Which way?

Happy Mother’s Day! We want to celebrate all the women who help us grow and be our best selves. Mom’s aunts, teachers, neighbors, grandmothers, etc. Thank you! We hope you all enjoy your day.  

Here’s a joke for you, why did the chicken go to the séance? (Think a minute before you look.) 

To get to the other side! 

With all that is going on in the world, it is understandable to feel anxiety. We want the people we love to be ok, and not get the virus. We want everybody to have a job, and no one to worry if they’ll have enough food. We want the economy to be ok. We want to go on vacation. We want kids to be able to play in the park and see their friends. But the virus is still out there and will be with us for a long time. We are living a new normal. 

What do you do in times like these, when life is turned upside down? Which way do you turn? How do you find peace beyond your fear? 

Well we are not the only ones to see troubled times, to feel alone, and to wonder which way to go. Jesus’ disciples felt that way in today’s Scripture reading from John 14. 

Before the gospel reading from today, in John 13, Jesus has his last supper with his followers. He tells them one of them will betray him, and Peter will deny him. This was unsettling: what was happening to their happy group? Then Jesus said to them, “I will be with you only a little longer. Where I am going you cannot come.”  Then in today’s reading, Jesus says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” Jesus is leaving them, Peter will deny him, Judas will betray him, and they are not supposed to worry? Jesus says, “Later on I’ll take you to myself, and you’ll be with me, and abide with me. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 

Thomas says to him, “No Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Thomas would like some instructions. Wouldn’t it be nice to know the way to find Jesus and be with him? 

Well, Jesus gives directions: “I am the way, and the truth and the life.” And he said “If you know me, you know my Father also. And you do know me, so you know my father, and you have seen him.”  

Thomas is looking for a map, for directions, for the way. Jesus doesn’t give him a map. Instead, Jesus says the way is a person, the way is me! Before Jesus came into the world, people had trouble following an invisible God. So, God sent Jesus. In the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you can read all about Jesus. Jesus is God in a body, here on earth. He taught, he healed, and he hung out with everybody. He was happy to talk to people that other people wouldn’t talk to. He was happy to go to dinner with Zaccheus, a tax collector that everybody else hated. One thing really important to Jesus was relationship. He could have walked around, teaching and healing, all by himself. He didn’t need the 12 disciples. He didn’t have to get baptized by John the Baptist. He was without sin, there was no need to be baptized. But Jesus did gather disciples, and he did get baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus valued relationships. He used metaphors that were very relational. I am a vine, and you are the branches. We are a living plant together. I am the shepherd, and you are the sheep. I call you and you look up, “Hey, that’s the shepherd!” You know my voice. Jesus said, “I one with the Father, and if you know me you know him.”  

Relationship is what Jesus invited everyone to. He didn’t invite them to memorize prayers or come to synagogue or temple. He said, “Follow me. Believe in me. Come to me.”  

Jesus invites us to follow him, to be in relationship with him. You may wonder, can I follow Jesus, even if you have doubts? Yes, you can! Remember, Thomas was doubting Thomas. Jesus invited him on the way, doubts and all. And Jesus disciples were invited to follow although it took them 2 years to believe! They followed for so long, not knowing who Jesus was! So, faith is a process. The most important thing to Jesus is that you follow, and that you come to be with him. So, if you are looking for a way when you don’t know the way, Jesus says, “I am the way. Come to me. I am the way.” 

When we are looking for which way to go, relationships matter. In the news this week, a 19-year-old in New Mexico named Jose went to an ATM. Beside the ATM he saw a clear plastic bag on the ground. Inside it was a foot-high stack of $50 and $20 bills.  

Jose didn’t know what to do. “What should I do?” he thought. 

He wondered, is this a trick? Is someone going to pull up behind him and kidnap him? 

Jose called the police. Two officers came and he handed them the money. The officers took it to the station and counted it: it was $135,000! It turns out, the person who was stocking the ATM with cash, forgot and left the bag of cash just sitting there.  

One officer said, Jose could have gone down the wrong path with the cash, but he chose the integrity path and did the right thing.  

Jose said that as he waited for the police, he could hear his parents’ lessons in his head. “My parents always taught me to work,” Jose says. His parents taught him that stolen money would never last you any time. He also heard his mom’s voice, saying, joking, that she would slap him with a flip-flop if he didn’t behave! 

Notice, when he wondered what to do, Jose was not thinking, “What rule should I follow in this situation?” No, instead, he was thinking: “What would my parents say? What would they do?” He carried his parents teaching with him, even when they weren’t with him. That relationship with his parents helped him make the right decision, when he didn’t know what to do. And his Mom and Dad, of course, were very proud of him and his decision! Jose was praised and recognized and rewarded by area business for his honesty. The good relationships we have in life are a big part of helping us find the right path. 

Jesus was all about relationships! He calls you and me to follow him and to follow him, like he’s family. When you follow Jesus you’re family! You know him, and when you know him, you know God. You are part of the family. You follow, and where is the place you are headed toward? You are headed for peace beyond fear. Trust that says, no matter what God, I know you are the way, and you’ll get me through. 

My homework for you is to say, “Lord where you go, I will follow.” Just take a step on the road to following Jesus. To follow is to take a step, maybe to read some of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, read the stories of Jesus. Or to follow is to pray. To follow is to do something you feel God is calling you to. This week tell God you will follow, and step out on the way.  

Which way do you go in uncertain times? Jesus is the way. He offers forgiveness, grace, love, redemption, and wisdom. When you don’t know which way to go, He is the way. When you follow him, you find the way to trust beyond fear. Amen. 

May 10, 2020