Hi everyone,

Welcome to worship for this 5th Sunday of Easter, landing on May 3, 2026!

The bulletin for this service can be found here. In it, you’ll find the order and words of worship as well as the full sermon. You can use it to follow along with the service or you can use the words on your screen. The sermon is also included on this page below the video.

For an enhanced online worship experience, you are invited to have a lit candle in your space, which can be extinguished near the end of the service after the sending hymn when the altar candles are extinguished. You are also welcome to participate in communion if you are comfortable, by having something small to eat and drink prepared for the appropriate time. Further instruction will be given then.

May the joy, love, and life of Christ inspire you and lift you up, this day and always!

God of all goodness and mercy, by the power of your Spirit, open our eyes, ears, and hearts, that we might see your way, hear your truth, and the be filled with the life that you give, through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

So something happened this week that scared the living tar out of me.

Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but it was a pretty scary situation.  See, this ring that I’ve been wearing the past few weeks isn’t an ordinary ring.  It has some smart features and stuff but its main purpose is to act as a remote for these glasses that I’ve also been wearing for the past few weeks and are also not ordinary glasses, as some of you know.  But the tech isn’t the point.  The point is that while I was taking out the garbage on Tuesday evening, I slipped the ring into my pocket just to protect it a bit and keep it cleaner than my other actually ordinary ring that I didn’t even bother to take off at all.  But after I finished that particular chore, I washed my hands, dried them thoroughly, and then slipped one into my pocket to grab my ring only to find… that I couldn’t find it. 

Panic immediately set in.  I mean, spoiler alert, I found it as it’s obviously on my finger right now, but not before I retraced my steps several times throughout the house and yard and even to the alley to no avail.  I just got this ring and so I was really worried that I lost it already.  I kept going over everything in my head, every step, every move, everything I even touched, to see if I could remember the vital clue that would help me find this thing.  I even went as far to take out the garbage bags that I just threw out and sifted through them a bit, which really isn’t a pleasant experience especially when you have 3 kids at varying levels of cleanliness, hygiene, and uh, puberty…

Anyway, just as I was getting close to thinking that all hope was lost, an idea popped into my head.  My ring is connected to my phone over Bluetooth, and the range of its connection is pretty limited, like 10 feet or so, roughly.  So I thought maybe I could use my phone as a crude tracker of sorts by seeing where the where the Bluetooth connection is and where it drops.  I pulled out my phone and my ring was still connected.  There was a glimmer of hope, after all.  I walked around a bit on and off our property and before too long, I found it.  Not in my pocket as I’m sure many of you were thinking, but on the grass, which is still weird because that is literally like the third place I looked.  I guess when I grabbed my keys from my pocket, the ring came out with them and landed ever so quietly and gently on the grass that I didn’t even notice it. 

But that relief I felt after finding it, it was like all this worry was lifted off my shoulders.  Worry that lasted maybe a max of about just 20 minutes of looking, but still.  And truth be told, I’m a bit embarrassed that it took me as long as it did to think of tracking the ring with the Bluetooth trick, because as soon as I did, it took like another minute before I found it.  But now that I did figure it out, I probably won’t ever forget it.  It is a lesson that will stay with me forever.  Although I’m sure with future updates and software improvements both on the ring and my phone, that this kind of thing will be less likely to happen. But for now, I know that if I were ever to drop it again, I will have an idea of how to find it again.  I’ll remember how to get a rough perimeter of where it could be.  I’ll know generally the way to retrieve what has been lost.

And I wonder if this was a bit of the lesson that Jesus was teaching his disciples in today’s gospel reading.  Jesus, in this beginning portion of his Farewell Discourse, which was his way of saying goodbye and preparing them for his impending departure, reveals that he is leaving them to set up a place for them. 

I should say briefly that the place that he is preparing isn’t a literal room in a literal house, nor is it even a figurative room in a figurative house, but it’s more of a position in relation to him, or a rough proximity to God, or this identity we share as God’s beloved people.  Jesus promises that, through him, we are secured in that invitation, that welcome, this community to which we are all made and created and reformed to belong.

I know a lot of people will equate this “place” to something else, and technically that’s fine.  But I think the main part that we shouldn’t lose sight of is that Jesus doesn’t point to a goal or a destination or an end result.  Rather, his response to his disciples tells us that he’s preparing them for the journey of relationship, the path of righteous living, the connection with God and each other.

See when Jesus first tells his disciples about him preparing a place for them and how they are welcome in this fold, they don’t seem to understand where it is he’s talking about.  Like we probably would do, they try to pinpoint the location with precise coordinates.  They want a map and explicit turn-by-turn instructions on how they can get to this place.  They’ll follow Jesus there, for sure, but they just want to know where “there” even is.

But that’s not what Jesus gives them.  Jesus doesn’t drop a pin for them.  He doesn’t show them a street view image of what he’s talking about.  He doesn’t even give them a rough perimeter of where it’ll be.  Rather, he says that he is the way.  Jesus declares that he is the truth.  He reveals to them and us that he is the life.  So it’s not a place that he’s talking about, but a journey.  It’s not a destination that he’s describing, but a way of living.  It’s not a room per se that is being prepared for us to live in, but a connection to God and God’s community in love, peace, and hope.

This is seen even more in the grammar of the original language that starts this passage off.  Because of the limitations of our language, our English translations have no choice but say “don’t let your hearts be troubled.”  But the Greek is a bit more nuanced in that “your” is in plural form, and “heart” is in the singular.  Jesus is talking about our collective one heart that we share and joins us all together.  Jesus is talking about the one body to which we are connected and in which we find who we are.  Jesus is talking about the unity that we are graciously welcomed into as God’s people in the world.

This is what Jesus is teaching them.  This is what Jesus wanted them to know.  This is what Jesus was helping them to see in themselves.  That they are united.  Connected.  Loved.

Just as I was able to use my ring’s Bluetooth connection to find it, so are we found in our connection to God.  Just as my ring’s proximity to my phone was made visible through technology, so is our proximity to Jesus made visible but through acts of service and grace.  Just as how my ring did nothing but be itself to be found, so are we called not to find our way home, but to be found and brought home into the loving arms of our Lord and Saviour.

So as Jesus prepares his disciples, so are we prepared for our rough patches. For our times when we feel lonely, abandoned, and lost.  For whatever unwanted, uncomfortable, or even unexpected difficulties that might come our way, Jesus lifts us up and reminds us that we are not alone, but through him, eternally connected to God and all the saints.

I know, losing a ring sounds like a total first world problem.  We have other real issues that we’re facing that are much more difficult than lost property.  The world can take so much more from us than just our devices and convenience.  But through it all, I know and trust and believe that Jesus is ahead of us, leading us on the path, guiding us with wisdom, and journeying with us in order that we might see the life that is given and allows us to live it most abundantly.

So in this season of Easter and beyond, as we remember the joy of the Resurrection and new life, as we look upon the empty cross and are reminded of God’s unending grace and mercy, may we see Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life, and be united with him and each other as the one body of God’s people.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.