When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Acts 2:1-4

There is a book written several decades ago called “The Spiritual Life of Children.” It was written by a psychoanalyst researcher who was by no means religious. He was going through all his interviews with children from previous research. The children came from diverse social and religious backgrounds and even nationalities and the basis of the research was on their mental development in these circumstances. He noticed something which he had previously overlooked. All the children, even those who came from atheistic or non-religious background, talked about their conversations with God. The children did not just talk to God. They heard His voice guiding them to do what is right. They didn’t justify this voice. They treated it as a normal thing. Since the psychoanalyst wasn’t religious, he initially did not pay attention to it. Then he took a second look at this and realized that this cannot be mere coincidence. When I read the book, I remembered my own childhood. I remembered having conversations with God and trying to figure out the world around me. Then I thought maybe I was just making this up in my head.

When I shared this with a group of Christians, they told me that it was what Freud said about the Superego. I was a little disappointed. They were using science to explain away something outside the realm of science. The author of the book I mentioned did not refer to these terms even though he was a psychoanalyst. He acknowledged the children’s recognition of this voice within their soul. The children said that it was God. They knew that this voice was something bigger and better than them. Most importantly, they knew that this voice desired what was good not only for them but also for their friends and family.

We, Christians, should not be quick to discard God’s voice with secular explanations. We are a people of faith. We need to return and become a Pentecostal Church. Obviously I am not talking about the denomination. What we call the Pentecostal Church today is not Pentecostal in the biblical sense. They are more like a church of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing wrong with that. However, this Sunday is the day of Pentecost, an opportunity for us to reflect on how this day shaped the first Christians. It transformed their lives. Today, we need to talk to God and listen to Him on how we can continue to be a biblically Pentecostal Church.

Whenever we read the account of the coming of the Holy Spirit, our minds tend to be drawn to the fact that people spoke in many different tongues. In some churches, the gospel text is read in many different languages which can be interesting at first and then as it goes on, it tends to become a little tedious. The coming of the Holy Spirit is not about speaking in different languages but an acknowledgment that God is present in other cultures. The Holy Spirit did not come to do something new but to reveal what God is already doing in our midst. God doesn’t wait around for us to get things started. In fact, God doesn’t wait for anything. He does not live in this space called time. He is eternal and His actions are eternal. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see how he is working and invites us to participate in His works of grace. When the first disciples heard people praising God in other tongues, they were astonished. They saw God enabling his disciples to speak in tongues which had nothing to do with Judaism. This is an important factor.

The disciples of Jesus were Jewish people. They believed that God was only known through their Language, Law and Liturgical practices. Their prayers were prayed in Hebrew because this was their sacred language. They believed that it was the only language able to express the sacred knowledge of God. Language is not just mere words but it contains concepts and spiritual experiences of the people who speak the language. When we speak a new language, we also embrace their way at looking at Life and consequently, their spiritual experiences. The Jewish people back then did not believe that the other cultures were able to comprehend the sacred knowledge of God because their language was spiritually limited. However, when the disciples were able to speak miraculously in other languages, they realized that God was and is present in the lives and cultures of all peoples. In other words, all languages were able to speak the Sacred Things of God. Therefore, all peoples are always able to understand the mysteries of God in their souls. He is actively present and speaking to them. The Holy Spirit revealed to the disciples that He was not a God of the Jewish nation but He is the Father of all peoples.

This radical revelation changes everything. Every justification to commit genocide in the Old Testament is now brought under the scrutiny of this new revelation. All discrimination that was previously justified religiously now could no longer sustain their arguments. The new church of the Pentecostal cannot put restrictions on who can come before the Throne of God. They have to now listen to the voice of Holy Spirit in lives of the people.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jeremiah 31:33

Jesus also said,

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:24

As Christians, we listen to our Lord Jesus. He is one and only authority. He taught us that we cannot understand the Truth without the Holy Spirit. This is why the Father sent the Holy Spirit to the first disciples. They needed someone to guide them and teach them how to discover the Truth. They needed to someone to help to discover how to worship in the way that is pleasing to God. In the past, God sent prophets. No one listened to them. The Holy Spirit was upon the these men and women of God but the people’s heart was hardened against the voice of the Holy Spirit. The disciples of the early church opened their hearts and minds to receive the Holy Spirit. The bible tells us that they prepared themselves through prayer.

In modern times, the idea of prayer has fallen into decadence. It becomes a selfish project where we try to manipulate God to give us what we desire. Books are written by so-called Christians on how to effectively pray to get what you want from God. Churches in this city have services to convince us that God will only answer our prayer when we use the right method of prayer. In the New Testament, prayer, among the disciples in the Book of Acts, had a simpler. It was this simple motive that helped them become a true Pentecostal church. They prayed to be open and sensitive to the coming of the Holy Spirit. The rest of the Book of Acts is an adventure that the church embarks on, discovering what it means to be a church guided by the Holy Spirit. It is a church which opens doors and overcomes barriers. It is the church that boldly proclaims,

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

The New Testament is a story of the movement of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the disciples. It does not have an ending. It continues wherever people are willing and open to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. God hasn’t stopped speaking to us. It could be that people have stopped listening. Maybe we have forgotten how to listen to God’s voice. Prayer is a good start. Being open to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us is a better way because this attitude will shape the way we pray. One more thing to add is that we should never restrict how the Holy Spirit will act. God does not act according to our plans. He acts according to His nature and the Bible tells us that God is Love. Love is quite surprising. Therefore, if we are willing to listen to the Holy Spirit, then we have to be ready to be surprised too.

In the first parish I worked, there were more children than adults in the congregation. Some of these children had never been baptized. There were about ten of them at least if my memory serves me well. I decided to have a baptism class with them. I decided to read the gospel of Mark with them. We didn’t use the children’s version. We just read from the regular Bible because this what the children wanted. We talked about some of the difficult passages. I asked the children to reflect about it. Reflection is a very difficult word to explain. I needed to put it in terms that they understood. Therefore, I explained that reflection is what they do when they talk to God in their hearts and listen to what the voice of God tells them. Then, one of the boys, Samuel, had a surprised look on his face. He asked me, “Reverend, how did you know that we hear God’s voice ?” I smiled and reminded him that I too was once a little boy like him.

God speaks to us. At each phase of our lives, He speaks to us in a different manner. The problem is that we convince ourselves that He is absent. However, the essence of the Christian faith is that God is present in our lives. He is preparing us to become His true worshippers. This doesn’t mean that we sit and sing hymns all day long. It means we become people who truly reflect the Love of God in our lives. The first disciples, with all their cultural limitations and defects, reflected God’s love faithfully. They listened to the Holy Spirit and become a vibrant Pentecostal church. Now, we can follow in their footsteps and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. We can continue in the footsteps of the first Christians and discover how to be a true Pentecostal church in the biblical sense.

When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’ Acts1:9-11

Yesterday was the feast day of the Ascension. More often than not, this day is weakly observed and sometimes even forgotten. There was a time when it was considered very important. Just look at our Nicene Creed, they dedicated more lines to describing the Ascension of Our Lord:

He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end. 

For us, modern people, words have lost their impact. We listen to people rambling on for hours without saying anything of significance. We hear words said without any commitment or intention to put them into practice. We don’t ???much of words. However, when the Nicene Creed was composed, these words were carefully chosen and debated. There were no such thing was fillers. The bishops involved wanted to make sure that the Creed in a succinct manner communicated to the people the essencial elements of our faith. They dedicated more lines to the Ascension because it was important. It speaks of our relationship with Jesus today. We speak frequently of the Resurrected Christ and rightly so. We must also speak about the Ascended Christ. He is the same person but we must not forget that Christ rose from the dead to assume His place at the Right Hand of the Father. This is His ministry now.

Many years ago, I lived in Indonesia, more specifically the capital city of Jakarta. I was surprised to learn that the feast of Ascension was a public holiday. Till today, it is the only country where this feast day is officially a public holiday. However, it wasn’t considered a Christian holiday but a Muslim one. Muslims believed that Jesus ascended.

Muslims regard Jesus as the greatest prophet of Islam. They believe that He truly lived out the meaning of Islam from His birth to His ascension. Islam means submission to the will of God. They believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. They also believe that He will return to judge. However, they do not believe that Jesus died on the cross nor rose from the dead. Even then, He is venerated by some Muslim sects, especially among the Sufis. For Muslims, the ascension of Jesus means the hope that He will one day return to put an end to evil. They believe that the prophet Jesus will return to kill the Antichrist or Satan. Thus, for the Muslims, Jesus is waiting in heaven until the final day to carry out God’s justice. This is the Muslim view of the ascension. That is consistent with their doctrines.

However, this is not the Christian view. Unfortunately, many churches tend to reduce the feast of Ascension as a mere reminder that Jesus will return the same manner. This is just a part of it. It is the future event. However, Jesus is now the fulling the essential part of His ministry at the right hand of the Father.

In reality, the whole ministry of Jesus was leading up to this. He did not come to die for our sins. He came to become our High Priest.

The Gospel of John gives us a rather different account of the Ascension than the gospel of Luke. The author of the gospel of Luke and Acts states that Jesus waited forty days after the resurrection before ascending to Heaven. However, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus ascended almost immediately after the resurrection. Right after Jesus revealed his presence to Mary Magdalene, He warned her;

Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’ John 20:17

The accounts may seem to contradict each other, but in fact they are in agreement. Both evangelists—that is, all the authors of the New Testament—are not writing a news report about Jesus in which they would have to get every detail objectively correct. They are not doing journalistic work. First of all, complete objectivity does not exist. When someone writes about something or reports an event, it is always biased. The authors of the New Testament were also biased. They have only one objective. They wanted to give us a clear portrait of the person of Jesus. Both accounts of the Ascension do this perfectly. The gospel of John wanted to emphasize on the priestly nature of the Ascension. Jesus was ascending to bring the offering of His Life to the presence of the Father. His Life and Death on Earth qualified Him to be our High Priest and His resurrection is the proof of the Father’s offering.

Today, we only have a vague idea of what a priest is. We might think in terms of the Catholic Church or Orthodox Church and in some circles of the Anglican church. However, what we have in Western Christianity is like a hybrid of the rabbi and the priest. In Jesus’ time, the priest had a specific task. He brought the sacrifice into the Holy of Holies. He presented the people’s sacrifice before God’s altar. He represented the people before God, that is to say, the priest was supposed to be the best representative of the people. Furthermore, he could never enter God’s sanctuary empty-handed. In fact, It was forbidden to enter God’s presence without an offering. The offerings, according to the Law, had to be the best of the best; anything else was an offense to God. In the Old Testament, we can read about God’s search for the perfect High Priest to represent humanity before God. First it was Adam and Eve, then Noah, then Abraham and Moses.

The most perfect offering humans can give to God is to reflect His image in our lives. Unfortunately, none of these high priests from the past could do this. They were imperfect. They always offered animal sacrifices which were better than themselves. The sacrificed animals were innocent. They hoped that God would look at the sacrifice and forgive the failures of human beings. However, God is not interested in animal sacrifices. He wanted human beings to live their lives in a way which truly reflected the image of God.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

Nietzsche, one of the most formidable enemies of Christianity, once wrote that there is only one Christian in this world and he died on the cross. The rest of us are weak imitations. I have to say Nietzsche is right. I notice myself often quoting this philosopher. I am not influenced by him but his thoughts are prominent today and they are a confrontation against Christianity. We need to answer his criticism or at least attempt to do so.

We have to admit that we are indeed only weak imitations of Jesus. However, we have a priest who represents us before the throne of God. Nietzsche was not so gracious when he looked at humanity. However, our concern should not be with what philosophers or what the world thinks about us. To some extent, it is much easier to deceive a human being — just say flattering words to pamper one’s ego and we would easily win them over. Many malicious people know this. However, it does not work with God. We need someone to help us. Thanks be to God, we have a High Priest who stands before God and represents us. What does this mean for everyday life? It is a mystery but not in the sense of something unknowable. It is a mystery revealing layers of its truth as we walk in deeper communion with our Lord. As we discover each layer, our souls are filled with joy and eternal happiness. We discover the wealth of God’s love. We can rejoice that our High Priest is the filter through whom our Father looks at Humanity. In other words, when God looks at us, He sees the Light of Jesus shining in us like the stained glass in ancient churches. At night, when there is no Light, stained glass does not look beautiful at all. However, the light of the sun highlights all its beauty. In the same way, Jesus stands before our Heavenly Father and allow the Light of His Life to illuminate our souls before God. Jesus’ light manifests in us the true beauty of being; the person that our heavenly Father has created us to be.

Jesus is beside God so that our Heavenly Father can see the world through Christ. Therefore, when God looks at one of our homeless youth, He does not see Bruno as sitting there begging. He sees Bruno through the Light of our High Priest shining in Him. He sees Felipe shining in the Light of our High Priest. He sees… I’m not going to mention all the names of our youth here but it is good for me to remind myself that I need to discern the Light of Jesus singing through them and especially through the people whom I don’t particularly like.

There is also another aspect of the priesthood in Jesus’s time. The priest represents God to the people. However, I have limited space here to consider all the mysteries revealed in the Ascension. This is why we need to celebrate this feast day yearly with great reverence. We have so many things to think about and understand.

For now, it is enough to remember that we have a high priest who represents us. He is not there asking for God’s favor on our part. Our God is loving and compassionate. Jesus is there to represent us. He reflects our true potential if we allow His love to break us free from the bondage of sin. He is there to remind the heavenly hosts that despite our sins and failures, we are still beautiful creations of God. He is there interceding for us so that we can become who He is.

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:15-18

“There is only One God and His Name is Truth”

I remember being amazed when I read this banner. It was hung at the entrance of a newly constructed Sikh Temple in the neighborhood of my infancy. I was a teenager then and had recently joined the Anglican Church. It wasn’t a mere conversion but a complete inner transformation. My heart was on fire for God. I was filled with evangelistic zeal. I wanted to share my renewed faith with everyone I knew. I also had my fair share of Sikh friends but was completely ignorant of their religion. For some reason, mainly due to my ignorance, I thought Jesus was the exclusive property of the Christian Faith. The simple banner disrupted my false notion. Jesus belonged to everyone and anyone who seeks the Truth. Jesus tells us that the world cannot see nor know Him because the world is not interested in the Truth. However, those who seek the Truth will recognize the Spirit of Truth.

The opposite of truth is not lies but falsehood. Obviously, lying is part of falsehood but it does not mean lying is wrong all the time. Many people have lied in the Bible to save the life of a person. However, falsehood is a lifestyle. People who are false create a make believe world seeing and hearing only the things which feed into their lifestyle. They also create an idol who tells them lies about themselves. They are blinded by their own lies. They cannot see the Spirit of Truth. The problem is that it is not difficult to create a world of our own illusions. All of us could do it without much effort.

Bruno made an astute observation about the other homeless youth. Many of them have tattoos of their mother’s name. Sometimes fights break between them because apparently one has insulted the mother of the other. I actually have seen these silly fights break out between adults after a few drinks. He said jokingly that none of our youth has seen nor heard from their mothers for years. In fact, most of them don’t even remember their mother’s full name. They just have a false illusion of their mothers. In Bruno’s case, he doesn’t even remember what she looks like. Bruno does not have a tattoo of his mother’s name nor does he have a false notion of her, neither does have any resentment towards her. He realized that his mother was not able to take care of him and left him in an orphanage at a young age. He spent many years creating a false idea that one day she would come for him. Eventually he succumbed to reality. He realized the hard truth that nobody was coming for him. As tragic as this sounds, this has made Bruno a much more successful person than most of the other young people. He wasn’t afraid to face the harsh reality. Bruno is not the only one. In the streets, we can separate the young homeless people into two groups. Bruno, Maria, Wallace, Alex and many more are one group who have accepted the harsh reality of their situation. Then we have the other group. These latter ones tend to be involved in crime and create a narrative in their minds to justify their actions. Maria, who is part of the former group, told us recently that she learned how to eat bread when she became homeless at the tender age of 8. She is now about 25. I am not really sure what she meant exactly by this but we understood what she was trying to communicate. Her mother neglected her when she was a young child. She has severe mental illness. She was not even able to provide her basic needs of her children. Maria refused to create a fantasy about her mother nor her life. She wasn’t angry nor resentful. Maybe there was a period when we first knew her, she was a little resentful. Eventually she realized that this was useless and unhelpful. She just accepted her reality. Consequently, she is able to see many other good things which occurred in her life despite her dire situation.

In our local church, we are doing a monthly bible study on the gospel of Luke. We have found that our gospel readings make us confront harsh realities. Last Sunday, we studied the difficult passage on money which is usually a taboo subject. Money in itself is not a taboo subject. People love talking about money. However, what Jesus said about money is taboo. It is something don’t like to talk about. He called it a false god. He did not think of it as something neutral but rather as something which sets itself up against the true living God. We need to recognize this. However, it is easy for us to create a fantasy and say that this is not truth. We can reason that Jesus did not really say these things for us today or we are strong enough to resist money’s influence. We can create a list of excuses to avoid understanding and confronting what Jesus is truly saying. Jesus is quite adamant about His position on money in several moments of His teachings. Incidentally, His teachings are His commandments. He did say if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. They are not a burden. They are meant to open our eyes to see the Truth. Even in the last moments of His life, money was seen as the motivation for his betrayal. Judas chose money over his friend. Of course, some people may argue otherwise. Nevertheless, whatever their arguments may be, the gospels tell us money was exchanged. The gospel of John informs us that Judas stole from the common purse. Money had a strong hold on him. When he realized the outcome of his betrayal, he tried to return the money. He wanted to be free from its hold in his life. Unfortunately, his remorse overwhelmed him.

All of us need money to survive and live a fairly comfortable life. Jesus is not saying that we should all become like St Francis of Assisi and live a monastic life of poverty. Money is essential for life. However, we need to be careful. It is a false god and it can create false illusions. Our love for money can make us create narratives to justify almost everything to our liking. It can create an obstacle hindering us from discerning the Spirit of Truth. It can blind us from the true God. The latter group of homeless youth that I mentioned above think in their minds that money can help them gain whatever they lost. Some of them even think that they can buy themselves back into their families through their ill-gained wealth. This never happens. The money only creates false promises which it cannot deliver.

There is nothing wrong with our young people having names of their mothers tattooed on their arms. Neither there is nothing intrinsically wrong with being offended when someone says something offensive against their parents. In the same way, there is nothing wrong with having money to ensure that we have a secure lifestyle. However, there is something wrong when we allow these things to create a false idea of life. These are unreliable materials to create our own illusionary reality. The best they can do is to make us live in a parallel universe which will crumble and fall eventually. After everything is said and done, we will find ourselves as orphans in this world if we base our lives on this false gods.

Yesterday, we had to leave the streets a little early. We said our goodbyes to Bruno and the other young people. Mary wanted to use the restroom at a local restaurant before we left. I was waiting alone. Bruno called out to me and insisted that I wait for Mary at the spot where he usually stays. He wanted to spend a little bit more time with me. There was something in the way he said this that communicated explicitly his love for spending time with us. I realized that it was a joy to spend time with this young man. Someone looking at him from the outside would just see a homeless young man. We see a loving man who has faults like anyone else but his love compensates for all them. If we were to delve deep into his history, we will find that he was every reason to be angry with the world. However, he faced the harsh realities of life, the hard truths. He realized his mother did not want him. He realized that he will never get the chance that others less intelligent in this world might have. He realized that he will never be treated fairly in this world. He chose not to react in hatred and resentment. He faced the truth and was open to the voice of the Spirit of Truth. He discovered the Good Shepherd who never abandoned him. He sees the face of the Good Shepherd in the people who show love and kindness to him. He responds to them in Love. We are witnesses of this. We see and can boldly testify to the truth and faithfulness of the words of Jesus in our ministry. Those who choose not to create a false reality and accept the condition in which they find themselves will discover the Spirit of Truth. However, the Good Shepherd does not leave them in this condition of hopelessness and rejection. The Spirit of Truth guides like a Good Shepherd to a higher place where they see the eternal Truth. The kind of Truth giving them and us the joy of Life which this world can never offer.

Bruno, Maria, Wallace, Vinicius, Ana Paula and the list goes on. They were born as outsiders and excluded from the illusionary promises of this world. However, they faced the harsh realities of their lives. Then they heard the voice of the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit guides them as He guides us into the knowledge and love of the living Father who never leaves us orphans in this world.

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? And if I go and 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. And you know the way to the place 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 know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’ John 14:1-7

“Do not let your hearts be troubled?”

This is easier said than done. It seems like we are living in very troubling times. We might even be tempted to think that we are being singled out by Father Time. However, truth is that there was never a time when it wasn’t a troubling time, at least I can say this for my lifetime. I wasn’t always aware of the troubles assailing humanity. Of course, I tend to look back at this period of ignorance with nostalgia; thinking things have gotten worse since then. For me, I would say it was the eighties. I looked back at this time as if everything was great and innocent. However, it was the worst period of the cold war. The threat of nuclear war was imminent. I heard songs written about impending nuclear war. Movies depicted what life would be after the war. The eighties were troubling times but I was a teenager then. The adults of my life did the worrying for me. Now, I am an adult and I have to face these troubling things of life.

Life is troubling. Perhaps it is troubling because our souls are seeking peace and tranquility which would never be found here. We try to do everything within our strength to find it here but it always seems far from reach. Our peace and tranquility is not to be found in the material world. It is spiritual, or rather, it transcends our material world. Our souls are restlessly looking for an eternal home.

As St Augustine wrote in the Confessions,

“Lord, you have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.” (Confessions 1.1.1.)

In other words, this troubling feeling is not going to go away. Things are not necessarily going to get better even with the best of intentions. People like to say that if only we do such and such, everything will be better. It works sometimes but with a price.

There is a neighborhood near where I live where everything is clean and safe. The city of São Paulo is neither of these even though I do love it. In this neighborhood, everything seems peaceful for those who could afford it. However, it’s streets are empty. The buildings are surrounded by barbed wires and guarded security. It looks very much like a luxurious prison. There is no life in the streets. Sometimes not a soul is seen in the streets. Some might say that there is a less of a chance of being robbed. However, there is also a less of chance of having random conversations and meaningful exchanges between people. Perhaps people think this is worth giving up for the price of security. The residents live in isolated cubicles. Their life is limited to their family unit. There is no growth. There are no challenges. Only a quiet and deserted place which is not synonymous with being peaceful. The people living there bought this appearance of security with a high price. Only a select few can live here. This so-called peace and tranquility is artificial and has a limited lifespan. It doesn’t mean that you are free from troubling worries if you live here. In this same city, the down and out areas of this city were once upon a time safe neighborhoods of the wealthy. Today they have become a haven of crime and drug addiction. Many buildings are abandoned. There are many mansions and buildings still maintaining the vague memory of their past beauty despite continuously falling to pieces. All human effort to create a place of refuge and tranquility has a very limited lifespan.

Speaking of mansions, Jesus placated the troubled hearts of the disciples with the promise of a place in His Father’s mansion. Often times, I have heard preachers speak about this as our final place in the afterlife. It is something for us to look forward to in the future. To be fair, we often use these verses at funeral services. There is a simple problem with this. Knowing where I am going after death doesn’t really help to appease my soul in my present Life. These words might comfort us when we mourn for our lost ones. However, these words of Jesus mean more than just comforting words for the afterlife. They were meant for the disciples to live their lives in the here and now.

The disciples abandoned everything to follow Him because they saw in Him a meaning for their existence. The disciples felt Jesus was going to be taken away from them. He constantly reminded them of this. They felt that they were losing a sense of focus in their lives. Maybe the disciples thought that they each would have their own mansions but it seems like Jesus had another plans. Jesus was offering something better. He was offering His father’s mansion; an eternal place of abode, a mansion not restricted by time and space. It is the dwelling place of God; in other words, it is manifested where God is present and God is omnipresent.

We are in the process of buying a place of our own. It will be our first time buying a place. It is not an easy process. We need to find the place. Before this, we need to save for it. Then we have to convince a bank to loan us the money. After securing the loan, we need to pay for taxes and maintenance. It is not easy to own a place. It doesn’t seem like a peaceful endeavor.

Jesus is not selling real estate. God is not selling us a place. He is inviting us to live with Him. He is our eternal Host and we are His eternal guests. This is actually an important detail. In Jesus’ time, the host prepared everything to receive the guest including the garments they used. The host prepared the place for the guests to stay as long as they desired. It was even considered rude for the guest to leave without the blessing of the host. Everything is on the host. In other words, the guests have to just show up and enjoy everything the Host has prepared. They don’t have to bring gifts. The host provided everything because it is His gift to the guests. All the guest had to do was to show up.

This sounds easy in our modern age because we can travel to the other side of the world within a day. In Jesus’ time, traveling could take weeks or months depending on the distance. The mansion of God is a great distance from our reality and yet at the same time it is very close to us. God is always present in our lives. However, there is a spiritual distance. This is due to our incapability of perceiving His presence in our lives. We are drawn away from His real presence because of our worries and concerns. It is understandable. We are spiritual beings with a body. Our minds tend to focus on the physical aspect of life and the spiritual seems like something up there in the sky; a great distance from our physical reality. Therefore, the journey to recognizing our heavenly abode is long and arduous.

We need to prepare. We need to organize our lives for this journey. We need to have right mindset to be proper guests and enjoy all the good things that our Heavenly Host has provided. Everything is ready for us. Jesus has prepared everything. Now, we have to prepare for the journey there. This means we should not be distracted from our preparation. Remember the parable of the wedding banquet in the gospels. The initial guests allowed the things of this world to distract them. They might have had good arguments for their lack of preparation. However, it still did not prevent them from forfeiting their place in the host’s home.

Thomas asked the important question, “How can we know the way?” In the gospel of John, Thomas also asks and says the things which are on the minds of most people. The only task of the guest is to show up and therefore, it is important to have good directions.

Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ John 14:6

This is perhaps the most universal statement in the gospels. Whenever I read about other major religions, I always see these themes come up, “the Way, the Truth and the Life”. Jesus boldly claimed something which only God can claim. He stated that all those earnestly seek God in this world will come to discover Him.

We prepare to be eternal guests at God’s mansion by looking for the Way, the Truth and the Life. In Jesus, these are not three separate things. They are the united perfectly in Him. None of these are theoretical. They were fully manifested in His Life. When we tell people that they need to know Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we are not preaching a doctrine. We are talking about a real living Person. He is present in our midst. We know this because He told us so. He said that He would send a Helper to open our eyes and hearts to discern His presence in this world. The first disciples gave us the gospels to help us recognize His presence in the lives of people. The writings of the apostles show us that Jesus is present despite the imperfections of the Christian communities. We need to see Jesus in spite of these imperfections. His resurrection proclaims to us that nothing can hinder His divine presence from being manifested, not even death. Most importantly, when we seek for Jesus present in our lives, we must not forget that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He doesn’t suddenly change His message to exclude people nor to promote hatred. He is present to open doors and welcome those who are weary and heavy laden.

Jesus is present. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is present beckoning us to join Him and dwell with Him in the Father’s House. This Eternal Mansion is present wherever God is present even in the most troubling times.

Let’s not be troubled because we have a wonderful place in God’s house.