People of The Way
John 14:1-14

April 20, 2008


Can you imagine how difficult it must have been for Jesus followers in the years after his death? In the book of Acts we hear about some of the struggles as well as about some of the successes as the church grew. In today’s reading we hear about the faithfulness, the courage and finally the unjustified murder of Stephen by stoning. In many ways this story parallels the story of killing of Jesus. Some of the people who disagreed with what he was preaching stirred up the crowds against him. They reported him to the Temple authorities and finally they got so worked up that they stoned him to death. According to the story, Stephen never wavered in his faith. Even in the end just before he died he spoke out calling to Jesus to receive his Spirit and then called out again to God asking that the people’s sin not be held against them. Finally, it is reported that a certain Saul was there and he approved of the murder. Why? Why would Saul and the others approve of this murder? Because they were afraid that Stephen and what he preached was a threat to them and what they believed.

There is so much fear, harsh judgment, hatred, and anger in this world. There are so many people that for whatever reason, want to rid the world of those who are different. Extremists of many religions including Christians, Moslems and Jews are so full of their own sense of righteousness and chosen-ness that they are, and have been forever, prepared to regard all those outside their circle as at best, worthless and at worst as evil which should be purged from the face of the earth. And the worst part is they do so believing it is the will of God/Allah…

Jesus encountered people like this and they crucified him. Stephen in today’s story from Acts encounters people like that and they stone him to death. The real tragedy is that over the years, Christians have done those same things to others in the name of Christ, or God. People who call themselves Christians have tortured people and murdered them. They have committed genocide against them simply because they were different, or because they held different beliefs. Extremists have launched wars whether the Crusades or Jihads to rid the world of those they labeled heathens, unbelievers or infidels and they have done so believing they were doing it to glorify God’s name. I’ve got to ask, is there anybody here who believes this is this the way of Christ? Is this the way of God? If we believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and some people don’t believe that, is it true then that they don’t deserve to live? Is that what it means to be committed to Christ? Is that what it means to follow in the way of Christ?

Years back a friend of mine had a particularly meaningful and exciting Confirmation class. The students were all teenagers. They had a wonderful time exploring the questions of faith and what it would mean to commit their lives to following the way of Christ. On the last day of the class they were to decide whether or not they would confirm their faith. One of them asked, “What difference will it make if we are confirmed or not? Will anyone know the difference? They spent a lot of time discussing whether there would be some difference that their friends would be able to see. Millie, my friend, suggested that others should be able to see some difference in their values and the way they lived. Some wondered if there would be some kind of a special sense or aura that others might perceive around them. When the day came, this question was still with them. How will others know that we are Christians, that we are followers of the way of Christ? Millie had been thinking about that too and with her natural sense of humor she had purchased a rubber stamp that said, “CONFIRMED!”.

After a moving ceremony, when everyone had gathered for refreshments, Millie, in fun, offered to stamp each of the kids with the rubber stamp. They loved it. She thought they would probably want the stamp on their hands, but no way, they had her put it right in the middle of their foreheads. “CONFIRMED!” Some of the parents later informed Millie that their kids had refused to wash it off and had gone to school like that the next day. Apparently they had some great conversations with their friends; talking about their faith and their new commitment to following the way of Christ.

I don’t think Stephen had a rubber stamp on his forehead, but what he said as he talked to the people about Jesus and his words just before he died left little doubt that he was a follower of the way.

So, does being followers of Christ, being Christians or “people of the way” as the people in the early church were known, make us different from others? If we are following Jesus way, don’t you think there should be a difference? I think the words of the hymn “They’ll know we are Christians by our love” pretty much sums up the nature of that difference. If we live our lives seeking to love one another as Christ loves us, we will likely be pretty good witnesses to the way of Christ. If in faith we open ourselves to the love of God as revealed in Jesus, and if we share that faith in what we do and what we say, it may help others connect with God.

In the gospel reading, one with which I suspect most of you are quite familiar, we hear words of deepest comfort and faith. Jesus assures us that there is a place for each and all of us in God’s house. This isn’t just comfort for when we or our loved ones are facing death. This assurance is about here and now. We belong! Jesus tells us that there are many resting places on our journey and he goes before us to prepare the way. We are assured that each one of us is a much beloved child of God. Each one of us matters. Jesus teaches and shows us that we can live with confidence in God’s love. We do not have to be afraid no matter what life brings because God’s love is eternal. And that doesn’t just mean after we die. God’s eternal love is here and now and offered freely to each and all.

It’s truly beyond me to understand how some people believe that being Christian means its okay to exploit, dominate, torture or kill all those who are different in some way and who don’t believe in Jesus in the same way they do. I can’t believe that doing things like that makes Jesus happy nor does it glorify God. In contrast I believe that being “people of the way” means accepting God’s love and grace for ourselves and sharing that love as fully as we are able to share it with others.

I am reading a delightful book by Elizabeth Gilbert called Eat, Pray, Love. I’d like to share some of it with you. In chapter four, Elizabeth wrote that she was in the midst of a deepest depression and crisis. Her marriage was dead and the broken relationship was tearing her apart. In the middle of the night she found herself on the bathroom floor all curled up in a ball crying her heart out. And as she put it, “I seemed to have reached a state of hopeless and life-threatening despair, and it occurred to me that sometimes people in this state will approach God for help. I think I had read that in a book somewhere.” So she began to pray to God.

“What I said to God through my gasping sobs was something like this: “Hello, God. How are you? I’m Liz. It’s nice to meet you.”

That’s right – I was speaking to the creator of the universe as though we’d just been introduced at a cocktail party. But we work with what we know in this life, and these are the words I always use at the beginning of a relationship. In fact, it was all I could do to stop myself from saying, “I’ve always been a big fan of your work…”

She carried on talking to God between sobs and finally the prayer narrowed down to,

“Please tell me what to do, please tell me what to do…” Until – quite abruptly - the crying stopped.

“Quite abruptly, I found that I was not crying anymore. I’d stopped crying, in fact, in mid-sob. My misery had been completely vacuumed out of me. I lifted my forehead off the floor and sat up in surprise, wondering if I would see now some Great Being who had taken my weeping away. But nobody was there. I was just alone. But not really alone, either. I was surrounded by something I can only describe as a little pocket of silence – a silence so rare that I didn’t want to exhale, for fear of scaring it off. I was seamlessly still. I don’t know when I’d ever felt such stillness. Then I heard a voice…Please don’t be alarmed – it was not an Old Testament Hollywood Charlton Heston voice, nor was it a voice telling me I must build a baseball field in my backyard. It was merely my own voice as I had never heard it before. This was my voice, but perfectly wise, calm and compassionate. This was what my voice would sound like if I’d only ever experienced love and certainty in my life. How can I describe the warmth of affection in that voice, as it gave me the answer that would forever seal my faith in the divine?

The voice said: Go back to bed, Liz. I exhaled….” (page 15 and 16 Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Jesus assures us that we are loved; we do not have to be afraid on this amazing journey of life. People of the way know they are loved and will never be abandoned. As St. Paul put it so eloquently in his letter to the Romans, “There is nothing in all creation, not powers or principalities, or height or depth, or anything else in all creation, nothing in life, not even death can separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are free to be people of the way.

Thanks be to God.

Preached by Mark Wartman
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan