A Place for Everyone

Today’s Gospel is a favorite for many. The imagery of the Father’s house with many dwelling places is expansive and inclusive. We are assured that Jesus goes to prepare a place for us and that where he is we will also be. This is both comforting and hopeful. Jesus gives us clear instruction to not let our hearts be troubled, and while that sounds easier than it is in practice, we keep returning to that promise. It’s as if Jesus is saying to us “I’ve got this, don’t worry, it’s all going to be alright in the end”, or to quote St. Julian of Norwich “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well”. 

This message is for us this morning as we are living in heart troubling times. Structures that hold the world together seem to be collapsing all around us. Of course we are not the only ones to experience this. Many of you remember the second world war and also remember the time when the world held its breath under nuclear threat. All was not peaceful either for those early followers of “The Way” as it was called in those early days before we used words like “church” and built church buildings to gather in. In those early, heady days, those first followers gathered in homes and always under the threat of persecution. 

Like them, we want to know that there is a place for us in the Father’s house, a shelter from the storms of life. We want to know that we belong, that we matter and are included in God’s care of the world. We want to know that there is a way forward even when we do not know the way.  

What troubles your heart today? What do you worry about, what makes a dent in your peace? Where are you in your journey of faith at this time in your life? Who is included in your circle of care and outreach? 

When we hear today’s gospel there is a tendency to focus on the promise of heaven and what that will be like. But I think this gospel is about more than the promise of heaven. I don’t think it’s about some future time and place apart from today’s troubled world. I think it is about the journey we are on now in this time and place with all its joys and blessings and troubles and struggles. Eternity has already begun. 

I believe that this journey is about making space and place. That’s what Jesus says he is doing. “I go to prepare a place for you,” he says. Jesus is a place maker. He makes space and place for others to enter. He makes a place and a space for each one of us and asks us to engage in the important work of making a place for others, excluding no-one. 

Jesus is always creating space and place for us to enter into greater fullness of life; places of life, love, healing, joy; places of mercy and forgiveness; places of beauty, generosity, and hope. These become for us places of reconciliation and resurrection, both in this life and in the next.  

Think about the gospel stories you have heard recently; all stories about opening spaces and places: the woman that Jesus encounters at the well, the blind man who has his sight restored, the raising and unbinding of Lazarus, and so many more.  

Making space and place for others is a divine quality. It’s what God started “in the beginning.” It’s what Jesus reveals in today’s Gospel. It’s what lives within us. We too can be place makers for others. It’s one of the ways God invites us to participate in the divine mystery. 

I wonder who has been a place maker for you? How did they make space for you? What difference has that made in your life? In whatever ways they made a place for you they were echoing Jesus’ words, “I go to prepare a place for you.” 

So many people are waiting, needing, and even dying for a space and place to be opened to them. Wherever space and place are closed life is diminished, impoverished, and sometimes taken. Place making is the Christian response to the pain, disconnect, and violence we see in our world today.  

There is enough space and place for everyone. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” If we were to really take that to heart, we would be opening doors and making space and place wherever we go to whomever we see. Isn’t that what Jesus did? 

How might you be a place maker for someone today? Maybe it’s as simple as a smile or a word of encouragement. Maybe it’s coming to sit in prayer during the week or walk the labyrinth. Maybe it’s offering or asking for forgiveness. Maybe it’s the warmth and presence of a touch. Maybe it’s seeing and responding to another’s needs. Maybe it’s the long slow work of social justice and change. We make space and place in a thousand different ways.  

Consider too how we might make more space and place as a parish community. What more could we be doing to reach out and include others. We take care of our buildings, we take care of each other and we reach out to community both locally and further afield. Is there more we could be doing? What are the possibilities within the scope of our resources, both fiscal, spiritual and human? 

And while you are making space and place for another, don’t forget to make space and place for yourself. You need it too and we can only offer what we have.  

There are a lot of spaces and places to be opened. I sometimes wonder if we can do this, if I can do this. Jesus, however, seems to think we can. “Very truly, I tell you,” he says, “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.”  

“Greater works than these.” Maybe “Can we do this?” isn’t the question to be asking. Maybe the question to be answered is, “Will we do this? Will we be place makers for others?” Amen.