Is Jesus exclusive?

John 14:6 states "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
This verse  has long been quoted as the definitive proof that the only way to salvation is to become Christian. Of course if becoming Christian is the exclusive path to salvation, then we have a moral obligation to convince everyone to become Christian by any means possible. This understanding has been the underpinning of Church outreach for centuries. Never mind that for those same centuries Church mission most often went hand in hand with conquest by the Western country that sponsored the mission.

When the British missionaries arrived in India, they discovered that there was already a thriving church there. It had been founded, according to tradition, by St. Thomas. Since it didn't look like the Christianity the missionaries were used to they at best ignored it and at worst tried to shut it down and replace it with the more acceptable British version.

We still do this. Indigenous people apparently have no ability to worship correctly, so we need to send out our own people to keep them in line and make sure they are orthodox. When we do this we are being hypocrites of the highest order. The modern church is the accretion of centuries of people bringing their own cultures and beliefs to the faith. Just because we are happy with where we are doesn't mean that the process will or should stop.

There are groups that are doing great things in the name of Christ, but I cringe whenever I hear the motivation for mission as "All those millions of people are going to Hell if we don't convert them." I don't worship a God who would send anyone to Hell unless the person truly desired to go there. The Gospels are pretty clear that Jesus died for all people. They don't say "all people who have a right and correct belief and say the proper version of the sinner's prayer". That's our stuff not God's.

So what is Jesus saying when he says "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me."? Let's back up a bit to see who John says Jesus is. John 1 says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Later the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. That Word made flesh is called Jesus. It is the Word that created who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In John, when Jesus makes the "I am" pronouncements he is speaking as the Word. I am Bread, I am Light, I am the Gate, I am the Good Shepherd, I am the Resurrection, I am the Way, I am the Vine. In each of these statements he is highlighting a way in which he reconciles the world to God.

These are not statements of exclusion, but rather radical inclusion. He is bread to any who hunger, light to those who need to see, the safe gate to refuge, the one who cares for the lost, hope for the dead, and the path to God, the one in whom we are connected to life. None of these things depend on us. We can't make Jesus and more or less Bread.

So what is our mission? We are to live our relationship with God through Jesus. We are, in our frailties, to incarnate the love of God in our lives. Following Jesus we too become bread, light, freedom, care, hope, guidance, and life. If people want to join us. Great. If the don't, they still belong to God.

We can listen with respect to the stories of other faiths, and tell our story with respect in turn. But our real task isn't in the talking, but the living.

I don't want to be a sheeple...

 In a recent debate around government and freedom, one of the people used the word “Sheeple”. He meant it to imply the kind of people who are easily led and kept happy by paternalistic government. The difficulty with saying that people who are like sheep are easily led is that sheep are not particularly easy to lead.

The Bible is full of stories about sheep and shepherds, and those stories are most often about the trials and tribulations of being a shepherd. Whether it is David wrestling a bear or the shepherd looking for the lost sheep, shepherding is a challenging occupation. Yet the challenge is not due to the sheep’s overwhelming intelligence, but more a result of its preoccupation with meeting the present need.

Most people are like sheep in that way. Our largest focus is on meeting our immediate desire. Want a bigger TV? There’s one on sale. Can’t afford it? There is just enough space on the credit card? Can’t pay the balance on the card? Pay the minimum payment, even if our statement tells us that our mortgage will be paid off first if we only pay the minimum. 

Our life style is unsustainable because we are never content with what we have. We always want what’s next. It is hard for us to imagine just stopping because we have enough.

God calls us sheep, because truthfully we act very much like sheep. That’s why we need a shepherd; someone who will guide us to pastures when we need food and to clean water when we need to drink. Jesus calls himself the good shepherd. Not because he intends to lead us around by the nose, but because his goal is our freedom. If we rest in him, then we can be content. If we are content then we can stop the frantic search for more.

We don’t want to be sheeple. We don’t want a government telling us what to think or do. But we do want to be God’s sheep, because what God wants is for us to be fully ourselves.

An Easter People

It has been said so many times that it is in the realm of cliche that we Christians are an Easter people. We are a people of the Resurrection. Christ is Risen, Hallelujah!


What does that mean by the way? If I came up to you on a Friday night at the pub, or Saturday morning at your kid's soccer practice and asked you about this resurrection thing, what would you say? Can you tell me, or any one for that matter, how the resurrection has changed your life?

We Christians define ourselves by the resurrection, but a lot of us struggle with how it works. Was it a bodily resurrection, a vision, a hallucination, a massive conspiracy? Do we experience the power of this moment in the moments of our days?

I think that it is less important to nail down what exactly happened on Easter morning than it is to look at it's result. Disciples who were afraid to step outside saw Jesus come among them. They touched him, and even Thomas who doubted had his moment. Two grieving followers met him unknowing on a road and were both rebuked and built up. So much so that they ran all the way back to Jerusalem to tell the others.

Perhaps being an Easter people means that we struggle with what it all means, that we lock ourselves away, or leave to go home and encounter our Christ in a way that changes us forever. Perhaps it means that we don't need answers at that soccer practice as much as the openness to the possibility that we might meet God on the field.

The stories of the resurrection are not tidy stories of Jesus coming back to pass on the torch before he retires to the big chair in the sky. They are messy tales of fear and doubt, wonder and love. For me being an Easter person doesn't mean having all the answers in a box, but rather having a heart brimming with questions, and those questions leading me to live differently, whether in church on Sunday or at soccer, or even the pub.

Christ is Risen
He is Risen indeed, Hallelujah.