SERMONS
John Pfitzner, April 20th, 2008
In my Father’s house – John 14:1–14
The gospel reading for today contains the well-known words of Jesus, ‘In
my Father’s house there are many rooms’. By coincidence, when
Sean approached me several weeks ago about taking this service, I happened to
be reading a book with the title In My Father’s House. I
bought the book at last month’s Adelaide Writers’ Week after hearing
an interesting and entertaining talk by the book’s author, Miranda Seymour
of the UK.
Miranda Seymour made her name as an author by writing biographies, but this book
is a family memoir that focuses on her father and the stately home, Thrumpton
Hall, that almost by accident came into his possession and was his lifelong obsession. Miranda’s
relationship with her father was difficult. He was a priggish, self-centred person
who exercised a kind of psychological tyranny over his wife and two children.
This extended to dictating to them what they should wear and how they should
look. For example, he hated Miranda’s hair, with the result that for four
years, when she was a young woman, she wore a wig day and night, causing her
own hair to fall out. The relationship was not completely without love, but there
were many times when Miranda wished her father was dead.
There was one passage in the book that I found particularly sad and shocking.
In describing one of the ways in which her father built himself up at the expense
of other members of his family, the author says:
The technique by which this in many ways unremarkable man kept two strong-willed
women under his control was simple and invisible; he made us feel worthless.
Without value, you have no power. No physical force was employed, no threat,
except of his displeasure. (p 186)
I want to contrast this house and the effect it had on its inhabitants, with
two other very different houses. The first is The Abbey, the enclosed Benedictine
convent that featured in the ABC TV documentary of the same name, a DVD that
some of us viewed and discussed in our congregation’s three-part study
series before and after Easter. Five women, from different parts of Australia
and from different backgrounds, spent a month at The Abbey as part of the community,
taking part in all its activities. This was difficult. It involved giving up
contact with the outside world, following a very strict daily routine of activities,
including long periods of silence, and getting up at 4.00 am each day to take
part in the community’s first worship time for the day.
For each of the five women the experience in the convent turns out to have a
transforming effect. A key factor in this is the way they are treated by Sister
Hilda and the other nuns. In this house they experience acceptance, love and
care. They are listened to and valued. On one occasion, Tammy, the young Aboriginal
mother from Perth, in a counselling or mentoring session in which she speaks
about the difficulties and pain in her life, breaks down in tears and says, ‘I’ve
never been treated like this before. I’ve never been made to feel so special.’
These women were made to feel they had worth, and this had an empowering effect
on them. It gave them the ability to recognise God as being in some way present
in their life, and it enabled them to make changes in their life that were life-enhancing.
The other house I want to talk about is the Oasis Youth Refuge in Sydney, a place
for street kids run by the Salvation Army and featured in an ABC TV documentary
about ten days ago. Many of the young people who come to the refuge are hard
cases to deal with – they are zonked out by drugs and are often abusive,
demanding and violent. In some cases the police have to be called to deal with
someone out of control, or an ambulance has to be called to take someone to hospital.
Paul Moulds, the Salvation Army officer who runs the refuge and provides support
and assistance for the young people, speaks in the film at one stage about how
these young people could be seen as complete no-hopers, hopeless cases, people
beyond help and redemption, not worth worrying about. But he goes on to speak
of the importance of looking past the behaviour and recognising and valuing the
person, no matter how difficult this may be.
At the end of the film there was a studio forum with a panel of experts on youth
homelessness, including Paul Moulds, and in the audience were some of the young
people whose stories had been featured in the film. It was amazing to see the
transformation in them. They were off the drugs, had jobs or were studying and
were living in their own accommodation. From people like Paul Moulds, they had
been made to feel they had worth, and over time this had an empowering effect
on them. It enabled them to turn around their life, to make changes to their
attitudes and behaviour that were life-enhancing and gave purpose to their life.
In today’s reading from John’s gospel, Jesus speaks about preparing
a place for us in his Father’s house. What is it like in God’s house?
Many of us might approach this place with some uncertainty, with some trepidation,
like the five women entering The Abbey. Perhaps we won’t be holy enough.
Will we really fit in and feel comfortable here?
God’s house is not a place like Miranda Seymour’s home where we are
made to feel worthless for not measuring up. God’s house is like The Abbey
and the Oasis Youth Refuge. It’s a place we can come to when our
hearts are troubled, where we can find shelter when we are on the street and
have nowhere to go. It’s a place where we are accepted as we are, where
we are treated as people who have worth. And the love, acceptance and care we
experience here bring healing and have a transforming effect in our life. We
are enabled to change and grow. We come alive.
We know that this is what God’s house is like because we know Jesus. Jesus
says that he is the way to the Father and that whoever has seen him has seen
the Father. We know what God is like from seeing what Jesus is like. It is through
his life and teaching, through his dying and being raised to life again, that
Jesus shows us the way to God and prepares a place for us in God’s house
here and now.
God’s house is a place where things happen. It’s not a place where
we sit around doing nothing. And it’s not always a place of ease and comfort.
The process of healing and rehabilitation can be long and difficult. Change can
be painful. We see that in the experience of the people in The Abbey and the
young people involved with the Oasis Youth Refuge.
Jesus says, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’. Jesus is the
way. Being in God’s house does not bring us to the end of our journey.
Instead, it gets us started on a journey, a journey towards health and wholeness.
Following this path involves renunciation. There are things we have to give up,
just as there were things the women in The Abbey had to give up. We need to remember
that Jesus’ way is a way that leads to the cross. It’s a way that
involves service, selflessness, self-giving. It means giving up our selfishness
and self-centredness. This is a good path to follow, but it’s not always
easy and is often painful.
Jesus is also the truth. Being in God’s house involves learning to be truthful.
It involves letting go of pretence, letting go of the masks we hide behind and
discovering the truth of who we really are. It involves learning to be true to
ourselves and true in our dealings with others. This kind of truthfulness is
healthy and good, but it is not always easy and is often painful.
And Jesus is the life. Being in God’s house involves embracing life, finding
and nurturing in our life the things that are life-giving and life-enhancing.
And it involves acknowledging and letting go of those things in our life that
are life-denying, that prevent us from living life fully and freely and prevent
us from having a life-giving effect on those around us. Embracing life is good,
but it is not always easy and can sometimes be painful.
Against expectation, Miranda Seymour inherited her father’s house, and
it has become her home again. We find, at the end of the book, that the house
still has its ghosts, but they are fading. The house and its grounds are now
being hired out for weddings and other celebrations and festive events. It’s
a big house, with lots of rooms and with big grounds, enough room for the community
to come and make use of.
God’s house, too, is roomy. There is room there for all of us, with whatever
baggage we may be carrying. It’s a place of community. And it’s a
festive place, a place of celebration.
