Year A

John 14:1-14

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Easter Anxiety that Empowers

Did you know that many in the medical field say that the disease of the twenty-first century is anxiety? There are a lot of reasons for us to be anxious and troubled these days: family stress, parenting challenges related to children and parents, homelessness, racism, human rights violations, gun violence, struggles at work, unresolved relationships, finances, pandemics, physical and mental illness, and more. There does seem to be enough anxiety going around for everyone. Several of you have heard me talk about the 8 hour Mental Health First Aid training the clergy of this diocese took at our clergy conference about two weeks ago. In the book we received, there is a whole chapter on anxiety because everybody experiences anxiety at some time. It is a common feeling. 

When people describe their anxiety, they may use the terms such as anxious, stressed, freaking out, panicky, nervous, on edge, worried, tense, overwhelmed, or hassled. And, although everyday anxiety is unpleasant, it can be quite useful in helping someone avoid a dangerous situation and motivate someone to solve everyday problems. Yet, if more sever and persistent it can lead to depression and other more serious anxiety disorders. But one thing about anxiety for sure it has always been around and in our gospel reading today, Jesus’ disciples had good reason to be anxious. This is the first part of Jesus’ farewell discourse or speech to his disciples in John after their last supper together and before Jesus would be arrested, put on trial, and crucified.

Jesus had just given them some very anxiety producing news: he would be leaving and they would not be able to come with him; one of them would betray him; and Peter would deny him. They had to be wondering how any of this could be true. They had left everything to follow him. They had been looking for a Messiah and they believed that they had found him. They were his closest friends but of course they are not able to completely understand his message, vision, and mission. His words must have confused and worried them. That’s when he said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God believe also in me….I go to prepare a place for you…to take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also”

The gospel of John was written long after Jesus had ascended back to God probably sometime between 85 and 100 CE and it was written for an early denomination, or sect, of Christianity called the Johannine community lead by John and it was intended for that community. John is giving instructions to disciples of Jesus as to how to live as Jesus without his physical presence in their midst. The readings after Easter are filled with instructions for disciples about how to live as Jesus taught. In today’s text, Jesus is preparing them to consider not only his journey through death to life, but their own, and he advises his disciples not to let their hearts be troubled, but to believe and he gives them the way, the means, to be lifted from their anxious, directionless, and fearful state. He says I am the way, the truth and the life.

Thomas a Kempis, the great Catholic theologian, caught the meaning of these words of Jesus when he said, “Without the way, there is no going; without the truth, there is no knowing; and without the life, there is no living. If we want to find our way to the place God has created for us, we must follow Christ. For Jesus leads us to God. Central to this passage is the relationship between Jesus and God. We get a glimpse of this relationship in Stephen’s vision today in our Act’s reading as he is being martyred for his faith. Stephen was one of the seven men selected and ordained to assist the twelve apostles in meeting the needs of the growing early church.

These seven are not identified as deacons but tradition holds that they were the first deacons. Stephen evidently took on a great deal more than simply serving food. He became an apostle in his own right and, ultimately, a martyr who died proclaiming his faith in the face of hostility. The clear parallel between Jesus’ death and Stephen’s is surely no coincidence. Both died for challenging the religious establishment, both prayed for their killers, and both surrendered their spirits to God. In making this parallel, Luke the gospel writer, puts Stephen in the line of succession to Jesus, showing Jesus as the model for others, and presumably, making Stephen the model for us, the model of faithfulness in adversity, in times of anxiety.

In this text today we are also introduced to Paul who was born Saul. Paul’s history as a zealous persecutor of the early Christians played a very important role in the spread of the new church and in the development of his thought and writings. His persecution of Christians will soon change after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and he becomes the great missionary to the Gentiles. Perhaps Stephen’s testimony may have led to the way Paul bore witness to Christ in his life, in his writings, and according to legend, in his martyrdom under Nero. Though many of us may never be asked to die for our faith, our faith still calls us to reflect on our priorities, to take a stand, and to express our beliefs through action.

We are God’s people, Peter reminds us today, a holy priesthood, like living stones whose foundation is the cornerstone, Jesus, in order that we may proclaim the mighty acts of Jesus who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. This is good news because even in the midst of an anxious and hostile world, we are God’s people, we are loved and heard, and we belong. The Easter word is this: in Jesus Christ we are on the inside with God. We belong, even if we don’t feel like we fit in, even if we feel lost and homeless, forsaken, stressed out, the promise of the gospel is that like in a house with many rooms, we have a place and it is ready for us, and there is somebody who will take us there.    

And because in Jesus Christ, God offers us a place, we ought to be able to offer a place to others. We ought to be able to invite people and offer them a place to belong even if they don’t look us or talk like us.  It is our job as a holy nation to offer basic Christian hospitality; to offer God’s love and mercy because we have received mercy. This love and mercy of God is palpable in these weeks of Easter. We see the power of the resurrection in that there is death to counter, not just at Easter. There are oppressive structures to overturn every day, not just at Easter. There is the way, truth and life to be celebrated every day, not just at Easter. Christ is risen! He has risen indeed. This is enough to sustain us and it is enough to support us in these anxiety filled days. It is enough to empower us for the days ahead. Alleluia!