May 7, 2023, Our Times Are in Your Hands, John 14:1-14 – Mtr. Kathryn Boswell

saintphilipsnorwood ♦ May 7, 2023 ♦ Leave a comment

To listen to this sermon, click the link above. Below is an outline of the sermon.

If you are on facebook you probably know that Carroll writes a garden journal on his facebook page. In each entry, he writes down the work of that day and makes note of how everything is doing right now. Whatever “today” it is that he is writing about at the time, that might be the day we plant lettuce and peas or the day we dig a bajillion dandelions out of the strawberry bed. Each day he records the work for that particular day. He can’t go back and change what we did or failed to do yesterday. And unfortunately we can’t see ahead to tomorrow’s tasks very clearly. Carroll might think that tomorrow will be the day to plant potatoes, only to discover an enormous rock right where the potatoes need to go, so that he’ll end up spending all his gardening time that day digging that rock out. We can never do anything about yesterday, and we can never see tomorrow. In the garden, there is only today, and today there is plenty of life and beauty and good work to do, along with a fair share of big rocks.

One of the big problems with being human is that we have a very hard time living in the present. How much of our lives do we waste worrying about the future or trying to re-live the past – regretting the things we have lost, feeling bitter about the things we have suffered, grieving for the things we can never change? We have no power to make even the slightest change over what has already happened, but so often we let those feelings of regret and bitterness, or dread and anxiety, consume us; they sap our energies, they cast their shadows over anything joyful or productive or healthful we might meet today.

When our daughter Iris was little, she built a time machine, out of a bunch of castoff household objects – she strung together an old window fan and a broken card table and who knows what else. It was a little scary, actually, all bits and pieces and wires, and we were probably lucky it didn’t burn the house down when she tried to plug it in. But who hasn’t wished for a time machine, so we could go back and get a do-over or get a look into what is about to happen so we can be prepared. But there is no time machine, we can’t go back, we can’t see into the future. We can only live now, today.

Jesus was speaking to his friends at a time of great anxiety for them. Their lives were about to be torn apart and turned upside down in ways they had no way of understanding yet. How could they possibly be ready for the crucifixion? How could they have been ready to face the fact of their own betrayal of their Lord and Teacher and friend? How could they be ready to be the ones – just eleven uneducated men – to carry on the ministry of the Son of God? If they could actually have seen ahead to the days that were coming, I don’t think they would have had the courage to go on.

Do you ever lie awake at night, agonizing over your failures and shortcomings, or dreading all the very worst things that might happen tomorrow, or the next day, or in the coming years? I do that – lament my many failings as a mother or a wife or a priest, wishing uselessly that I could go back and do it right. Or I imagine losing people I love or failing spectacularly at something I need to accomplish or facing a terrible illness – all things that do happen to people every day and that will very likely come to pass at some time in my life – and I think, “I can’t make it through that; I don’t have the courage, or the strength, or the wisdom that I would need to deal with those things.” And of course I’m right – I don’t have the courage or the strength or the wisdom to deal with the future, because I’m not there yet. I can only be ready for today.

And that’s why Jesus told them that night, “Don’t panic; don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust God. Trust me.” (Belief/trust/faith are all the same word) I am going ahead to prepare the way for you. I am going to prepare a dwelling place for you with the Father. But, he said, but today you know everything you need to know. And of course, just like us, as soon as Jesus said don’t panic, they began to panic. Wait, what are you talking about? We don’t anything yet! We don’t know where you are going, so we can’t possibly know the way to the Father. We don’t even know the Father. We’re not ready for any of this.

And Jesus stood before them and said, “You do know the way. You do know the Father. Look at me. You know me. You think you don’t know the way forward? You think you don’t know enough? You are afraid of losing everything, losing me, losing your own lives? You’re afraid of not being ready, of not being strong enough, of not being good enough or wise enough? Don’t let your hearts be troubled. You know me. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.”

Jesus said, “I am the way.” Just like the disciples on their last night with their Teacher, it is terrifying to feel that we have little or no control over where we’re going and what’s going to happen. We try to lay in all kinds of contingency plans for our lives like insurance policies and saving accounts, and maybe we obsess over our diet and exercise plans, and even so, we spend a lot of time worrying about the unknown. But Jesus tells us, “I am the way – you know me.” We can’t control the future, but we can know the one who is with us today, and who will be with us tomorrow, and who will never leave us or forsake us. Financial planning, and insurance policies and healthy lifestyles will all be irrelevant sooner or later. But Jesus is the way no matter what today brings us.

Jesus said, “I am the truth.” Now, the truth was that the disciples were just about to become their very worst selves, betraying their Teacher and Lord and friend in his hour of greatest need. They were going to have to face the disappointment of who they were before they could become the men that God was calling them to become. Truth can be embarrassing, and sometimes it can very painful, but without truth there’s no way forward. The truth for some of us is that we are not at all the people we imagined or hoped ourselves to be. For others of us, the truth is that we are not at all the failures and losers that unkindness and harsh words have made us believe ourselves to be. Facing the truth about ourselves – not the condemnation and criticism of the world, but the gracious and loving truth that comes from the one who loves us – the only one who really knows us – is the only way to live fully today.

Jesus said, “I am the life.” He is the life that fills this day – today – with purpose. For the disciples, that meant that Jesus was calling them to act today, to obey today, to fulfill the purposes the Father had for them today. And as weak and foolish – as pathetically human – as they certainly were, God was calling them to an incredibly important life. They were called to participate in the breaking in of the kingdom of God into this world. For us – well, for us it’s exactly the same, really. Just like the disciples, we are called, in Christ, to live out each day the work of the kingdom that he sets before us. And who knows how important those things we are called to do today might be – we have no way of knowing. The kindness we show today, the help we offer, will bear fruit in its time, and we might never know what comes of it. We can only live today, keeping our eyes on Jesus, living abundantly as we trust that he is the Lord of our every day.

We read Psalm 31 this morning, which has one of my favorite verses. In verse 15 the psalmist prays, “My times are in your hand.” My Mom wrote an essay when she was older, looking back on all the various “days” she had lived – her days as a little girl, her days as a young wife, her days as a mother, her days as a grieving widow – all those todays that had made up her life. And I always think of my Mom when I read that verse in Psalm 31, because more than anyone else I know, she lived each day in faith, looking to Jesus instead of regretting the past or fearing the shadow of the future. All of her times: the joyful times and the hard times and the terrible times, they were all in his hands.

In a very focused and hands-on way, Carroll’s garden journal looks at the way and the truth and the life of each day. And our lives are a lot like the garden. As disciples of Christ, we do the work the Father gives us to do today. We bear the fruits he grows in us today. We can’t change our past. We can’t control our future. We have today as a precious and irreplaceable gift, and today our hearts do not need to be troubled, because our past and our future are safe in the hands of God.

In Jesus we find the way, and in Jesus we see the truth, and in Jesus we drink in the life. Our times – all our times – are in his loving hands. +