The Way, The Truth and the Life

I am preaching this week and the lectionary text is John 14: 1- 14. I find this text troublesome because it has been used to exclude people of non-Christian faith. It brings back painful a painful memory in seminary where at a small group we were tasked with discussing whether or not Christianity was the one and only way to God and eternal life. I argued against Christian exclusivism, however some in the group found what I said threatening. One of the men in my group kept quoting the verse "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." What was painful about this discussion was not that my views were challenged, but how they went about challenging me. I was interrupted a lot, I felt like what I was saying was minimized. Eventually I stopped talking and at the end of the conversation two of the guys high fived each other saying that it was the best seminary small group experience they had. uuuggghhh.

Now the way I like to interpret the text is that Jesus is talking about a total trust and surrender to God. Jesus' shows us what a life of surrender to God looks like. The power that holds, the joys that it brings and the cost that it incurs.

I try to surrender myself to God but I have a hard time doing it. I like to be in control, I like to know what is happening next. I like to calculate the steps going from point A to point B, however there are times where pre-planning is not possible and the option that seems to hold any promise is reliance upon the will and way of God.

The scary thing here is that Jesus lived his life relying only on the will and way of God and he ended up on a cross. The other lectionary reading from Acts 7: 55-60 shows Stephen relying on God and he ends up getting stoned, and not in a good way.

The promise of Easter is that reliance upon God may put us precarious places, however the final word is eternal life as shown to us by the victory of the empty tomb. Jesus' ministry threatened the powers and principalities of his time and they threw everything they had at Jesus to stop him, including nailing him on a cross to die a violent death. However, the efforts of the powers that be at his time did not have the final word, God did! Through the resurrection of Christ we are saved because God shows that ultimately good will overcome evil and that death cannot contain this truth.

So where am I being called to rely upon God completely. Which way is God trying to point me. What truth am I being called to speak to power (at the risk of modern day crucifixions) and what does the promise of eternal life hold for me today.