The Holy Travel Agent

John 14:1-14

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The first part of our Gospel reading today makes Jesus sound like a travel agent! I know that’s not an image that typically shows up alongside more grand images like, “Christ the Good Shepherd” and “Christ the King.” “Christ the Holy Travel Agent” doesn’t really ring in the ear the same way… However, in verses 2-6 Jesus promises his disciples that he is going to make loving preparations of dwelling places at “his Father’s house.” Then Jesus promises to come back after those preparations have been made and provide the disciples with transportation there; in fact, “he actually promises that he will personally accompany them as their transportation to his Father’s house.”[1] 

Now, this is, admittedly, a silly image but it did remind me this week of a story that might help us get into our Gospel text today. 10 years ago, I was invited to be a presenter as part of an interfaith panel at the International HIV and AIDS Conference in Durbin, South Africa.

The Lutheran Office for World Community[2] located in the United Nations was asked to find participants from the Lutheran tradition in the United States to participate. I was working at ReconcilingWorks, a Lutheran nonprofit focusing on creating welcoming churches for LGBTQ people and so they reached out to me.

I didn’t have any experience or much knowledge about the global HIV and AIDS epidemics that still plague parts of our world. However, Christine Mangale, the director of the Lutheran Office for World Community, thought I could speak to how communities become more welcoming to marginalized people. There is a strong historic crossover between members of the LGBTQ community and people with HIV and AIDS. Both LGBTQ people and those with HIV/AIDS are a stigmatized and marginalized people around the world. I knew I could indeed speak about the experience of marginalization and how, in Christ’s name, our church is a place of welcome and hospitality for all people, especially those downcast.

So, I accepted what felt like a once-in-a-lifetime invitation! I’m glad I did! So far, it has been a once in my lifetime kind of invitation.

After I accepted it, I was sent a form to fill out all my personal details because another rare thing happened as a part of this invitation: all my travel was booked for me. I didn’t have to shop for airline tickets. I didn’t have to find hotel accommodation. I didn’t have to book taxis. The Lutheran Office of World Community did it all – I just followed my itinerary.

And it was an amazing experience. I visited my third continent - Africa. I learned so much about the global work to mitigate HIV and AIDS. I overcame my nerves to speak on a global stage. I sampled Zulu cultural foods and the mash-up of delegates to this conference from every UN member country was a diversity I’d never experienced.

All this sticks very clearly in my memory. Except – I don’t remember anything at all about what I said during my “official” presentation… you know, the thing I was invited to do. I don’t even remember what the room looked like.

This week, I wondered if that tells me something. Perhaps, that what I experienced along the way on this trip was more important for me than the actual presentation I was invited to make. In other words, maybe it was more about the journey and less about the destination.

That’s usually a pithy phrase used to convince yourself that when you took a wrong turn on the highway and you end up sinking 2 hours into seeing the world’s largest ball of twine it was totally worth it! It’s about the journey, not the destination!

But, perhaps “Christ the Holy Travel Agent,”  is saying basically this same thing in our text from John’s Gospel today.

Our NRSV Bible, has a title for the chapter that reads, “The Way to the Father.” This title provides a clue that maybe it is more about The Way.  Like my trip to South Africa became more about the journey and my experience along the way than about the specific thing I was invited to do.  

Notice, in our Gospel, Jesus never gives us the coordinates for the destination. He simply says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and those who know me, know the Father. Where I am, there you may be also.”

“Christ the Holy Travel Agent” is becoming a more beautiful image! Christ is the Way. “Where you are, there I (Christ) am also.” It’s an invitation for us to enter a different kind of being with or alongside Jesus. A kind of mentality, a spiritual state where the destination is the journey. To paraphrase more directly from our text today: Where Christ is, there is also our dwelling place with the Father for if you know Christ you know the Father.

Our Gospel lesson today, is that the Father – and all the dwelling places in the Father - are always with us as we are on The Way in Christ. Our Christian calling is to follow, to praise, to kneel to, to cry out to in times of need, and to celebrate Christ who is our Crucified and Risen Savior who tells us, “If you know me, you will know my Father also.” In Christ Jesus, is also God the Father. The Way is the destination.

Today, we mark a milestone on the Way of Jesus Christ. Six of our youngest members at St. Matthew will partake in their First Communion. They will come and kneel and celebrate Christ their Crucified and Risen Savior. They are on their journey in Christ and today they receive a gift that helps all of us to remember that Christ is by our side on The Way and Christ is present in every day, normal things like bread and eating together.

Holy Communion is one reminder that in Christ, we are in the Father. And Christ is in us as we eat and drink of the bread and wine. That’s how close the Triune God comes to us as we go on our Way with Christ. So close, that indeed God is within us. You are dwelling with God and God is dwelling with you.

Christ is The Way. Christ is the journey. Christ is the destination. For in Christ, there also is God the Father.

Thanks be to God for dwelling among us in Christ and setting us all on our Way which is the destination.

Amen.

Rev. Ryan Heckman | May 3, 2026 | Fifth Sunday of Easter

[1] Bruner, F.D. “The Gospel of John: A Commentary.” Eerdmans Press, 2012. Page 810.

[2] https://www.elca.org/how-we-serve/elca-in-society/lowc