Sermon - 5-3-26

Year A – Fourth Sunday of Easter – April 26, 2026

Pastor Megan Floyd

John 14:1-14

Grace and peace to you from God and the Holy Spirit, and from Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen.

***

Several years ago, I was at my parents’ home, and we were excitedly awaiting my aunt and uncle, who were coming to visit.

My dad was talking to my uncle on the phone, who had called for the address so he could plug it into his GPS and be on his way.

My dad, however, being more comfortable giving directions than trusting an app on the phone, was instead directing my uncle using landmarks and compass directions…

I’ll never forget overhearing him tell my uncle to… just feel your way around the airport.

Feel your way around the airport.

If you are ever curious about something that might make me lose my mind… it would be to give me driving directions to a place without giving me the address, and instead, instruct me to… feel my way there.

Stressful! … fortunately, I was not the one driving, and my aunt and uncle eventually arrived, so perhaps he is more in tune than I am with his …emotional sense of direction.

I prefer the straightforward approach. Just tell me where we’re going… I’ll use GPS or a map…

I don’t want to feel my way to a place… I like to be prepared, and I do not like to be lost. Feel my way there… how does one do that?

So… I deeply empathize with the disciple, Thomas, when he says, “Lord, we do not know where you are going… how can we know the way?”

I might be projecting… but when I read that, I can hear the strain and tension in his voice… maybe even a hint of panic.

Our gospel takes us back again to the night of their last supper. Jesus has just washed their feet and commanded them to love… and he told them to remember him when they gather around bread and wine… and he promised he would be with them whenever they do.

But then… they just watched Judas abandon their group… and they just heard Jesus tell Peter that he would betray him… not once, but three times!

And Jesus has been telling them he must die. The world as they know it is falling apart… and into their stress and anxiety… Jesus assures them… Do not let your hearts be troubled… do not be afraid.

These are words for us, too… Our world is in an upheaval… and Jesus assures us, as well… Do not let your hearts be troubled. (x2)

Jesus has prepared us to live in this world… Jesus has already given us our directions… a way of living that is God’s will for us… a way life that brings close the kingdom of God.

A way of living that transforms our hearts and turns us back to God, again and again.

Jesus… is that way… and the truth… and the life. And the way of Jesus is always… love.

The way of Christ… is love.

A way that… actually does require us to feel our way to our destination. But also… a way that has concrete, and written directions for when we can’t muster up that feeling.

It’s love… Love God… and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Love.

And when you don’t know how to feel your way to loving your neighbor… or loving the stranger in your country… or how to feel your way to loving the needy person who is pleading for you to help them… when maybe… you’d rather judge them…

When our own baggage gets in the way, and we can’t seem to recognize the light of Christ in this other person… we can get there another way.

When we can’t envision what the final destination looks like, or the vagueness of the emotional sense of direction is just too stressful… You can start with the turn-by-turn directions that Jesus gave us…

Just start by feeding the hungry. Then clothe the naked. And then… welcome the immigrant and the stranger. Care for the sick and any among you who have need.

Look for those whom our society has pushed to the edges… those who are marginalized… those who are suffering under oppression… those who are treated with contempt… and warmly invite them into the fold.

And when it is our own selves whom we are struggling to love, try wrapping your heart with grace… and let it work its way through you.

That is how we find our way through Jesus.

For the least among us are the ones Jesus directed us to love first… and the way, truth, and life of Jesus is always the way of love.

So we can feel our way there… and when that is just too abstract, or when we are legitimately struggling to manifest love for our neighbor… or… love for God… yes, there are those days… days when we are more angry at God than loving…

Or days when we are struggling to manifest love for ourselves… yes, total honesty here… there are those days, too…

Because yes, we are human, and even though love is a divine command from our God… that doesn’t mean we can just force ourselves to feel it.

I’m being real with you… and Jesus knows this about our humanness… knows that we can’t always feel our way there.

So even though we are commanded to love… commanded to feel our way… Jesus also showed us how to follow the turn-by-turn directions to get there… showed us how to follow our way through the way of Jesus.

We follow the way Jesus taught us, and little by little, this way of love will transform our own hearts into ones more capable of loving… and then, little by little, our loving hearts will transform the world around us.

Love is a way of life… it is a daily discipline… a habit we form… a guiding light.

Love doesn’t have to be sporadic, grand, and glorious gestures… in fact, I think love is better expressed in the daily, reliable series of little things that shape our whole lives… around love.

Because ultimately, for love – the kind of love that transforms – for this kind of love to become action, it must first begin with relationship… and it begins with abiding in the source of all love.

For we cannot give what we have not received… and so we must return again and again to the love of Jesus.

Because Jesus… is the way, and the truth, and the life… “and all things came into being through him, and without him, not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life… and the life was the light of the world. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. (John 1:3-5)

Jesus… is the source of abiding love… of love that transforms… love that liberates… love that makes all things new.

And so Jesus tells his disciples that if they cannot believe that he and the Father are one, then believe because you see how the way of love transforms the world…

He tells them that those who follow the way of light and love will do greater works than he did… because he is going to the Father, but we are still here.

Jesus fed the five thousand… how many people have his disciples fed since then?

Jesus cared for the sick… how many people have his disciples cared for since then?

Jesus welcomed the stranger… how many people have his disciples welcomed since then?

Indeed, across millennia, the works of love in the name of Jesus… have done so much more.

And the light of the world continues to shape us… and to guide us… through love… and that way of love, draws us all back to Jesus.

So we do know the way… we know the way by how love feels… and we know the way by following the directions.

We do know the way… and the truth… and the life… we know that it is Jesus, who is the light of the world… and the way of Jesus is always… love.

Amen.