Acts
7: 55-60; Psalm
31: 1–5, 15-16; I
Peter 2: 2-10; John
14: 1–14
A homily by Fr. Gene
Tucker, given at Trinity
Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, May 18, 2014.
“BUILDING THE BRIDGE”
(Homily text: John 14: 1–14)
Have you
ever thought about bridges?
Recently,
we took a trip east to meet our new grandson, and to spend some time with our
family. Along the way, two bridges that
we passed under made me think about bridges, and especially about the building
of bridges.
The two
bridges that brought these thoughts to mind at both located on I-70. Both are high bridges, and are supported by
huge steel arches. One is located on a
ridge just east of Zanesville, Ohio (which is about fifty miles east of
Columbus), and the other is located on a mountain ridge just west of Frederick,
Maryland. Of the two, the Maryland
bridge is the higher one.
These two
bridges are built were a road cut has been created to allow the interstate to
pass underneath. The steel arches rest
on massive concrete foundations, and the steel arches form a perfect arc to
support the road above.
When I
looked at these two bridges, I began to wonder about the challenges of building
a bridge like these. For one thing, once
the steel arches were in place and were totally connected, one side to the
other, the arch would be able to support a lot of weight. But what about the building process, when
they weren’t connected together? How did
they manage to keep the arch from collapsing as parts of the arch were added
until the two sides met one another and were fastened together? I also wondered about the measurements that
had to be carefully calculated so that the concrete foundations could be spaced
just at the right distance apart, so steel could be formed to fit perfectly on
the foundations. I’ll bet that the
engineers who designed those bridges had a lot of work to do to figure things
out so that, once the two sides of the arch met one another, they would match
up perfectly.
Bridges are
fascinating things.
In our
gospel text for today, Jesus is building a bridge for His disciples.
We see the
evidence of Jesus’ bridge-building in His comments. Specifically, He says to the disciples, “In
my Father’s house there are many rooms, if it were not so, would I have told
you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will
take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
(We might
take a moment to remind ourselves that Jesus is preparing His disciples for His
coming death and resurrection, for this conversation takes place, John tells
us, during the Last Supper on the night before His death.)
Now, back
to the text….In essence, Jesus seems to be telling the disciples that He is
about to bridge the gap between this life and that reality which awaits His
disciples (and us) at some point in the future.
He is building a bridge to the other side, a way to move forward.
Jesus’
comment elicits a response from the disciple Thomas, who exclaims, “Lord, we do
not know where you are going, how can we know the way?”
Jesus’
response must surely be one of the most well-known quotations in any of the
gospels. He says, “I am the way, the
truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”
If we put
ourselves in Thomas’ position, it might seem as though someone is standing on
one side of a gap, wondering how they will ever be able to bridge that gap so
as to be able to pass to the other side.
“We can’t get there, and we don’t know how to” is one way to summarize what Thomas wonders
aloud. Closely linked with the
realization that we lack the means to pass across to the other side is some
awareness that there is a destination that awaits us, if only we could find the
way to get there from where we stand at the moment.
Jesus
creates the bridge, for through the gate of death, He has passed over the gap,
and has reached the other side.
But then
Jesus turns back, constructing the other part of the arch from the far side,
returning from death to His resurrected state, appearing to the disciples and
showing Himself to be fully alive.
By proving
that there is life after death, and by showing His victory over death, the Lord
has demonstrated His power to bridge the gap of death, building a bridge that
will carry us forward as we walk along the way of life.
By His
death, Jesus has shown us that what He said about the Father’s indwelling and
power is true, and is trustworthy. So it is that Jesus says, “Believe me that I
am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the
works themselves.”
Jesus’
resurrection is the ultimate work of God the Father, who raised Jesus to new
life again. Jesus’ coming to life again
affirms His statement, that He is “life”.
In time,
all of us will pass from this earthly life into the life which is to come. There is no escaping the reality that the gap
of death awaits us all. And as we
approach that time, we can set aside our fears, knowing that the Lord has
already constructed the bridge that will provide us the way, so that we can
pass into a resurrection like the Lord’s.
(Here I have in mind St. Paul’s description of the process of baptism,
as we read it in Romans 6: 3–9.)
That hope
ought to brighten our outlook and it ought to strengthen us for the trip.
But the
hope we have in Christ also changes our perspectives and outlook as we live
life, day in and day out, for we have been adopted as God’s daughters and sons
by our burial into a death like Jesus’.
We are claimed in baptism by God as God’s own forever. By the power of the Holy Spirit, given in
baptism, we are able to see the road ahead, which rests on the arch of Jesus
Christ’s own making, who has gone ahead of us to lay the foundation upon which
the arch of salvation rests.
Therefore,
our perspectives change, as we realize that this life isn’t all there is to
experience, that that we walk and live in the wider awareness of God’s saving
grace, known to us each day, and known to us especially as we pass over the gap
of death.
Thanks be
to God the Father, who dwells in the Son, and who empowers the Son to be the
way, the truth and the life.
AMEN.
