Latest / St. Paul Podcast / Seeing Jesus in others, 5.3.2026

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Seeing Jesus in others, 5.3.2026 · St. Paul Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone and welcome to the St.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Mark Neethammer, Senior Pastor at St.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Lutheran Church, located in Davenport, Iowa, part of the Greater Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right here, each week, you will find beautiful music and a message of hope and good news to guide your life.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I am hopeful that this podcast can inspire you and help you on your journey of faith as you grow in love and trust in our God.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: Today, we venture into what is known as the farewell discourse in John's Gospel.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: As we are in the fifth Sunday of Easter, it may feel a little odd to hear a story where Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: This is because this chapter in John takes us back to the confusion of that Monday Thursday night after Jesus washes their feet, gives them a new commandment to love one another, and that where he is going they cannot follow.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: In this chapter, Jesus is about to be arrested and crucified.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yet, as we are in the E season of Easter and have proclaimed Christ is risen, the story also moves us along in the Easter season, as Jesus will be saying again goodbye again soon.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And the disciples will soon begin setting the foundations of the early church with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: But for now, we hear this reading from John.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: The Gospel according to St.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: John, the 14th chapter.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Do not let your hearts be troubled.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Believe in God.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Believe also in me.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: In my father's house, there are many dwelling places.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And you know the way to the place where I am going.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: How can we know the way?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: No one comes to the Father except through me.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you know me, you will know my Father also.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to him, Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: How can you say, Show us the Father?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: But the Father who dwells in me does his works.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: But if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Very truly I tell you.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: And if in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: And now here are a few reflections of this text.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Many of us on Monday, Thursday heard the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, giving them a new commandment to love one another and revealing to them that they couldn't follow where he was going.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Today, our story in John brings us right back to that night.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: But this time leans us further into the disciples' confusion and Jesus' promise to them of the many dwelling places of the Father that will be prepared for them.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yet we are in a different world today than where we were three three weeks ago.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus was going to go die on the cross today.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: We've witnessed the tomb that is empty and we've encountered the resurrected Jesus.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: But it was the disciples' reaction to Jesus' words that reminded me of a show that I watched when I was a kid.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: After homework, I'd turn on the television for about an hour, and it was always the Disney Channel.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: And there was a show about a set of twins who lived in an upscale hotel in downtown Boston with their mom.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Throughout the show, we've meet employees or other residents of the hotel.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: But one employee was a cleaning lady who had worked at this hotel for decades.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: From her, the twins learn about a treasure treasure hidden long ago by a hotel regular, a man that she knew personally.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Off they go, following clues and an old map as the other characters join the hunts.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: There are arguments and the occasional destruction of property played for laughs.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: But the episode concludes in a way that goes beyond the character's imagination.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: The treasure wasn't a trove of gold or a pile of cash, but a heart-shaped locket that hung around the cleaning lady's neck.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: When she lets them open the locket, they find an engraving from the man who called her his greatest treasure.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: The treasure wasn't material wealth, but her presence brought into his life.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think both this story in John and this episode that I mentioned pulls us into a real and honest experience for humanity.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: We often find ourselves seeking something, either to be fulfilling to us or to seek explanations when our prayers may feel unanswered.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Or we're looking for somewhere to share our milestones or our experiences, or maybe to find something that is true and dependable, especially when life feels messy and isolating or even confusing.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: When we hear Thomas's and Philip's responses to Jesus' words, we are brought right back into the confusion of that final night.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: We hear their disorientation.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: They long to still be connected to someone they've seen beyond their imagination.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Their teacher and Lord who had healed the sick, fed the hungry crowds, and raised the dead.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And now their teacher is leaving and they want to know how to find him.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: But there is something beautiful unfolding here through Jesus' conversation with his disciples.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: There isn't a need for a roadmap or clues to find a hidden Jesus.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, Jesus finds us.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Today we hear Jesus say this verse that may be familiar to many of you.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: I am the way and the truth and the life.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: While Thomas and Philip are looking for directions to find God, the way to God is standing right there among them, dwelling among them, present with them.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it is the same God that is dwelling with us.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus' promise to his disciples and the world isn't confined to a location.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: It isn't a faraway shore or a distant land.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: It is the presence of relationships and encounters of the living God.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: God is working beyond our imagination.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: God chose humanity and to experience every facet of our human condition, the grief and the tears, the joy and the laughter, the isolation and pain, betrayal and death, and continues to lead us into a new reality.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: God is breaking into our world, always finding us, always bringing us towards a new reality of peace, new life and belonging.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: God created us never to be alone in our grief or heartaches or pains.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: God also invites us to experience the fullness and wideness of God's presence throughout God's world.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: In a world that may seem to be defined by division, greed, and hunger.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: It is the fullness of God's grace, compassion, and connectedness that finds us instead.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder how much of this world would feel less chaotic and disorienting if we hold on to the converse Jesus' conversation with the disciples that night.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Not only to remember Jesus' promise that they will be together again, but to experience Jesus' promise that is near and that is already here through the crucified and resurrected Jesus.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: We don't need to search for God because God comes to us instead, bringing us into new encounters of the living God beyond what we might have ever imagined.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: I want to share a rather odd experience at a music event a couple of weeks ago.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: And it took place in a hotel where all four floors were filled with folk music from Ireland and Scotland, Louisiana and Canada, and a whole lot of bluegrass and a whole lot of old time.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: But the most profound and comically disorienting part of this entire weekend were the random jam sessions parked right in front of the elevator.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: No matter what floor I tried to get to, when the doors opened, I found myself pulled in by this wall of sound, a harmony of a gospel song.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just stepping into a hallway.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: It was experiencing another world on every floor.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Music and jam sessions aren't new to me, but I never imagined an elevator to open my eyes to another way to experience the breath of God's love and mercy that brings us together.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: What struck me after this experience is how often and quickly we enter someone else's world, even for a second without recognizing it.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think about the hospital elevators I've been on, standing right next to staff or other visitors, and it never crossed my mind to think about or stop and think about how their day is going.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Or for all the times when I pass by someone on a sidewalk and see them only as an obstacle to move around.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: Even at a stoplight with drivers on either side of me, I've started to wonder what kind of day they've had.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: I truly believe.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: We don't need to start a conversation or learn the full story of every stranger we share a second of space with.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: That isn't realistic.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: But maybe we can choose to see the wideness of God's presence that has already found every single one of us to recognize the inherent value and love that we all share as God's people, brought together by God.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Where is God bringing you today?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Might it be to that person you'll pass by or share a second of space with and share a greeting?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Or might it be that God is bringing you to have a new conversation with someone, to invite them for a meal or join an event?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Or is God leading you to a space to have that heavy and honest conversation with someone, making way for forgiveness and reconciliation.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Wherever God is bringing you, remember that it isn't just to greet a stranger, a friend, or even a loved one.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: It is also because you need to be seen in the fullness and richness of God's love for you.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that is exactly what God has done, is doing now, and will always continue to do.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: And in the places you've been and in the places you'll go.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: God knows that you will love and share in the deepest ways you know how.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks be to God.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: Hallowed be your name.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Give us today our daily bread.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil for the kingdom of the power.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Power and the glory are yours now and forever.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: And now receive this blessing.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord bless and keep you.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord makes the Lord's face shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you've enjoyed this podcast and thanks for your support of the ministries of St.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Lutheran Church.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Our commitment to endeavors that lend hope to other people stretches across the country and around the world.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: We hope that in a good way you feel a part of that reach.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Tune in next Thursday for another edition of the St.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.