This is a great weekend in Boston. Runners from all over the world come in for the Marathon. I love walking around Copley Square and seeing the lean, fit runners. For old joggers like me, this is the stuff of dreams. Many years ago I peaked at three miles and went steadily downhill from there. Now I am happy just to be walking! For me, having marathon runners in the Square is like having the big kids visit my elementary school classroom. I am filled with awe.
But there is more afoot here than a fascination with athletes and running. And it is this: for three days every year, our city receives thousands of people who are full of drive and purpose. They come here after months and years of preparation to meet a huge goal they have set for themselves: 26 miles, rain or shine. These folks eat and sleep, go to work and pay bills like the rest of us, but they also keep working at their goal, in season and out.
Once a year, our city gets an infusion of some of the most self-disciplined and determined people in the world. You can feel their energy out there this morning. What American city would not love to have this? Can we stockpile it and ration it out all year long? Wouldn’t it be great if Boston had such an infusion of sustained energy and purpose every week?
That is exactly what the authors of the Christian gospels have in mind.
These Gospel writers record their communities’ experience of Jesus and offer them to us as an infusion of grace and purpose. Today’s selection is a highly charged scene in the Gospel of John. This is the final meeting between Jesus and his disciples. It is Jesus’ last chance to teach his disciples before he dies. Imagine your own last minute advice to your children before sending them out into the world — you don’t mince words, you go straight to the point. Recall the words you have heard from a dying loved one. I have been privileged to sit with the dying, and I can tell you I never hear nit-picking or trivia. They speak of what is most precious.
Jesus speaks of what is most precious in his Last Lecture at this Last Supper. He offers an infusion of what his disciples require for the future. I want to look at two of these final messages in our reading. First, he assures them of God’s rich presence in their lives, even under hardship conditions. And then he urges them to be distinctive, to be known as his very own disciples.
I find it striking that Jesus describes God’s generosity and abundance through the metaphor of housing. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” The words here are close to the Greek word for abide, which John uses a lot to describe our life with Christ. We abide in Christ, it is our dwelling place. Today, in Massachusetts, housing foreclosures are on the rise. Families and individuals are losing their homes and joining thousands who already live on the streets. Last week we were sobered by a report in the Boston Globe that nearly one third of all children in nearby Lawrence live under the poverty level. In the same newspaper we read of refugees in North Africa and the Middle East who seek shelter in war zones. There is no talk of housing there, only a prayer for a tarp or a tent.
But Jesus promises that God has created many dwelling places. This is a God of abundance. Imagine believing in a God like that! Imagine bowing before a God who wants to give many dwelling places, who wants to give all of creation to humanity. Imagine Christians receiving such abundance and spreading it around, inviting others in. Imagine seeking God’s shelter for all people, working for housing in season and out. There is a goal; there is an infusion of purpose.
Jesus also urges his disciples to claim their distinctive identity as his followers. They lived in a cultural melting pot as just one more religious minority. So they had to know who they were and be clear about whom they followed. This is the context in which we read John 14:6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Let’s face it, sometimes this phrase makes us squirm. In the 20th century it was used to promote violent anti-Semitism and continues to be misused to exclude and bully those outside the church.
But the words of Jesus are an invitation, not a weapon, and in this case they refer to people inside the church, not beyond it. In his final class with his disciples, Jesus is focused on us. He presses us to remember that he is our way to God. He is not addressing the many other ways that people find God; he is speaking to Christians alone here. It’s not about “them,” it’s about “us.” We, too, must be clear about who we are as followers of Christ and what that means for our lives. Here at Trinity Church we honor and revere the many different ways that people around the world experience God in the divine mystery. We learn from them, and we stand on holy ground together, even as we follow different paths. But as we look inward, there are signs we have become careless of our distinctive role as Christians in the world.
A report has just been published by the Barna Group on the perceptions of young Americans standing outside the church looking in. You may know that Barna is the equivalent of the Gallup Poll in American spirituality trends. The research was conducted among 18-29 year olds who were asked why they are not participating in churches. You can read the results in a book entitled, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity …and Why it Matters. The surveyors expected to hear that Church is too demanding, or the expectations are too high. Perhaps Church puts a damper on young lifestyle choices. They were not only wrong; they were blown away by what they learned from these young people. The participants said they thought Christians just looked like everybody else, except that sometimes they were more judgmental. They did not see that our lifestyles are sacrificial or particularly different at all. To this age group, Christians are only distinctive for being exclusive and condemning of certain groups in society. They describe the Church as wide but not deep and they do not see it as an agent of transformation. In short, they see the Church for what it opposes rather than anything it stands for. Some young people went so far as to say the Church has become “unchristian,” and is no longer what Jesus intended. The authors were so stunned that they took that as the title for their report.
We have some catching up to do in how the world perceives us, so today in the Church we sit with the final words of Jesus in John’s Gospel. Time is short and he speaks of what is most precious. It is God’s dream for all people to participate in the abundance of creation. There are many dwelling places. But just as Jesus will soon suffer in this gospel, many suffer today and will suffer tomorrow in our world. We who follow Jesus live constantly on this edge between the abundance of God and the suffering of the world. It is a vulnerable place and not always comfortable. This is our cross, and this is our blessing. A whole new generation waits for us there. They are looking for signs of Jesus.
Now we will soon begin a new week. Let the energy of our marathon visitors infuse you. Take on the endurance and purpose of the long distance runner and carry the Church into the world every day. As you grow tired along the way, remember these runners on Heartbreak Hill tomorrow.
Recall these words from the Letter to the Hebrews: “…We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses…let us lay aside every weight…and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”
Amen.
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