here he asks: Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.

We find more about this realist, Philip in the NT. Think about Jesus feeding the 5000. Then Philip was in the middle of the events. Philip came from Bethsaida, and he was well known in the area where this happened. So Jesus asks him where they can buy bread. Philip counts the money and then states: Bread for 200 denarii for so many, that is not enough. Now he has been together with Jesus without being satisfied. Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.  

Thomas and Philip. The one with the double view, and the one with the short view. Philip’s view doesn’t last. He needs more! Can we recognize this? Our faith is forgetful. It lasts such a short time. Jesus is the way! Don’t try to pass him and look at other places. “What Jesus did, is enough”, says an old Norwegian Bedehus song. Jesus has paid what we owed God. It is enough. Don’t try other ways to God.

Finally the somehow mysterious verse 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. So what does this mean? Some-thing like this: “ Even if you do not understand what I am saying, then at least see the deeds I am doing.

Transferred to our service and the here-and-now situation it could be rendered: “Even if the sermon of the pastor doesn’t make sense, then notice the bread and wine, the care and the fellowship, beautiful music and good hymns, let that speak to you.

Summing up, I want to say that the Bible text for today lets us meet disciples, Thomas and Philip with human traits we can recognize within ourselves. It is good to see that around Jesus it is so safe that “stupid questions” are allowed. And it is good to know that the patience Jesus showed his first disciples, counts for you and me too.

We learn something important today. First, in Jesus’ company there is room for all. Secondly we are never alone. Christianity is all about fellowship. In Jesus’ company we go together through landscapes where Jesus is the guide. Wherever we come during our life’s wandering, then think: Jesus has been there before.

Even in the valley of death. As we come there, he is present, he accompanies us and leads us on to life on the other side. Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who was, is and will remain one true God from eternity to eternity. (Congregation:) Amen   

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716