A sermon by the Very Reverend Sam Candler
Atlanta, Georgia
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14.6
No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14.6
Today is a day that I remember Emo Philips. He told a story over twenty years ago, which bears repeating today. He was walking across a bridge, and he tells the story like this.
I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it! Don't do it!" He said, "Why not? Nobody loves me."
I said, "Well, God loves you. Do you believe in God?"
He said, "Yes." I said, "I do, too. ,Are you a Christian or a Jew?"
He said, "I'm a Christian." I said, "Me, too! ,Protestant; or Catholic?"
He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! ,What franchise?"
He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! ,Northern Baptist; or Southern Baptist?"
He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! ,Northern Conservative Baptist, or Northern Liberal Baptist?"
He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! ,Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region; or Northern Conservative Baptist, Eastern Region?"
He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!...
Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1879; or Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912?"
He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912."
I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.
There is one question I am asked in my ministry more than any other question. It is not a question about sex. It is not a question about politics. It is not a question about morality. It is a question about other religions.
The question is phrased in various ways: Maybe, "How do I, as a Christian, explain other religions?" Or, when people question my own faith, they sometimes ask, "Do you really believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and do you really believe that no one gets to the Father except through him?" "Will people in other religions get to heaven?" Sometimes folks use the questions as an accusation, a test, a simplistic way of determining if my brand of Christianity meets their standards.
At any rate, you all know that kind of question. You do not live in today's world if you have not asked that question.
So, let me deliver a clear answer at the outset. I believe this provocative verse from the Gospel of John. I realize that many Christians are embarrassed by this verse, John 14.6; and that is too bad. Yes, I do believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Yes, I believe that no one gets to the Father except through Christ. There is no way I would be preaching week after week in this place if I did not believe that.
I have believed this verse of scripture ever since I was a teen-ager, when I asked this question while on a youth group retreat. I was searching for my own soul on that dark night. I was searching for God in those lonely times, and I did not ask the question of my leaders and teachers; I knew what they would say. Instead, I decided I would ask God directly. I prayed the question.
"Most Holy God, creator of the universe and lover of souls: What about other religions? How can I believe in Jesus Christ when there are so many other religions in the world?"
I remember very clearly the answer given me in that black night. The answer was not proclaimed across the sky in fireworks. But the answer was clear in my soul.
The answer was this: "It is not for you to worry about those in other religions. I will worry about those in other religions," said this voice of God. "Be concerned with who you will follow. You follow me," said the voice of Jesus. And I did follow Jesus that night. Jesus Christ is still the way, the truth, and the life.
But let me caution you. That answer is not so simplistic as it might sound. That verse, John 14.6, is not so simplistic as it sounds.
It has turned out, in my life, that the more I follow Christ, the more I also respect those in other religions. The more I follow John 14.6, the more I notice and respect other dramatic passages in scripture, including the one that opens Jesus' conversation today, John 14.2. What does it say, not four verses away from John 14.6? It says "In my father's house are many rooms!"
Many rooms, Many dwelling places. Many mansions!
Some of the greatest mansions and pallazi I have ever seen are in Rome, Italy. This past week, many of us in the United States have welcomed and respected the Bishop of Rome as he has visited this country. I, too, love Rome; for me, it is perhaps the most civilized city in the world.
One of my favorite sites in Rome is not St. Peter's Basilica, though it is fine. I rather enjoy the Basilica of St. John Lateran, several miles away, which is the true cathedral church of the city of Rome. Until 1870, every pope was installed not at St. Peter's, but at St. John Lateran. It was built on the site where the Emperor Constantine was baptized. It was the papal palace -the mansion!-- for a thousand years. It was the location for some of the great councils of Roman Catholicism.
And this basilica was the location of one of grandest of church councils, the Council of 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council. But - calamity! That council, in the year 1215, ratified one of the most unfortunate decisions of Christendom. "Extra ecclesiam non salus est." "Outside the church, there is no salvation."
Outside the church, there is no salvation? That thought, that tendency, that very temptation, is one of the most dangerous in Christendom. Because with that ammunition, Christian after Christian throughout history has waged the war of membership: "Who is in the true Church, and who is outside it?"
Consider the years of misery, the centuries of misery, we cause one another while trying to determine who is in, and who is out! Are you a member of the Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1879; or the Northern Conservative Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912? If you aren't one of my kind, you are a heretic!
There are always some members of our religious traditions who believe that way, whether we are Roman Catholic or Anglican or Baptist or Jewish or Muslim! Let me say clearly this morning; this doctrine has never been official in the Anglican and the Episcopal tradition. It is not what we believe.
It is not what I believe. The moment I have defined my own church, whatever church that is, as the only true church, is the moment I have sinned; for I have narrowed the range of God's grace.
Look again at John, chapter fourteen, verse six. In fact, let's consider it literally. Take it literally. Jesus Christ our Lord never said, "No one gets to the Father except through the Christian Church." Jesus said, "No one gets to the Father except through me." That is the verse I believe. I believe Jesus Christ is larger than any church system, no matter how old or wonderful that church system is.
Like our Roman brothers and sisters, each of us yearns for something infallible. Wouldn't it be great if we could rely on one institution, or one person, as infallible? Wouldn't it be comfortable to know that one set of books might always be infallible? If only we had certainty about things! I accept this yearning, inside all of us. Inside every soul resides the deep yearning for absolute truth.
But, friends, that truth is never fully contained in any one person, or in any one book, or in any one country, or in any one institution. That truth is contained only in the mystery of God, and in Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
It is not the Bible, not the Church, not the Country, as wonderful as all those realities are, where I put my trust. It is Jesus in whom I put my trust.
Jesus did not say, "No one comes to the Father except through the Christian Church." This is where many Christian churches have often erred. We have often accused other religious communities as being somehow "deficient." Yes, I know that other religions are deficient in some way, but so is my own religion! We are all deficient in some way! All our structures are deficient!
Yet, in spite of those deficiencies, Jesus said, "In my Father's structure, in my Father's house, are many mansions!"
Mansions! Do any of you live in a mansion? The word "mansion" strikes us as elitist in this day, doesn't it? A mansion is one of those huge houses in Buckhead or in Rome, or in Fayetteville or in Alpharetta.
But, in olden times, that word meant only a house, a dwelling place, a house where one tarried and rested. It was where one rested. This is why the King James Version of the Bible translates this verse as "mansions."
In my Father's house are many mansions. The phrase excites us now, and especially at funerals, because we want heaven to be full of mansions in the modern sense. We want heaven to have palaces of gold and silver.
And perhaps heaven will. The opulence of heavenly grace will surely be like that. But the power of heaven, the power of God's house, is that God's saving grace is much larger, more spiritually spacious, than anything we can imagine. In my Father's house, are many rooms, many mansions, many places to stay and to reside.
What a beautiful image of heaven! What prevents us from getting there? Absolutism does.
The hindrance to heaven today is the tyranny of absolutism. We are tempted to think of political parties as either absolutely right, or absolutely wrong. We are tempted to think of political leaders as either absolutely right or absolutely wrong. We are tempted to think of countries as either absolutely right or absolutely wrong. We are tempted to think of different religions as either absolutely right or absolutely wrong. We are tempted to think of our neighbor as either absolutely good or absolutely evil.
Such all-or-nothing absolutism is dangerous. Exclusivist absolutism divides the world according to narrow human terms and not according to God's wide kingdom. Oh, I know there are absolutes in this world, but they will never be fully defined according to our human distinctions. There are absolutes in this world, only according to God's standards.
Let not our religion, then, become simply another player in our dangerous world of competing absolutes. The most serious dangers facing our world today are those resulting from all-or-nothing polarities, presented by everyone from politicians to preachers. Let not our Christianity be a player in that game.
Exclusivist faith is dangerous, whether that faith is conservative or liberal. (After all, we have our share of fundamentalist liberals as well as fundamentalist conservatives.)
Rather, let our faith be in Jesus the Christ. Jesus came to give us life -life above these absolutist polarities. Jesus came to give us truth -truth above these divisions. Jesus came to be the way -the way of saving grace that expands beyond our understanding. Jesus the Christ is the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him.
AMEN.
The Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler
Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip