NOTES: 1] The context is the Last Supper. 2] If we find this hard going, so did Tom, Phil, & the rest of the disciples!

WARMING UP: Do we ever get members of some family we know mixed up?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything that's happened this week?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

1-6        When we have a 'troubled heart', at which end do we begin working through it? Do we usually begin with believing in ourself & our ability to 'snap out of it'? Someone else's ability to get us through? Or, with our belief in God? (No porkies, now!) Maybe we just carry it around in us. getting more & more troubled? Or don't we ever have a 'troubled heart'? How, in fact, do we normally 'connect' with God? Who or what is our usual starting point?

Do we normally think of God's 'house' as being up above the sky somewhere? Or is it more a state of spirit, mind, etc., in this world or some other dimension? Do we think of it as just an after-death place, or a here & now place, or state of being? What does it mean to us / for us to have a place there, wherever 'there' is? Or did Jesus' promise apply only to those he was actually talking to at the time? Do we ever find ourself trying to prepare that 'house' for ourself (by somehow sending or stockpiling quantities of the right 'building materials' 'there'?!)

How well do we know the way 'there'? Or are we more in Thomas' boat? The fact that the original emphasizes 'the' in each case: the way, the truth, the life points to each as unique. Where does that leave us when so many other 'ways', 'truths' & 'lives' are on offer today, inside & outside the churches? Where does it leave God?

7-11a      How do we know how to 'distinguish' Jesus from the Father in our thinking about God? Is the whole point of what Jesus says that we oughtn't to get bogged down in trying to distinguish too much between them, & that we can't, anyway? From a Christian perspective, can we 'see' God any other way than through Jesus? What about those of other faiths who don't approach / relate to God through Jesus - where does all this leave them? Or needn't that be a worry to us? In our spiritual life, if we focus on / relate to just one Person of God to the exclusion of the Others, are we missing out on something?

11b-14     Do we believe in Jesus because of works we see him doing now, or really only on the basis of works reported in the Scriptures? What if we don't see him doing any works now? Is that one reason for a lot of disbelief today? Whose job is it to do the works of God today? If people can't see God at work in the Person of / in the Spirit of Jesus today, does that mean we've 'had our chips' - or that God's had his?

What might Jesus mean when he says, a) that we will do the works that he does? b) that we will do even greater works than him if we believe? How can we do our part in making both these sayings happen?

Do you really believe that if you ask in Jesus' name he will do anything you ask? Anything?