The Way, the Truth and the Life for Everyone

The 5th Sunday of Easter, April 20, 2008
Acts 7:55-60, Psalm 31:1-5,15-16, 1 Peter 2:2-10, John 14:1-14

Good Morning! Quoting out of context can get us (or anyone for that matter) in a heap of trouble. Know what I mean? One of my Roman Catholic professors in Germany tells a story about the danger of quoting out of context. The story goes like this: a high-ranking official of the Vatican arrives at JFK airport to be greeted by a bevy of journalists. One of their number asks him provocatively and jokingly if he intends to visit any erotic night clubs in New York. He, wanting to get the laughs on his side, asks the reporter in response: "Are there erotic night clubs in New York?" The next day the headlines were: First Question of the Cardinal in the Airport: Are there erotic night clubs in New York? True: That was his first question in the airport. Also true: That is what he said. But because it's quoted out of context the original meaning is completely lost and skewered.

There's a word in today's Gospel, which, when quoted out of context, can also get us into a lot of trouble. John the Evangelist let's Jesus deliver a long farewell discourse on the evening before his crucifixion. Scholars tell us that such farewell discourses are a well- known genre in the Bible. Before Jesus we can read farewell discourses from Jacob, Moses and also David. They all have a literary form and are recognizable as such. Jesus's farewell discourse, part of which we heard today as Gospel reading, stands in this literary tradition. One of the high points of this monologue is the much beloved and often quoted words of Jesus: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me. When we hear these words as addressed to us, who believe, these words are still powerful and filled with great meaning, comfort and also challenge. When - on the other hand - we use these words to hit others on the head, others who may not believe or who may believe differently, then these words take on an embarrassingly exclusionary and narrow-minded character at best, or even worse: they become sinister, triumphalistic, intolerant and arrogant. They all too easily lead to the conviction of one of the theologians of the early church that became a slogan: "Extra ecclesiam nulla salus." (Outside the church there is no salvation.) Also words with a context now forgotten and which now seem very odd indeed. When Christians quote such words out of context as a rallying cry for Christian superiority over all other religions, then we have misused scripture. When Christians quote these words of the risen Lord out of context as proof positive that only they have the corner on God, then we have misused scripture. When Christians quote these words out of context as a "proof text" that people of any and all other faiths are condemned, then we have misused scripture. We've applied these words to situations and questions which were not part of their original context; we've committed a dangerous and destructive anachronism. Of course, these are not the only words of scripture which, when quoted out of context, can be very negative, sisters and brothers. But they do belong to that group of favorite scripture passages, which are frequently misused and thus abused. What are we to make of these words that John weaves into the literary genre of Jesus' farewell discourse during the last meal with his disciples?

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Sisters and brothers, these are the words of Christian faith, a faith that sees in Jesus the most focused expression of God possible to us. These words are spoken and heard in the context of belonging to a religious minority in this world as was the case at the time they were first written. They are not the words of a major world religion making sweeping claims for itself. These are words of that small band of disciples who feel deeply within their hearts that, since Jesus has come, their understanding of God will never be the same again. They were convinced that the incarnation of God in Christ has changed everything, that the incarnation has redefined God for them. These words are a core claim of Christian identity; they clarify for us what it means to believe in Jesus; these words simply state how we have come to have access to God.

Sisters and brothers: It's been a peculiar emphasis of our own Anglican variety of Christianity that we place so much importance on the incarnation. God becomes human for us in Jesus Christ. God takes on humanity, human longings, human suffering, human joys and sorrows in Jesus. Jesus is the door, the gate, the password for access to God - for us. We can't emphasize that enough; it's who we are. We confess that, we celebrate it, and we seek to live that truth. We don't seek to hit anyone on the head with it. Witnessing to that truth can never involve hitting anyone. As Christians we simply must say that we don't know who God is apart from Jesus. If asked what it is we believe about God, we point to Jesus. For us he is the definitive expression of God's nature and love. For us it is only in the incarnation that we are able to identify God as Father. The claim that "no one comes to the Father except through me" can be expressed also as "everyone comes to the Father through me." The words are simply our joyous and thankful affirmation that God has become available to us in a decisive way in Jesus. It is our conviction that Jesus is our way, our truth and our life, that there is no way for us that bypasses Jesus, that there is no truth out there which is higher or more profound than the truth that is Jesus, that there is no life apart from him, that in him we have life and that we have it more abundantly than we could ever imagine or hope for. That, dear friends, is what we celebrate in word and deed, in sacrament and fellowship, on Sunday and everyday. We hear his words as those gathered around his table. His words are words of great tenderness and comfort, as well as of great challenge and invitation: "I am the way for you; I am your truth and your life; none of you know God as Father except as you have seen him in me." These words mean you and me. We cannot know God's purposes with the other great religions of the world and we certainly cannot use these words to devalue them. As God has so graciously dealt with us, so we can only assume that God will deal graciously with others as well, that the way, the truth and the life will also be made manifest to them as God deems fit to manifest God's very self. In closing, let us say together the words of a contemporary hymn in our hymnal. It's a poem by the 20th century poet W.H. Auden, hymn number 463.

He is the Way. Follow him through the Land of Unlikeness; you will see rare beasts and have unique adventures.
He is the Truth. Seek him in the Kingdom of Anxiety; you will come to a great city that has expected your return for years.
He is the Life. Love him in the World of the Flesh; and at your marriage all its occasions shall dance for joy.

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