John 14:1-14

I’ve been feeling really homesick lately.  Homesick for the home of my childhood and youth.  Maybe it’s getting ready to attend my 40th college class reunion.  Or maybe it’s facing the reality of my dad’s failing health.  I don’t know.  But whatever it is, it’s made me really longing for that feeling of home that I had back then.

What does “home” mean to you?  For me, home is the smell of my mama’s fried chicken or sour cream pound cake or spaghetti sauce.  It’s the slam of the screen door on a summer afternoon or the cold water from the hose rinsing the mud off of us before we could even go inside for a bath.  Home is the smell of the fire in the fireplace any time the temperature went below 40 degrees and seeing my mom stand with her back to the fire and her gown hitched up in the back to warm up her coldest part.  It’s the family sitting around the table for Sunday dinner and having to scrape the burnt bottoms of the biscuits.  It’s playing outside until dark and popping bubbles in the asphalt on hot summer days and playing baseball or football in the front yard with the neighbor kids.  Home is having my dad tuck me into bed at night and falling asleep to the sound of the TV and my parents’ voices.  It’s catching lightning bugs and putting them in a jar to watch as I fall asleep.  Home is hearing my mother play the piano or clarinet.  It’s the place I knew I was safe.  It’s the place I knew I was loved.  Home is where my heart lives.

In today’s world, according to Katherine Amos, professor at Wake Forest Divinity School, “home is big business.  There are numerous television programs, books, magazines, and social media sites that focus on home design, home landscaping, home furnishings, home location, even vacation homes … A range of educational degrees and certificate programs prepares persons to design homes, to build homes …, to assist homeowners in renovating existing properties, and to guide homeowners in decorating any and every room in the house.  The exterior of the house and the land surrounding the home are now considered as important as the comfort, efficiency, and beauty of the home’s interior …”

But as Christians, we have a different kind of home, a different kind of house, in our plans.  Jesus tells us in this conversation with his disciples that we have a home being prepared for us in heaven by God, who has plenty of room for everybody.  And all that is required for us to move into that home is to believe in God, to believe in Jesus.   This is the hope that we cling to when this passage is being read at a funeral service or beside an open grave.  It is our greatest comfort and joy and ultimate contentment.

When Jesus tells the disciples to “believe,” the Greek word he uses is pisteute, which more accurately translates “trust.”  We are to trust in Jesus, to trust in God.  In the Large Catechism, Martin Luther stated, “God is what you hang your heart upon.”  That is another way of expressing the kind of trust, the kind of belief, that we can have in God through Christ.  We can trust our hearts in God’s care and know that they will be protected. 

Jesus, of course, gives us many reasons to trust him.  As Bishop Craig A. Satterlee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church writes, “Jesus overwhelms us with reasons to trust him!  Jesus is intimately connected to God, whom he calls Father.  Jesus knows that God’s provision … is abundant for all who trust Jesus and follow him as ‘the way.’  Jesus has ‘come again’ in the resurrection; his return announces that not even death can separate Jesus and his own from God!  Jesus provides a permanent place of abiding with God for all who trust him.  Our future is secure …”

We know that the home that God has prepared for us in heaven is a home for the spirit, a home that will nourish our souls.  But, as Kathering Amos points out, the amazing thing is that we don’t have to wait until we get to heaven to have a place where our souls can grow and mature.  Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven has already begun on earth with his coming.  So we can build a home for our souls in that kingdom, represented by the church.  It is a home that will take care of the body, mind, heart, and spirit.  It is a home that will offer warmth, hospitality, safety, security, and love.  It is a home that will nourish our souls through rest, serenity, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, and generosity.

I think that we all desire that kind of spiritual home.  Jane Alexander, in her book, Spirit of the Home: How to Make Your Home a Sanctuary, says, “This almost desperate interest in the external trappings of home – the newest colors, the latest furniture, the best cooker, the freshest curtains – disguises a more profound longing.  In our hearts we want to come home to a real home.  A real home is a home that nurtures us on every level.  It gives us the creature comforts that make our bodies feel relaxed and comfortable.  It provides the safety and serenity that allows our minds and emotions peace and security.  Above all, in nourishes our soul.”

Amos asks the question, “What can we do in our current lives to invite God to live with us and among us?”  In other words, what would it take for our souls to grow and to bring us to a closer relationship with God through Jesus Christ?  What if God allowed us to become partners and consultants in designing the home being prepared for us?  What does your soul need to feel safe and nourished?  What speaks to your spirit?  What calls your heart towards the heart of God?  What about that home invites others to come in, too?  What provides the atmosphere of hospitality and welcome?

There are so many troubled hearts in this world.  Perhaps your heart feels troubled this morning.  Troubled by fear.  By grief.  By anger.  By stress and pressure.  By guilt.  Maybe you feel as if your spirit was standing at the edge of a freshly dug grave.  And there are those with troubled hearts outside the walls of this building.  People going through divorce.  People struggling with addiction.  People worrying about making ends meet.  People living in homes that are unsafe.  How do we reach out to them and let them know that there is a home for them with us?  With God?

Jesus says that we don’t need to have troubled hearts when we believe in him, when we trust in him.  Not even death should scare us, our own death or that of someone we love.  Cynthia Jarvis, minister at The Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hills in Philadelphia writes, “At the edge of his own grave, Jesus means to reassure his disciples that his death is not the end but the beginning of the ‘way,’ whose destination is the room he is making for them in God.”  And what does it take for our hearts to no longer be troubled?  To believe in God and believe in Jesus, to trust, to hang our hearts on them.  The word “believe” is used 6 times in this passage; it is important; it is at the crux of the message.  Belief – trust – is everything.

I said at the beginning of my sermon that I am homesick for the home of my childhood and youth.  But that’s not all.  I’m also homesick for a home I haven’t been to yet, my home with God in heaven.  I know a little about that home because I am already seeing it being built around me, with my assistance.  It is a spiritual home, a home that nurtures and nourishes my soul.  What makes it nourishing for me might not be the same things that would be nourishing for you in your kingdom home.  But I know that Jesus has already been building your home, too.  Can you see it?  Can you feel it?  That is the power of belief.