A Sermon for the Salem United Church of Christ of Harrisburg, PA

by Rev. James Eaton, Interim Pastor ©2026

Fifth Sunday in Easter/A • May 3, 3036

Acts 7:55-60 * Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16 * 1 Peter 2:2-10 * John 14:1-14

“I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”  [Psalm 23:6]

We all live somewhere; we grew up somewhere, perhaps moved, made a home, moved again, and so on. All along we were dwelling somewhere. But what does it mean to dwell in the house of the Lord? Today we’ve heard four different affirmations of faith. “In you, O LORD, I seek refuge…” [Psalm 31:1] the Psalmist says. A refuge is a safe place; it’s not hard to imagine someone in a frightening moment looking for a safe place, is it? We get warnings sometimes: “seek shelter!” —a storm is coming. Michigan, where I mostly grew up, gets tornadoes and you learn early to listen for the sirens and go somewhere safe. When I was in college, the night before a final exam, a tornado was sighted near our dormitory so hundreds of us trooped down to the basement, sprawled on the floors, trying to study but also to keep our fears down. This is the Psalmist telling us that in a time of trouble, his or her refuge is in God. Then we heard the last words of Stephen, perhaps the first Christian martyred for his faith. He’s been speaking out against the authorities of his time and place and for that he’s being stoned to death. This is his prayer: “”Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”” [Acts 7:59]. Then we heard from the writer of First Peter, years after Jesus’ ascension, reminding brothers and sisters in Christ, “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.” [1 Peter 2:10] Finally, we have this wonderful section from the Gospel of John, where Jesus comforts his disciples. All of these are really an invitation to come dwell with God.

Think about the context behind what Jesus is saying. This is the moment we call Maundy Thursday. They’re in Jerusalem but darkness is gathering. It’s passover; the city is full of currents. Passover is a reminder of how God brought God’s people out of slavery, defeated Pharaoh and gathered them, in Jesus’ words, as a mother hen gathers her chicks. Now those same people are oppressed by the taxes and the laws of the Roman Empire. Extra troops have been brought to Jerusalem because Passover sparks the Jewish memory of freedom and some might act on it. At the same time, Jesus has been speaking and the authorities are angry and authorities always express fear by using power. So I imagine this is a fearful moment, and certainly Jesus must feel the fear in his friends and he speaks to them to quiet their fears. 

He tells them not to let their hearts be troubled, that he’s preparing a place for them and that with the father there are many dwelling places. That, at least, is the translation we read this morning. But perhaps you grew up like I did with an older translation that instead of “many dwelling places” said “many mansions”. This is an old joke in our family. Jacquelyn grew up with that and sometime after we were together I preached on this passage and explained that what Jesus has in mind is not a sort of suburb with lots of individual homes.

But that’s an American cultural idea. What Jesus has in mind is certainly the sort of homes common in Palestine. They looked like those U shaped motels on the Jersey shore; you know what I mean? Lots of rooms, different levels, all curling around an inner court. At the shore, there’s a pool in the court; I’m not sure if Jesus included the pool. What he’s saying is there is space for you, we’re all going to be together, and there’s a place for you. At first, Jacquelyn didn’t like it: she said, “You took away my mansion and you’re replacing it with a motel?” I said it’s not me, it’s Jesus, talk to him. What Jesus has in mind aren’t separate mansions but a community grouped together; what Jesus has in mind is dwelling together with God.

He shows them how relationships work in that community. It’s in the part just before what we read. He takes a towel and a bowl, wets the towel and bends to wash his friend’s feet. People generally wore sandals in those days so feet got really dirty; there’s mud, there’s whatever they’ve stepped in. Washing feet was a courtesy usually performed by slaves. Yet here is their master bending before them, acting like a servant. It’s uncomfortable. Honestly, it is today among us which is one reason that although I’ve conducted may Maundy Thursday services, we almost never, ever, actually do what Jesu did, wash each other’s feet. It’s too intimate; it’s too personal. Once someone asked if we were going to do that at Maundy Thursday because if we were she wanted to get a pedicure beforehand; she didn’t want ugly feet I guess. The thing about Jesus is that he doesn’t care if your feet are ugly, he wants to teach you to serve others and he does it by acting out a love that makes you beautiful. He doesn’t care when you feel worthless, he gives his life to show you how much yours is worth.

We get to overhear two conversations here. The first is with Thomas. Remember Thomas? We talked about Thomas a couple weeks ago. Thomas wants specific, hard answers. So when Jesus says, “I’m making a place for you and you know the way,” Thomas speaks up and says “No we don’t; Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” [John 14:5] The word ‘way’ here translates a word that has multiple meanings. It can mean road or path; it can mean a whole set of directions. It can also mean a spiritual discipline. Thomas is looking for directions: how do we get where you’re going? Jesus answers with what’s become one of the most quoted verses in the whole Bible: “Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” [John 14:6] I know you’ve heard this, we all have. But often when it’s quoted, the part at the beginning gets left out: “Jesus said to him…” This isn’t a general teaching for everyone: this is specific to Thomas. 

This gets quoted to make Christians feel superior but the whole context here is humility. Jesus washes the disciples’ feet; Jesus tells them not to be troubled. Jesus says, there are lots of places in my father’s house, I”m getting one for you. There’s no exclusion here if you listen to the whole conversation. Just a little bit before, there’s the part we read last week, about Jesus being an open gate; here, there are many dwelling places, enough for everyone. Jesus is offering to include everyone. His point is that you don’t need directions, you don’t need a map, you have his life, you have him. He embodies the way. And if everyone coming to the Father is going that way, it’s entirely possible they are going that way with someone else. Perhaps with Mohammed, perhaps with the Buddha, perhaps Moses. It doesn’t matter where you come from in Harrisburg, if you’re going to the west shore, you’re going over a bridge. It doesn’t matter where you live, what you believe, if you come to the father, you’re coming by way of love and humility. 

One writer put it this way.

Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).  He didn’t say that any particular ethic, doctrine, or religion was the way, the truth, and the life. He said that he was. He didn’t say that it was by believing or doing anything in particular that you could “come to the Father.” He said that it was only by him—by living, participating in, being caught up by the way of life that he embodied, that was his way.

Thus it is possible to be on Christ’s way and with his mark upon you without ever having heard of Christ, and for that reason to be on your way to God though maybe you don’t even believe in God.

A Christian is one who is on the way, though not necessarily very far along it, and who has at least some dim and half-baked idea of whom to thank. [https://www.patheos.com/blogs/carlgregg/2011/05/lectionary-commentary-“a-progressive-christian-reading-of-john-146”-for-sunday-may-22-2011/]

It’s Jesus himself, his life, that is the way and he welcomes everyone to come along.

The other conversation we get to overhear is with Philip. “Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” [John 14:8] Now, Philips question has a long history. Throughout the Bible, throughout history I imagine, people wanted to see God. Jacob wrestled with an angel and said, “I have seen God face to face yet my life has been spared” [Genesis 32:30] Moses asks to see God’s glory and God passes by. [Exodus 33:18-22] Isaiah sees God seated on a throne. [Isaiah 6:1] The truth is we can only see what our eyes tell us and what we imagine and God is greater than either one. As you know, Jacquelyn and I just came back from a week in Spain. We visit Cathedrals and art museums when we go and they’re both full of wonderful, artistic pictures. They mean to show God but they can’t. You can’t see the ocean, you can only see the surface and it’s the same here.

So Jesus tells Philip the truth, the greatest truth of Christian faith: that God is fully in him, so if you want to see God, look at Jesus. “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’? [John 14:9] Every Sunday we gather here, every Sunday I come here with one mission. I learned it years ago in a little church where I was a supply preacher. The pulpit had a little brass plaque that said, “Sir, we would see Jesus”. That’s my mission: to show Jesus. Because if we see Jesus, we’ve seen the Father. If we know Jesus, we know the Father, who has always known us.

I read a book on preaching once, trying to learn to do it, and it said every sermon should have an easy answer to, “what do you want the congregation to do?” The author meant that there should be a ringing challenge to some great action. I don’t think this is good sermon in that way; I’m not going to challenge you today to do anything except this: pray for us here at Salem to be a place where it’s obvious God is present. Pray for us to be a church where we are dwelling well with the Lord. Pray for us to feel God’s spirit moving so that indeed, we will know the way and the truth of God’s love.

Amen.