Hearing this Gospel lesson read on a Sunday morning may come as a shock to many of us. It is not the setting we are used to. "In my Father's house are many rooms" is a phrase we tend to associate almost exclusively with funerals, and small wonder, since, in many churches, that is or has been the only Gospel lesson appointed to be read at the burial of the dead.

Here on a spring morning, with the trees in bud and new life popping out everywhere, we have to remember funerals we have attended and heard those words solemnly proclaimed. Going to church certainly should not be a morbid affair! I am reminded of the choir director who once chastised me for using the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. "People don't want to be reminded of death when they are in church," he said. "Besides, my cho…