The following sermon was delivered at Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia on May 15, 1977. The speaker is the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Church. His topic is, Get Into the Wheelbarrow. 

I want to return to the 14th chapter of John's Gospel from which we read earlier in the service. If you care to follow along in the Bible in your pew, you'll find it on page 938. I want to back up just a little bit from the reading that we had.

The theme of John's Gospel is heaven, eternal life. And here in chapter 14 we have a tremendous summary of its promise on Jesus last evening before the crucifixion. Even at this late date, the disciples' confusion is absolutely overwhelming.

Jesus claims about himself and the future explode like bombs going off one after another in their consciousness. The stage is set as Jesus says again, I'm leaving, I'm going away. Where are you going?

Can we come with you? Because you cannot follow me now. Later, but not now.

And Peter says, Lord, I'm ready to follow you anywhere, even to death. And Jesus says, Peter, you're not going to make it till breakfast. Which may just possibly have been the kindest thing Jesus ever said to Peter.

Because when Peter did turn and deny that he even knew Jesus, and suddenly those words came back to haunt him, I suspect there was an encouragement there in realizing though Peter had totally disappointed and surprised himself, he didn't surprise Jesus. Jesus knew that Peter was going to wipe out before he ever did so. And he loved him anyway.

That's the introduction to this great 14th chapter. It begins with these familiar words, which we usually read at a funeral. Let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house 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. And you know the way where I am going. Thomas objects to that.

He says, Lord, we do not know the way. We do not know where you're going, and how can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but by me. Jesus says, I'm going the way, and you can't come with me just now. You will come later, but not now.

I'm going to prepare a place for you. I wonder if you've ever really stopped to think about that. That Jesus is not just sitting around in heaven somewhere waiting for our story to run out here on earth.

But he's actively involved in doing something. He's preparing a place for you. It's a word of great love and great personal concern there.

Heaven is portrayed in that glimpse that we saw in the book of Revelation as a very expansive place, a mind-boggling, huge place of welcome. Too large for us really to imagine it. It's pictured as a tremendous city with doors, great gates on all sides, twelve of them opening in every direction.

and providing a welcome for any to come in who would do so. But this word reminds us that in all of that vastness, the individual doesn't get lost. That Jesus is personally concerned about each one of us.

You know, if a beloved friend or a relative that you haven't seen for years says to you, I'm coming for a visit, What do you do? You scurry around preparing a place. You tidy up the house, fresh linen on the beds, nice fluffy towels in the bath, maybe some choice books on the night table, some flowers on the dresser.

Prepare your favorite recipes. You prepare a place for your loved one. Some of you men will have had the experience of having your company move you somewhere, and prior to your family being able to join you, you go ahead of them.

And in addition to getting used to a new job, you're also trying to find a place. As nice a place as you can find, and you prepare it for your family to come and join you. This is what Jesus says He's about.

I go to prepare a place for you. and then he says you know the way we don't know the way will you please notice that Jesus does not say let me point the way he doesn't say listen to me because I have the truth and he doesn't even say look at me and let me demonstrate the life that would be astounding enough but that's not what he says he says I am the way I am the truth I am the life so he goes to prepare a place for us but the very heart of that place the essence of what it's about is Jesus himself. It's interesting to compare and contrast Jesus with some of the leaders of the world's great religions at this point.

I think you'll find if you look closely that they're consistently pointing away from themselves. And Jesus is pointing toward himself. I happened to turn on the television before the service this morning.

There was a man on there saying, God has been revealing himself everywhere, and we look to Buddha and we see God in Buddha. We thank God for the Christly revelation of himself through Buddha. You've heard people say, it doesn't really matter what you believe, because all religions are basically saying the same thing.

Well, my response to that particular man is that either he doesn't know anything about God, or he doesn't know anything about Buddha. Because Buddha refused to talk about God. If you came up to Buddha and you said, tell me about heaven, he'd say, that's not worth discussing.

I have nothing to say on the subject. Mohammed on his deathbed said, it gives me great pain to realize that I'm no closer now to Allah than when I began my ministry. Gandhi, who's often been called the noblest Hindu of all times, said almost the identical thing on his deathbed.

Great pain to know my sin separates me from God. I'm not any closer to Him now than when I began. Confucius paid God lip service, but as a matter of fact, God was irrelevant to Confucius' real concern, which was being a gentleman.

The leaders of the world's great religions consistently are pointing away from themselves. There is God, or there is the way you are to live, go do it. And in the sharpest kind of contrast, Jesus points to himself.

Look at me, he says. I am the way. I am the truth.

I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Philip at that point says, well now you've really hit on it, Lord.

Show us the Father and we'll be satisfied. and Jesus says Philip have you been with me this long and you still don't understand if you've seen me you've seen the Father I and the Father are one so Jesus is going to prepare a place for us but he himself is the very heart and core of what that place is going to be about. And his message here is, Believe me.

You believe in God? Believe in me. You say, I believe in God.

I wouldn't be here if I didn't. That word is much stronger than the way we typically use it in English today. We use believe as a kind of a weak form of knowing something. Do you know it?

Well, I believe it. That's not at all what it means here in Scripture. To believe in God, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, biblically means to put your whole trust in Him.

One person renders this to lean your whole weight upon Him. To totally take yourself out of your keeping and entrust yourself into His keeping. I mentioned this is a great funeral sermon.

Problem is with a funeral it's too late. So let me preach you a little funeral sermon here before it's too late. There's a man who lived about a hundred years ago by the name of Charles Blondin.

And he determined when he was still a little boy that he was going to be the world's greatest acrobat. and there's no doubt that he was. He did things that nobody's ever been able to duplicate since and as he reached his height of acclaim and expertise, the pinnacle of his success was when he stretched a tightrope across Niagara Falls, 160 feet up in the air, 1,100 feet long, and Blondin went skipping across the tightrope.

of course this was in the days before there was moving picture before there were any television cameras so the only way you could learn about this was reading about it in the New York Times people didn't believe it so Blondin had to go back and do it again and in fact it became an annual event and the crowds got bigger and bigger each year and he had to do it more and more extravagantly each time he went back to the falls so one time he went across blindfolded one time he went across in a sack and hopped one time he did somersaults across the tightrope one time believe it or not he went out into the middle and cooked himself an egg he did it in the dead of winter the spray from the falls coming up and freezing on the tightrope and then the wildest thing nobody believed this could possibly be done but Blondin did it filled up a wheelbarrow with 200 pounds of sand and pushed it across the tightrope he got to the other side and the crowd went absolutely crazy there was a man down the front row of the crowd and he said do it again with a man in the wheelbarrow and Blondin said do you believe I can the guy says oh yeah do it do it Blondin says get in now that's the difference between intellectual assent and biblical belief get into the wheelbarrow trust yourself totally into somebody else's hands. Of course, that's a pretty ridiculous example for us unless, just suppose, that for some reason, you absolutely had to get across Niagara Falls. Just suppose that it was a matter of life and death.

You have to get across the falls. And there's no other way to get across. And Charles Blondin offers you a ride in his wheelbarrow.

Now we begin to see the dimensions of what's at stake, don't we? Because there's a falls that we have got to get across. And Jesus offers to get us across.

and I don't know anybody else who says he can do it. And you can bet on one thing, that in the course of the next year, either I will bury some of you or you will bury me. twice in this passage Jesus says let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid four times in this passage he says I will come for you question is are you going to be prepared to go with him believe in God believe also in me put yourself in my keeping take yourself out of your own keeping and entrust yourself wholly to me I'd like to lead you in a prayer this morning I'd like to pray a prayer in the first person, a prayer of commitment to this Lord Jesus Christ.

A prayer of entrusting ourselves to Him. If you've already prayed such a prayer, then you might want to join with me in this and renew your commitment to Him. And if you've never prayed such a prayer to Him, this would be your opportunity.

to get into his wheelbarrow, as it were. And I'd invite you to pray after me. Don't pray it unless you mean it.

But if you do, accept his great gift this morning. Let us kneel and pray. Lord Jesus Christ Lord Jesus Christ thank you for loving me thank you for loving me thank you for dying for me thank you for going to prepare a place for me I want to be ready to go to that place with you I want to take myself out of my own keeping and entrust myself to you I take by faith the gift of new life the forgiveness of my sins and the promise of heaven and I give myself to you fill me with your Holy Spirit and I give you thanks for your namesake and I give you thanks for your namesake Amen Amen.