When I dream of heaven, it is always autumn.

The trees are on fire. When the sun is out, it seems to be a perpetual golden hour. My favorite time of the year runs from late September until my birthday in early January. My three favorite holidays are Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. For me, these holidays are a foretaste of the Good Place. A Merry Hallo-Thanks-Mas to you! Today, we’re going to talk about The Good Place: Heaven. We’ll talk about it because Jesus talks about it.

Jesus talks of his Father’s House in today’s gospel reading. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” Jesus never promised a life without trouble. He was about to go through the most traumatic and awful part of his life in holy week. What I take him to promise us today is that following his ways gives us an untroubled heart even in a troubled life.

It’s almost like he is saying, “You’re about to see some awful things happen. Believe in God, believe also in me.” Jesus has been telling his disciples in John’s gospel in the last chapter, chapter 13 and for the next 3 chapters until 17, Jesus is telling the disciples he’s going to die. In the Synoptic Gospels, that is Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he foretells his death three times and each time no one believes him.

The disciples weren’t thinking about Jesus’ death. They couldn’t. They thought he’d live forever. Same with us. We think we’re going to live forever. We won’t.

“My father’s house has many rooms… I go to prepare a place for you.” I just love that line. The image of a big house, and our friend and host Jesus welcoming us into a place he has prepared. “You know the way to the place where I am going.”

But Thomas speaks up. “We don’t know where you’re going, so how can we know the way?”

That’s an honest, excellent question. When I dream of heaven, how do I know it’s heaven? Because I’ve been there. I’ve seen it. Heaven has broken through in my life many, many times. You know it, too. You know the way to this place because you’ve been there. I’ll remind you soon, but I wonder if Thomas panicked with his friend and teacher talking about death. Thomas might have been having a moment. He had been at the wedding where the water was turned to wine. He had seen all the healings. He’d heard the teachings. Heaven broke through in those moments. Lives were restored. Good news was proclaimed. The poor were lifted up. The sick were healed.

You’ve seen this. I know you have.

Halloween is a version of heaven that visits us. We’re told from a young age to stay away from strangers. Don’t take candy from them. Don’t talk to them. Walk right on by. But once a year, ghosts and ghouls patrol our streets, and we laugh and hand out candy to them. Our neighborhoods are full. People are out walking. Creative costumes are made and presented. We celebrate life. That’s heaven coming to earth. In my Father’s house there are many rooms… and of course we’re knocking on doors and going room to room and sharing the sweetness of life. I believe we do that in heaven. Halloween is heaven.

We know the way to this place. We know where we’re going because we’ve been to the good place.

Jesus answered Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my father. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

But Philip pipes up, “Show us the Father, and that will be enough for us!”

What Philip is requesting is a theophany. A view of God. To see God and live. Ancient history and pagan religions are rife with seeing gods. Gods would come off Mount Olympus and hang out with humanity. There were stories of the sea gods saving sailors. We would get demi-gods like Hercules from gods getting a little too frisky with mortals. Philip is asking for a view of God. Yet in the Jewish religion, no one can see the face of God and live.

When God appeared to Moses, it was in the form of a burning bush. Later on, Moses asks to see God face-to-face. Moses was having HR problems, and Moses heads up a mountain to complain to God. Moses wants to see God’s face so he can get some authority with the people. God says, “I’ll put you in the cleft in the rock, and I will put my hand over the opening and I’ll pass by.” Some translations of this Exodus 33 story have the unfortunate translation of “You will see my backside/behind.” Yet the Hebrew is better translated, “You will see where I was.”

You will see where I was. We can’t see the God of the cosmos, creator of all matter, anti-matter, the standard model of physics and everything we’re learning through science just as we can’t see energy. We can see where it was in the flash or sparks, but not energy itself. But we can see where God was.

Thanksgiving and time around the table are where I see God. When I was a kid, I loved Thanksgiving. The smell of food cooking. The warm house. The Macy’s parade and football games on TV. We had great food and friends and family around the table. We usually play board games after the meal. I’m proud we have those traditions for my kids. There’s a specific turkey recipe I prepare that is divine. It’s just heaven on earth. Granted it’s a lot of stress sometimes making sure things get done and cooked on time. Sometimes there’s stress in the present but afterwards… Afterwards we see all the love that was gathered around the table. We can feel that God was there.

Thanksgiving unlocks something within us. It is the start of the most charitable time in our society. We make sure that others are fed, that everyone gets the turkey and all the fixings. We are sharing in the harvest, the gleaning of the fields; taking care of the least of these. Making sure all are fed and justice rolls like a might river.

Jesus answered Philip, “Don’t you know me, Philip? After all this time? How can you say show us the Father? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?”

Here is the Incarnation. God indwelling in Christ. This is Christmas. We celebrate God coming into the world with our trees and presents and radio stations playing Christmas music from mid-November until Christmas Day. Home Depot has already decked the halls! Love came down and taught us how to live. I believe that Jesus is fully divine and fully human. Because of this belief, I’m on the lookout to see who else God might be indwelling. Who else is incarnating the divine. I’ve been surprised!

When I was a child, I thought like a child, reasoned like a child… I thought of heaven as a place where we go when this life is over. This life was just a test to see if we got a good enough grade and then we’d be forever slotted into the divine realm. But when I became an adult, I put away childish things… This life is meant to be enjoyed. God made all this stuff and all these people not as a test but as a gift.

My call isn’t to go to heaven, it’s to recognize it when it shows up here. To help bring the good place here more so it shall be on earth as it is in heaven. When I dream of heaven, it’s always autumn. This is the beginning of a set of holidays, Holy Days, that bring the good place so close I can sometimes forget I’m still living on earth.

When the last trumpet sounds, and we exchange these bodies that will perish to immortal ones, I would like to think we would go right to this time of year. We would surround ourselves with good things. We would hand out candy to strangers. We would walk around to the dwelling places that Christ prepared. We would fix our favorite meals and invite friends and family over and eat and laugh and watch all our favorite sports. Afterwards we’d play board games. Then maybe open presents and soak in the divine love by the Yule Log and a decorated pine tree. That sounds like the Good Place to me. A vision of heaven and the great reward that awaits us…

But friends… why wait? You know this place. You’ve been there already. You might be there now. Thanks be to God. Amen.