I Go To Prepare A Place For You
Preaching
The Life Of Christ And The Death Of A Loved One
Crafting The Funeral Homily
A Funeral Homily For Ascension
Day Until Pentecost Day
Canticle: Nunc Dimittis
One of my favorite stories is the true story of a young couple who had a little girl and had just returned home from the hospital with a newborn baby boy. Their little girl kept begging to go into the nursery alone with her new sibling. The parents were afraid, as they had heard stories of children being jealous of newborn siblings, and thought she might want to harm the baby.
She kept asking to be alone with him, and they said no. ''Why not?'' she asked. ''Well, why do you want to be with him?'' they inquired. ''What are you going to do?''
Finally the parents decided to try it. They put an intercom in the baby's room and listened in another room as the little girl went in to see her brother alone. The parents were ready to jump up and rush in if the girl began to hurt him. They put their ears to the intercom, and they heard the little girl tiptoe up to the crib. Then they heard the little girl whisper into her new brother's ear: ''Quick. Tell me about God. I'm forgetting'' (borrowed from Sophy Burnham in Angel Letters, p. 140.)
I like that story because it reminds us about something we tend to forget: that before we were born, we were in the presence of God. We were bathed in God's love. This is what the Psalmist affirmed when he wrote:
My body was not hidden from you, while I was being made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth! ... your eyes beheld my limbs ... they were fashioned day by day, when as yet there was none of them!
Somehow God knew us before we were born, when we were nothing but the gleam in our parents' eyes.
And then, one by one, each of us left God's nearer presence and slowly began to take on human flesh in our mothers' wombs. Nine months in the womb and a few years of being helpless infants, and our memories of being in God's presence gradually faded away. By the time we were six or seven years old, those memories are all but extinguished. Occasionally we may have a flashback or some kind of spiritual experience in which we, for a brief moment, remember our life before we were born. We long to recapture that wonderful time. So the little girl in the story hoped her baby brother could revive some of those fading memories. ''Tell me about God.'' she said, ''I'm forgetting.''
N., before he [she] was born into this world, was with God. He [she] looked upon God's face. He [she] bathed in God's presence and God's love. The time came for him [her] to become a member of a particular human family. For ________ years he [she] lived his [her] life on earth. On (date) his [her] earthly life came to its finish. And we gather here and ask, what now? Is there more?
Yes. In the book of Wisdom, we read,
But the souls of the just are in God's hand, and torment shall not touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to be dead; their departure was reckoned as defeat, and their going from us as disaster. But they are at peace, ... they have a sure hope of immortality ...
For the Christian who trusts in Christ, there is more to come: Again, from the book of Wisdom:
Those who have put their trust in him shall understand that he is true, and the faithful shall attend upon him in love; they are God's chosen, and grace and mercy shall be theirs.
Jesus confirmed that there is 'something more.'' In the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples:
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?
''I go to prepare a place for you!'' We celebrated this glorious truth on (last) Thursday, Ascension Day. Jesus, on the 40th day after his resurrection, stood talking to his disciples, when they saw him lifted up before their eyes and taken into a cloud. As we say in the Apostles' Creed, ''He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.''
But before Jesus took his place at his Father's side, he repeated these words in which generations of Christians have found assurance:
I go to prepare a place for you .... And if I go to 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.
Is death the end for a Christian? No, because Christ has promised to go before us and prepare a place for us. The purpose of Christ's ascension, which we celebrate now until the day of Pentecost on (next) Sunday, is to go ahead of us and prepare the way, so that where he is, there we might also be: back in God's loving, merciful presence. Ascension Day is about Christ's returning to heaven, but, you see, it is also about our return to God.
That is primarily why we gather here this morning: to celebrate the 'sure hope of immortality,'' the return, for those who believe in Christ, to God's nearer presence, that presence we had for unknown years before our birth, when we were not yet; and, to celebrate that Christ has gone before us to prepare a place for us for all of eternity to come.
For those of us who remain, awaiting our own ascension, so to speak, to ''the life of the world to come,'' this is also
a time to reflect on our lives. We know that we have come from God, but do you know to whom you are returning? When the disciple Thomas said to Jesus, ''Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?'' Jesus replied: ''I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.''
Do you get, from time to time, a glimpse of that wonderful existence you enjoyed before you were born? Moments in this life, filled with incredible love and unspeakable joy, are given to us to remind us of what it was like. God delights in giving us these moments of deep gratitude, joyful satisfaction, intimate love, and overwhelming awe to draw us to God and help us remember.
This is what Jesus meant when he said, ''I am the way, the truth and the life.'' He was saying, follow me and open yourself to these experiences of joyful communion with my Father and with your brothers and sisters on earth. They are all around you, and I will help show them to you. And, when your earthly life is finished, I will have prepared a place for you. That same place you knew before you were born. That same place you experienced in your heart on earth. The place of being in my Father's presence, that where I am, you may also be, reigning in glory with us, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, until the end of the ages, world without end.
Amen.
Day Until Pentecost Day
Canticle: Nunc Dimittis
One of my favorite stories is the true story of a young couple who had a little girl and had just returned home from the hospital with a newborn baby boy. Their little girl kept begging to go into the nursery alone with her new sibling. The parents were afraid, as they had heard stories of children being jealous of newborn siblings, and thought she might want to harm the baby.
She kept asking to be alone with him, and they said no. ''Why not?'' she asked. ''Well, why do you want to be with him?'' they inquired. ''What are you going to do?''
Finally the parents decided to try it. They put an intercom in the baby's room and listened in another room as the little girl went in to see her brother alone. The parents were ready to jump up and rush in if the girl began to hurt him. They put their ears to the intercom, and they heard the little girl tiptoe up to the crib. Then they heard the little girl whisper into her new brother's ear: ''Quick. Tell me about God. I'm forgetting'' (borrowed from Sophy Burnham in Angel Letters, p. 140.)
I like that story because it reminds us about something we tend to forget: that before we were born, we were in the presence of God. We were bathed in God's love. This is what the Psalmist affirmed when he wrote:
My body was not hidden from you, while I was being made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth! ... your eyes beheld my limbs ... they were fashioned day by day, when as yet there was none of them!
Somehow God knew us before we were born, when we were nothing but the gleam in our parents' eyes.
And then, one by one, each of us left God's nearer presence and slowly began to take on human flesh in our mothers' wombs. Nine months in the womb and a few years of being helpless infants, and our memories of being in God's presence gradually faded away. By the time we were six or seven years old, those memories are all but extinguished. Occasionally we may have a flashback or some kind of spiritual experience in which we, for a brief moment, remember our life before we were born. We long to recapture that wonderful time. So the little girl in the story hoped her baby brother could revive some of those fading memories. ''Tell me about God.'' she said, ''I'm forgetting.''
N., before he [she] was born into this world, was with God. He [she] looked upon God's face. He [she] bathed in God's presence and God's love. The time came for him [her] to become a member of a particular human family. For ________ years he [she] lived his [her] life on earth. On (date) his [her] earthly life came to its finish. And we gather here and ask, what now? Is there more?
Yes. In the book of Wisdom, we read,
But the souls of the just are in God's hand, and torment shall not touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to be dead; their departure was reckoned as defeat, and their going from us as disaster. But they are at peace, ... they have a sure hope of immortality ...
For the Christian who trusts in Christ, there is more to come: Again, from the book of Wisdom:
Those who have put their trust in him shall understand that he is true, and the faithful shall attend upon him in love; they are God's chosen, and grace and mercy shall be theirs.
Jesus confirmed that there is 'something more.'' In the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples:
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?
''I go to prepare a place for you!'' We celebrated this glorious truth on (last) Thursday, Ascension Day. Jesus, on the 40th day after his resurrection, stood talking to his disciples, when they saw him lifted up before their eyes and taken into a cloud. As we say in the Apostles' Creed, ''He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.''
But before Jesus took his place at his Father's side, he repeated these words in which generations of Christians have found assurance:
I go to prepare a place for you .... And if I go to 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.
Is death the end for a Christian? No, because Christ has promised to go before us and prepare a place for us. The purpose of Christ's ascension, which we celebrate now until the day of Pentecost on (next) Sunday, is to go ahead of us and prepare the way, so that where he is, there we might also be: back in God's loving, merciful presence. Ascension Day is about Christ's returning to heaven, but, you see, it is also about our return to God.
That is primarily why we gather here this morning: to celebrate the 'sure hope of immortality,'' the return, for those who believe in Christ, to God's nearer presence, that presence we had for unknown years before our birth, when we were not yet; and, to celebrate that Christ has gone before us to prepare a place for us for all of eternity to come.
For those of us who remain, awaiting our own ascension, so to speak, to ''the life of the world to come,'' this is also
a time to reflect on our lives. We know that we have come from God, but do you know to whom you are returning? When the disciple Thomas said to Jesus, ''Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?'' Jesus replied: ''I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.''
Do you get, from time to time, a glimpse of that wonderful existence you enjoyed before you were born? Moments in this life, filled with incredible love and unspeakable joy, are given to us to remind us of what it was like. God delights in giving us these moments of deep gratitude, joyful satisfaction, intimate love, and overwhelming awe to draw us to God and help us remember.
This is what Jesus meant when he said, ''I am the way, the truth and the life.'' He was saying, follow me and open yourself to these experiences of joyful communion with my Father and with your brothers and sisters on earth. They are all around you, and I will help show them to you. And, when your earthly life is finished, I will have prepared a place for you. That same place you knew before you were born. That same place you experienced in your heart on earth. The place of being in my Father's presence, that where I am, you may also be, reigning in glory with us, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, until the end of the ages, world without end.
Amen.
