note: many of you may find this a bit long. don't feel like you need to read it all. i've included it here because there are a group of bloggers who share reflections each week on the current week's lectionary passages. john 14.1-14 is one of this week's passages.
*
in 1992 during lent i meditated/wrote on john 14 and ended up with a longish poem. i'll include only the part on john 14.1-14.
*
MEDITATION ON A LOVE LETTER
1. do not be worried and upset
my friend and Savior said to me
he said it in a letter of love
written expecially for me
(and just as expecially for you, i might add).
do not be worried and upset
my Friend and Savior said to me.
believe in God,
believe in me
and then no matter what your life may offer,
we can manage---just we three---
you and God and me.
2. there are many rooms
in the homeplace of God
and i shall go ahead of you
to ready there a room just for you.
you see we are expecting you to follow.
we have a place that's set aside for you
just for you
and if you do not come to take your place
i guess there'll always be an empty room
among the many room in our house.
so plan ahead to come
to the homeplace we have built---
a homeplace comprised of many room
with one that is ready---
ready just for you.
of course i wouldn't say these things
unless these things were true.
3. just now i go ahead of you.
we cannot both go now,
for i must go prepare the way for you;
but don't be worried and upset
as i said before
for i'll come back to take you to myself
so that you will be where i am.
yes, you can stake your life upon my words---
i will come back to take you to myself
so that you will be where i am.
4. you know the way that leads
to the place that i am going,
for long before the day you were conceived
or even thought of by your parents
God had written on your very heart
the yearning that would draw you back to him.
so deep within the most holy places of your heart
you know the way that leads
to the place that i am going,
and i pray that you will choose to come with me
when i come back to take you to myself
so that you will be where i am.
5. the doubters in this world
may say that they don't know where i'm going
so how can they know the way to go.
but pause and go back, doubting thomas.
go back to the very beginning.
do not be worried and upset.
believe me when i say to you
i will come back and take you to myself
so that you will be where i am.
6. let me say a word to any doubters in the crowd.
i am the way,
and the truth,
and the life.
i am the way to the Father.
i am the word and the author of truth.
i am the source of all life and all light.
i am the way and the truth and the life.
i am your pathway to God. . .
your only pathway to God.
7. now that you have known me
you will also know God
for as you know and see me
you know and see God.
like God, like me.
like me, like God.
8. and philip came with questions and concerns:
couldn't we just see God face to face?
9. my friend and my Savior
could hardly believe what he heard.
i have long been with you all
yet you know me not.
if you've known and seen me
you've known and seen God
so why then do you say these words to me:
couldn't we just see God face to face?
haven't you seen
what i came here to show you in flesh?
10. can you not yet know
within your heart and soul
that i am in God
and God is in me?
that, my dearest philip
is the essence of my life
and it will be the essence
of my death
and my new life
with God.
i am in God
and God is in me.
it sounds very simple---and it is.
it sounds quite profound---and it is.
it was and is and it shall be forever.
i am in God
and God is in me.
these words that i've spoken
as i've walked here by your side,
these words come from God,
they're not my own,
for God remains in me
and does holy work.
i am in God
and God is in me.
11. let this grow to be your own belief:
i am in God
and God is in me;
but if you cannot come to have that faith
believe, at least, because of all the things you've seen me do
for i have done God's work on the earth.
believe because of all that i have done.
12. i am telling you the truth, my friends.
whoever does believe in me
will do what i do.
indeed he will do even greater things,
indeed she will do even greater things
because i go to be with God
and God and i together
can work through the faithful on the earth.
13. and i will do whatever you ask for in my name
so that God's glory
will be shown through the answers to your prayers.
so ask and seek and knock in my name
for there is holy power in my name.
14. whatever you may ask for in my name . . .
(i cannot bring my hand to pen these words
for daddy's dead* although we prayed for life,
and wars are fought,
and homes are lost,
and folks are killed and raped and maimed,
and on and on and on . . .
and people pray to you
and ask a thousand things in your name;
and sometimes the prayers that we pray
seem to be heard, and seem to be answered
in ways that we can't comprehend at the time;
and sometimes, through time,
we all see that prayers have been answered,
and sometimes, through time,
the answer to prayer continues beyond comprehension,
so, Lord, can you help me to set down my pen to the paper;
and, Lord, can you please write this belief on my heart;
and, Lord, can you lead me
to faith in unfathomable mystery.)
whatever you may ask for in my name,
my child, i will do it,
so ask and seek and knock in my name
for there is holy power in my name.
(now i have set the words on the paper,
and together we can write them on my heart.
together, Lord, let's write them on my heart.)
***
*in Feb of 1992 my father died after battling cancer for some time. it really was hard to write those words down