2026/05/03 SCRIPTURE REFLECTION
Fifth Sunday of Easter
- Scott Kumer, Associate Director of Liturgy & Music
“Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people!”
Many years ago, I heard a powerful sermon given by a visiting mission preacher. The sermon’s refrain (quoted above) sticks with me. With a reed-like tenor voice, the preacher would reference Scripture and teach for short periods of time. In between, he would proclaim this refrain, each time more intensely than before. It was a clarion call made a dozen times over a span of a half hour, and it drove home his message. I thought of him and his sermon when I read this Sunday’s Gospel. Here’s the passage…
“In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” (John 14:2-3)
These are some of the most amazing, consoling, and hopeful words in the Bible. “My Father’s house” signifies eternal life with God. Not as an abstraction, but as a true existence where we are known, welcomed, and loved. Dwelling places (sometimes translated mansions) are our individual homes in heaven with the Lord. Jesus tells us that He is the one who not only prepares our dwelling, but He is the one who fetches us!
There are a couple related Scripture passages that come to mind…
“How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord… Happy are those who live in Your house, ever singing Your praise.” (Psalm 84:1, 2, 4)
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” (2 Corinthians 5:1)
Heaven is a prepared place, like the preacher said. Now, to the other part of the preacher’s sermon. I wonder. Am I prepared for such a gift? It’s not always easy for me to be prepared. There’s the parable of the wedding banquet, where guests are invited but one guest does not show up properly attired (Matthew 22:11-14). There’s the parable of the ten bridesmaids, five of whom do not have enough oil in their lamps (Matthew 25:1-13). There’s the admonition to take up my cross daily and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23). It seems like each person’s cross and each person’s eternal dwelling place have something in common: they are unique to that individual.
More and more, I feel the need to surrender to God’s mercy and offer thanks now for this great gift – our heavenly dwelling with the Lord – which obviously we do not yet possess, but will possess, forever. That would be a demonstration of trust and a way to live in grateful, faithful expectation!
“Jezu, ufam Tobie.” “Jesus, I trust in Thee.”
To conclude, here’s a bit of related music trivia. Can you finish singing these strains and name the hymns from which they are drawn? (Scroll down for answers.)
1) When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun…
2) Eye has not seen, ear has not heard…
3) Jesus, remember me…
4) That, when our life of faith is done, in realms of clearer light…
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1) we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.
from Amazing Grace
2) what God has ready for those who love Him;
Spirit of love, come, give us the mind of Jesus, teach us the wisdom of God.
from Eye Has Not Seen(1 Corinthians 2:9)
3) when You come into Your Kingdom.
from Jesus, Remember Me (Luke 23:42)
4) we may behold You as You are, with full and endless sight.
from We Walk by Faith (2 Corinthians 5:7)