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DEVOTIONAL
OPENING PRAYER
O God, whose nature invites us always to stay close by you, help us now to make your word our home, that we may be your true disciples. Through Jesus Christ, who is the word, the way, and the life. AMEN.
INTRODUCTION
Families request this week’s scripture for a loved one’s funeral service. The words are calming, comforting and provide confidence in the midst of a confusing and difficult time. What if we lived daily by these words, rather than relegate them to a specific time, event and place in life. If we lived them daily, then the amazing promise at the last verse would be realized in our lives – not just a hope as close our lives. Let’s read the scripture:
SCRIPTURE
John 14:1-14 NIV
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
REFLECTION
The disciple Thomas asks the question we all confront daily. 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” We often don’t know where Jesus is going. We are trying to follow, but we don’t have a clear road map – a plan – to follow. That is why we must pray daily. We must read the scriptures daily. We must be intentional “students” of Jesus to follow Jesus. This reflection by Rueben P. Job helps us understand discipleship.
To follow Jesus Christ, who was betrayed, wept, bled and died before he rose again, is to be at high risk of being taken where we had not intended to go. Eugene Peterson pinpoints the trouble with praying: We are often asked to respond in ways that we never intended when we first began to pray.
It matters little where or in what century we are called to live our Christian life. The witness of those who have gone before informs my own experience, telling me that we are often taken to other places where we receive unwarranted accolades and to other places where we receive unwarranted suffering and pain. A disciple, one who choses to be a student and follower of Jesus, is not a “self-made person” and is not on a personally designed journey.
The key word in this theme is taken. Just as Jesus was taken into the wilderness after his baptism, so we are taken into the experiences of discipleship that we do not necessarily choose for ourselves. We choose to follow Jesus and then Jesus chooses where we will go. It is that simple.
The saving truth here is not that we are taken where we do not want to go; rather the saving truth is that we are not alone. There is One who leads us and goes with us. Jesus arose from baptism and “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12). But even there the angels (messengers of God) were with him and tended to his needs. While we may not choose the place to go, we can choose to remain with the One who sends us and there find comfort, companionship, grace, peace and joy.
Rueben P Job A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God ed by Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P Job. Upper Room Books, Nashville TN. 2003 pg199-200.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” for as disciples we can walk each day with Jesus. We will be “taken” to our Father’s house where there are many rooms. Jesus walks with us every day – not just the last day.
CLOSING PRAYER
And now, my Lord, send me from this sacred place, still keeping me close to you. May the journey of this day bring me closer, ever closer to you. AMEN.
Blessings,
Pastor Tom
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