Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Home for Christmas? 17

Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven

John 14.1-6
Jesus said: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

On the night before he dies, Jesus promises his disciples that he is simply going ahead of them to prepare a place, as a servant might do ahead of the visit of an important person to make sure there was somewhere for them to stay. 

He has shown them the way to the home God is giving them by the way he has lived his life. If they love as he has loved, they will find that they are at home and at peace whatever happens to them, and that he will be with them and they with him.

In West Side story two lovers from opposing families imagine a place where they can be together. Such a place would be very different from the place they now inhabit, a world riven with gang-warfare. The story, based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, ends in tragedy, but the song is a reminder that if the world is to be a home for all, then there are changes we all need to make to enable it to be so.


  • What do you think it means to follow Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life? 
  • What is the "Way" of Christ? Is it simply about saying you are a Christian and being baptised? Is it simply going to church? Is it about believing a set of doctrines?
  • How are you walking in the Way of Christ?



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