07/05/23 Holy Communion St. Peter’s, Birkdale
1 Peter 2:2-10 John 14:1-14
Most of us probably spent quite a lot of yesterday watching the coronation service where the first spoken words made reference to the Kingdom of God and the kingship of Jesus. Our starting point is John but there will be a few excursions to the Coronation.
John 14 has a very particular context and it makes a difference to how we should watch what Jesus is doing and listen to what he is saying
We join him at the last supper after after he has washed his disciples feet, after the meal and just after Judas has slipped off into the night to betray him.
Jesus knows his immediate future is likely to hold arrest trial and death. His expectation that this was the this was the last meal he would share with them gives an added poignancy to his actions, and it gives an extra weight to what he is going to say to them. These words and actions are what he most wants them to remember, So it is significant that his first action when they are all gathered is to wash their feet. He was the host, he wanted them to know they were welcome, he had no servants to do it for him so he did it himself. Here Jesus very explicitly takes on the servant role and he wanted them to remember that they should all serve each other’s best interests
The first thing Charles said in the service was ‘In the King of kings name and after his example I come not to be served but to serve.’ Kingship and the service of the common good belong together.
What else does he want his disciples to remember? Despite what is about to happen they have a future and a hope.
At this point they probably think that everything is going well. When Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey - it was great - everybody loved them - certainly the crowd did and Jesus always got under the skin of the temple authorities anyway. But Jesus knows this time is different. The sky is about to fall in.
‘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.’
He wants them to remember this later, to know that though they are going through a dark night they have his word that there is a dawn coming. They have not been abandoned.
In the service we were given the chance to pledge our allegiance to the king. Here it is the other way round - Jesus makes his allegiance to his disciples and through them his allegiance to us absolutely clear.
What does he want the disciples to remember ?
First, serve one another.
Second I will never abandon you, there is a place for you in my Father’s house
And then keep walking the way I have shown you
The disciples are used to being confused by Jesus - why is he going away? Why can’t they go with him? That’s what they signed up for. And where is his Father’s house - what does he mean. Thomas asks first - ‘we don’t know where you’re going so how can we know the way.’
Jesus responds, ’Thomas you all know me well, you don’t need to know more than I’m telling you now. You’ve all seen my relationship with my Father in action. Love God, love neighbour act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. Keep on with that and you’ll get there - there may be missteps, it will be difficult , but keep on
‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me so Remember what you’ve seen and heard, follow the path I have shown you.
Shape your behaviour by what you have seen in me.
Jesus knows the disciples, but just as importantly they know him. The whole time they have spent together travelling round Israel they have been getting to know him, they have seen both his devotion to the Father and his commitment to them.
They know they’ve been irritating, that they’ve continually missed the point, that they’ve squabbled amongst themselves when they should have been united and daydreaming when they should have been listening but he has never let them down. For all their failures he’s never given any of them a final warning. They know he loves them, they may not understand why, but they don’t doubt it.
They trust Jesus but Philip is still worried, ‘We don’t know the Father like you do, if we could just see him it would be so much easier.’
Jesus replies, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”?’
We shouldn’t take these words for granted. He is saying - when I was washing your feet that’s what the Father would have done, all those meals we’ve shared, conversations we’ve had - they have all taken you into the heart of God. He feels about you the same way that I do.’
The disciples may not have understood what Jesus was saying at the time, but they did remember what he said. Their trust in him kept growing even beyond the crucifixion. As we follow him, at the same can be true for us.
Three things Jesus wants the disciples and therefore us to remember
First, Jesus shows his commitment his disciples by serving them. He puts any idea of status to one side and washes their feet - they are welcome at the table he has prepared.
Then, despite all life’s uncertainties, however we may be feeling about God, he will not abandon us,
Third, He is the way, trust him enough to follow that way.
One final thought - in his epistle Peter sketches out a future for God’s followers
‘You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.’
The disciples could easily have felt that this was too high a calling for them to fulfil - we may feel the same, and despite the assurances of the Coronation service the king too might well feel overmastered by what he is being given to do.
But Peter goes on to say, ‘Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
And that is the grace that can encourage and strengthen us.
