The Way in a World of Many
John 14: 1-14
A few years ago I saw an episode of South Park that mocked the religious fervor in which we live. A large crowd was gathered at the front of a stage in the afterlife. They were confused as to why they weren’t in heaven. They were all in purgatory and they were all anxiously waiting to hear from the speaker, Saint Peter, who was about to explain the situation and to announce which religion was right. People were shouting, “I was good how could I be here?” “I was a faithful Jehovah’s Witness!” Jehovah’s Witnesses, Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans…Protestants of all stripes, Unitarians, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, faithful of all kinds… all were all pacing impatiently to hear which religion could claim the prize. The speaker emerged, the crowd was silent…. “The right answer is…the Mormons!” Saint Peter stood there as the crowd let out a collective…what??? And confusion emerged. It is easy to laugh at such a chaotic scene where the faithful are reduced to participants in a contest where the goal is winning, and losing is nothing less than spending time in a place where God is not. But this cartoon tale speaks of the era in which we live, a time where it seems religious people perpetuate a context where there is just one winner. And as I survey the myriad conflicts in which we find ourselves, it seems that this religious contest is killing us.
Comedian Emo Philips tells a joke that illuminates this point. He says: I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said, "Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. "Well, there's so much to live for!" "Like what?" "Well ... are you religious?" He said yes. I said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?" "Christian." "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?” "Protestant." "Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" "Baptist" "Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" "Baptist Church of God!" "Me too! Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you reformed Baptist Church of God?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God!" "Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?" He said, "Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!" I said, "Die, heretic scum!” and pushed him off.
This kind of behavior plays out all over the world in a variety of ways. Religion is at the source of much of the world’s conflict and strife. Religious people fuel battles over land and resources and political power. Each is willing to stake his life on the conviction that he is right. And the words we hear from Jesus this morning are added to the thick hustle of the religious race and used to argue that there is only room for Christianity at the top of the podium. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Some have argued that these words are gate-keeping words- words that leave space only for Jesus on the road to God, while others argue that there is no way Jesus could have intended his words in this way, given that he was a faithful Jew and was inviting those with whom and to whom he ministered to be faithful to God in the particular cultural and religious context of his time.
Christians throughout history have wrestled with this piece of scripture, especially those who are committed to ecumenical and interfaith dialogue. Throughout my own journey, I have struggled deeply with these words from the Gospel of John. I have let myself off of the hook by thanking God that I have found Jesus because he is My way, My truth and My life, yet in the pluralistic world in which we live, one can’t help but to wonder what Jesus intended. I have pondered Jesus’ words for quite some time. During the summer between my eighth and ninth grade year, I traveled to Irian Jaya Indonesia to spend a month with one of my dearest childhood friends. Her family served as missionaries there and they worked to install hydroelectric power in a small town. On one of our adventures, we flew a small plane into the isolated village of Korupun. It was like no place I had ever experienced. I felt as if I was walking off of a plane and into the pages of a National Geographic. The people were beautiful. They were small and adorned in beautiful grass skirts and colorful jewelry made of different kinds of dried bugs and seeds. They were so dark that my whiteness seemed almost a hue of blue. They greeted us with grace and the hospitality of saints. We played soccer while they finished roasting a pig they had been preparing in the ground for days. I have rarely felt as wonderfully welcomed as I did in those days. But the moment that sticks out in my mind most glaringly was a conversation I had with a Christian who was traveling with us. He was speaking about how wonderful it was that the missionaries had reached this particular village. And then his voice changed and his tone lowered and he began to lament those that had yet to hear the Christian story. Of course I wanted to know what would happen to them and why he responded the way he did. “What will happen to them?” Silence. The answer that came back to me is one that has followed me ever since. “If God wants to reveal Himself to them, he will.” And of course in my inquisitive teenage way, I followed up. “So what happens to the ones God doesn’t get to?” “I guess they aren’t saved. They go to hell.”
This was shocking to my young Congregationalist ears. I knew what hell was but we didn’t talk about it much. I heard more of God’s grace and mercy. But I have since learned that this perspective is not uncommon. In fact it is shared by many of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world. If you don’t have Jesus, hell awaits you. And the energy that is invested in converting souls is to ensure that they are eternally comfortable. It isn’t difficult to take Jesus’ words from the Gospel of John and make this claim. But those of us who struggle with them are not alone. Even some of our earliest Christian theologians found this claim to be difficult. Origen the great Third century theologian and philosopher came to believe that “all souls, including the devil himself, will eventually achieve salvation, even if it takes innumerable ages to do so; for Origen believed that God's love is so powerful as to soften even the hardest heart, and that the human intellect - being the image of God - will never freely choose oblivion over proximity to God, the font of Wisdom Himself.” Those who countered Origen argued that if free will exists, then human beings must have the freedom to choose God in the end. Each human soul must decide to reject or accept God’s invitation. But yet Origen was not able to imagine a God that would create something as wondrous and marvelous as the human soul only to watch it dissolve into eternal damnation.
“I am the way and the truth and life, no one comes to the Father, except through me…” The word “way” in Greek is hodos or road and when I hear these words from Jesus I think again of Jerusalem. A city destroyed and rebuilt 39 times, destroyed for political and religious and human reasons often disguised as holy. If I could talk to Jesus, really talk to him; this is one question I would ask. What did you mean? There is so much we cannot know, but one thing that I believe we can be sure of is that these words were not meant to give Christians permission to be violent or to cause others pain. These words were not meant to encourage us to speak on behalf of God. These words were not supposed to give us permission to rest on our laurels knowing that we have the golden ticket into heaven. I believe these words, are an invitation to follow with abandon. These words are meant to be an invitation to follow Christ right here and now. It seems as if many Christians have spent more time telling others whether or not they are on the road to God, than walking the road ourselves. I believe these words are not words that we are to use to tell the world who is in and who is out, rather these are words that tell us to get busy and follow! This is our Jesus who tells us courageously, “love one another, as I have loved you,” this is our Jesus who tells us that we shouldn’t let our hearts be troubled, this is our Jesus who invites us to follow. He is our Way our Truth and our Life and that we can be sure of. He is our Way when so many others lure us. He is our Truth when others claim to offer inferior truths. He is our Life in a world that wants to give us life that will suffocate. When Jesus said these words, he was offering an invitation for Thomas and the other Apostles who were confused about where to find God. And these words are also for us now, for those of us who seek the God we know through Jesus our Christ. Ours is a way in a world of many, let’s get busy walking it. Amen.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Origen of Alexandria” by Edward Moore