Easter 6C: "Coming, Going, & Home"

Rev. Tommy A. Thompson

6th Sunday of Easter

John 14:23-29; Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5

9 May 2010

“Coming, Going, & Home”

There are three main threads that run through all the readings today...and there are three main threads that run through our lives: coming, going, and home. There’s not much that happens in life that does not include at least one of these three words, is there? It seems we are always on the move...going there...coming here...and when its all said and done, resting, relaxing, or whatever we do when we are not coming or going but simply at home.

For some of us only two of these words seem to be reality...particularly for those of us who are restless...who can’t seem to pin down where home really is...life is always a continuous journey of going and coming...but no rest...no relaxation...no place to hang the proverbial hat...

But there are others of us who don’t know so much what it is like to be on the go...to be headed somewhere...we are satisfied with the place our hat hangs...we have made a house a home...and there is very little going or coming in our lives...

Some of us can relate to the full picture of coming, going, being at home...others relate well to going and coming but no so much hanging the hat and settling down...while the rest of us are quite satisfied where our hats hang...which best describes your situation in life? coming? going? or home?

Regardless of which word best resonates with our present life context, the Word intersects with our lives right where we find ourselves...coming, going, or at home...because that’s what the Word is all about...

The Word came to us who are ultimately restless in order that we might begin a procession of going to our home which he came to reveal, and this is full of significance regardless of whether we are coming, going, or resting at what we understand to be home. The Gospel reveals to us that Jesus, the Son of God, the Divine Word, came to us, became one of us, in order to redeem us.

His coming to us, going to the Father, and His sense of being at home has revealed so much to us concerning going, coming, and home...

For those of us who never seem to find home in this world, Jesus comes to us as one who has no place to hang his proverbial hat...no place to lay his head...always coming or going...but never settling down...YET he is always at home...

For those of us who never seem to go anywhere, whose lives are cozy and warm...who have found the proverbial hanger to hold the hat, we don’t know what to do with a human being who is so at home even when life is not cozy and warm...

What is it about Jesus that is so right? How can he be so at home all the time, regardless of where he is...what he’s going through...whether he is resting or going or coming?

Jesus reveals to us what we once had but have been away from for so long we’ve forgotten what its like...Jesus is truly human and Jesus is truly at home. We are merely human, and whether we are coming, going, or at home, we never truly feel satisfied...never truly feel as if we have found our true home...the place where we REALLY belong.

Some of us have always thought that our original home was a garden, but what Jesus reveals to us is that what made that garden home was the relationship we enjoyed with the God in that Garden... In the same way that a child’s home is not brick, mortar, dry wall and carpet, but the source of her life...the love that brought her forth...the love of her mom and dad that was so deep that it literally constituted a new person that is deeply connected to that same love...the Garden was home because we lived there as the fruit of God’s love...the love of the Father and the Son in the Spirit cannot help but to create space for the other...and that other is the creation...it is the crown of the creation, human beings.

What Jesus rests in even as he is restless...what he finds so much satisfaction in as one who is truly human is what every human being was created to rest in ... the source of his life...the love that brought him forth....the love of his creator, redeemer, and sustainer that is so deep it constitutes new creation that is deeply connected to the source of its existence. It is in this divine space that we belong...and this is what Jesus’ coming is about and this is what his going is all about.

Thus, knowing he must go away from his disciples and return to His Father, Jesus looks at his disciples and says, “You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that i am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now i have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.”

Why can’t Jesus just settle down?! He has had our emotions on the world’s fastest roller coaster...he came to us...we felt at home when with him, even though we left our homes behind to follow him...then he went away from us when he was crucified, died, and buried...then he rose from the grave and came back to us...and now he is leaving us again in the ascension!? Why can’t Jesus just settle down with us...hang his hat on the world’s hanger with ours?

Because in Jesus going, the greatest coming of all occurs for us human beings...the beginning of the fulfillment of the great promise of Revelation...The Father and the Son are coming to humankind and making their home with them! And this cannot happen unless Jesus goes away from us, which is truly the greatest coming to us that could ever happen!

Jesus’ return to His Father is a refusal to allow us to continue to hang our hats on hangers that will not last. Instead, he takes our hat and hangs it where it belongs...on the hanger of God’s life, where we were created to be in the beginning, when the love of Father and Son in the Spirit constituted our very existence. It is this life of love that truly is home. The child’s home is where the love that brought him forth lives...his mom and dad...the human person’s home is where the love that brought her forth lives...the vibrant life of God!

No wonder that when John receives a sneak peak into our ultimate future, what he sees is humanity so closely bound together with God’s life that its hard to imagine how they could ever be separated.

What Jesus is trying to tell his disciples before it happens so that they believe is this: Unless I go away from you again, I cannot truly come to you as you truly need. If I do not go, then your hat is not hung in the life of God...if i do not go, then the Holy Spirit, does not come to you...the Holy Spirit is the bond of love that joins Father and Son so strongly that it is impossible to imagine how they could ever be separated. If Jesus does not go, then the Spirit does not come to us and bind us to that same life of love!

Oh, if we truly loved Jesus, knew Jesus, we’d rejoice that He is going to the Father...because his going is the greatest coming to us that we could ever imagine...it invites those of us who are restless to find ourselves at home in the life of God! ... it invites those of us who have “settled” for a home other than our true home to let Jesus put our hats on the right hanger!

Some of us are wandering...we’ve had so many houses that we’ve called home...we can’t seem to pin down where home really is...we are amazed by Jesus’ life of constant motion and yet his life of constant abiding...of being at home even while not having a physical place to lay his head...

Some of us have settled...we have known one or 2 houses our entire lives...we have pinned down where home is...yet we are not satisfied...and we are amazed by Jesus’ sense of being so at home regardless of the fact that he has no place to lay his head!

Today Jesus calls us home...to accept what his coming and going is all about: The Father and the Son making their home among us in the Spirit who is coming to us. Oh for the grace to accept that invitation and begin to finally be at home even while making that grand procession. Amen.