The Way, the Truth, the Life

The Fifth Sunday in Easter

**Please note this service is based on the format of the Anglican Church of Canada. Unless otherwise indicated, all prayers come from the Book of Alternative Services (BAS) and the hymns from the Book of Common Praise (BCP). Other hymns and prayers have been sourced to give appropriate credit.

**NRSV translation used for the readings, unless otherwise stated.

**This is for personal use at home as the church is unable to gather in our houses of worship but together we can worship in our own homes.

Opening Prayer

I am the way, the truth, and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to God, but by me. (John 14:6)

Risen Christ, you prepare a place for us in the home of God. Draw us more deeply into yourself, through scripture read, water splashed, bread broken, and wine poured, so that when our hearts are troubled, we will know you more completely as the way, the truth, and the life. Amen. (Revised Common Lectionary Prayers)

Opening Hymn – Thou Art the Way: To Thee Alone (BCP #515)

            Listen Here

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And also with you.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

May his grace and peace be with you.

May he fill our hearts with joy.

Collect for Purity

            Listen Here

The Gloria

          Listen Here

Collect of the Day

Let us pray.

Almighty God, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Give us grace to love one another and walk in the way of his commandments, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Readings

A reading from the Book of Acts                           7:55-60

But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be the God.

Psalm 31:1-5

In you, O Lord, I seek refuge;

    do not let me ever be put to shame;

    in your righteousness deliver me.

Incline your ear to me;

    rescue me speedily.

Be a rock of refuge for me,

    a strong fortress to save me.

You are indeed my rock and my fortress;

    for your name’s sake lead me and guide me,

take me out of the net that is hidden for me,

    for you are my refuge.

Into your hand I commit my spirit;

    you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

A reading from the First Letter of Peter                            2:2-10

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:

“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,

    a cornerstone chosen and precious;

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected

    has become the very head of the corner,”

and

“A stone that makes them stumble,

    and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people,

    but now you are God’s people;

once you had not received mercy,

    but now you have received mercy.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Gradual Hymn – Nada te turbe (BCP #568)

            Listen Here

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.                        14:1-14

Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

The Gospel of Christ.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Sermon

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to God except through me.”

This is a very powerful “I AM” statement, one that hits deep to the core of any Christian. At the same time, it can be a hurtful claim to non-Christians as it can be viewed as quite an exclusionary declaration.

The perception of this particular “I AM” statement is that the only way to God is through Jesus. But what if you don’t believe in Jesus? Are those who are Jewish or Muslim or Hindu any less likely to find God, heaven, or salvation than Christians?

The “I AM” statements in John’s gospel make known Jesus as the source of life, abundant grace, and, seen in connection with the absolute “I AM” statements, signal the very presence of God.

Yet, removed from the conversation between Jesus and Thomas, and from the situation of Jesus’ last alone time with his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion, this particular “I AM” statement in the Gospel of John has turned into evidence for and proof of Jesus as the sole means of salvation.

An additional glaring misappropriation of this “I AM” statement is it stands as contradictory to every other “I AM” statement in the Fourth Gospel. “I AM the way, the truth, and the life” becomes an indication of God’s judgment, exclusion, and absence. “No one comes to the Father except through me” rather than a word of promise becomes a declaration of prohibition.

If we keep reading beyond verse 6, we realize that the Father has already come, is already present, in the life and ministry of Jesus. “If you know me” is a condition of fact, “if you know me, and you do.” These are words of comfort, not condition, for the disciples. There is nothing uncertain for their present or their future because of their relationship with Jesus. Of that, Jesus wants them to be secure.

Now, it is very likely that John literally meant that no one gets to heaven except through Jesus, but I don’t believe that thought is in keeping with the spirit of Jesus’ own life and teachings.

The statement, I think, is not grounds for slaughtering non-believers in Jesus, or forced baptisms, or worrying that non-believers have been condemned to everlasting damnation.

Let’s look at the statement in a different way. Jesus first says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

Now, if we simply substitute for the "me" in the second statement with who Jesus says "me" is - the "I am" in the first statement – we get “No one comes to the Father, except through the way, the truth, and the life.”

The verse is now a plain statement of the simple truth that the life to come will be a way of truth and life.

And, since Jesus has said that he will come and take us to God himself, we can trust that we will not be abandoned and left on our own to find this impossible-for-us-to-be-nothing-but-truth-and-life way.

Jesus himself is a gift from the very heart of God whose teachings guide us and whose presence sustains and challenges us. We continue, throughout our lives, to ask and ask again the basic questions of "Am I on the right track in life?" and "How can I know God in my life?" The answer Jesus gives is both simple and profound: "I am the Way."

We grow into the answer as we live out the months and years of our lives, first wading in it and then swimming. Every time we return to these basic questions, it can be with deepened faith since the last time we asked them.

John 14:6 is an important statement by Christians, for Christians. It is a message of hope, not exclusion.

Jesus’ statement about being the way, the truth, and the life is a response to a question by Christians, and Jesus’ answer is directed to Christians and is about Christians. Of course, Jesus’ followers wouldn’t have called themselves to “Christians” yet; but, as we learn in the book of Acts, “The Way” was one of the earliest names for Christianity.

Especially in today’s strange world of pandemic and isolation, John 14:6 can be a source of comfort.

It can also be a reminder of how we should be living our lives. Ask yourselves these questions:

Am I living the Jesus truth?

Am I living the Jesus way?

Am I living the Jesus life?

There have been stories of such compassion and empathy during these times, as well as despair and extreme self-preservation. This pandemic has brought out the worst and the best in people.

Let us all do our best to live out Jesus’ truth, way, and life and be examples of true Christian believers through the love and compassion we have for ourselves and for our neighbours.

Amen.

Affirmation of Faith

Let us confess the faith of our baptism, as we say the Apostles’ Creed:

            

The Prayers of the People

God of grace and light,

Found within and out with the structures of humanity,

You cannot be contained,

But on occasion choose to dwell in hearts and homes.

Glance lightly upon the hearts and homes dear to us,

The people and places where we seek blessing.

Build up our homes:

Where the happy may find peace;

The sad may find comfort;

The hungry may find food;

The weary may find rest.

Build up the places where we work:

Where the honest may find reward;

The dedicated may find delight;

The imaginative may find new horizons.

Build up our community:

Where the isolated may find friendship;

The marginalised may find welcome;

The unloved may find acceptance.

Build up our nation, loving Lord,

And bless those entrusted with the care of our society’s fabric.

May they use their skills, their calling, their hard graft

To fashion communities of grace and understanding,

Where generosity of heart and mind and soul

May be not only the gilding of our daily life

But its very core.

Build up the Church, redeeming Lord,

So that all Your children may find their place,

Unique and special,

Chosen and essential to the living edifice of grace,

Where by Your grace

Each one might know their value in Your economy,

And their significance in Your eyes.

Help us all, this day, to be living stones, and not dead weights,

Dreaming dreams, and living gloriously the joy and kindliness

Of a faith that edifies everything that life should be.

In the Name of our Saviour, our cornerstone, we pray. Amen.

(written by Rev Dr Derek Browning, and posted on the Church of Scotland’s Starters for Sunday website.  http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/)

Gathering our prayers together, let us pray as Christ has taught us,

Our Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

Save us from the time of trial,

And deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

The power, and the glory,

For ever and ever. Amen.

Confession and Absolution

Dear friends in Christ,

God is steadfast in love and infinite in mercy; God welcomes sinners and invites them to the table. Let us confess our sins, confident in God’s forgiveness.

            (Silence)

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbour as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us, that we might delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name. Amen.

Almighty God, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also with you.

Prayer over the Gifts

**Although not physically at our church buildings to share our offering together I would encourage you to set your offering of money aside so that it can be dropped off or placed in the church once services resume, to mail your offering to the church, or to make donations online. Please remember ministry is still taking place.

Let us pray.

Gracious God, you show us your way and give us your divine life. May everything we do be directed by the knowledge of your truth. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ the risen Lord. Amen.

Doxology

Glory to God,

Whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen.

Blessing

If the God who raised Jesus from the dead is for us, who dare be against us?

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Step out into the world in humble confidence:

there is nothing about to happen that God has not foreseen,

and no situation where Christ will not be there ahead of you,

preparing a place and an opportunity for you.

Thanks be to God.

The peace of God, which goes beyond all understanding,

keep your hearts and minds

in the knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ.

And the blessing of God all-loving,

the Creator, Redeemer and Counsellor,

will be with you now and always. Amen!

(written by Bruce Prewer, and posted on Bruce Prewer’s Home Page.  http://www.bruceprewer.com/)

Closing Hymn – Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life (BCP #569)

            Listen Here

Dismissal

Go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit. Alleluia!

Thanks be to God. Alleluia!