Elkton Homecoming
August 27, 2023
John 14:1-23
‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In 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?3And 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. 4And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ 5Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ 6Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If 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.’9Jesus 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”? 10Do 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.11Believe 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. 12Very 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. 13I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
15 ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever.17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
18 ‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’ 22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ 23Jesus answered him, ‘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.
Finding Home
It’s wonderful to be back! Thank you, Deb, for inviting me to preach today. I always tried to walk a fine line when I invited other people to preach – I wanted the congregation to be fed and fed well, but I didn’t want someone to make the congregation wish they didn’t have to listen to me next week. I don’t know about the first part, but I am confident I can fulfill the second this morning.
Our six years here were a wonderful time for the Willson family. You were a generous and loving congregation, you actually did some of the things I suggested you do, we loved living in the parsonage (Sam and Virginia Gentry were the best neighbors we’ve ever had, and the only ones who loved our Chesapeake Bay Retriever, T.J., -- until he ate the 15 pound box of shrimp Virginia had put on their back deck to thaw), and it was fun being “a big fish in a small pond.”
Our journey – personally and vocationally – since we left you 35 years ago might well be labeled a search for home. I have long loved the late great George Carlin’s routine about the difference between baseball and football (the last time the Orioles were in the World Series was when we lived here – I pray this return is a good omen). Carlin said the goal in football is for the field general, using short bullet passes and long bombs combined with a ground attack, to punch holes in the enemy’s defense. In baseball, the goal is to be safe at home. We all want to be safe at home, he said.
We left Elkton thinking we were going home to Charlottesville – where we had gone to college, fell in love, were highly involved in the campus ministry program, where we were married, and where two of our children were born. We thought we were going home, and I will always remember your farewell to us – most of you were sad to see us go, but you were excited for us.
But it turned out that the novelist Thomas Wolf was right – maybe you can’t go home. There were a number of reasons why we only stayed in Charlottesville and in campus ministry for five years, chief of which was that I missed preaching, leading worship, and the cradle to the grave ministry of the local church. So, improbably, we went from there to a two church circuit on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Once again, I thought I was going home – not just to the local church, but to the Delmarva Peninsula where all my family was from and still lived. We had a wonderful and fruitful eight years there. We did good work, and it was a wonderful place for our children to grow up – their best friends are still their friends from the Shore.
After eight years, I was exhausted, and all my introversion needs had been met. So, in another surprise to everyone including me, Bishop Pennel asked us to come to Richmond and for me to be in his Cabinet. The Cabinet didn’t feel like home – I still missed the local church – but for Vicki and me who grew up in the suburbs, Richmond felt, in John Denver’s words, like coming home to a place we’d never been before. We bought an unique old house on the north side of town, served two more local church appointments, and have been ecstatically retired for nine years now. Vicki and I have now lived in that house longer than anywhere we’ve ever lived, including the houses in which we grew up. It feels like home.
So, one of the things I do at home is to read the Richmond Times Disgrace every morning. And I read the obituaries. I’m not sure why, except maybe because in the words of an old folk song,
I get up each morning and dust off my wits
Open the paper and read the obits
If I’m not there, I know I’m not dead
So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed.
I have noticed something really interesting in the obituaries: rarely does anyone die anymore. Most people pass. What do they pass? Algebra, a kidney stone, a football? Some people receive their wings. Are they Air Force or Navy? If they’re angel wings – not according to the Bible. A dear sweet parishioner on the Shore will never forgive me for telling her she was never going to be an angel – angels aren’t dead people, they’re immortal members of God’s heavenly host.
What’s wrong with died? It’s a good, Biblical word. If it’s good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for us.
But the euphemism that intrigues me on this Homecoming Sunday is went home to be with the Lord. For me, this raises two questions
-- Where is home?
-- Where was God before this person died?
The implication is that home – and God – were somewhere other than where this person was. Now, I heard one of you think, Brooke is making a mountain out of a molehill here. But that’s what preachers do – we take something utterly insignificant and make it of cosmic importance. Do not try this at home – we’re professionals.
Except – that this is the way much of the world, including lots of Christians, think. The world is here . . . God is there. Anyone remember those 4 Spiritual Laws tracts Campus Crusade still passes out? The world – and us – are here on one side, with a bottomless chasm caused by sin between us and God, way off there on the other side. And Jesus bridges the gap, so we can cross from our side to God’s.
Well, where is home?
Where is God?
Where is God’s home?
In the 14th chapter of John, Jesus is getting ready to leave his disciples, so he tells them where he’s going. He’s going to pass. He tells them he’s going to prepare a place for them. And in verse 2 he says
In my Father’s house there are many. . . the Greek word is mone’. The King James Bible translated it mansions. Newer translations say rooms or dwelling places. I remember the story of a woman who said No, I don’t want a room. I want my mansion! But the English word mansion actually comes from the Greek mone’, which comes from a verb meaning to stay . . . dwell . . . abide. It’s not a bench by the side of the road or even a motel room. It’s a place where you can stay, forever. It’s home.
But wait, there’s more! This same word shows up two more times in this chapter. After Thomas asks how we get where Jesus is going, he says in verse 17 that the Father will send the Advocate. . . the Spirit of truth, whom the disciples will know because he mone’ . . . dwells/abides/stays with you.
And then, in verse 23, Jesus says those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our mone’ with them.
There is a version of Christianity – and it has reached ascendency in this culture – that says the world is here, God is there and the goal of the faithful life is to get from here to there. The 4 Spiritual Laws says yes, Jesus makes that possible, but God is still over there somewhere, not here. So we have to go home to be with God, because God isn’t here, and we’re not there. And the proponents of this theology – from the Pharisees of Jesus’ day to the fundamentalists of ours –want to make it as difficult as possible to get there. Only people who
Love
Vote
Act
Identify
Worship
Believe
a particular way can go home. To return to baseball, everyone else gets thrown out or left on base . . . if they’re allowed to play at all.
But that’s not what Jesus says. He says that he goes to prepare many dwelling places . . . not one . . . and then says that God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, will come and make a home in us. The home of God is not there: it’s here. . . and here. . . and here.
In my old age, I have reduced the entire message of the Bible to one Word. It’s Emmanuel – God with us. That’s the message from the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve want to pretend God is somewhere else, to the Book of Revelation, where heaven and earth have passed away and the sea dividing them is no more. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, figured that out on his deathbed, when he said with his last words, The best of all is, God is with us. Emmanuel.
So, I want you to know how unsurprised nevertheless proud I am of you for deciding, in the great Pharisaic schism rending the United Methodist Church, that you want to be a bridge over these troubled waters. I want you to build a bridge across the demonic notion that we are here and God is there. There is a whole world of people who have been told – often in church – that they can’t come home to God unless they do something impossible.
Our son Drew’s church in Richmond – called Common Table – is filled with self-described exvangelicals – many of whom are queer -- who grew up in conservative churches, learned to love Jesus and other people, and then were told they were not welcome as they were. These are wonderful young people (yes Virginia, there are actually United Methodist churches filled with young adults and children) who are filled with the Biblical fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and love Jesus and other people like Jesus did.
In a world that tells people they can’t come home to God because of who they are, God has a cosmic surprise:
God has come to them. In them. Not to visit, but to mone’ . . . abide.
Elkton Church, go tell a world literally dying to find home, that home is right here. And here. And here.
