Daily Bread

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

This passage from John's gospel is often chosen to be read at funerals, and there is something wonderfully comforting and reassuring about Jesus' words to his disciples — about their future union with God in and through Christ.

I'm going to go out on a limb in this short reflection and tackle Jesus' words from a different angle, so please bear with me, and if what I write is a load of nonsense then please feel free to disregard my musings!

I remember once, hearing the famous German theologian Jürgen Moltmann speak at an Anglican clergy conference, where he talked about the second coming of Jesus as the (continual) coming of the Holy Spirit because, in a very real sense, we can meet Jesus in the here and now. At the time my mind was frazzled as I had always adhered to the idea that Jesus would come again in some kind of distinct, rapturous, cloud-riding, and trumpet-blaring way, yet, Jürgen's ideas took hold, and it was as if scripture and life all began to make sense.

Therefore, what if the dwelling places that Jesus was talking about are us — you and me and every follower of Jesus? We are members of the Father's house, as God's adopted children, and as such, we are dwelling places for the Holy Spirit. Jesus had to go and literally prepare us as the places where the Spirit could indwell, and we know from scripture that Jesus said he had to go to be able to send the Spirit.

As Jesus is one with the Father and the Spirit, Jesus has come again through his Spirit and we can meet Jesus in the here and now, and the way to this place of unity with God? Through Jesus Christ — the way, the truth, and the life. If you ask any Christian if Jesus is 'with them' they will answer with a resounding, "Yes!"

Now, I know that heaven and earth do not yet fully overlap, and that it is true to say that Jesus has not yet come fully. We still live between the now and not yet, but such an interpretation of this passage from John, at least to me, makes sense in the wider context of scripture and my lived experience. Jesus is in the process of coming and each of us is a dwelling place for God in the world. The future is not yet written, we live on the edge of history — 'His story', and it doesn't get much more exciting than that!

Holy God
Thank you that I can meet you today,
that through your life, death, and resurrection
you have prepared, in me, a place for your Spirit to dwell.
Melt away all that would prevent me from
being the person you have called me to be,
And as I open my heart to you,
fill me again with your life-giving love.
Now and forever.