In the Father's House

Homily for June 4, 2026
The Burial of David Miller
John 14:1-6

Preached at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Rochester, NY

Yes, I’m aware, I look just like my dad.  And – perhaps you noticed?– my son (who read the first lesson) looks just like me.  Maybe 12 or 15 years ago, the three of us went out for breakfast at a diner near Canandaigua. When the server came to take our order, she took one look at us and said, “OMG, there are three of you!”  

During the Easter season, one might expect the Sunday Gospel lesson always would be an account of Jesus’ resurrection – among the four Gospels, surely there are enough resurrection stories for the seven Sundays of Easter.  But during the Easter season the lectionary does not always assign a resurrection story for our Sunday Gospel.  Indeed, for four of the Sundays of Easter – more than half the season – the Gospel lesson is not a story about Jesus’ resurrection but rather a story about Jesus from before his death.  On the Fourth Sunday of Easter, for example, we always hear about Jesus the Good Shepherd in John chapter 10.  On the Fifth and Sixth Sundays, we always hear from Jesus’ final discourse in John chapters 13-15.  And on the Seventh Sunday of Easter we always hear from Jesus’ so-called “High Priestly Prayer” in John chapter 17.  

I imagine the lectionary chooses these non-resurrection stories for our Gospel during the Easter season because these stories from before Jesus’ death help us better to make sense of Jesus’ resurrection.  To hear stories of Jesus’ resurrection only would offer but a partial picture of the Resurrection.  For a fuller picture of what God is doing in Jesus and in his Resurrection, the lectionary takes us back to remember what Jesus said and did before he died and rose again.  

Which is what this morning’s Gospel lesson helps us to do.  Today’s Gospel from John chapter 14 was a portion of a Gospel lesson from this past Easter season.  In today’s passage, Jesus’ words spoken to his disciples before his death help tell the story of Jesus’ Resurrection.  For example, today’s Gospel tells how for John, “resurrection” is about more than being made alive after we die – for John “resurrection” includes what the other Gospels might call “Ascension.”  “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places,” Jesus said, and “I go to prepare a place for you.”  In today’s lesson, John suggests that with this “Ascension” comes what the other Gospels call a “kingdom” – note how John assumes a place where “the Father” dwells.  Also, John’s “Ascension” understands that there is a way to where the Father dwells – “I am the way and the truth and the life,” Jesus said.  Further, John’s “Ascension” tells us that Jesus wants us to be with him in this “kingdom” – “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”  By remembering Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel from John chapter 14, words spoken to the disciples before Jesus’ death, John’s community was better able to make sense of Jesus’ resurrection.  

For us in the days, weeks and months to come, I imagine that we who knew David will tell stories of David, which will (of course) be stories from before his death.   As we call to mind stories about what David said and did before he died, we are in a way doing as John did in his Gospel;that is, telling stories to help make sense, in this case not of Jesus’ but of David’s, resurrection.   For example:  You think your dad told terrible “dad jokes?”  Our dad’s were worse – I promise you!   But in telling these jokes, wasn’t our dad trying to reach out and to connect with us? Reaching out and connecting is what Jesus does.  By his terrible jokes, David, baptized into Jesus’ death, in a way shared in Jesus’ life; and now he shares in Jesus’ resurrection.  Or we might call to mind stories of how faithful David was:  to my mother, to Cynthia, to the Church, to us kids, to his work… Jesus is faithful, too.  As Jesus said in the Gospel lesson a few weeks ago:  “I will not leave you comfortless…  I will give you an Advocate to be with you forever.”  By his faithfulness, David,baptized into Jesus’ death, shared in Jesus’ life; and now he shares in his resurrection.   Or I remember, too, how much David loved his grand kids.  When they were little, he would play with them for hours!   It was as though David put himself in their place and became like one of them.  Humbling himself to share in our humanity is what Jesus does in the Incarnation.  By “emptying” himself and getting on his knees to play with the grand kids, David, baptized into Jesus’ death, was in a way sharing in Jesus’ life; and now he shares in Jesus’ resurrection.  Each story we tell of what David said or did before he died holds the possibility of opening us to better understand how David now shares in Jesus’ resurrection.

A colleague once preached a homily on a text from Jesus’ final discourse in these latter chapters of John in which he said how he thought he understood his mother better now after her death.  Over the years as he changed and grew, he said, and as his life experiences matured him, he could look back at memories of his mother with greater appreciation and understanding.  So it was with John’s community, he suggested.  Maybe at the time, the disciples didn’t understand Jesus’ death and resurrection [e.g., see John 2:22].  But later, as they grew, and as their life experiences matured them, John’s community could look back and remember the things Jesus had said and done before he died, so that now after his death they better understood his resurrection.

I encourage us in the time to come to share stories of David.  David’s death is difficult, to be sure.  But as we remember the things David said and did – and as we likewise in our prayer and in the liturgy continue to remember the things Jesus said and did – with God’s help we may come not only better to understand David, but also more fully to see and appreciate how David now shares in Jesus’ resurrection.

Our relationship with David, as with Jesus, then will be a process of unfolding.  As we persevere in remembering David and the things David said and did, and as we persevere in remembering Jesus and the things Jesus said and did, perhaps we may come to see, like Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, a vision of Resurrection. We may come to hear, like the disciples in the upper room, Jesus saying,“Peace be with you.”  We may come to say, similar to what the disciples on the Emmaus road said, “Were not our hearts burning within us” when David was among us? For did not David in his life manifest to us at least in a small way something of the life of Christ?  “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says (and maybe David now says).  “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places.”  “You know the way to the place where I am going.”  “I am the way and the truth and the life.”  David did his utmost to walk in Jesus’ Way.  And I have no doubt David hopes for us to walk in that Way, too.  So that where he is – with Jesus in his Father’s house – there we may be also.