Sunday Sermon, 3 May 2026
The Fifth Sunday of Easter, St Andrew’s Church, Sedbergh
You can read the sermon below, or listen here:
A reading from the Gospel according to St John
‘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. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’
Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
John 14.1–14 NRSVA
One way of understanding our human condition is that we are all searching for something. What we are searching for changes from person to person, and depends upon our circumstances. The philosopher searches for meaning, for purpose, and for significance in life. The hedonist searches for pleasure. The spiritual mystic searches for enlightenment, for nirvana, for union with the divine. In the West, many of us have the luxury of devoting considerable time and resources to the search. In the poorer parts of society and our world, the search often consists of simply trying to find the next meal.
St Augustine wrote that we have restless hearts. Sometimes we wake in the middle of the night wondering what might have been, or what could be. Many of us sense that there is more to discover beyond the boundaries of our daily lives and experiences. This is reflected in our cultural stories of legendary quests, from Homer’s Odyssey, to King Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail.
Some are excited and earnest in their search. Others are weary and tired. Some are open and impressionable, whereas others are hardened and sceptical. Some continue to seek, whereas others have given up in frustration and disappointment. Some have long forgotten what they were looking for, and others can’t see the object of their desire when it’s right in front of them. Some feel like they’ve struck gold, whereas others realise they’ve spent their life chasing after Fool’s Gold.
Where are you on your search this morning? What are you seeking? Are you hopeful or disillusioned? Do you have faith or are you full of doubt, or somewhere in between? Do you believe that those who ask receive, those who seek will find, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened?
In our reading from John’s Gospel, we hear the famous words of Jesus: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”.
This is an invitation to ground our searching, not in a philosophy, nor in a teaching, nor in the pursuit of material things, but in a person. That person is Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, the one who opens for us the Way to the Father.
The Way is discovered in a relationship. There is no map that shows us where the treasure lies, nor a predefined set of steps that we must follow to gain approval. There is simply a person who invites us to trust in him, and to abide in his love.
I think this is what makes Christianity both so exciting but also so daunting. So often in life we seek to master things so that they will serve our needs. But the living Christ is abundantly free, and we cannot master him. If we bring our searching before him, and allow him to direct and guide us, he promises to be with us. But we cannot co-opt him for our own gain.
Rather, we are called to lay at the feet of Christ all of our desires, our hopes, our history, our grievances, our disappointments, our guilt, our plans, and our dreams. We bring everything that we are, and he promises to transform, to reshape and to refashion us. He will tutor us, discipline us, lead us, and be with us as he becomes our Way.
The Way is not something that we can understand or comprehend without this act of faith. It is as we trust in Christ that he becomes for us Truth and Life, and this fullness cannot be known objectively, or in a scientific sense. The Way becomes the Way of Truth, and the Way of Life, only as we follow him.
The poet TS Eliot writes these lines towards the end of his poem ‘Little Gidding’:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Home is pictured for us in John’s Gospel as ‘the Father’s house’. This is the place where God dwells, and Jesus is the Way to this heavenly abode. Humanity began its search in the garden, in the presence of God; Jesus promises he will show his disciples the way back into the fullness of God’s presence, to his Father’s house.
When we embrace Jesus as our Way, it feels as though our searching has come home. It is not that we have searched out something new; rather, someone who has known us from before time itself has sought us out and found us. From our first moments of life as a newborn, God has been present. When we come to Jesus as the Way, we discover this afresh, and we see familiar things in a new light. We know the place as if for the first time.
It is not an easy Way to the Father’s house. Jesus is preparing his disciples for his death and resurrection. He is going ahead of us, but he will return, to show us the Way. We too must be prepared to embrace death, and to let go of everything that we cling to so tightly. This Way brings pain and hardship. It throws everything into confusion. Think of the revolutions of the heart that the early disciples went through. Everything they thought about the world was turned upside down. Similarly, everything we think we know is provisional, is liable to be emptied out, questioned, and reexamined when we commit ourselves to the Way.
But the death we pass through leads to new life, both in the present, and in the future. As we daily walk in the Way, we are invited to leave behind old patterns of behaviour and embrace a new mode of living. As our defences come down, Jesus reveals new layers of humanity within us, compassion for others, the humility to say “I’m wrong” or “I’m sorry”.
And when the day of our departure comes, like St Stephen gazing into the heavens and seeing the glory of the Lord, so Jesus promises he will be there with us, ready to take us on from this life into the next.
John’s Gospel does not give us easy formulas or logical propositions. Through the written word, the Spirit of Christ invites us into relationship with the Divine Word. This is probably better understood through poetry than through teaching. George Herbert begins his poem ‘The Call’ with a meditation on this text: “Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life”. Herbert understood Jesus’ words as an invitation to possess Christ, and to be possessed by him.
We are called to follow Jesus as our Way, our Truth, and our Life. All of our searching begins and ends in him. We can trust him to lead us on the right path, even when the way seems rocky. Wherever you are on your search this morning, you are invited to renew your trust in the Resurrected One, who will come again to show us the Way to the Father.
Amen.