I just read the results of an interesting survey. It posed two questions: 1) What activity do you find most rewarding? 2) What activity do you find most enjoyable?

Turns out Americans found the same activity most rewarding and most enjoyable. Do you know what it is?

The activity found most rewarding and enjoyable ... you're going to find this hard to believe ... that's right: packing and moving to another place!

I suspect this will not come as any surprise to you, especially if you've ever had the privilege of packing and moving yourself!

There's nothing like it!

What, no? That's not your idea of a fun time?

Yeah, no. Me either.

Even apart from the nightmare of packing, the thought of pulling up stakes and moving somewhere else can be terrifying. Whatever else might be said about the world you currently occupy, at least you know what day trash pickup is.

The new place will be strange. The streets don't immediately form a mental map in your head, yet. Maybe the people talk differently. The grocery store doesn't carry the brands you usually like. The people in a new place don't know how to drive. They drive like they’re from Ohio.

The whole thing feels unfamiliar—which is a sensation humans often live in fear of. Change is difficult.

I realize that's not a newsflash. We know it in our heads, but it often doesn't occur to us as real until the new situation walks up and punches us in the mouth.

I don't know about you, but generally speaking, I like things the way they are. And if I don't like the way things are, chances are pretty good I liked things the way they used to be.

That's the whole attraction of "Make America Great Again," which seems, after all this time, to be often a genius bit of shorthand for:

The world we've been living in—where we're supposed to treat people we don't respect as equals—yeah, we don't like that world. We like the world we used to live in, where we didn't constantly have to be thinking about other people's feelings.

Black people. Immigrants. Queer people. Women. Those with disabilities. It was better when we didn’t have to worry about those people.

In short, we don’t like the world we’ve been living in, and we’d like to go back to a world that was made for people like us … if it’s all the same to everyone else.

But the fear of having to change your world to accommodate a new one isn’t new. Most people tend to prefer the familiar. New things, new situations, new relationships are scary.

So, you can imagine what Jesus' disciples were feeling as they listened to him talk about leaving and going back to be with God. Imagine what the disciples thought of that kind of change?

I mean, think about what's going on as Jesus speaks in our text this morning.

He and the disciples are still in the upper room. The last supper has been served, and Jesus has washed everyone's feet. Then he launches into a chapters-long goodbye speech, telling the disciples that he's leaving for another world and they're not invited.