In Times of Trouble

John 14:1-14      

We have known for some time, you and I, that hardship can bring deep meaning to our lives. This is not to say that we enjoy hardship – not by any means. But we realize that some good can come out of it.

We like to recall our experience after 9/11, when so many Americans reconnected with their faith, and church sanctuaries were filled on Sunday mornings. In times of trouble we seek meaning.

Yet, we should also remember, that resurgence in church attendance after 9/11 was actually very brief. It was a blip on the timeline. Nothing worth bragging about or celebrating, really. In fact, it showed us just how fickle our tastes are, how shallow our passions can be.

Because not too long after 9/11 we were beginning to form a new passion. We fixed our attention on a clear enemy and went to war.

Finding meaning in our lives is essential to being human. But when it is colored by fear or anger, it can lead us down some dark and ugly paths. And now we are seeing it again.

It didn’t take very long for all kinds of conspiracy theories to emerge to explain the COVID-19 crisis. Very early on we heard suggestions that it was a biological weapon created in a lab in China and unleashed on the world. And no matter how many times this theory is debunked, it keeps bouncing back. Because it sounds like something that could be true.

There were other attempts – both subtle and not so subtle – to blame China for it. But if we’re looking for somewhere to place blame, we have other options, too. There’s the Bill Gates conspiracy theory, because anyone who cares as much as he does about getting people immunized must have ulterior motives.

The good Dr. Fauci is another candidate. The story here is that he knew about the supposed Chinese scheme and kept it secret. And then there’s the theory that hospitals are faking the numbers on COVID-19 diagnoses because the reimbursements are higher. And, tragically, there are more.

All of these stories have some aspect of believability, and so they spread. All of them sound like they could be true. And so they spread. More accurately, we spread them. Because they sound to us like they might be true.

Years ago, the comedian Stephen Colbert made up a new word – truthiness. The definition of truthiness is that something seems true, therefore it is believable even in the absence of any evidence.

We latch on to these stories that have the quality of truthiness because we have a need to find meaning – preferably, a simple explanation of why things happen. And if the reason involves propping up some enemy that can be blamed for our trouble, all the better. You see, if all the trouble can be blamed on some “other,” some enemy, than nothing much is required of us, other than to get angry. And that’s easy.

In times of trouble we look for an enemy to blame. But that’s not the way Jesus showed us.

When he set out on his ministry, and began to call his first disciples, there was no map they were following. Jesus was leading them into uncharted territory. He knew where he was going, but all the disciples knew was that they were following him. And that seemed to be enough.

For the time being.

The problem, they gradually began to see, was what would happen if there ever came a time when he wasn’t with them.

In this story from John, Jesus is gathered with the disciples on the night before he was arrested. And he begins to speak in parables, telling them about the place he is going – a place where there will be room for them, a place to which they know the way.

But they don’t know what he is talking about. They don’t know where he is going, so how could they possibly know the way there? Up until now, he has been their way. Up until now, everything has worked simply because they followed him. But if he is no longer with them, how will they possibly know the way?

He says to them, let not your hearts be troubled. But clearly, their hearts are troubled. If their teacher leaves them, they will be lost and their lives will be utterly without meaning. They’ve left everything else behind.

They say to him, show us the Father. If Jesus is going to leave them, then he at least needs to give them a replacement to follow. Show us the Father so we have someone to follow. But then he says the strangest thing – something they surely don’t know how to interpret. That in essence, Jesus and the Father are the same. I am in him and he is in me. If you have seen me you have seen him. We are one and the same.

He is showing them a new way of seeing. Learning a new way of seeing is never easy.

His disciples will need to see Jesus even when he is no longer walking with them, leading their steps, setting an example, teaching them what to do. They will need to find their way, without actually seeing the way. Somehow, they will need to see Jesus – and the Father – without actually seeing them, but trusting that they are with them, empowering them and guiding them.

As the church, we proclaim the oneness of the Father and the Son, along with the Holy Spirit, which he will speak of further on in the chapter. And we profess our faith that this triune God is in our midst, working within us, between us, all around us. It is these beliefs that make us who we are, make us a community of faith. And it is these beliefs that guide us through life’s troubles.

So now I must ask: how do these beliefs guide us as we seek to make meaning in this particular time of trouble we are now in?

What will be the way forward? How will we navigate it? If Jesus is our way, then there are a few things we can, and should, know.

We can know that it is not easy. As much as his followers would have liked it, Jesus did not clear away all the obstacles before them. He made a way through hardship – but he did not eliminate hardship. The way, he said, is not easy. But take my yoke upon you, he said, and learn from me.

We can know that it is a way of accountability and forgiveness. On that night when he sat surrounded by his disciples, Jesus looked at them and held each one accountable for what they would do. For the ways they would fall short, the ways they would fail him. He didn’t pretend it was nothing. But he forgave them. As he forgives each one of us, too.

We can know that this way is essentially about where we are now and where we are going. It is not a backward way. The disciples did, fairly quickly, find their way forward. With the help of the Spirit, they began to figure out that knowing the way doesn’t mean having a map with the route all laid out, highlighted in yellow. They discovered that following the way meant trusting in God to show them the next step forward. And forward they went.

The church moved ever outward into the world. It spread like a virus, each person touching several others, and each of them touching even more.

The church moved in and through every kind of trouble. Always demonstrating that the way of Jesus Christ is the way of love and grace. The way of Jesus Christ pours beauty on everything.

What we know from the way of Christ is that love shows its strength in times of trouble. We know that faith grows stronger in times of trouble. We know that by following the way, we will follow a path of being woven together into an ever-widening fabric of community, founded on love and truth –

Not truthiness.

Perhaps God always works through trouble because times of trouble seem to give us tremendous motivation to find meaning and purpose. And Christ gives us a way.

If we follow the way that Jesus gave us, we will look for the ways to be church in these new times. If we trust in him to lead us, to be our way, we will look for the ways he gives us to serve and connect with and love one another.

His way is not a way of fear, nor anger, nor vengeance. So let us turn away from the ways of truthiness, blaming, conspiracy-theorizing. There is no real meaning in such things.

The meaning is to be found in the way of Christ – the way of love and grace, of gratitude and generosity. Let us get ourselves on this way, brothers and sisters. Because there is much need, there is much possibility, there is much for us to do. So –

What can we do?

In a time of new beginnings, we might look to the early church as a model. As the book of Acts tells us, they devoted themselves to prayer and scripture. That is just what we are trying to do. Every evening at 5:30 pm.

You can find me on Facebook Live with daily scripture readings and prayers. We stay close to the Word, and we lift up all the needs of the world that are on our hearts and minds. It is good to be together in prayer; it is like drops of water on a parched land.

But those who are not on Facebook can still pray, knowing they are adding their voice to a community at prayer.

God is at work showing us a way through this current trouble – about this there is no doubt. Let us use this moment faithfully. Let us devote ourselves to prayer and scripture, as the church did at the beginning. Let us look for the movement of the Spirit, showing us our next steps, connecting the Word of God with the Way of Jesus for the sake of the world.

Photo: daily choice of masks in Corona times.  By Islander61 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=90093129