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The following message for the moment is delivered by the Reverend Dr. Bruce Wheeler Thielman. Today's message is entitled "Upper Room Interrogatories." The scripture reading of the morning is the Gospel according to John, portions of the 13th and the 14th chapters. I begin at John 13, verse 21. When Jesus had thus

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spoken, he was troubled in spirit and testified, "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was lying close to the breast of Jesus. So Simon Peter beckoned to him and said, "Tell us who it is of whom he

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speaks." So lying thus close to the breast of Jesus, he said to him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What

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you are going to do, do quickly." Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that Judas had the money box, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the feast," or that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel, he immediately went out, and it was night. We continue the

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reading at verse 36. Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered, "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow afterward." Peter said to him, "Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the clock will not press until you have denied me three

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times." And then in chapter 14, beginning at the verse numbered 1, "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

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will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way 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 but by me. If you had known me, you would have

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known my Father also. Henceforth you know him and have seen him." And may God bless to us and to our understanding these readings from his Word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. That night, that night when Jesus met to celebrate the Passover with the

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disciples for the last time, that night when he gathered with them and perhaps some others in an upper room in old Jerusalem, that night, the same night on which he was to be prayed, there was also addressed to Jesus a series of questions. And as I have considered these questions, it occurred to me that we often ask the

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same questions of him, and that it might be beneficial, profitable for us to look at these interrogatories from 2,000 years ago and the way in which Christ did or did not respond to them. The first question was put by the disciple whom Jesus loved, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus has just announced that one of the disciples

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is going to betray him. Peter says to John, who happens to be beside Jesus, "Ask him who it is." And so John turns to the Lord and says, "Lord, who is it?" And Jesus replies, "It is that one to whom I give this morsel of food." Now we do not know exactly what John thought when he heard those words, but we do know that he did not grasp the

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fact that Judas was the traitor, because moments later when Jesus said to Judas, "What you are about to do, do quickly," the very next line of Scripture reads, "No one knew why Jesus said this to him." Now if John knew that Judas was in fact the traitor, then he would have understood what Jesus meant in so speaking to Judas. But he, like the other

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disciples, did not understand. If John would have known that Judas was getting up to go out and betray this Lord he loved, then he certainly would have done whatever he could have done to have stopped him. But he didn't know, and none of the others knew. That is the reason each one of them asked, "Lord, is it I?" Now Jesus could

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have been quite clear here if he had wanted to be. When Judas said to him, "Lord, is it I?" he could have said, "Yes, Judas, it is you." When John said to him, "Who is it that will betray you, Lord?" Jesus could have said, "It is Judas, a traitor." When all of the disciples present in the room said to Jesus, "Lord, is it I?" he could have said to all but Judas, "No, you are not the one." But Jesus chose instead to

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permit the whole matter to remain rather clouded and uncertain, and there is a good reason for this. It is because this is the kind of question which can be answered only by the person who asked it. In other words, whether an individual is going to follow or deny Jesus is a matter of her or his own choice. Jesus is

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saying to the disciples, "You want to know who the traitor is? You want to know if it is you? You decide." As we come to this table this morning, we need to ask ourselves, "Are we betraying him?" Jesus put that question to us via our own Christian spirit, because only we know the answer to that question, each one for

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himself or herself. Now the second two questions are put by Peter. "Lord, where are you going, and why can't I follow?" Jesus has announced that he is going to go away and that his disciples will not be able to follow him, but that later they will be able to follow him. Now we all know how impulsive Peter was, and he can

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understand this remark. After all, he had been there on Galilee the day that Jesus said, "Come and follow me," and Peter had followed him every step of the way from that time. And now Jesus was saying to him, "You will not be able to follow me." And so Peter asks about it, "Lord, why can't I follow you? Why, I am ready to

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follow you even unto death." And Jesus replies, "Peter, the cock will not crow three times this night before you have three times denied that you know me." What we see here is the weakness of impulsive religion. Christ never concealed what the nature of discipleship is. He did not want people to be his disciples without

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understanding what the obligations of discipleship were. He is saying here in his response to Peter, "Sit down." "Count the cost, just as a builder figures out the cost of a building before he begins the building itself. Take a moment to measure your resolve. Reckon up the resources which are yours." And he goes on and he says to Peter, "Peter, Satan is going to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you.

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And it is my prayer that you will return to me, and that when you return to me, you will lead others." The point is that we need to be tested to see how faithful we really are. When you read this passage in the Greek, you discover that at this point Jesus shifts from the singular pronoun to the plural pronoun. In other words, he is speaking to all of the disciples. He is speaking to us here

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today, and he says, "Do not despair. Do not be frustrated by the hostility of the world or the frailty of your own faith. All will end well, but you must be tested and you must endure. You must learn to see yourself as you truly are, and then you will find how much you need to depend upon me." There's a scene in Herman Melville's Noby Dick in which Starbuck, the first mate of the ship, the Pequod,

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is picking a crew for the small boat in which he pursues harpooned whales. And one young boy, very arrogant, comes up to him and Starbuck says, "Do you fear whales?" And the boy replies, "I do not fear any whales." And Starbuck answers, "I will have no one aboard my boat who does not fear a whale."

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And then commenting on this, Melville adds, "By this he meant that the most reliable code is that which arises from a fair estimation of the peril to be encountered. The man who is fearless out of ignorance or pride is a more dangerous comrade than a coward." We need to think about this as we come to this table this morning.

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As we are being tested in our believing, are we holding fast? Are we passing the test? Are we enduring? For as Scripture says, "Only those who endure will be saved." Now, this conversation of Jesus with Peter immediately prompts three additional questions.

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Jesus says that he is going to go away and that they will not see him for a while. And 1 Thomas says, "We don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" And then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, but another disciple named Judas, says, "How will you show yourself to us and not to the world?"

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And then a group of the disciples, not all of them, but some smaller group, and we don't know who was in that group, say, "What do you mean, 'For a little while we will not see you, but then we will see you again'?" And in response to these three questions, Jesus answers with some of the richest and most beautiful words of all of Scripture. "In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.

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I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I'll be, ye may be also." What he is saying to the disciples is this. "I am going to go to heaven, and as I go, I will be apart from you for a while,

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but there are some things about this heaven that I want you to remember. First, remember that if you remain true to your faith, even in the time of testing, you will be going to my Father's house. In my Father's house," he begins. Now, in our society today, the concept of Father has been debased.

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On television, the typical father is Archie Bunker. In the cartoons, the typical father is Fred Flintstone. In the comic strips, the typical father is Bagwood Bumstead. One sociologist has said that we live in the era of the child man father

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who cannot get along without a wife who is stronger than he is. That's what we think of fathers now, or what some of those who write and photograph and teach us these days have to say about fatherhood. But this is not what the Bible says about father.

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In the Bible, the father is the source of life. He is the source of strength. He is that one who gives love even to the point of profound self-sacrifice. He is the one who represents his own family. He is the one who has infinite tenderness and unimaginable wisdom.

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So Jesus is saying to the disciples, "You are going to be with my Father in such an intimate relationship with him that it will be as if you were in his own house." And that word "house" really should be translated "dwelling place" or "home." I think there's a kind of a desire hidden down inside of us,

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and some people have it hidden so far down that they never really recognize it. But there is a desire within us to ascend to a level of life that is beyond anything we can know on earth. We have a small piece of heaven in our hearts.

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And whether we are situated or not, there is in us this desire to be in intimate fellowship with God. There is a kind of hope for a new Eden. And what Jesus is saying is this homing instinct, Jeremiah calls it,

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this urging such as leads the birds in the time of migration, "This will be fulfilled. You will be in my Father's house." And in this house, Jesus says, there is abundant room. The older versions say there are many mountains.

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Actually, it should be translated "many rooms" or "many abiding places." The Latin root of the word for "mansion" is "mansio," and the mansio was either an inn or a one-night camping place. Now, an inn is a very impersonal place,

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and a one-night campsite is a very impermanent place. And Jesus is not suggesting in any way, shape, or form that his Father's house is impersonal or that it's impermanent. I always think of it in terms of a story which the late Peter Marshall told

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about a little boy named Kenneth who was dying. And his mother was reading to him, and in the midst of her reading, he suddenly interrupted her and said, "Mommy, what is it like to die?" And overcome with emotion, she ran from his bedroom.

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"I have to fix something in the kitchen," she said. And there she went. And then when she had composed herself, she went back to her little boy's bedside, and she said,

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"Mommy, you know how it is some night when you fall asleep in the living room on the couch, or maybe in Mommy's bed beside her?" "Yes." "And then you remember how the next morning when you wake up,

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you find yourself in your own room and in your own bed?" "Yes." "Well, that's what it's like to die. We fall asleep, and just as your father comes and carries you to your own room,

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so God the Father comes and carries us each to our own room. All of us have our special place in heaven, and the key to the door to that place is exactly the shape and form of our own hearts." And then Jesus says, "And when you get there,

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you are going to be welcomed by all those who have gone before." Just as Jesus sent those two disciples ahead of Him to prepare the upper room for the Passover feast, now He says, "I am going to go ahead of you,

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and I am going to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you to Myself." Those who endure the tests of faith, and who do not move off into a false faith,

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but instead are truly committed, they are going to know the unspeakable joy of reunion with those that have lost a while. That's the way it will be for all those who believe. There is a little poem that I like very much that speaks of this.

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"It will be such a little way to us, across to that great country, the beyond. And yet not strange, for it has come to be the home of many of whom we were so fond. They make it feel most dear, as dwelling friends bring distant countries near. And so for us there is no sting to death, and so the grave has lost its victory.

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It is but crossing with abated breath and white-striped face, a little slip of feet, to find our loved ones waiting on the hill. More beautiful, more precious than before." And Jesus concludes by saying, "And you will also have in the kingdom of heaven

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perfect unity with me." He says, "But where I am, you may be also." And it will be a wonderful thing to do with Christ. The one who saved us by his death on the cross, and he will live with us eternally

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in the kingdom of heaven, which he has prepared for our coming. You see, the fact is, we are not going to find Christ in heaven. We are going to find heaven in Christ. Sometimes in this life we are anxious about our dying.

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Sometimes we feel the presence of Christ, and other times he seems to be very far away from us. We seem to experience his absence. But in heaven, when we have wakened from the dream of life, our fellowship with him will be marvelously intimate.

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He will announce our redemption. He will restore all that suffering has destroyed. He will give back those years which crutches or wheelchairs have been stolen away the time that was ours.

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He will sound symphonies and operas that deaf ears were never able to hear. He will give freedom to those who are conquered or who are enslaved by the powerful. And he will give dignity and identity to those who have been robbed of these things by the unjust and the prejudiced.

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He will replace anything in our lives made less than it ought to be by our own foolishness with that which is perfect and can be found in him. He will love us, and it will be the kind of love that we have searched for up and down a thousand streets,

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and wept with tears and clawed our pillows in the dark night searching for it. Well, I hope looking at these questions put to Jesus in the upper room is somehow helpful to you. It certainly was helpful to the eleven disciples. They came out of it with a profound understanding of the fact

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that they must not betray Jesus, and that even in the time of severe testing they must not yield to some impulsive faith, but instead only to that which is a deep and honest commitment to souls.

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And they also brought out of these questions the magnificent knowledge that they would know what it was like, the test that in the true would experience in their own lives, the wonders of the Father's house.

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This is the reason the disciples did not fear Judas or Pilate or Caiaphas or Felix or Agrippa or Nero or the spirit of the earth, that dark power of evil which moves on the face of this planet. They believed Jesus, and he had said to them, "If it were not so, I would have told you."

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And so now, as we gather at his table, let each of us ask ourselves, "Lord, is it I?" And if the answer is yes, then let us reject false and hypocritical claims to faith.

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Let us ask, "Lord, why can we not follow you?" And if the answer is that we cannot follow him because we have an impulsive, prideful, gesturing way of believing, then let us commit ourselves to the kind of faith which, even though it be tested,

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will remain utterly and forever true. And let us ask, "Lord, we do not know where you are going or how you will reveal yourself or how soon we will see you." And if we ask those questions and are genuinely his disciples,

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then we will hear what he says to all those who are humble and honest before him. "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

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And if I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, ye may be also." Let us pray. Our Father, may these interrogations from old Jerusalem's upper room

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find their way into our hearts as we come in this holy place at the end of this year into thy presence at thy table. Lead the unbelieving to belief. Lead the weak believing to strength.

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Lead those whose hearts already long to be with thee to the knowledge that, tested and true, there is stored up for them the Father's house. We pray our prayer in Jesus' name.

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Amen.