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Psalm 131:1-3 – Lord, I have given up my pride of ego and turned away from my arrogance. I am not concerned with great matters or with subjects too difficult for me. Instead, I am content and at peace. As a child lies quietly in its mother's arms, so my heart is quiet within me. Israel, trust in the Lord now and forever.
John 14:1-10 – Jesus taught them “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Abba God's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Abba God except through me. If you know me, you will know my Abba God also. From now on you know Abba God and have seen Abba God.
Phillip said to him, “Lord, show us the Abba God, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Phillip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen God. How can you , ‘Show us the Abba God'? Do you not believe that I am the Abba God and that God is in me?”
How do sincere believers from different faith backgrounds find their way into God's eternal Presence? There are hundreds of millions of people in this world who are sincerely trying to lead their lives as taught by their religious leaders. Do they stand a chance to reach Heaven's pearly gates if they are not followers of Christ? How does the inclusive love of God for the whole world stay in harmony with the exclusive call of Jesus Christ found in the New Testament? Len and Ann Ganote are active church members. Len was an executive with the elevator industry and later a real estate developer. As a couple they were instrumental in the founding of the Presbyterian church in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
A drawing in a recent New Yorker showed an excited crowd exiting a New England style church, everyone sported a Styrofoam hand with the index finger pointed skyward, the number “1” emblazoned on the palm, and the couple front-and-center exclaiming, “It's true --- we totally have the best religion!”
The same issue profiled former Baptist minister and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. The article began with Huckabee and Pat Boone co-leading a tour group of evangelical Christians in Israel. The writer noted that, “Members of the group politely admitted that they had no doubt that most Israelis, and anyone else who had not accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour, would be spending eternity in Hell… Huckabee's formulation is considerably more politic. ‘If somebody asked me, How do I get to Heaven, I would tell them that the only way I personally am aware of is faith in Christ, because I believe the New Testament,' he said. ‘That's the only map I got. Somebody says, Well, I got a different map. O.K.! You know what? If it works, I am not going to argue with you.”
A priest in one of Elie Wiesel's novels rescued a Jew who escaped from a train to the death camps. The priest thought, “'Here's a chance to save his soul, to bring him to the light,' I said to myself, ‘Kindness is a weapon and I decided to use it.'”
In the early-1940's, from her farm in central Europe, a devout Christian woman risked her life and that of her children to save more than a dozen Jews fleeing mobile killing units. She described her concern for the “lost souls of the Jews who did not know Christ, so I shared my savior with these people.” One of those she rescued told me that her rescues were unconditional, adding, “I knew she cared about all aspects of my life including my soul. She was very kind in every way. I simply told her I could not turn against Judaism now.”
Our summer Teaching series is built on six questions uniquely important to each of six church members. The series invites us to explore the place of faith in this rational, scientific, technological, and iconoclastic era, and to actively cultivate faith and ways of being in the world that are transparently Christian and authentically our own. Len Ganote retired from a career as an executive in the elevator industry and, later, real estate development. From an intensely personal experience with a dying friend, Len framed a particularly tough issue for church, theology, and personal faith. “How do sincere believers from different faith backgrounds find their way into God's eternal presence…. [as]they sincerely try to lead their lives as taught by their religious leaders?” Here is Len's central question, inspired by the morning lesson in John's Gospel, “How does the inclusive love of God for the whole world stay in harmony with the exclusive call of Jesus Christ found in the New Testament?”
Len comes at this question from a place of great love and faith, not from the animus of the priest in Wiesel's novel, or the triumphalist characters in the New Yorker drawing, or those who peddle faith for fear of a judgmental God.
A Reflection: Jesus' apparent exclusivity in the Gospel is the challenge, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to Abba God except by me.” We must note that this sentence does not appear in any other Gospel and we are offered no context. Does the absence of the sentence in the other Gospels diminish the point? Did John write the words and much later the church adopt them as a mandate for salvation? Was this teaching part of an argument in a dispute with one of many false messiahs, or the followers of John the Baptist, or the Temple hierarchy, or Hellenistic philosophies?
A tongue-in-cheek cartoon from the Arizona Star captured a contemporary “Bud Lite” version of faith that might have troubled John in his time. A couple sits at a candle lit table reading menus. She asks, “What'll we try today?” “I was going to try the Christian sampler platter. What's the religion of the day?” She replies, “Evangelical. Oh, look! Kaballah!” “Tried it. Left me hungry. How about the mega-church special? Big portions.” “Not today,” she answers, “I'm going to try the New Age soufflé.” “Tried it with a side of Zen Buddhism…very light.” Oh, look!” she exclaimed, “An ‘All you can Contemplate' American-style spiritual buffet!” “Perfect,” says he.”
A Reflection on Context: knowing that Jesus was near the end of his ministry and life, these chapters might comprise a farewell discourse for his inner circle, not something for the general public. At the beginning of chapter 14, Jesus urged his core group to be fearless and courageous. His coaching called them to live in hope, trust, confidence, and joy. He promised them that there are many rooms and incredible hospitality in God's house and that he, Jesus, would be there to welcome them. Finally, Jesus promised them that keeping the faith they would be able to do great things, even greater than what he did.
At this pivotal point Jesus reminded them that he was not the messiah du jour but rather their way, their truth, and their life – their route to an abundant life here-and-now in union with God, and also the eternal presence at the end of life.
A Reflection: “I am your way.” Jesus is the route for those who choose to live in union with him and to live into a Christ-style life. His message of grace and love and the quality of the example of his life are the reasons for choosing his path.
“I am your truth.” We can reasonably assume that Jesus was not talking about truth as scientific certainty. His truth was that he embodied God, enacted God's purposes and love, and invited everyone to do exactly the same.
“I am your life.” Jesus offers a centered, spiritual presence in our lives that gives us a clear sense of coherence, meaning, purpose, and peace. John saw how God lived in complete union with Jesus and how that union was possible for us.
“No one comes to Abba God except through me.” For the disciples and for us, to know Jesus is to know the essential nature of God. For the disciples God was revealed, present, and accessible in Jesus, not in the stridency of false messiahs, John the Baptist, religious leaders, or Hellenistic philosophies. To walk Jesus' way, to experience the truth of his life and teachings, and to live a Christ-style life is to know and be united with God.
I personally choose to go with “the way, the truth, and the life” because it continues to have a compelling claim on my life. I go not with fear of a judgmental God, but with the God of love who calls me to live fully into a life of grace, peace, faith, integrity, and loving kindness. I take Jesus' words in John 14 to be solely a personal message to me and to the others who choose his path. I am not convinced that Jesus intended exclusivity in this teaching and my experience of God is one of a wide and deep inclusive love for every person regardless of their spiritual path or practice. For those who judge other faiths, paths, and those who have neither, we are reminded that such judgment is mercifully not our work.
If a spiritual seeker or someone whose faith is not working for them, ask me about a Christ-style, Christ consciousness life, I will tell them what works for me and invite them to see if it could be a fit for them – not because I fear their eternal fate, but because I want everyone to have an opportunity for a full and abundant life in union with God. Len's gracious prayer gave his dying friend a sense of peace and that is the great gift of abundance at the end of life. Choosing a path to live long before we die is a gift for an abundant and good life.
Len's prayerful encounter and his question invite us to check on our dogmas and beliefs: how we hold them and at what cost.
The devil and a friend were out walking when they saw a man stoop down and pick up something. “What did he find?” asked the friend. “A piece of truth.” “Doesn't that disturb you?” asked the friend. “No. I shall let him make a belief out of it.” An observation: a religious belief is a signpost pointing to truth. When you cling to the signpost you cannot move toward the truth because you think you have it already. A conclusion: for a faith to be genuinely the way, truth, and life, it must be candidly and frequently examined, so, too, the beliefs we hold, and, so, too, the qualities of love and grace we experience with God.
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