Sunday Sermon - 3rd of May

The Only Way? Rev. Lance Stone 

It must be one of the most controversial texts in the entire New Testament – one that has been endlessly debated and argued over: John chapter 14 and verse 6, ‘Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.’ For some, this is the bedrock of the Christian faith, the non-negotiable foundation upon which everything else rests – while for others it is a stumbling block that gets in the way. Here there would appear to be an exclusive claim for Jesus Christ as the one and only, unique, way to God and not surprisingly that causes problems in our multi-faith, diverse world.

And not least today. One of the disgraceful features of the appalling conflict being waged at present in the middle east is the way the American so-called ‘Secretary for War’ is turning it into a  religious war. In a recent gathering at the Pentagon he uttered a prayer in which he pronounced judgement and destruction upon Iran in the name of God. The fact that he purported to be quoting from the prophet Ezekiel when he was in fact quoting  the actor Samuel L Jackson in the film Pulp Fiction only renders his utterances as ridiculous as they are blasphemous. But his foolishness only exposes the danger that a text like this, with Jesus proclaiming that he is the way, the truth and the life, can all too easily be weaponised in a world fraught with religious tension. It can all too easily add fuel to the fire of centuries of  anti-semitism  - and all this in a current context where British Jews are being attacked and feeling profoundly threatened.

So we must be very careful how we handle this claim of Jesus’ to  uniqueness. Once upon a time, after all, and not so very long ago, we in this part of the world only really knew about the Christian faith. We were raised in it and our culture was shaped by it and it was like the water that fish swim in, the very air that we breathed: we knew nothing else. And people of other faiths were mostly another world away, in parts of the globe that were often considered less civilised and developed – and their religions were therefore considered primitive and superstitious. It was easy to maintain the superiority and uniqueness of the Christian faith. Now, of course, the world has changed. People of other faiths are not somewhere ‘over there’ but are here with us, among us. And any kind of exclusivism is considered ignorant and unenlightened: how dare we say that one religion is ‘right’ and everyone else’s is ‘wrong’, or that one faith has the one true access to God? And especially to those who practice no faith at all – increasing numbers of people – it all seems so absurd, people claiming one brand of superstitious nonsense trumps every other brand of superstitious nonsense.

            So where do we begin? Well, it’s a brave person that steps onto this minefield but you cannot avoid difficult texts. So the first thing that surely needs to be said is that Christian claims have always been deeply controversial and have led to accusations that Christians were anti-social, their beliefs downright offensive. Our passage today from John 14 is set in a context where Jesus is warning his disciples that they face rejection by the world, just as he  did.  And our reading from the Book of Acts recounts the execution of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, as the Jewish religious authorities are outraged by his claims for Jesus. And there are many things about Christianity that will always appear offensive to the world, not least what is sometimes called ‘the scandal of particularity’: the claim that that God’s revelation is focused upon one particular people, and eventually one particular person. This offends our liberal sensitivities and it’s so much easier to remove the offence by viewing all religions as different ways to God, all paths up the same mountain. But is there not a danger that in a quest for ‘inclusivity’ we tame the gospel and draw its offensive sting?

            But having said that, here is a crucial second point, which is that John’s Gospel says that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and not the Christian religion. And we have to say, sadly and regretfully, that all too often the Christian religion has presented to the world a caricature of Christ, misrepresenting him disastrously. The great Reformer, John Calvin, emphasised that one feature of sinful human beings is that we are idolaters. The human heart is an idol factory, as he put it. We continually make God in our own image, projecting all our ignorance and prejudice onto God – Christians and people of other faiths alike. And that means that all faiths, including Christianity, are to some degree distortions of the truth. And yes, Christianity is the place where Jesus is proclaimed as Lord, but too often that confession is deeply flawed, and Jesus has been absent from the faith and practice of the religion that bears his name.

And that brings me to a third point. Just as Jesus is often absent from the faith and practice of Christians, so he may be present and active in the faith and practice of those of other religions which do not acknowledge him as Lord. Jesus cannot be confined to the Christian faith and the those who call themselves Christians. Who knows where Christ is to be found incognito, unrecognised, unconfessed in people of other faiths?  Who knows in whose lives he lives – unnamed? In this same John’s Gospel, a few chapters back, Jesus likens the Spirit of God to the wind and says, ‘The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes’. So who knows where we might hear the sound of the Spirit – in whose life, and in whose faith? Where might that Spirit of Jesus Christ be found in people of other faiths or  none, albeit unconfessed as the true and only Lord? Again, Jesus says in John chapter 10, ‘I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold, I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice’. The reference is doubtless primarily to non-Jews, the  Gentiles, but might that not refer at least at one level to those of other faiths? Jesus is shepherd of a large and very diverse flock and we run the risk of restricting the boundaries of that flock, when Jesus would push them wider. And in fact Jesus explicitly warned elsewhere that many who think themselves ‘in’ may find themselves ‘out’ and many who we might consider ‘out’ may in fact be ‘in’.

The Christian writer and apologist C S Lewis made this point with characteristic clarity. He wrote, ‘We do know that no one can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him’. Think about that because it seems to me to be crucial: ‘We do know that no one can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him’. Christians may be those who know Jesus in a unique and conscious way, confessing him as Lord, and that opens us up to a whole new relationship with God, as we’ll see in a moment. But Jesus cannot be confined to where he is acknowledged and confessed -  and something of his salvation can be present even where he is not known that way.

         So to one last point, and it concerns salvation and what it  means. Think about this. This verse in John’s Gospel does not say, Í am the way, the truth and the life, no-one comes to God except by me…’ It says ‘no-one comes to the Father but by me’. What this is saying is that through Jesus we are given a very special relationship with God, a relationship that is expressed in that word ‘father’, with all the love and intimacy and care that goes with that word. So elsewhere in the New Testament salvation through Jesus is presented as a new relationship with God whereby we become daughters and sons of God in a new way and we are given the privilege of knowing God in this new, parental way. And there is maybe more to this than meets the eye. You see, in the New Testament, there is really only one son or daughter of God, only one person who can call God ‘Father’ and that is Jesus and Jesus speaks of that special, close relationship in these verses from John 14. As Christians we believe that from all eternity he and only he has been God’s true Son, the one Son of the Father. But when we become Christians something extraordinary happens. When we become Christians we are given the gift of sharing in Jesus’ relationship with this one who he calls ‘Father’. Suddenly Jesus’ Father becomes our Father. And so Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians, ‘God has sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying… Father!’ And then God is no longer some vague force. Then God is not merely some distant Creator – he is one who we know with all the very special associations of that word ‘Father’.

Just think of those moments in Jesus’ life when he called God ‘Father’. Those times of deep prayer, like those moments in the Garden of Gethsemane when he faced the agony of his vocation. Then he drew near to this one who he called Father – this one with whom he was united in the closest of bonds. And as Christians we receive God’s Holy Spirit and so share in that deep intimacy with God that is Christ’s first of all.

So no, other faiths are not all dead ends. Christians do not have a monopoly on God. We cannot say that people of other faiths have no experience God. But do they experience God as Father with all that means and all that Jesus revealed?

            Well, I said it was minefield. No doubt the things I’ve said will appear too narrow, too exclusive to some, and too affirming of other faiths to others. As a Christian I believe that in Jesus there dwelt ‘all the fullness of God’, as the New Testament puts it. Truth, ultimately, is Jesus-shaped, wherever it may be found. That is not  a claim to be weaponised and inflicted on others, but a truth that is to be celebrated wherever it is found – in whatever religion and in whoever’s life. And we try to make the Christian faith worthy of one whose name it bears, proclaiming Jesus as Lord of all. And to him be the praise and the glory forever. Amen.