“The Way, the Truth, and the Life” Colchester Federated Church, May 3, 2026, Fifth Sunday of Easter (John 14:1-14)

Today is the Fifth Sunday of Easter.  We continue on in this season where we contemplate life following death.  Where “the end of everything is the beginning of unimagined and unexpected newness” as Diana Butler Bass muses.[1]  Because Easter Sunday ushers in rebirth and resurrection, new life and hope everlasting. 

The truth is that our text from John’s Gospel is often read at funerals (just like last Sunday when we explored the comfort offered in Psalm 23).  The line that especially resonates today is about Jesus promising that there are many dwelling places or rooms in God’s house.  There’s “plenty good room” in God’s kingdom as the spiritual goes.  Room enough for you and room enough for me. 

This passage is translated in the Common English Bible as Jesus saying, “Don’t be troubled.  Trust in God.  Trust also in me.  My Father’s house has room to spare.  If that weren’t the case, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you?  When I go to prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me so that where I am you will be too.  You know the way to the place I’m going.”[2]

Now when we hear Jesus’ words, we may think that Jesus is talking about a building—God’s house.  In the Christian tradition, we have sometimes referred to church buildings as God’s house or the house of the Lord.  Though it is worth remembering that the church is never just a building, the church is the people.  That was hopefully a lasting lesson from the pandemic when we could not gather for worship together in this place for quite some time.  The church is (and always has been) the congregation. 

Even so, our minds think in concrete terms.  Jesus says, “My Father’s house has room to spare.”[3]  It’s natural to think about dwellings as we seek something to visualize.  We may start imagining that God lives in a mansion in heaven (somewhere up there) surrounded by angels with harps who recline on clouds.  There’s the holy city with the literal pearly gates.  In these sorts of images of eternal life, Peter is sometimes depicted as a bouncer in front of the pearly gates at a podium with a list as to whether somebody’s in or out.  Or we have famous works of art like Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” in the Sistine Chapel in Rome with that image of God as an old bearded man surrounded by angels coming down from heaven to interact with humanity. 

The architecture of cathedrals (let alone the artwork we may view on ceilings or carved on walls or in stained glass windows inside those holy buildings) is meant to feel expansive.  Those high vaulted ceilings tend to make people look up and evoke awe as we feel small in that impressive physical space.  Some modern researchers have explored “the cathedral effect” and how high ceilings can evoke feelings of openness and freedom.  Sometimes being in a high-ceiling environment can even foster abstract thinking and creativity, helping people to problem-solve in new ways.[4]  The point is that our physical surroundings have an impact on our emotions and our well-being more than we might think.  And let it be noted that though Colchester Federated Church is hardly an ornate gothic cathedral there are design elements in the architecture of New England Congregational Churches that were also intentional in helping people connect to God.

When thinking of Jesus’ words about God’s house and room for us it can be helpful to expand our images because that acknowledges the divine mysteries in our tradition.  For instance, there is this wonderful children’s book that retells the creation story called Big Momma Makes the World.  It begins, “When Big Momma made the world, she didn’t mess around.  There was water, water everywhere, and Big Momma saw what needed to be done all right.  So she rolled up her sleeves and went to it.  Wasn’t easy, either, with that little baby sitting on her hip.  Didn’t stop Big Momma, though. Not for a minute.”  The story goes on and eventually Big Momma makes all kinds of folks—big folks and little folks, all kinds of shades of folks.  Big Momma makes all these folks because she was lonely.  She asked herself, “Who’s gonna sit on the front porch and swap stories with me? . . . I need some folks to keep me company.”  That’s what happens, Big Momma and all those folks sat on the porch together just gabbing while the sun went down on the sixth day.[5]

All of this to say that it makes sense that certain images come to our minds when we hear Jesus speaking to his disciples about God’s house with room to spare.  We cannot help but be influenced by images we see in popular culture or works of art or church architecture.  Though the truth is that the metaphor Jesus is using here is a bit different than what we might imagine at the outset (which is why I have a particular fondness for Big Momma Makes the World).  Because The New Oxford Annotated Bible notes that house as Jesus is using the term is not a building at all, but household relationships.[6] 

In God’s household, there is room to spare.  Why did Big Momma create all kinds of folks?  Because she was lonely, and she wanted people to sit on the porch with her and swap stories!  Doesn’t this bring up a whole other set of images? 

Maybe a long kitchen table where it’s no bother at all to set another place.  Or an extra bed with extra pillows and blankets to rest for the night.  These are still house as a building images, but the point is hospitality extended because of the relationship that exists among God and God’s beloved people.  In God’s household, there is room to spare.  Everybody is welcome here.  Everybody has a place at the table.  Preparing a place means that Jesus is mediating a relationship between God and the disciples.  Jesus tells his followers, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  If the disciples truly know Jesus, then they know God.  What a concept during Jesus’ lifetime!  This passage is all about relationships. 

It all comes down to this invitation to have a real relationship with the divine and with one another.  Not based on guilt and fear, but based on love.  So it is good that we often hear this passage when we remember and celebrate the lives of our loved ones.  Because we are welcomed into God’s fold both in this life and in the life to come.  Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.  All are welcome to come on home to God and swap stories on the front porch.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Diana Butler Bass, A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance, pg. 179.
[2] John 14:1-4, CEB.
[3] John 14:2.
[4] Evan Porter, “Science-backed ‘Cathedral Effect’ explains the one thing that can instantly make you more creative,” Upworthy, January 30, 2026, https://www.upworthy.com/cathedral-effect-for-creativity-explained/
[5] Phyllis Root, Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, Big Momma Makes the World.
[6] Footnotes on John 14.1-14: The household of God in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with The Apocrypha, Fully Revised Fourth Edition, pg. 1906 New Testament.

Photo by Emily Grace Corley on Unsplash