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

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

In the very first line of this morning’s Gospel…  Jesus says…  Do not let your hearts be troubled…  but many of our hearts have been troubled…  and not just only this morning…  for some of us…  there’s something almost every day that fills us with uncertainty…  doubt…  and fear…  and life in the last ten years is pretty much unlike anything we’ve ever known…  and many of our hearts can’t make sense of…  can’t bridge the gap between the values imbued in us while we were growing up…  and our recent experiences…  and the promises Jesus made and makes to all of us…

We are troubled by the divisions within our country…  troubled by the loss of personal freedoms and the rise of autocrats…  and the difficulty in holding some of them accountable…  we are troubled by environmental degradation and global warming…  by glaciers that are calving far too quickly and far too much…  by gloomy forecasts about the economy…  by scandals within media empires…  we are troubled by racism and white supremacy…  and across the country…  school libraries and public libraries are being targeted for books which may help young people figure out how they are…  or for books which speak truth about this country’s role in the sin of slavery…  we are troubled and concerned for the safety of our lesbian…  gay…  bisexual…  and transgender relatives and friends…  and by drag queen story hours…  which never killed anyone…  and which are being threatened by Neo-Nazis…  who brandish military-style assault weapons as a means of intimidation…  all while guns continue to be the leading cause of death among children…  and by shootings which have become an almost daily occurrence…  the most recent one yesterday in Allen, TX…  where it’s being reported that eight people were killed and seven others are being treated at trauma facilities…

And here’s what’s fascinating…  because to the best of my knowledge…  mermaids don’t really exist… but some people are outraged that a fictional character…  Disney’s Little Mermaid Ariel…  is being portrayed in a live-action movie by a young woman of color…  in fact…  the YouTube trailer got more than a million dislikes within a few days…  and the phrase Not my Ariel …  began circulating on social media…  but no one seems to be disturbed at all…  in fact…  there seems to be benign acceptance of the idea…  that Jesus…  who really did exist…  was a white man with blonde hair and blue eyes…

Stephen’s story is a disturbing one too…  he speaks truth to power and is stoned to death…  the post-Easter world is not warm and fuzzy…  and our Easter trumpets are jarringly silenced by shocking human brutality…  Susan Butterworth…  a teacher and lay minister at MIT…  writes…  Stephen bears witness to Christ with his dying breath…  a message of faith and grace…  yet it is impossible to overlook the violence perpetrated by religious people in this passage…  it’s all too easy for those comfortably in power to respond to a challenge with violence…  and not only in the first century of the common era…  certainly…  the Easter story of redemption has not ended the cycle of violence…  yet we as Christians continue to trust in the message of the Holy Spirit…  to witness to the gospel message of hope…  and to commend our spirits to God in the hour of death… 

In the second line of this morning’s Gospel…  Jesus says…  In my Father’s house…  there are many dwelling places… ] our New Revised Standard Version translation says “dwelling places”…  the translation of this second line in The Message says… There is plenty of room for you in my Father’s home…  and the translation in the First Nation’s version…  an Indigenous People’s translation which was published two years ago…  says…  My Father’s lodge has room for everyone… 

But I think most of us are more familiar with Jesus saying…  In my Father’s house…  there are many mansions…  in fact…  the King James’ version…  the American Standard version…  and the World English Bible all say mansions…  and so it becomes easier for us to jump from there to the TV show…  Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous…  in fact…  there’s even a county western song called…  To My Mansion In the Sky…

But the Greek word which is translated as mansion…  is menō…  and it does not refer to an architectural structure…  but simply means to abide…  to dwell…  menō describes something that remains where it is…  and continues in a fixed state…  and in this passage Jesus reassures us that we will remain with…  and will continue steadfastly with him… so that where and how he is…  there we will also BE… 

Another way we can understand this…  is that when Jesus says…  I will come again and will take you to myself…  because you know the way…  and Thomas objects…  says he doesn’t know the way…  Thomas is thinking about geographic coordinates…  but Jesus is thinking about what he’s been teaching all along…  about the values he’s imparted…  the healings and miracles he’s performed… and the consciousness out of which it all comes…  and especially that he is…  as God is…

And when Jesus says…  The words that I say to you…  I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works…  when Jesus says these words…  we understand that Jesus is using his free will…  is choosing to allow God’s will and Word to flow through him…  seamlessly informing what he says and does…  almost but not quite…  how when we look at artwork…  we may discern something about the artist…  or when we listen to music…  we may gain an insight about the composer…  or how when we eat a fine meal…  we may learn something about the chef…  or maybe how when we see a marionette…  what we’re really hearing and seeing are the words and actions of the puppeteer…  Jesus even says…  whoever has seen me…  has seen the Father…  and out of Jesus’ full humanity…  he uses his free will to speak the Father’s words and perform the Father’s will… 

St. Joseph Cafasso…  who was a nineteenth century Roman Catholic priest in Turin, Italy…  said that…  Heaven is filled with converted sinners of all kinds…  and there’s room for more…  and I believe that the image on the Holy Trinity bulletin cover…  what we might call Mansions of Faith…  represents that when we sincerely search for God…  however we do it…  God will find us…  and the words we use…  will matter less than the experience we have…  because the first line in this morning’s Gospel…  which also says…  believe in God…  believe also in me… could also have been translated to read…  trust in God…  trust also in me…  belief may sometimes be too much to ask when we can’t understand…  but we can trust in God’s promises…

And the author of today’s Psalm had this trust when she or he wrote…  Be my strong rock…  a castle to keep me safe…  for you are my crag and my stronghold…  for you have redeemed me…  O God of truth…  and this trust continues in 1Peter…  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…  Jesus is the way…  and the truth…  and the life…  and if we trust in him…  as Jesus himself says…  whoever has seen me has seen the Father…  and if you know me…  you will know my Father also…  and the Advocate whom I will send…