Posted on 04/20/2008 12:24:58 PM PDT by Charles Henrickson
Living in Camp Hope (John 14:1-14)
Yesterday our Mens Club held a big fundraiser for Camp Hope. Camp Hope is a place where disabled veterans can come and find a little R & R, rest and relaxation, or you could say, rest and recuperation, rehabilitation, and recreation. Camp Hope is a place where these men can find healing, help, and hope.
Hope. These disabled veterans need hope. These men go off to war healthy and whole and vigorous, and they come back wounded--physically, to be sure, but often mentally and emotionally wounded also. Now they have the rest of their lives to face, and they will have to bear their disability and adjust to how that changes their future. Yesterday we met a young man who had a leg blown off over in Iraq. I was told that after he got back, he became very depressed, which is only natural. The time he spent at Camp Hope last fall, bonding with other men who had gone through similar things, really helped him and encouraged him. He found renewed hope. He is finding out that there is still something to look forward to in this life, in spite of his war wounds.
But then we met another young man yesterday with an obvious brain injury. I had assumed this was sustained over in Iraq, but no, I was told he developed a brain tumor after he got back. This is a sobering reminder, isnt it, that even if these men recover from their war wounds, and do find renewed hope for their future, something else can come along to take them down. Eventually, that something else--a brain tumor, leukemia, heart problems, old age--something else will, finally, take us down and do us in. Do we have a hope that can overcome that?
Hope for the future is a wonderful thing. It lifts our spirits and helps us to carry on. We need hope in our life. But we need a hope that can also deal with death. As St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. This life is short and full of trouble and will end in death for every one of us. We need a hope that reaches beyond the grave. How can we deal with that discouragement, death looming before us?
The disciples were dealing with discouragement and lack of hope as we meet them in the Holy Gospel for today. Its a night when Jesus, their master, had told them some troubling things. He had said to the disciples, One of you will betray me. He told them he was going away: Where I am going you cannot come. Where I am going you cannot follow me now. Obviously, this was very troubling and disconcerting to the disciples.
So Jesus now tells them these words, to give them hope: Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Fathers house are many rooms. 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, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.
Troubled hearts. Jesus is going away. But thats not the end of the story. Jesus calls them to faith, faith in God, faith in Jesus himself, as the one sent from the Father, to do the Fathers will.
Jesus speaks peace to troubled hearts by pointing his disciples to where he is going and what he will be doing there. He is going to his Fathers house, as he puts it, and he is going there to prepare a place for those who believe in him and follow him.
In my Fathers house are many rooms. Jesus had come from the Father and now was returning home. By speaking of his Father in this way, Jesus is affirming his identity as the only Son of God come from heaven. He is the eternal Word made flesh, the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now he is returning to his Father, having come and done his will. He is going home to his Fathers house, but he is not the only one who will be going there. There is room for more. In my Fathers house are many rooms. Many more will come.
In fact, Jesus is going there first to get the place ready. I go to prepare a place for you, Jesus says. For you? Yes, for you! Jesus is preparing a place for his disciples, all those who believe in him, trust in him, follow him. And that includes you! Jesus is preparing a place in his Fathers house for you!
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. OK, some more hope. Jesus is going away, but he will come back and get us and take us to where he is. Jesus is going to his Fathers house, preparing a place for us, and he will bring us there, to be with him, where he is, forever. This is the hope Jesus gives his disciples. His going away is really for their benefit. And, he tells them, you know the way to where I am going.
But now this raises a host of questions. Thomas starts: Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? This whole going-away business was still troubling the disciples. It was still shrouded in mystery for them. It would be for us too, except we get to look at it now on this side of what would come that night. We know where Jesus was going that night--and the next day. That was the night our Lord was indeed betrayed, arrested, and put on trial. And the next morning he would be delivered over to Pilate, condemned to death, and handed over to be crucified. Thats where Jesus is going, and he knows it as he speaks to his disciples. Jesus is going to the cross, to suffer and die for them and for you.
The way to the Fathers house runs through the cross. Jesus came to do his Fathers will, and that will for humanity is that Christ, the only Son of God, would die for the sins of us all. We talk about the service and the sacrifice of our soldiers. Well, here is the greatest service and the greatest sacrifice ever made: Jesus serving us and saving us with the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. That is what Christ our Savior has done for us. He laid down his life--his holy innocent life--willingly, so that the penalty for our rebellion against God--death under Gods judgment--would be paid by him, not us. Jesus falls on the grenade and takes the death that otherwise would strike us down.
But Jesus emerges from this battle victorious, having defeated our enemies for us. Sin, death, and the devil, defeated, conquered by our divine Champion! Christs resurrection on Easter morning is the proof. And our Savior still bears in his now glorified body the wounds by which he won our salvation--the marks in his hands and side. Yes, the way to the Fathers house runs through the cross.
I said we need a hope that reaches beyond the grave. Well, the good news is, we have it! Christ Jesus our Savior conquered the grave for us and gives us the hope of eternal life. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. This hope of glory causes us to say with St. Peter: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Now we have hope, real hope! And we rejoice in this hope, even amid the difficulties of this life. Life can be difficult and full of trouble. We lose a leg or we lose a loved one. Brain injury, heart trouble, growing old and growing weak, physical wounds, emotional wounds, discouragement--these are the afflictions that we face in this life. But Jesus speaks hope to our troubled hearts: In my Fathers house are many rooms. . . . And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
I said earlier that Camp Hope is a place where the wounded can come and find a little R & R, that its a place where men can find healing, help, and hope. This is kind of a picture of the church. This is the place where we come and find our Redeemers R & R, rest and recovery, rest and re-creation. Come unto me, Jesus says, and I will give you rest. Here is where we find healing for our souls, help in time of need, and hope for an eternal future.
Over at Camp Hope today, they are having an open house. If you go there you will see the temporary lodging they have for the veterans. Its a fairly small, old place with a few rooms. Theyve fixed it up as best they can, but the plans are for a much nicer place, much bigger, with many rooms. Its something to look forward to.
This too is a picture of our life now in the church. The church is our Camp Hope, and we are having an open house today. The door to heaven is open today, and whosoever will, may come. And we too are looking forward to a place much grander and more glorious, our home in heaven in our Fathers house. Jesus is preparing that place for us--the way there runs through the cross and the empty tomb--and Christ will come again and take us to himself, that where he is we will be also, forever.
Yes, fellow campers, the good news is, we are living in Camp Hope!
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
[Jesus said:] Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Fathers house are many rooms. 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, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.
Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Thank you for that beautiful sermon.
Thank you, Pr. Hendrickson. That’s the second fine sermon I “heard” on that text today.
May the Lord bless you and yours this week.
Thamks for the wonderful sermon. I had to work this weekend and the Lutheran Hour was the only “church” I had.
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