5th Sunday of Easter, Year A – Homily
5th Sunday in Easter, Year A
Acts 6:1-7
1 Peter 2:4-9
John 14:1-12
May 18, 2014
Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” The reality is the world is not perfect and we can have “troubled hearts.” Sometimes, such troubles are exactly what draws people to church who haven’t been here in years.
It’s good to come to Jesus with our troubles. In fact, it is exactly what we should do but we must think about the attitude we come to Jesus with.
Do we come simply looking for Jesus to fix our problems while we continue life as usual? Do we come thinking we are doing everything right but there’s just this “one problem” we need fixed?
Sometimes that might really be the case. But we need to be open to the idea that perhaps some of our problems exist because we aren’t living the way we should.
Last week I talked about how many different voices we hear today telling us different things. From whatever we hear we form our own opinion, we find our own way.
We might think we have all the answers. So, when we come to Jesus we might not ask him what we should be doing differently. We blame the problem on someone else or we believe if God just handles this one problem, we can take care of everything else.
We can’t.
It is in our weaknesses that we can most allow Jesus to help us but only if we realize we can’t do it all ourselves; that we don’t have all the answers; that our way may not be working.
Jesus tells us that he is the way and the truth and the life.
We hear many different voices telling us there are many different ways. Some claim to know a proper way and others just say here’s the way I do it but you can do it anyway you want. In this way of thinking Jesus’ way is just one of many possibilities.
But Jesus doesn’t say I offer a way. Jesus doesn’t say he offers us a truth. Jesus says that he is the way and the truth with emphasis on “the”.
“The” tells us that Jesus’ way is not one among many. Jesus is the one true way. Jesus offers us the truth that does not change, the truth that comes from God.
Because Jesus is the way and the truth he is our cornerstone. Jesus needs to be what we base our whole life on.
When we come to Jesus with our “troubles”, we must be open to letting ourselves be transformed or, as Peter puts it, “let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.”
Troubles? Jesus wants to help us. What stands in his way? Well, not much can stop Jesus but one of the things that can is us. To let Jesus help us means to realize that we might need to change ourselves. We need to realize we don’t have all the answers.
Only God has all the answers.
Going back to Jesus as the truth, this is a life-changing truth and it doesn’t affect just one part of our lives. It must be part of everything we do.
Sometimes we live like faith was just one part of our life. We might see our faith as something we do rather than something we are.
Why? I think a lot of it has to do with the way we learn about our faith. We learn most of what we know about God as little children. As such we learn lists of rules but we don’t learn why? Not that we will ever know all the whys in this world but when we do, it makes it easier to believe.
When we don’t know why, we are more tempted to do it our own way. There can be church teachings that we don’t understand or agree with. What is our response then? Do we just do it our own way or do we make a real and deliberate effort to learn why?
The church teaches that we follow our conscience but we must seek to have a well-formed conscience. That means asking questions and being open to answers that make us change.
Jesus is the way and the truth and life.