“Show us God,” Philip says. You can hear Jesus’ exasperation in his answer. On this side of the resurrection, we know that if we have seen Jesus, we have seen God. Yet, even we, when in dire straits, might like to see God come down and wipe out the evil in the world. Those suffering from war, famine, illness might want to see God come and rescue them from their suffering.
We are used to hearing this passage at funeral services where it comforts us to know that we have a place with God after death. Yet this passage is very much about this life, how we embody the Holy and do the works of God here and now.
The disciples are already feeling bereft because Jesus is “going away.” Going to die. Jesus is trying to tell them that he will be gone but will not really be gone. What? No wonder they aren’t getting it. It isn’t obvious on the surface what he’s talking about. This is a paradox they can’t grasp.
There is a movement in John’s Gospel about where the Holy resides. Jesus speaks of “Abba-God’s house” which was what the temple in Jerusalem was called. But the writer of John’s Gospel tells us that when Jesus spoke of raising the temple in three days, he was actually speaking about his body. Here is the movement from a physical building to Jesus’ body where God resides. In this passage, there is another movement to the community as the place where the Holy resides. With Jesus’ presence, the temple where the Holy One dwells is changing. It is moving from a stone structure to a human community.
Here Jesus uses “Abba-God’s house” and “dwelling places” to refer to Goe’s relationship with Jesus. The word for house means a household, where people dwell together. So here the image expands to the people. As Jesus goes away, but not really, he invites the disciples into his relationship with God. There, the disciples will never be separated from him nor from God.
It is important to know that Jesus is addressing the disciples as a group. All the “you’s” here are plural except for Jesus’ immediate response to Philip. Jesus is speaking to them as community.
The first letter of Peter uses the image of Jesus as a corner stone and his readers as living stones being built into a spiritual house. Here, the image is broadening out to members of the community as living stones.
I served an inner-city church in Chicago during seminary. They used the last part of this passage every Sunday as their affirmation of faith. “We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that we may proclaim the mighty acts of the one who called us out of night into God’s marvelous light.” Over the years it changed their assessment of themselves. They were not just people who needed and received from others but were a holy people who could give and do God’s works.
Of course, this isn’t really new for us. Vatican Council II said Christ is found in the assembly gathered in prayer. We know that we are the body of Christ. We experience that here in the liturgy as we sing together and hear the Word. We also experience the Holy One in hospitality. Hospitality is a further expression of the relationships that build us into community. The indwelling of the holy is where we share with one another.
It seems today many people have given up on seeing God. They are not asking where God is. God seems irrelevant. However, I think we can experience the holy through one another. It doesn’t even matter if we are all Christians. We can all experience the works of God as in Minneapolis and any place where people stand up for their neighbors. Weren’t we inspired and moved and didn’t we see God working on behalf of neighbors. The dwelling of God now is in community and not just in the Christian community.
This Sunday we celebrate Pluralism Sunday. It is particularly apt that we have this passage today. This passage has been used over the years to say that there is only one way to God and we Christians have it. Too bad for you if you don’t become Christian. That is a misreading. This passage was written for a particular group who had come to know Jesus. It puts into words their understanding of their way to God. They knew Jesus through the Spirit and the witnesses that came before them. The relationship with Jesus was their way to God. As Steve said earlier, there are many ways to God. This was their way.
These days, it behooves us to continue this progression that we see in the Gospel of John where the Holy is located. In the temple, in Jesus, in the people of God whom we limited to Christians at one point. It expands now to anyone who experiences this relationship where God’s works are being done. We are not the people of God just to be looking inward. We are the people of God to be doing the works of God. When people experience those works, they experience God though they may not use that name. They experience compassion, love, people being fed and healed, valued, included and lifted up. Anywhere those works are happening, there is God.
We know the way Jesus is going. The way is in his relationship with his Abba-God. He invites us into that relationship nurtured in community and prayer. We too can nurture the same kind of relationships with our neighbors, with enemies, with friends so that they too may experience the wonderful works of God.
This passage was not written to exclude other faiths. It doesn’t even have that on its horizon. It was written as encouragement for those who know Jesus that we may be encouraged to enter the relationship that Jesus had with God. So that we can also do the works of God in the world. May it be so for us.