William (Bill) Ralph Woolhether Funeral Sermon – John 14:1–7 April 3rd 2024 / A Place Prepared for You

William (Bill) Ralph Woolhether Graveside Funeral Sermon / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Wednesday April 3rd 2024: Season of Easter / John 14:1–7 “A Place Prepared for You.”

“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 if 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 to 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 except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends and family of Bill Woolhether, the night before Jesus was crucified He said these words to His disciples and He says them today to you, Jesus says, “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 if 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 to where I am going.”

Let’s back track a little bit. Jesus had been with these disciples for three years before He said those words. At one point early on Jesus went with them “to His hometown [of Nazareth in Galilee], and His disciples followed Him. And [Saint Mark tells us] on the Sabbath [Jesus] began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to Him? How are such mighty works done by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary …?[1]

This passage from Saint Mark’s Gospel is one of the spots in the Bible that establish that Jesus, God the Father’s Son, was a carpenter, and as a carpenter He would have known a little bit about building things, about getting a place ready. The Hands and Feet that were nailed to the cross on Good Friday were the hands and feet of a working man, the hands and feet of a builder, a hard worker, who lifted wood and pounded nails, who could saw and plane and make level. He was very qualified to promise a house to His disciples. At the cross the nails that drove through His flesh and pinned Him to the wood were the first nails pounded into that promised Home in Heaven. Every House starts somewhere, whether at the job site or in a pre-build facility, there will always be that first nail driven into the wood, that second nail, that third nail and before you know it, with blood sweat and tears, before your eyes stands a house, and when everything is prepared and people have been moved into it, then you are not just looking at a house, you are looking at a Home. Jesus says, “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?” Jesus takes God the Fathers House in Heaven and He makes it into your Home. He prepares it for you.

Everyone in His hometown knew Jesus was a carpenter just like all of you knew that Bill was a carpenter. Some of them, like you, might have even been able to point to things Jesus made for them, like you can to point to things made by Bill. Bill even made his own urn; he didn’t know he was making it for this purpose.

Bill in his baptism is counted as a son of God the Father through Jesus Christ. Jesus was not “a” son, Jesus was and is and ever shall be “the” Son of God the Father and for this reason Jesus is the one who saves. Today your hearts can be comforted that Jesus the carpenter from Nazareth with His blood sweat and tears, by the work of His almighty hands at the cross saved your dear carpenter Bill. And not just Bill, Jesus’ work at the cross which we remembered last Friday was to save each of you too. As a fellow carpenter and wood worker Bill will have a special admiration for the home Jesus prepared for him in God the Father’s house and, God willing, when Jesus comes to take you to Himself you will appreciate the work of the Carpenter that brought you to that place. 

On the night before His crucifixion Jesus said to the disciples “you know the way to where I am going.” They didn’t know, this is why Saint Thomas said “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?” The truth was that the place that Jesus was going was arrived at through the Cross of Good Friday: no Good Friday, No suffering for the sins of others, no death, than no room in the Father’s House.  This is why Jesus responds to Saint Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus went through suffering for the sins of others and He ultimately went through death, so that we can go through Him to arrive at our place in the Father’s House. We don’t arrive there, in the Father’s House, by our own hard work we arrive there by His. Now I don’t want you to hear that wrong: like it’s meant to discourage you from working hard, or doing things for others; that’s not the case. When it comes to how you are saved Saint Paul writes, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”[2] That part Jesus has accomplished for you, He accomplished that for Bill. Now you’re free to take what you are able to do in this life and go do things for others. How do we know this? Saint Paul continues that passage I just quoted by saying “For we are [God the Father’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”[3] This is like paying it forward. Not to save yourself, not for brownie points, simply because it honours God and serves your neighbour making their lives better.

For example Bill found ways to do this in his work at the WASCANA Rehab in the wood shop and later in maintenance. Many people lives were touched and improved by his using his skills in carpentry for others. This doesn’t get Bill into heaven, Jesus did that, but it does make everyone’s lives better here during the days God the Father has given us in this life. Think of your life and the skills you have. Think about how you’re using them. Consider whether you are doing it solely for yourself or whether you are using those skills to the glory of God and the good of the people around you. Be encouraged, today is not only a day of shared grief it’s a day of reflection. We are not prefect in doing those good works prepared in advance for our walk in during this life, we stumble and fall along the way and when we do our Lord Jesus, the Good Carpenter, is there to pick us up and brush off the sawdust, put the hammer back in our hand, the nails back between our lips and keep us going. He is our true help, even in death, and He is our Life especially in the face of death. Let not your hearts be troubled Jesus makes good on His promises. The ones He promised Bill in Bill’s baptism and through Bill’s life. Jesus is the one who will make good on His promises to you. There is a room in the Father’s House for Bill, Jesus has come and taken Bill to that place and there is a room in the Father’s House for you too and when we are all gathered in it will truly be a home unlike any other. Hold on to Jesus’ words to you, “Believe in God, Believe also in Me,” Jesus says. Amen.    

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Mark 6:1–3a
[2] Ephesians 2:8–9
[3] Ephesians 2:10

Photo Credit: Main photo suplied by family and Mount Olive Lutheran Church; detail of tools from pexels; William Woolhether with fish from family; AI generated image of Jesus as carpenter from freepik; detail of carpenter from pexels.