Sunday 05/18/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
New Testament Scripture Lesson: 1 Peter 2:2-10
Gospel Lesson: John 14:1-14
Brothers and sisters, family, today
is the Fifth Sunday of the Easter Season, and it is also Heritage Sunday in the
United Methodist Church. On this Sunday, we are challenged to consider the
history of our Methodist tradition, the history of our Christian faith in
general, and the history of churches like this one. Everything from the pews in
this church to our stain glass windows tell the story of this and many other
churches. So once again, consider today and this week our Christian heritage,
our faith heritage, and our church heritage.
As we are continuing to move through
this Easter Season or Eastertide though, we are moving towards Pentecost
Sunday, which is that Sunday that the Holy Spirit moved and the Christian
Church was born. From the weeks from Easter or resurrection Sunday to Pentecost
Sunday on June 8th, we have had many good scriptures that have and will
continue to discuss the ministry of Jesus Christ here on earth.
This morning then, we will are going
to talk a little bit more about who Jesus said and still says he is. Further,
we are going to talk about what Jesus promises us all. You see everybody that we
have ever met or will ever meet has a view of Jesus. In Christian seminaries
worldwide the fancy word for the study of Jesus of Nazareth is called “Christology.”
One’s “Christology” then, is how one views Jesus.
In this way, almost all people agree
that Jesus did indeed exist on this earth. In fact, I remember when I was in
the college the first time that I had professors who were self-proclaimed Atheists,
yet they believed that Jesus of Nazareth did indeed exist and walk on this
earth. One’s “Christology” then, is one’s belief of who Jesus of Nazareth was.
For you see, some say Jesus was just
a man, some say he was a prophet only, some say he was messenger of God with
the ability to heal and perform miracles only, some say he was a liar, some say
he was crazy, yet almost all Christians say Jesus was living God here on earth.
Most Christians would say that Jesus Christ was the fullness of God and the
fullness of a man who walked on this earth. So, almost everyone agrees about
the existence of Jesus, we just disagree over who this Jesus was.
In our gospel reading from this
morning though, Jesus tells the Apostle Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth,
and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It would seem
pretty clear to me then who Jesus is claiming to be, and how we all can obtain
salvation and eternal life. For Jesus Christ is saying that he and he alone is
the road map to glory, and if we follow him and trust in him, we will see
heaven, we will arrive at a holy “dwelling place” in the house of Almighty God.
That anyone who puts their faith and trust in him, whether they are successful in
this world, or whether they are in prison, will have a “dwelling place” in
heaven if they believe in and follow him.
When we look at our reading from
Psalm 31 from this morning, the Psalmist says, “In you, O LORD, I seek refuge;
do not let me ever be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me.” How do we
get delivered then? How to when then see heaven? We do so by following, “The
way, and the truth, and the life,” which is Jesus Christ. The pathway to glory
is through Jesus Christ. For some people in fact, who are in dark places, they
cling to Christ as if he is rope dangling from a cliff. Jesus Christ is the way
to life.
The Psalm goes on to say, “Be a rock
of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.” Do we believe that Jesus
Christ is the rock, that he is the fortress, and that he is the high tower that
saves us? For the Lord of life says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
When looking at the Apostle Peter’s
First Epistle or letter, the Apostle Peter talks about being “newborn infants”
in the Christian faith. Peter talks of the desire of the believer in Jesus
Christ to have “spiritual milk,” and thereby to taste and see “that the Lord is
good.” Do realize that Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life?” Do we
realize that all people, even criminals can believe in Jesus, and can have
eternal life with him?
The Apostle Peter then continues to
tell the early church to “let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be
a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
Jesus Christ.” For in following Jesus Christ brothers and sisters, we are made
righteous, and acceptable before almighty God. Our faith in Christ, and us
living out the gospel of Jesus Christ is how we build God’s kingdom here on earth,
as we prepare for the kingdom to come. We can even build the kingdom of God in
a prison.
The Apostle Peter then tells us we
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.” Imagine if you first saw “his marvelous
light” in the darkness of a prison cell?
In our gospel reading from John from
this morning, Jesus says to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God, believe also in me.” Then Jesus says, “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?” So if we have faith in Jesus, if we follow him,
we then have a place or a “dwelling” in our Father’s house in eternity. When our
earthly lives end, will we be with the Lord in his house, in a “dwelling place”
that he has prepared for you and for me. So if we die our earthly deaths in our
homes, in a hospital, or in a prison, if we believe in and follow Jesus Christ,
we will see eternal life.
Jesus then says, “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.” Then the Apostle Thomas says, “Lord, we do
not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus tells Thomas, “I
am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me.” Jesus then said that if you know him, then you know his Father.
What if you meet Jesus for the first time behind prison bars?
The Apostle Philip then says, “Lord,
show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus then tells Philip, “Whoever
has seen me has seen my Father.” Jesus goes even further and says, “Believe me
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Jesus then tells the
disciples that he is going to the Father soon, and he says, “I will do whatever
you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
To live holy, to live righteously, to
be justified before almighty God, we must put our faith and our trust in Jesus
Christ. This is the only way to the Father, to eternal life, Jesus says.
While many of us know people of
different faiths or of no faith, we do not need be mean or to persecute the
people of those faiths or lack of faith. Instead, if we love God and put our
faith and trust in Jesus, and if we love all people, then people will see Jesus
Christ in us. The truth and the power of Jesus Christ will flow in us, and
through us. Due to this then, we need not be worried if our neighbor, or the
person down the street is a non-believer, or is of another faith, as our faith
in Jesus compels us to love one another and to show people Jesus through our
words, our actions, and our very lives.
Some of you know that for the past
two days that I have been doing prison ministry in the Cayuga County Correctional
Facility in Moravia, NY. Some of you also know that I am headed back this
afternoon to finish the retreat. So yes, your pastor is going back to prison
later today.
This experience in this prison that I
have had these past two days, has really shown more of what Jesus meant when he
said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” It also taught me more about
when Jesus said, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”
You see the past few days, a church
group and myself have been ministering to convicted criminals, murders, thieves,
broken men. Many of these men have families and have a story that is unique to
them. Yet all of these men have changed their lives. These men have come to put
their faith and their trust in Jesus Christ. In doing this though, they do not
persecute the other inmates who sometimes ridicule them, mock them, and
belittle them, no instead they pray for them. They love them. Even though Jesus
Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life,” these men display this
reality through how they live, and how they have changed from the inside out.
Some of these men have even said that other inmates often approach them and say
things like, “you seem to have a joy and peace about you that I don’t. How can
I get that in my life?”
In fact, I asked one these men, “How
do you keep your faith in here?” As I was about to pray for this man, he broke
down into tears. He said, “Pastor Paul, many years ago, when I was young and
dumb, and angry, and foolish, and didn’t know the Lord, I committed the awful
crime that I did.” This man then said, but I have been forgiven by the Lord,
and he has redeemed me. This man then said, and the Lord has a plan for my
life, and when I get released from this place one day, I am going to continue
to live for Him.
Some of us struggle with our faith
sometimes, in that we know Jesus Christ is the way to God and the way to
heaven, but we can get discouraged. Over the past two days though, I met a
family of men, who have died. I say they have died, because the old men they
once were, the criminals, the angry, the violent, have all died, and they have risen
again spiritually with Jesus Christ as men of faith.
Our faith then, our repentance to,
and trust in Jesus Christ, and our living for him, is what makes us justified
and acceptable before God. Really and truly then, no matter what we have done,
not matter how heinous it was, no matter how awful it was, we have forgiveness,
mercy, grace, peace, and eternal life in the King of Kings and the Lord of
Lords.
In the Cayuga Correctional Facility
in Moravia, NY the Lord is moving, and men are realizing and seeing that Jesus
Christ, is “the way, and the truth, and the life,” and that one day, we will
all have a “dwelling place” in the house of the Lord. One day we will all be together
the way these men are housed in prison dormitories together. For Jesus said, “In
my Father’s house there are many dwellings,” and you know my brothers and
sisters, even the criminal on the cross that was next to Jesus Christ will be
there in glory to. You know the one whom Jesus said in Luke 23:43, "Assuredly,
I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."
I think then that in heaven there are
no prisons, there is just one “big house,” no pun intended, that almighty God
has. So if God’s house is truly this massive, and if it has this many rooms,
than one day we are all going to “the big house.” We are all one going to a
maximum security heavenly house, were we will live, and were we will praise the
Lord for eternity. For as the Song “I’ll Fly Away” says, “Like a bird from
prison bars has flown, I’ll fly away.”
So my brothers and sisters, Jesus
Christ is indeed and truly, “the way, and the truth, and the life,” and for
those who believe in him and follow him, they will be united in glory, in a “dwelling
place” in the house of the Lord. So if we are free or locked behind prison
walls here on this earth, we call all be free in Jesus Christ. Praise our Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.
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