Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator and Sustainer, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that abides in each of us.

June 13!  June 27!  October 3!  Okay, now that I have answered all your questions, I can go on with my sermon.  Why are you all looking at me with puzzled looks?  I have answered the three questions that I was asked this morning by a few of you, so why the looks of puzzlement?  Oh, wait a second, I’ll bet most of you don’t know the questions that I was asked to answer, do you?  First of all, as you all know, we are in the midst of our current Capital Campaign, Building God’s Kingdom, Together, and I was asked this morning for the date of Commitment Sunday.  Commitment Sunday will be June 13.  Secondly, now that our new narthex and new office building across the street are nearly completed, I was asked when we are going to have our dedication celebrations, and that date is June 27.  On that Sunday, we will have one big service at 9:30 followed by a luncheon.  And the last question I was asked was whether or not we have selected a date for our 125th Anniversary celebration, and that date is October 3rd.  Now, I don’t expect you to remember all these dates, but I thought I should at least answer your questions.

By now many of you are probably wondering, Has Pastor gone off the deep end this morning?  Why would he just start answering questions without everyone knowing the questions, and more importantly, why would he do this when he is supposed to be offering us a sermon?  Actually, I was just following the format of our Gospel text today.  Did you notice how our text started off?  Our first verse was John 14:23, “Jesus answered him…”  What a strange way to begin a lesson!  Don’t you wonder who Jesus was answering and what question Jesus was answering?  It seems awfully silly to give an answer to a question when nobody knows the question.  Why our lectionary has us start reading here, I do not know.  My guess is that since we will get a larger part of this same text in three weeks on Pentecost Sunday they only have us read a small portion here, but I am not sure we can make sense of this text if we do not know the question to which Jesus is responding.

Up until this point in John’s Gospel, all of Jesus’ teachings have been to interpret and explain previous events.  But here, in Chapter 14, Jesus begins to teach the disciples about the coming events of his death, resurrection and ascension.  Earlier in this chapter, Jesus shared with his disciples that he would soon be leaving them, that he would be returning to his Father, and that he would be preparing a place for them to come.  Jesus acts as if they will understand, but the disciples are confused.  They begin to ask questions like that famous question of Thomas’, "Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?" (14:5), to which we hear that infamous response from Jesus, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  But Jesus’ responses continue to cause more questions because the disciples are beginning to realize that Jesus is really planning on leaving them, and they are afraid of being alone.  Today we would probably say that the disciples were beginning to experience separation anxiety.  Finally Jesus says to them (14:18-19), “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.  In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live..."  Well, that clears things up, doesn’t it?  If you are like me, this answer is about as clear as mud.  Again, Jesus’ answer only confuses the disciples.  Then comes the question that Jesus is answering in our text this morning (14:22), “Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?"  What a great question!  How will it be that the disciples will be able to see Jesus but the rest of the world won’t be able to see him?  The disciples want to know who will take care of them after Jesus is gone, and if he is truly going to return to them after his death and resurrection how they will they recognize him.  As they push to understand what Jesus is trying to tell them, it seems Jesus continues to answer them in riddles. 

How will Jesus’ followers see him, but the world, that is, non-followers, not be able to see him?  Now Jesus gives an answer that is a little clearer, but it might actually be a little scary for us when we realize what it means.  "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” (14:23).  The first way for us to see Jesus is by keeping his word.  Notice he doesn’t say that we will see him by obeying his word; rather, we will see him by keeping it, that is, by knowing his word.  This is why reading Scripture and knowing what it says is so important; it is how we come to know and see Jesus.  God comes to us when we keep his Word.

I can live with that, but the second part seems a little scary to me.  Jesus says that when we keep/know his word that he and the Father will come and make their home with us.  Now, on the surface, that sounds so awesome, but are we ready for God to come live with us?  If God lives in us, then our whole lives will be exposed to Him.  You know, Jill’s aunt and uncle are visiting us from California this weekend.  We have been planning this visit since we saw them in January.  Jill and I have been so excited planning for their visit, but it has been a lot of work.  They are staying at our house, and that means we really had to get it cleaned up.  There are a couple of closets that both of us are hoping they do not open.  But when the Father and Jesus decide to come and dwell with us, all our closets are opened and our entire lives will be exposed to them.  The question for us today is are we ready for these visitors in our homes?  In our first lesson today from Acts, Lydia was ready.  After being baptized, she prevailed, that is, with enthusiasm, she insisted Paul and Silas come stay at her home because through them she experienced the Risen Christ.  Can we offer the same enthusiastic invitation to the Father and Jesus?

Jesus says, “If you want to see me keep my word and the Father and I will come live with you.”  But Jesus did not stop there.  He offered one more critical piece of information.  As if it weren’t good enough that the Father and he would live with us through their Word, he offered one more gift that quite frankly we Lutherans don’t talk about much, the Holy Spirit.  “I have said these things to you while I am still with you.  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (14:25-26).  Keeping Jesus’ word is difficult, as many of us have discovered as we have been reading through and studying the New Testament together this year.  But Jesus promised that the Father would not leave us orphaned and that the Father would send an Advocate, which literally means one that will stand alongside.   The Holy Spirit is the one that stands alongside us, guides us, teaches us, and reminds us of the Word.  Jesus wanted to tell the disciples, and us, much more than he did, but as he will say later in John’s Gospel,” I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.   When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth;…” (16:12-13).  Jesus knows that we are not ready for all the truth.  He knows that there are parts of our lives that we would rather He and the Father not see; yet, he offers us this gift of the Holy Spirit that dwells in each of us, that stands alongside us, that guides us, teaches us, comforts us, and, yes, at times will afflict us so that we might come to know that Jesus is always in our home when we keep his word.  The Holy Spirit is like that incredible Mom that that is always watching out for us no matter where we are.  Jesus and the Father desire to be permanent houseguests in each of our homes.  Through the Holy Spirit, God desires to become a permanent houseguest.  Will we let him in?  Amen.