April 28, 2002

John 14:1-14

"Don't let this throw you. You trust God, don't you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father's home. If it weren't so, would I have told you that I'm on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I'm on my way to get your room ready, I'll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I'm taking."

Thomas said, "Master, we have no idea where you're going. How do you expect us to know the road?"

Jesus said, "I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You've even seen him!"

Philip said, "Master, show us the Father; then we'll be content."

"You've been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don't understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, 'Where is the Father?' Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren't mere words. I don't just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.

"Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can't believe that, believe what you see - these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I'll do.

<The Message>



1. Don't let what throw you? Betrayal? Death?

2. An interesting put together that raises the question of what it is to "trust God." Does that have to do with last week's lection about the Gate of movement? If we are ever absent from GOD, out pasturing, can we trust a movement of return to GOD's arms? If we are with those arms, can we trust the being called forth?

3. If we trust GOD, where then will trust ever break down as we deal with issues of betrayal and death? If we are in GOD and GOD is in us (trust) how can we not live and pray out of this mutual journey and experience our being and our doing, our being and our being done to as one in the same - expanding, "greatering," the Road/Gate/Truth/Life of Jesus/GOD/ourselves.

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