Sermon notes 7th May 2023
Desiree Snyman

Introductory comments

Perhaps some of you glimpsed aspects of the King’s Coronation held on the 6th of May 2023 in Westminster. Amidst the pageantry, liturgical drama, and Anglican music at its best, did anything strike you as unusual or unique about the ceremony?  Personally, I was moved by the presence and involvement of other faith leaders in the ceremony. The image of Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish leaders bestowing on Charles the symbols of his ministry may seem in direct contrast to the Gospel reading John 14.1-14, especially in the light of phrases such as “I am the way the truth, and the light,” and “No one comes to the Father except through me.” What is going on with these Scriptures?

About John 14.1-12

The narrative context of John 14 is that Jesus has washed the feet of his disciples. The foot washing is the high point of Jesus’ teaching, a gesture of intimate, caressing service and a revolutionary symbol of true leadership and friendship. Remember in the foot washing Jesus totally reconfigures humanity’s relationship to the Divine. Jesus states categorically that we are not slaves of God but friends of God. While Jesus is still on his knees, drying his hands and while the disciples’ feet still tingle with the sensation of his touch, Jesus speaks to his closest friends about his imminent departure. 

The historical context of John’s Gospel is that a small, persecuted, and ostracised Jewish, “breakaway” sect is explaining to its wider Jewish community, why and how its belief system differs. What we read here is an intra-Jewish argument about what it means to be God’s people. What John 14 confidently and daringly preaches is that in the person of Jesus the Christ we have a world-defining moment that decisively changes the relationship between God and humanity. These words proclaim that because of Jesus we have a fresh understanding of what it means to be human and what it means to be divine. These words affirm that Jesus is the tangible presence of God in the world and that God can be known in a powerful, real, and intimate way through that incarnate presence.

I am utterly heartbroken every time this stunning Scripture is used as a weapon or when these beautiful metaphors are abused and taken literally. Colonialism, crusades both ancient and modern, and the sad history of arrogant Christian superiority in aggressive, manipulative, and bullying evangelism have weaponised this Scripture to demonise other faiths and belief systems. 

John 14 is a text written in ancient Biblical Greek to and from a middle eastern Jewish sect living in and around 90AD. The phrases from John 14 become problematic when they are used to answer 21st century questions that had no relevance whatsoever to the early Johannine community. To use these verses in a battle over the relative merits of the world’s religions is to distort their theological heart. It is dangerous and destructive to throw John 14 around in this manner. If these verses make us religiously arrogant, then we have lost the point altogether. The words are not exclusionary. Rather they are particular, particular to a time, audience and place in history. There is beauty in this Scripture and comfort in its message: Do not let your hearts be troubled…believe in me…there is much space in God….make your home in God.  What could the metaphors John uses mean? I suggest that the message is that we are manifestations of God looking for God. 

We are manifestations of God looking for God.

My observation about the human condition is that we think there is something wrong with us … I do not know why we think this … but we do. Inside each of us there is a deep, congenital restlessness. We observe our restlessness and long for peace and centredness. We observe our anxiety, fear, and worry and long for faith. We think that this restlessness, fear, and worry are what is wrong with us. There is nothing wrong with us. We are not peaceful people who are sometimes restless. Our default is not faith with anxiety, worry, fear and emptiness only an illness to overcome. We are not restful beings who sometimes get restless, but restless beings who occasionally experience rest. Because of this we can find it difficult to concentrate during the day and to sleep at night. We go through life feeling like we are missing out on something, that life is more exciting and fulfilling for others than it is for us. Our achievements rarely satisfy us because we are always aware of what we haven’t achieved, of missed chances and failed possibilities.  

These emotions of wanting more, these experiences of anxiety, restlessness, loneliness, fear, and worry are not what is wrong with us. They are what is right with us. This is the divine fire within us calling us to our true centre.  

Here is the reason. Deeper than fear, worry, anxiety, and restlessness is the experience of our divine unity with God, our true home. We are manifestations of God looking for God. The only reason we can recognise restlessness, emptiness, loneliness, and anxiety is because of a previous experience of Infinite Unity with Infinite Love which is, and always has been, the still point of our turning world - home. The restlessness, anxiety and emptiness are our trigger to come home. We are like homing pigeons and the restlessness and emptiness we experience are our navigation home.  

There is an infinite longing in us that can only be filled by Infinite Love – God. Augustine’s quote is overused, but relevant in this case: “O God, you have made me for yourself, and my heart is restless until it rests in you.” 

The way to find home is to follow our longings and allow it to lead us to God. Perhaps an image will help. Imagine babysitting a very young child. The young child notices the mother’s absence and for a while the babysitter can distract them with toys, entertainment, and other stimulation. There comes a tipping point where only the mother’s voice will soothe the disgruntled child. Likewise, in trying to satisfy our congenital restlessness we can distract ourselves for a while with flashy toys and anesthetise our pain with an array of addictions and avoidance techniques. There comes a moment when these things no longer soothe us. At this point we turn to God the Mother’s voice in the depths of our soul and ground of our being, the one voice and one presence that can ultimately bring us rest.  

Concluding comments

In putting the above into practice Meister Eckhart is helpful: “Whatever state we may find ourselves, whether in strength or in weakness, in joy or in sorrow, to whatever we may feel attached, we must renounce it”. (Meister Eckhart, sermon on Luke 1:57).

“Do not let your hearts be troubled” means “do not become attached.” Whatever restlessness or emptiness we experience is a trigger to enfold us into God. Day by day, moment by moment, do not become attached. If you experience sorrow, loss or grief, feel it, it’s very real. But do not make the mistake of letting sorrow, loss or grief define you, or have the last say, it has no authority over you. Only the infinite generosity of God giving Godself to you in this very moment has the authority to name who you are. Similarly, in a moment of joy be detached from joy. Joy is finite, it passes. Joy also does not have power to name you, only the Infinite Union with Infinite Love defines who and whose you are. Every thought or distraction, every moment of longing or restlessness is an opportunity to let go and surrender to the ground of our being, the home of our infinite unity with infinite love.