So, I am mostly over this sickness, though this cough and congestion are proving tricky to dispel completely. But for the most part I have been able to reenter polite society and been able to get out of this stuffy apartment a couple time this week that didn't include work. On Thursday we got Henry's 3 month pictures taken, getting professional pictures taken wasn't something that was on my radar, but Mary convinced me that it had to be done. It was a pretty good session, Henry even smiled a few times for the camera, something he usually doesn't do. Normally you have to distract him from the camera in order to get a smile, for a child who knows close to nothing, he gets what a camera is, go figure.
Now onto things of a more spiritual nature...
SPOILER ALERT!!!! If you are one of the few members of my congregation that read this blog, be warned that it is going to cover some things that I will be covering in my sermon for Sunday, read it if you want to, don't if you want the sermon to be a completely original experience for you.
Tonight I am trying to work on my sermon, it's a sermon that should have been written three weeks ago, because chronologically that's where it fell in my sermon series, but I pushed it a week. But then I got sick last week, so no sermon for last Sunday, so here we are. As I have mentioned before I am currently in the midst of a sermon series on Jesus' 'I Am' statements from the book of John. This week I am in John 14, the way, the truth, and the life. The main reason I pushed it from its original place was because I wasn't sure how to go about writing a sermon on it. We in America have traditionally held this scripture up as our proverbial trump card when we talk about other religions. It's our, 'In Your Face,' scripture, saying, see our book says that our savior is the only way to God, sorry about your luck in following another religion.
And while I may be willing to allow just a little bit of that into what Jesus said, by and large I do not think that is what Jesus is getting at. This conversation takes place during the Passover meal, aka the Last Supper, and Jesus is talking to his disciples about his upcoming betrayal and death. He tells them that he is going away to prepare a place for them and that if he goes they will know the way, and my buddy 'Doubting' Thomas says that they don't know where he is going, so how can they possibly know the way. Thus Jesus responds, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Thomas thinks Jesus is talking about an actual physical place that has a set of directions that are needed to reach it, Thomas is looking for the map, and Jesus is telling him, no, I am the map.
The way I see this Jesus is telling them, in essence, that it is not about the plan, it is about the person; it is not about the rules, it is about the relationship, it is not about the destination, but the company. Thomas wants to follow Jesus to his destination and Jesus tells him that he already is, if he has been paying attention. That's what it really comes down to, not my God is better than your God, but am I paying attention to what I am supposed to be paying attention to? Are you?
Is it about the plan for you? You have a plan, we all do, but are we sticking to the directions and forgetting the actual person of Jesus? Is it all about the rules for you? They exist, sure, but they are not what's eternally important, pursuing and maintaining a relationship with Jesus is. Is it all about the destination for you? Do you care more about getting into heaven than having Jesus in your life now? These are the eternal questions that we need to be wrestling with in light of Jesus' admission that he is the way, the truth, and the life, not who's religion is better. At least, that's the way that I see it.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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