Today’s sermon builds on the sermons of the last two weeks. So, like they do on the TV shows, let me start with a quick recap of what happened previously...
Do you remember two weeks ago?... my sermon was about the sheep pen, and Jesus said “I am the gate. You need to enter the sheep pen through me.”
Two weeks ago I said that inside the sheep pen was the kingdom of God where happiness and peace are found, but many try - and fail - to enter into it by climbing over the wall instead of going through the gate.
Do you remember one week ago?... my sermon was about being good instead of perfect, about making mistakes and figuring it all out as you go…
And I mentioned that the disciples made a lot of mistakes...
Now we come to the opening scene of this week’s episode, in which Jesus says, “You know the way to the place I’m going.” After hearing last week about how the disciples were less than perfect, it’s not surprising that one of the disciples responds by saying:
“No we don’t. We don’t know the way...”
It was Thomas who said that. “We don’t know the way. Where are you going? How can we know the way?”
To this, Jesus responded: “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Come to the Father through me. Come into the kingdom through me. I am the gate, remember?”
Then Philip said: “Show us the Father. Maybe then we’ll know the way.”
The scripture doesn’t say, but I think at that point Jesus rested his head in the palm of his hand. I think he chuckled a little. And then I think he looked back up, and that’s when he said: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Whoever has come through me has already come into the kingdom.
“I am the gate. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I will show you life in the kingdom. I will show you God.”
It sounds so simple, right? Jesus is the way. Jesus is the gate. And if you want to know what God is like - if you want to see God - look at Jesus.
But for so many, it’s not as easy as it sounds.
It’s not just the twelve disciples. People today are having a hard time seeing God. People are having a hard time finding their way: their way in life, their way to happiness, their way into the kingdom of peace. They want someone to show them God. They want someone to show them the way.
It’s not for lack of trying. They’re trying to find truth. They’re trying to find wholeness. They’re trying to find happiness. They’re trying to find God.
People are searching. For many of them, their search is desperate; and while there are a lot of good religious leaders in the world, there are also those who take advantage of people who are desperate in their search for God .
There are many who say: “Here is God! Here is God, right here! And here is the kingdom. Here is where you will find happiness. Just follow me, and I’ll show you.”
But they’re lying.
They’re not showing you God. They’re not showing you the kingdom of peace and happiness. They’re not showing you the way.
They are deceivers.
But people follow them anyway. They don’t know what God looks like. They don’t know what the kingdom is. So they follow. They follow those who lie and deceive.
Here, then, is the truth:
What is the way?
Jesus is the way.
How do you see God?
Look at Jesus.
That is as true as it gets. But what does that mean?
Let me spell it out for you.
When we say “Jesus is the way,” we’re saying...
The one who preached good news to the poor is the way.
The one who proclaimed freedom to the oppressed is the way.
The one who healed the sick is the way.
The one who welcomed the children is the way.
The one who fed the hungry is the way.
The one who ignored the labels put on people by the religious leaders and government rulers is the way.
The one who crossed ethnic and religious lines by associating with Samaritans - even calling them ‘good’ - is the way.
So if we want to follow the way of Jesus, we need to do what he did. We need to preach good news to the poor, we need to proclaim freedom to the oppressed, we need to provide healing to those who are sick, we need to welcome children, feed the hungry, remove labels, and cross ethnic and religious lines.
When we do these things, we follow the way of Jesus. And when we follow the way of Jesus, we see God.
Now, about those liars and deceivers...
A lot of people who proclaim Jesus don’t talk about helping the poor. They don’t talk about healing the sick. They don’t talk about feeding the hungry. They don’t talk about removing the labels put on people by society. They don’t talk about crossing ethnic and religious lines. They don’t talk about freedom for the oppressed.
I don’t know how you can proclaim Jesus without talking about such things, but they do. They manage to talk about Jesus without talking about the things Jesus did, and without talking about all the things Jesus taught.
Disciples of Christ pastor William Barber once said, “I keep asking myself why so many people are saying so much about things that Jesus said so little about, and so little about things that Jesus said so much about.”
When they do that, they present a very distorted image of Jesus. The Jesus they proclaim is not the Jesus people encounter when they actually read the gospel.
That’s why so many have given up on the search. They look at the people who are proclaiming Jesus, but they don’t see God. They don’t see the kingdom of peace, the kingdom of happiness, the kingdom of wholeness.
When a Christian leader preaches about the importance of truth and the importance of family values one day, then the next day says that the dream candidate for evangelical Christians is a man who lies, who harasseswomen, and whose economic policies and health policies and environmental policies threaten millions of lives - as soon as he says that this man is a model for Christians to follow, thousands stop searching for God.
When a preacher insists that Genesis is literal history and not just theology, that evolution didn’t happen, that the earth is less than 10,000 year old - basically telling people that, to follow Jesus, you need to stop thinking - while neglecting all the things Jesus actually talked about, thousands stop searching for God.
Genesis is good, powerful theology, full of deep meaning… but it’s not literal history. It’s not science.
When Christian lawmakers deny voting rights and other rights to millions of people because of their race, essentially labelling them second-class citizens and second-class humans, thousands stop searching for God.
When believers insist that climate change is fake even though scientific data show that it’s true; when they support discriminatory laws against the LGBT community, even though Jesus frequently broke down the lines of discrimination in his day; when they care more about unborn fetuses than they do about children who are born and dying...thousands stop searching for God.
They give up. They stop searching. They asked to see God, and this is what was handed to them.
They’ve tried. They’ve searched. But time and again they came upon those who claimed to be proclaimers of the gospel, yet did not follow the way of Jesus.
They wanted to see God. They searched and searched and searched. But God could not be seen. All that they could find was hypocrisy.
God cannot be seen in a nation that refuses to feed the hungry.
God cannot be seen in a nation that denies care to those who are sick.
God cannot be seen in a nation that discriminates against any portion of humanity.
God cannot be seen in a nation that takes away rights from people, a nation that disenfranchises millions because of the color of their skin.
God cannot be seen in a nation that imprisons more people than any other nation on earth, targeting racial minorities especially, in an effort to support a for-profit prison industry…
God cannot be seen in a nation that still makes LGBT youth and adults ashamed and afraid for being who God created them to be.
God cannot be seen in a nation that chases after lies and deceptions rather than the truth.
If you want to see God, look at Jesus. Look closely, and really see…
Look at the one who fed the hungry, and you’ll see God.
Look at the one who healed the sick, and you’ll see God.
Look at the one who welcomed strangers and dined with them, and you’ll see God.
Look at the one who affirmed the dignity of those cast out of temples and palaces, and you’ll see God.
Look at the one found in the least of these, and you’ll see God.
Look at your neighbor - your immigrant neighbor, your poor neighbor, your oppressed neighbor. See them. Know them. Love them and serve them… and you’ll see God.
Look at those who work tirelessly for peace; look at those who work for racial justice; look at those who march for truth; look at those who march with pride… and you’ll see God.
Look at people like Disciples pastor William Barber, who I mentioned earlier. Go find a speech or a sermon he gave on Youtube, and watch it tonight; that’s “must-see TV.”
William Barber calls himself a “theologically conservative liberal evangelical biblicist.” In a speech he gave last summer, he said, “I know it may sound strange, but I'm a conservative because I work to conserve a divine tradition that teaches us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.”
That is - God told the prophet Micah - what is required of us: to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
It is what Jesus did, and what he taught us to do. “The Spirit has anointed me,” Jesus said, “to preach good news to the poor, release to the captives, freedom to the oppressed, and sight to the blind.”
Jesus, show us the Father. Show us God. We want to see God!
But Jesus has shown us God. Now it’s up to us to look… and see.
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