We Will Make Our Home

John 14-17 has come to be known as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse. The time is drawing near that Jesus will be betrayed and arrested. He has washed the disciples’ feet and foretold both his betrayal and denial. He has given them a new commandment to love one another. But they want to come with him. The disciples are anxious. Where are you going? What will we do without you? When will we see you again?

And Jesus tells them that he is going to prepare a place in his Father’s house. The only other time Jesus talked about his Father’s house was in reference to the Temple. The Temple was the place where the people of Israel went to meet God. It was at the Temple that heaven and earth came together. Now, Jesus says there are many dwelling places. God isn’t only at the Temple.

Jesus is going to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to abide with us and in us. 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 home with them.” God will make his home in us. We often read this passage at funerals, and it is a passage that offers us great comfort and assurance, but it is not only about the rooms Jesus goes ahead to prepare for us in his Father’s house. It is about the rooms, in us, that Jesus is preparing by sending the Holy Spirit now. God’s desire is to make his home in us now. God’s desire is that we are the Temple of the Living God. Jesus’ death and resurrection prepares the way for us to be part of the Father’s house. Heaven and earth meet – in us.

Rev. Dr. Barbara Lundblad is a professor of preaching at Union Seminary in New York. She points out that “Jesus says, “The Holy Spirit, whom God will send in my name, will teach you everything and will remind you of all that I have said to you.” That is, Jesus was saying: You don’t know everything yet. You have more to learn. In every generation you will be faced with new questions and perplexities….Jesus knew there were some questions the sacred writings didn’t address. Jesus also acknowledged that there were some things he had never talked about. “The Spirit will be your tutor,” he said, “guiding you into all the truth.”

On All Saints’ Sunday, we remember and give thanks for generations of faithful disciples in whom God has been pleased to dwell. Rosemary Radford Reuther is a church historian. She says there are two things the church must do. One is to pass on the tradition from one generation to another. [The church must] Tell the story of Jesus to our children and our children’s children. But that’s not all, says Reuther. There is a second thing the church must do. Be open to the winds of the Spirit by which the tradition comes alive in each generation.

When heaven and earth meet in us, God makes his home in us and God’s story continues to be written.

Every house has a story. Who built it, why they built it, The house I grew up in was built for Mrs. Daugherty by Dr. Daughtery. Their kids had club meetings in the crawl space in the basement, and when we were kids we found their glass candle holder and ink well – the things they left behind not knowing they wouldn’t crawl back into their secret meeting place. When we bought the house, rain ran down the walls of the living room. The kitchen had green carpet. The dining room had orange and gold velour wallpaper with holes from drive-by gun shots. The immediately previous owners had had some problems. There was a half-door from the kitchen to the laundry room and many a Dairy Queen order was placed there. Sweet memories. One day we made parfaits…salad parfaits with mandarin orange salad on bottom, a layer of slaw, fruit salad, topped with green salad with refrigerator pickles and thousand island dressing. Mom made us eat them. Good times and not so good times.

Every house has a story. This house has a story. We celebrate today the lives of Mary Lou, a nurturer whose heart was inclined to the vulnerable and weak, and Mildred, a disciple devoted to Bible study and learning, Brenda, whose welcome and hospitality made everyone feel at home, and Harriette, who taught and encouraged young people to live up to the dream God had for their lives. These women’s stories are a part of the Farmington story. Their lives shaped and influenced us.

The stories of God making his home in us are the story of how God continues to work in our world. St. Theresa of Avila wrote in the 16th Century, “God created the mansion within us with the full intention of moving in. He created me to dwell within me. I am His dream house.”

As we give thanks for these faithful women in whom God made his house, we acknowledge that we don’t know what the home Jesus has prepared for them looks like. But we know the builder has prepared a room for them and built it with love. When our time here for ‘making a home’ for God on earth is done, a place is waiting for us in God’s own house. In the meantime, Jesus leaves us “shalom,” “peace,” the deep, abiding presence of God.

So we ask ourselves, “How am I welcoming God home in my life?” What questions and perplexities trouble me, and how am I allowing the Spirit to guide me to Truth? How are the winds of the Spirit guiding me? And we ask how God is making God’s home at Farmington Presbyterian. Who is God calling us to welcome home? What is God calling us to speak the Truth about? How are we being the place where heaven and earth meet?

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.