Call to Change

Christians believe in new life, in changed lives.  We are baptized into new life in Jesus through the Holy Spirit.  But just like everyone else, Christians are often nervous about change.  Some leaders of the United Methodist Church have issued a “Call to Action”, naming some of the deficiencies in the organizational structure of the UMC and proposing some changes that might improve the effectiveness or fruitfulness of the ministries of the world-wide United Methodist Church.  Pretty much everyone agrees that something needs to change so that the ministries and people of the UMC can be more fruitful and faithful (especially since our current structure dates back to the early 1970’s), but we do not agree on what or how to change.

Discovery UMC, where I serve as the senior pastor, just celebrated its 20^th Easter (2013 marks the official 20^th anniversary of Discovery as a chartered church) and much has changed in our relatively short church life.  The people of Discovery have implemented all kinds of new ministries, new organizational structures, and new missions.  And we are still not done changing.  God continues to bless and challenge us with a growing ministry and congregation, and we continue to seek how to best live as a faithful community and respond to Jesus’ commission to make more disciples.

Each person changes over a lifetime—even over the course of a single, eventful week sometimes.  We change because of new experiences, new relationships, and for the sake of survival.  When we want to change or renew our lives, we have to try something different from what we have being doing, we have to explore new things, learn new skills. 

Whether we seek to grow as an individual, as a community, or as the world-wide United Methodist Church; we must try something new.  This is where the trouble starts.  We don’t like to be uncomfortable, we fear the unfamiliar, and we prefer to avoid struggles.  Change and growth require all these things.  We fear what might happen if we choose the wrong path, if we make a less than perfect decision, but if we don’t take a step in some direction the growth that we need will not come. 

For me, as I prepare to participate in General Conference, as I continue to lead the ministries of Discovery, and as I seek ongoing growth in my life of faith; the scariest thing is not what new things will bring, but what will happen if I stay just where I am.  

Ready or Not: General Conference 2012

For the next few months, I will be using my blog (hopefully more often than I have been!) to focus on the upcoming General Conference of the United Methodist Church in April-May, the North Alabama Annual Conference in June, and the Southeast Jurisdictional Conference in July.  You can learn more about what GC is at this site. I will share my own experiences as the first alternate delegate to GC and as a delegate to JC.  I will also post some from other people's writings on these subjects.  Feel free to add your comments and posts, but also please remember to "tell the truth in LOVE".

First, just check out the amount of reading that is required to know what all is happening at General Conference--and the papers in the picture are only the beginning!  I understand we get new material pretty much every day of GC.  I am so thankful for my new refurb ipad2 so that I can download all these documents and not have to carry around 2 full reams of paper with me for the whole of GC!

Speaking of all the reading...much of the reading is of petitions and proposals sent in by groups and individuals of the world-wide United Methodist Church.  Anyone who is a member of the UMC can submit a petition.  This particular fact became a part of the discussion early on for the North Alabama's Delegation.  Thinking of the process of discernment that we practice when people want to be ordained (that an individual's experience of a call to ordained ministry must be affirmed by their local church community), the great majority of our group agreed that it would be an improvement to the process of submitting petitions to GC if individuals were no longer allowed to submit proposals without the support of a larger group.  This would mean that if you wanted to submit a petition GC, you would need your Sunday School class, your UMW, your UMM, or some other UMC group to support your petition prior to submitting it--so that all petitions would come from a group of people.  The idea is that if you are the only one who thinks it is a good idea and you can't find anyone else to support it, then maybe that is a sign that it won't get any support at GC either.  This could also have the added benefit of reducing (mayby only by a few) the number of petitions that come before the GC, leaving more time to discuss those petitions that more people agree are important to the life and work of the UMC.

This is just one item we have discussed.  The things that have taken up most of our discussion time as a delegation are the future of the organization of the UMC and the future of the clergy retirement program--more on those later.

Inspiring People

This is a copy of this week's edition of the regular pastoral message that I send out to the Discovery community via email.

When I consider the people in my life who have shaped my journey of faith, I am so grateful that they made an effort and took the time to share their wisdom and love with me. I am inspired by people who are intentional about using their lives to bless others with God’s love. There are many such people who are part of Discovery today. This Sunday, we will use our “heart cards” to celebrate these special people. I hope you will take some time this week to think about the people who have shaped your spiritual life. Do the blessings and wisdom they have shared with you inspire you to make an effort to reach out to others in a similar way?

People connected to Discovery who made a difference in my spiritual life…

· Sydney. Because he made me feel welcomed. He gave our church an identity for me. An identity that said “Discovery is different” – less about style and more about substance. I miss him standing barefoot at the back of the church. But the point of this is that when you feel comfortable and wanted in church (Sydney made me feel that way) the lines of communication with God are a little more open. Discovery is genuinely a place where I feel like I am worshipping – not “going to church”.
--Steve Pitts, Finance and Stewardship Teams Member

· Suzanne Roberson encouraged me to feel free to ask God questions.
--Mickie Goad, Staff Parish Relations Team Member

· The mission team members. On both mission trips I participated in over the last two years, I had the opportunity to meet different people within Discovery and was blessed to serve with them. We all created a lasting bond with one another. This experience changed my life! It’s true that you need to surround yourself with good people because it “rubs off” and creates a strong support team for life’s interruptions.
--Jami Glover, Lay Leader

· I believe it was early 2001 when I met a mom at Trace Crossings Elementary that I had seen at Discovery, and she mentioned a small group that met at the church on Thursday mornings and they were starting a new study. So I joined and met many wonderful women. One stands out among the rest. Her name was Becky Austin Hall and she was an older woman, a retired nurse, that had survived throat cancer and during her cancer and treatments her husband left her. Becky lost most of her tongue and the ability to swallow anything. She amazed me that she was such a loving and caring person and she always wanted to do things for others. One of the last exciting things she did was take a hot air balloon ride, which was a dream of hers. We lost Becky after she underwent a risky medical procedure. I feel blessed that Becky called me that night before her surgery and I got to tell her how much she had meant to me over the last several years that I had known her. What I got from her was her awesome belief in a good God.
--Sue Drennan, Finance Team Chairperson

· Terry Rogers—you would not go wrong following his good example. Each of our staff members. They each give so generously of themselves through their passion and experience and provide excellent guidance and spiritual education for each of us.
--Jill Pitts, Staff Parish Relations Chairperson

· I can’t call them all by name because there are many. I love seeing the teenagers worshipping, knowing what a difference God makes and will make in their lives. I love seeing men—husbands and fathers like me—worshipping, praying, giving God thanks, and asking for strength and help. I love seeing the kids so innocently singing and praying. People all around me in Discovery make a difference in my spiritual life.
--Perry Turner, Stewardship Team Member


Thank God for people who provide us positive examples of Christian discipleship and who are so generous in sharing God’s love through their lives! May we all be blessed with opportunities to do the same.

Sacrifice of Praise

People prefer different styles of worship.  We know that.  What can you do when you don’t easily connect with the style of worship where you are?  I think this is an important question as worship styles change all around us.  The reason for change in worship style is usually related to the work of reaching different people, drawing in a new population to connect with God in worship.  For those who are already settled in a particular worship service that changes in style, or for those of us who visit a church that worships differently, how can we continue to connect with God through worship when it is not our favorite style?  Here is an excerpt from “Common Prayer” that addresses this question, though mostly it seems in defense of traditional worship.  I am excited about this prayer book, by the way.  It is a great daily reading and is co-edited by a Duke classmate, Enuma Okoro.

“There is an old saying many Christians use: ‘Offer the Lord a sacrifice of praise,’ referring to Hebrews 13:15.  In many circles this notion of a ‘sacrifice of praise’ almost becomes cliché. (Perhaps because worship does not come at much cost, especially compared with the sacrifices of saints who’ve gone before us.)  But when we worship with folks of various traditions, there are times when we may hear a prayer that uses language we might not naturally use or sing a song that isn’t really our style.  That is part of what it means to be a member of a community as diverse as the church is.  And perhaps that also helps shed some light on why it might require some sacrifice for us to give up ourselves.

When a song isn’t working for you, consider praising God, because that probably means it is working for someone else who is very different from you.   Offer your worship as a sacrifice rather than requiring others to sacrifice for your pleasure or contentment.  There is something to the notion of becoming one as God is one; it doesn’t mean that we are the same; it just means that we are united by one Spirit.  After all, we can become one only if there are many of us to begin with.

Liturgy [ordered prayer, Bible readings, etc.] puts a brake on narcissism.  Certainly, there is something beautiful about contemporary worship, where we can take old things and add a little spice to them, like singing hymns to rock tunes or reciting creeds as spoken word rhymes.  But liturgy protects us from simply making worship into a self-pleasing act.  So if a song or prayer doesn’t quite work for you, be thankful that it is probably really resonating with someone who is different from you, and offer a sacrifice of praise.”

Summertime and the Living is Easy

Yesterday, I was scanning Facebook and saw lots of pictures of people on vacation, playing at the lake, relaxing on the beach, and just having a good time these last few weeks of summer break.  These are special times for families and friends to spend together and make memories that will be enjoyed for years.  Seeing all the pictures made me a little sad that our family has not had as much time as we would like to just play this summer. 

Today, I was scanning news reports and saw lots of painful images and stories: riots in England, families of Navy Seals mourning the loss of precious life, Hispanic families in our own state living in fear, and news of mass starvation in eastern Africa.  A particular headline caught my eye, “Which Child Dies? Famine Forces Impossible Choices” (http://news.yahoo.com/child-dies-famine-forces-impossible-choices-145356561.html).  Seeing all these things made me feel physically sick and very thankful at the same time.  I am thankful that the people in our congregation are not currently facing such heart breaking situations, but I am sick over there being people anywhere who have to face such conditions.

As we take advantage of these last weeks of summer, I want to encourage you to be thankful for all the enjoyable times you have spent with your friends and family this summer.  And I want to encourage you to make yourselves sick, so to speak.  Let’s not just look at the pictures, read the painful stories of others’ lives, and then turn off the computer or T.V. and go on with our easy living.  Let’s carry those pictures and stories with us and lift up the people we read about in prayer.  And let’s share the gifts and resources we have that make our lives easier to help make the lives of others more livable.

Helpful Links for Making a Difference Through the Ministries of the United Methodist Church

http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/  United Methodist Committee on Relief (info and donation site)

http://www.northalabamaumc.org/pages/detail/1608  Alabama Tornado Relief Information

www.umvim.org  United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (global service opportunities)

Why did you stomp the ant?!

This morning on the way into Canterbury UMC to take my kids to their daycare classes, I saw a big ant scurrying across the sidewalk in front of us.  Then I saw my five-year-old daughter's foot come down on it with forceful intention.  I looked at her and asked, "Why did you just stomp the ant?"  She kind of shrugged her shoulders.  And maybe because I am a mom, or maybe because I am a preacher, I went into a short lecture on how the ant was just living it's life not doing anything to  bother us and then she just stomps it for no good reason.  I reminded her that it is a living thing too--that God made ants.  None of what I said seemed to sink in.  Maybe that is because she has seen me on numerous occasions smash, stomp, and slap various insects in our home--but that is totally different, right?

This memory from the morning has come back to me as I have been preparing the sermon this Sunday.  Psalm 8 speaks both of our distance from God and our closeness to God.  As creatures who are "a little lower than God, and crowned...with glory and honor" (vs. 5), we humans are in a particular role of responsibility.  Created in the image of a merciful and loving God, we are called to live like the One after and by whom we were created.  We have been "given...dominion over the works of [God's] hands" and have "all things under [our] feet" (vs. 6).  So what does all this mean when we are faced with the question of whether to stomp an ant walking across our path?  Is it wrong, or does it even matter?  What does/should our particular relationship with God and our responsibility for creation shape the small and significant decisions we make about how to interact and coexist with the rest of the world?  This question seems to apply to so many things going on right now:

• illegal aliens
• war
• "fracking" to produce fuel
• political disagreements
• making personal sacrifice to give to tornado victims

If we refuse to work with one group of people because they disagree with us, does it matter?  If we only damage a small portion of the earth, does that matter?  If we share the love of God our Creator with one person, does it matter?

If we just smash one ant, does it matter?

No Stupid Questions?

Growing up, my classroom teachers always said, “There is no such thing as a stupid question.”  Well, I disagree.  Consider these real-life examples.

o   standing in front of the open refrigerator and asking where is the milk when you are staring at it

o   asking a question of your New Testament professor who is reading from the Greek text of the New Testament that begins with “well, my Bible says…”

o   “when is the Fourth of July this year?”

We find in reading the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Bible that the disciples asked Jesus many questions.    Some of those questions did not receive full or direct answers from Jesus.  They may have not been stupid questions, but they certainly did not always come across as the ‘right’ or appropriate questions for the situation.  But when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, Jesus answered them directly with a description as well as an example prayer.  The prayer that Jesus taught them is the prayer we call “The Lords’ Prayer” or “our Father”.  You can find Jesus’ teaching of this prayer in both Matthew 6:5-15 and Luke 11:2-4. 

 

This prayer is more than something to be repeated verbatim over and over—which often seems like some kind of ‘magic phrase’ that will correct things in a poof of magic if said just right.  The Lord’s Prayer provides us with a framework around which to build our own prayers and serves as a window of insight into how we are called to shape our lives with prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer will serve as the focus of the July sermon series at Discovery.  Each week we will explore a different portion of the prayer.  Worship celebrations are at 9:30am and 11am each Sunday

July 3—Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name

July 10—Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as in Heaven.

July 17—Give us today our daily bread.

July 24—Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

July 31—Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

(11am worship only followed by a pot luck lunch)

Young Leaders in Mission

"Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity."  1 Timothy 4:12 (NRSV) We are blessed to have two beautiful stories of our young people leading us by example in ministry! Discovery sponsors Boy Scout Troop 23, who travelled to Pisgah, Alabama this Saturday to help with tornado recovery.  The adults spent the day cutting the downed trees into pieces, and the Scouts drug them into piles were they could either be burned, or used later. The Mayor of Pisgah came out to visit us along with a representative from the local unit of the Salvation Army. Troop 23 presented the Salvation Army representative with 165 - $25 Wal-Mart gift cards that they will distribute to local tornado victims, so that the victims can go out and get the specific new items that they might need.  That is over $4000 raised by Troop 23!  What a blessing this gift is for the many people suffering from broken homes and lives after the destructive storms! Turner, an 11 year old member of Discovery, heard that the RUSH program of Urban Ministries in Birmingham lost one of its vehicles in the storms at the end of April.  Without any prompting from his parents or anyone else, Turner came up with a plan to raise money to replace the damaged vehicle.  With the help of friends from school and two local churches, Turner raised over $1000 and purchased a new van for the mission group.  Over half of the money raised was donated by children 11 years old and younger!  What a great example of sacrificial giving these young children have offered us!

Trying Something New

A few months ago, a woman at Discovery told me about a friend of hers who asked her some questions about the Bible and God. He knew she was active in a church and thought she might be able to answer his questions. She called me and said, “I didn’t know what to tell him, Julie. I didn’t want to tell him the wrong thing.” I told her to invite him to worship or Wednesday night small groups so I could meet him. “He won’t come to church. He said he would burn up if he walked in the doors of a church.” I said, “Tell him we have air conditioning, so he’ll be fine.” She reported back that her friend liked my sense of humor, but that he still wouldn’t agree to come to the church building.


I have been thinking about this guy a lot. Although I know that we have to go outside the church to reach people, he made me see this truth in a new way. So I have been praying and trying to figure out how I can create an opportunity to meet and talk with people like him, people who have questions about Christianity, but won’t step foot inside a church building—not even for Alpha and other such programs.

Pastor Chick-Chat is what I came up with. I have published post-card size flyers and will be posting information in our church’s announcements about an opportunity for people like this man to come to a neutral site and ask their questions. Beginning this June, I will be at local restaurants (Cantina! in Patton Creek this month) two nights each month (June 9th and June 30th starting at 5:30pm). Anyone who wants to come eat or have a drink and hang out is welcome to come. My hope is that this setting will allow people to feel comfortable being themselves and have honest conversations about Christianity and whatever else is on their minds. I don’t know for sure that this will be an effective way to share God’s love with people, but it certainly gets me closer to it than waiting for people to come to the church building.

Celebrating Death?

I watched last night as the media shifted focus from saddened, devastated communities in a country grieving the loss of hundreds of lives in the wake of monstrous tornadoes to people in the same country breaking out into mass celebrations and holding loud street parties to celebrate the death/killing of one man. The contrast between these scenes struck me.


We moved so quickly from a “one for all” focus to a divided “us vs. them” mentality. But the dividing lines between ‘them’ and ‘us’ don’t appear as clear as we might expect them to be—especially with the déjà vu reflections of Middle Eastern street parties over the killing of Americans years ago now mimicked in the shouts, noise makers, and choruses of ‘God Bless America’ that rang out in Washington D.C. and New York, among other places through the night and into the next day.

It isn’t that I am sad to hear of the death of Osama bin Laden, but I am certainly not going to pull out the grill and invite the neighbors over to celebrate. I just question what lies within us that moves us to such behavior. Just yesterday I was part of a Sunday school class in which the leader focused on the example of Jesus in turning the other cheek and not seeking vengeance. So the irony of a ‘Christian nation’ bursting into impromptu parties to celebrate the killing of a man—even a murderous menace—is striking. Where were the party hats and noise makers last Sunday when we held celebrations of life?

Water Slides, Skype, and Communal Christian Life

Last Sunday I was dunked in a pool of water at church, but it wasn’t baptism. I slipped. I took a chance and tried the double water slide Pastor Leisha reserved for our church’s Celebration Sunday. I made it to the end of the slide just fine, but when I stood up to get out of the water pit at the bottom, my foot slipped and I went down. I was completely soaked, which I guess is the point of a water slide, but I wasn’t planning on it. Everyone laughed at me and then cheered me on to go down the slide again.


Maybe it was seeing me and others unintentionally dunked in a pool of water at the end of the slide, or maybe it was the look of slight terror on some of the kids faces as they “caught air” on the way down the slide, but for some reason one girl felt unsure about attempting the slide. But the other kids and her parents continued encouraging her to try. “See, even the little kids like it.” “Come on! You can do it!” “It is soooo fun! You have to try it!” Finally, after almost everyone else had gone home, this one girl tried the slide—and she loved it. She slid again and again, getting faster with each slide and gradually mastering her landing in the now completely full pool of water at the end of the slide. It was beautiful to watch her and to hear her laugh and squeal.

Thinking back, this scene made me think of the communal life of the church. Some people in the church have been “doing” church forever. They can anticipate when it is time to stand in the worship service, they know where to find particular passages in the Bible, and they are experienced in applying what they believe to the way they live. Not all people in the church are this comfortable with Christian life—not all people in the church are even Christian yet. It is the work of these experienced and the not-so-experienced Christians to encourage other people to give Jesus a shot. In the church, in the community of faith, it is each and every person’s job to encourage other people to take a leap of faith—to respond for the first time to the love of Jesus, to join a Bible study, to go on their first international mission trip, or to start giving an offering to God. It is the work of the community to encourage the ones who are uncertain and hesitant to try the slide and see how great it is when you splash into the water of new life.

Sunday—the whole day—reminded me of the importance of the community in individuals’ lives of faith. Bishop Willimon’s sermon pointed to the power of the United Methodist connectional system. Talking to the Honduran Mission Team on Skype (in worship!) helped me remember that even though only 6 people travelled to Honduras, they were there because of the gifts and prayers of the congregation, their family, and friends. The delicious pot luck lunch, without formal planning for the food, provided more than enough for the crowd gathered for worship, demonstrating for us the big things we can do when everyone shares in the work. And then, of course, the water slide. Oh, the water slide. Even when people (I) slipped and fell, it was great because the whole crowd just cheered them (me) on to get up and try it again.

In Defense of Charlene

“Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.” 1Timothy 2: 11-12

When I was a kid, the old shed in our back yard needed to be replaced. A couple living in our neighborhood offered to help my dad. So my dad, a lady named Charlene, and Charlene’s husband went out back to take apart the shed. They removed the hardware connecting the walls to the roof. Then the three of them pushed up on the roof to lift it and carry it off the walls of the shed. Now, Charlene is a tall lady. As they all three lifted the roof, Charlene lifted higher than the men and then said, “I’ve got it! I’ve got it! Move Back!” So my dad and Charlene’s husband backed out of the way and let Charlene detach and carry away the roof on her own.

Just last week I had a conversation with a man who repeatedly told me how literally he reads the Bible and how so many pastors have told him that healings and miracles ended with the first generation of Jesus’ disciples. He said he believes God is still at work—that Jesus still heals. And then he said some more things about reading the Bible literally. I asked him what he thought about female preachers since the Bible includes statements about women being silent in church. He said he didn’t believe in it. He said that women can be good teachers, but they don’t have the strength to deal with difficult situations. “They don’t have the strength to go out in the field—to go somewhere like Africa and do the hard work out there.”

The Bible does include passages about women being silent in worship, but it also includes stories of women hosting new churches in their homes, a woman stabbing a guy in the head with a tent peg (true—check out Judges 4), women sharing the good news of Jesus’ resurrection, and numerous other examples of female leadership and strength. The Bible is the foundation of our knowledge of who God is, what God is about, and who we are in relation to God. But God has done much, much more in and through the world since the writings of the Bible were composed. Healing and miracles did not end with the first disciples, and God’s ever creative ways of using both men and women in the work of sharing God’s love are not restricted to the examples we find in the Bible. In Christ, we are all one—all equally loved and all equally called to the service and love of God and neighbor.

Hot Stuff Sermon Series Sermon I

Is Jesus the Only Way?

John 14:1-10, John 3:17
July 4, 2010
Hot Stuff Series

I have GPS on my Blackberry. If I need to go somewhere, but I am not sure where to go, I can search for directions starting from where I am and then enter the address where I want to end up. The program searches for a satellite signal and identifies my location, then a screen comes up offering me four options, “fastest route, shortest route, avoid highways, avoid tolls”. I am trying to arrive in a single location, but my directional program offers me potentially four different ways to get there. I always choose the fastest route. I’m busy.

Some people view God and religion in a similar way. There is one greater being who created everything, but there are different ways of “getting to” God. Each religion offers a different revelation of, and path to, the same mysterious and distant God. Sometimes, I want this to be true.

If you have taken the “StrengthsFinder” survey, then you may know that “includer” is one of the possible strengths that you may discover you naturally have in your list of top five strengths. Just like it sounds, a person with the gift of includer values having everyone involved. The includer is someone who works to make sure no one is left out. I do not have includer in my top 5 strengths list, but it must be my #6 because I really like for everyone to be included. I don’t like it when people’s feelings get hurt or they are left out. I think that desire is what sometimes makes me want to say yes to the “all paths lead to the same place” idea of religion.

If we all agreed that we are going the same place, but just using different routes, then maybe there wouldn’t be any cause for religious wars, or arrogant declarations that “I am saved” or “I am enlightened and you aren’t”. And why can’t it be that all religions, all faiths, lead to eternal life with God? How can we say, “our way is the only way?” How can we be so sure that God isn’t revealing God’s self through Buddha, Krishna, and Muhammad?

Let’s begin with the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verses 1 through 10.

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’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? 3And 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. 4And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ 5Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ 6Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’

8 Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ 9Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works (John 14:1-10, NRSV).

“I am the way”. These are the words of Christ, the point of the whole Gospel of John, the core of the Bible, the truth passed on by the early church, and the foundation of the Christian faith today. Way—the Greek word here is “hōdos” which “can mean not only a road, a path, but also a practice” (Willimon). Here, it is not used as a geographical term. It isn’t the same kind of “way” that we talked about finding with the blackberry GPS program. It is “instead a description of the revelatory work of Jesus. To know ‘the way’ is thus synonymous with knowing Jesus himself” (The New Interpreter’s Bible).

In this passage from John 14, Jesus doesn’t just say that he is the way. He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Looking at this entire “I am” statement can help us understand more of what Jesus is saying about being “the way”. In this statement, “Jesus reveals himself to be simultaneously the access to and the embodiment of life with God” (New Interpreter’s).

“I am…the truth”. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh—Gospel of John begins with a description of “the Word” through whom all things were made. As the Word of God among us, Jesus makes the truth of God available to the world. He does this by speaking and teaching about God and how to live as a child of God; and by demonstrating the love and the life of God through his actions—what he did and how he lived. Jesus is the Word of God, the truth of God, in person.

“I am…the life”. Through healings, and especially through the raising of Lazarus back to life, Jesus shows that he has God’s life-giving power. Through these acts of restoring life, Jesus announces himself as life. So, Jesus is the way because he is the access point to God’s promise of life. In Jesus, we can see and know God in a way not possible before.

These “I am” sayings all point to the cooperative power of Jesus and God the Father in the work of salvation. They all point to Jesus as “the way” of receiving God’s salvation.

When Jesus speaks these words to his disciples, he is saying them as part of his farewell speech. He is with them for the last time before he is taken into Roman custody to be killed. So, he is not telling them “I am the way” for the purpose of creating an exclusive group who keep to themselves the “secret” of re-connecting with God. This is part of his last speech to them, and comes right after he says “my Father’s house has many [rooms]”. He is trying to reassure his disciples that all he has said is true and that even though he will not be with them soon, it is for a good purpose. It is better for them, and better for all creation that Jesus leaves them and sacrifices his life. Basically, he says, ‘You are not going to have me with you in the flesh any more, but it is okay. I am going so that I can make a place for you—and all God’s creation—in the eternal place of God. You know what to do while I am gone, because you have heard what I have said and seen what I have done. You know me, so you also know “the way”.

“I am the way” is a statement of hope, promise, and reassurance. Saying, live as I have taught you, believe in me, and you will be fine because “I am the way” to life with God.

This is not a statement meant to be used against people. It is a word of reassurance for all people—that God has come into the world to show everyone God’s love and bring salvation to all who will receive it. And yet, the phrase, “I am the way”, It is used to do damage all over the world. It is used to judge and condemn people who practice other religions. It is used as a supportive purpose for war. It is used as a weapon. So, we may understand the desire to “dethrone Christ” (Wright) and say instead that all religions are the same. It doesn’t matter who or what you believe in. But if we claim that all religions are the same, that all are “echoes of God”, then the result of our claim is that Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Krishna, and the whole lot “all provide a way towards the foothills of the mountain [of God, but] not the way to the summit” (Wright). We cannot come into the full presence of God and receive salvation without Jesus, who provides for us all ‘the way’ to God.

In the Bible, people who follow “other gods” are called Gentiles. We, those of us who were not born Jewish, are gentiles. The only reason we can say today that we have a place in the kingdom and life of God is because of Jesus, who opened the way to God for us. So who are we, the newly included, to become exclusive and start saying who will be left out of God’s kingdom? Jesus came to redeem God’s creation—the whole creation!

In Romans 4, Paul is writing a description of a “fully justified, righteous believer” and he uses Abraham as the main example (Willimon). Abraham didn’t know anything about Jesus, and yet, “somehow, what Jesus did, he did even for Abraham who knew nothing of what Jesus did” (Willimon). So we can say, yes, Jesus is the only way to God without excluding those who have never heard the name of Jesus. “If anyone is saved without knowing about Jesus, that person’s salvation is still an event that occurs through Jesus” (Willimon). It may be a mystery to us how God can act in history through one perfect humanity-divinity combination in Jesus Christ to save even those who do not know the name of Jesus, but the power and the truth of God are no less real just because we can’t fully understand.

Here’s something we can understand. “The whole of early Christianity insists that the one true and living God, the creator, is the God of Israel; and that the God of Israel has acted decisively, within history, to bring Israel’s story to its proper goal, and through that to address, and rescue, the world” (Wright).

The following are familiar words, but let’s not dismiss them for that reason. I invite you to hear these words of Jesus again. “’For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him’” (John 3:16-17, NRSV). And so Jesus says, “’I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6b, NRSV).


Resources Used

New Revised Standard Version of The Bible
The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IX on Luke and John
Willimon, William H., Who Will Be Saved?
Wright, Tom., John for Everyone, Part Two