Isaiah 30:18-21; Psalm 119:33-40; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6; John 14:6-14

Here we go Lions, here we go…

If you’re a home team supporter, can you feel the adrenaline rush?  Sorry if you support another team—perhaps you are feeling totally turned off, or if you don’t follow sport so you are bored already, or appalled.  Good!…

Welcome to the world of personal association, bias, one-upmanship, anger or apathy that slogans and catchphrases can spark—especially religious ones.  Just one verse, one part of a verse from this morning’s Gospel has been the rallying cry of Christians for centuries, the slogan shouted at others, the battle cry of crusaders, justification of forced conversions, and a whole array of put-downs towards people with other beliefs or other brands of Christianity.  Just nine words that have been used and abused as a litmus-test of faith and caused so much misunderstanding and turmoil that it leaves many distancing themselves saying You know the biggest trouble in this world? —religion!  Just nine words that Jesus spoke specifically to his closest friends who were either puzzled or panicking after he said that his work would soon be over, so he’d be leaving them to pick up the ball and run with it.  Just nine words beckoning folk to share in the beauty of mutual support, nine words expressing the truth about a community of faith that is more like a loving family with God in the heart of it, nine life-giving, but problematic words apparently, because they point the way—this way saying No one comes to the Father except through me. 

Did you notice Jesus didn’t say No one comes to God except through me, but No one comes to the Father except through me? In other words, the only way anyone can enjoy the same kind of vision and understanding of ultimate goodness and what it can accomplish as he had, is as he showed us—through being intimately linked with the Power of Love.  In human terms we might imagine it as the perfect mutually loving and supportive relationship between a parent and child.  It as if he said Friends, the way to achieve this is to see and feel the absolute, unshakable bond of love that I experience—one as a Son to a Father who I adore and who adores me.  If you have seen that and felt it in the way I have, the way I’ve shown you, then you know the truth not only that such a relationship is possible but what kind of life it produces.  In that sense, we can see why Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you know me, you will know my Father….

After summing up his entire ministry this way, sharing the truth he was about to stake his life on what does Philip, our patron saint, ask?—Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied. Did he just not get it, or like some excited, over-anxious supporter who sees the clock ticking and as the countdown begins still wants another goal before the final whistle blows to clinch it—another sign to feel happy and secure?   According to John’s Gospel, Jesus had already given them signs galore, explained everything time and again, so what more could he do but throw the ball back to Philip saying Catch! Believe! Believe me—I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you don’t believe what I say, then believe me because of the works themselves.  Philip, do you think I could do what I do without help from SomeOne greater who provides the strength to carry on despite the setbacks, the courage and conviction to voice what I believe even if it is going to get me killed; and the wisdom and the willpower to go show love to those who hate me as well as those who love me but seem too dull to grasp what I say as yet.  Yes, there are heroes who’d be prepared to die for a good cause, for a friend and those they love—but who would choose to die for those who spit in their face or have sunk so low others think them below redemption-who?  Only someone who truly loves everyone no matter what, but do you think that’s easy?  What do you think I do on those hillsides when you’re fast asleep Philip?  I pray and immerse myself in the infinite Source of love I call Abba, Father.

Oh Philip, I know you only say what the rest are thinking—like that time when you wondered how we could possibly feed all those thousands of people.  What was it you said? Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.  Yet you saw my faith, and how my faith in what the Father has shown me about the goodness in others can work.  I believed in them, and I believe in you, but you have to believe in me and believe that I believe in you so that you can pick up the ball and run with it.  But guess what?  You’re going to do greater works than these.  How? …because I am going to Father. 

How does that work, how can we do greater work than Jesus?—because of Easter.  You see, according to John everything Jesus did—his whole life’s work was to reveal what God is really like—a loving parent, that close, that caring, that intimately involved in our lives despite being all powerful and completely beyond description or our imagination.  But Jesus was at a disadvantage to us, because he had to point to the seemingly impossible, the chance of new life before he died then risen again.  On the other hand, we—like Philip, like John writing his Gospel, like many generations of followers all have the gift of hindsight—the gift of Easter.  After the resurrection, everything Jesus told people about the impossible being possible fell into place.  He’d then proved new life was possible even after suffering pain, after all the deaths we endure because there is a power that can work miracles and do us the power of good by coming so close as to be part of us like a Father.  I know some folk have difficulty with that word Father, so please if you prefer, substitute Mother instead, or else the closest name you can think of for the most loving, caring, helpful, supportive, protective, empowering relationship imaginable.

This is important because it is something unique to the teaching of Jesus. Those nine words he used were not about some general notion of God, but his specific revelation of a relationship that is possible with Our Father in heaven—the source of all goodness and love.  What’s in a name?  A lot when it is the name we give someone because it says a lot about what we think of them.  If you look up how many names or titles there are for God, there is a long list in the Bible alone before we even turn to other religions.  Some people believe in God, but not Jesus as the Son of God.  Obviously that means they cannot share the same kind of understanding, relationship or intimacy Jesus says his followers could enjoy because they had seen it –they’d seen it in what he said and did—seen it done and felt the difference.   So for us, it’s true, as he said If you know me, you will know my Father. 

This isn’t about comparing our faith with other world religions—several of which did not exist, or weren’t known to Jesus and his followers.  When he said No one comes to the Father except through me, those nine words speak the truth about a particular way of knowing God, a way learning about the power of love, power of forgiveness and possibility of new life.  This is about a way of thinking and living that comes out of that specific truth, about the joy of picking up the ball (of life) and running with it as Philip did, as John (Bailey) is doing, as each of us can and is called to do in our own way with Christ cheering us on.  Here we go…