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April 20, 2008     Easter 5A

Acts 7:55-60

1 Peter 2:2-10         St. John 14:1-14

I went to the grocery store the other day. We needed milk. I went to the section of the store that has the refrigerated cases and stopped dead in my tracks. For the first time in my life I was struck by the sight of the wall of milk before me. There was whole milk. There was 2% milk. There was 1% milk. There was skim milk. There was acidophilus milk. There was soy milk (I'm not sure how you milk a soy!?). There was chocolate milk. There was strawberry milk (where was that when I was a child?)

As I looked more closely, I saw there were pints. There were quarts. There were half gallons. There were gallons. Not to mention, plastic containers and paper containers. I turned to the man standing next to me, who was also considering the choices before him and remarked, "Do you remember the day when, if you wanted milk, you walked into the store, grabbed a bottle (made out of glass), paid for it and left the store?" With a look of longing for those oft-mentioned "Good Old Days", he nodded in agreement.

We live in an age of choices. No one can tells us what we want or how we want it. I think choices can be good. They can also be paralyzing. It was because of choice that I learned to eat and enjoy liver.

I was in college. The new campus center had been built. Part of that campus center was a large dining room. The dining room itself was s big as the building that had housed the previous dinning room. With all that space, the college introduced the concept of choice to their meal plan. My first exposure to that ability to choose was on an evening that liver was being served. When I expressed my dislike for liver, the server replied, "You do have a choice, you know." "I do? What choice do I have?" I asked, seeking further information. The reply came back, "You can eat liver, or not." Thus was my introduction to choices in the world of food.

Our nation is now fully immersed in the world of choices. Until November we will be reminded of the choices we have in the coming elections. Whether you like it or not, we will be told of the choices. Over and over again.

Perhaps more than in any other nation of the world, the concept of choice has infiltrated our spiritual life. We have more institutions of faith in this nation than anywhere else. When I served in Altoona, I noticed that it seemed every block had two things, a Church and a bar. I will let it up to your imagination to decide which had more traffic. We have a similar situation in Lancaster County, except there are fewer bars.

Somehow everybody and their cousin has seen a need to start a new Church. Each of these new Churches purports to be the true Church and the one with the correct interpretation. In some ways it is as comical as the discussions on which side of the boiled egg to open, the rounded end or the pointed end.

One of the top news items of the week has been the visit of Pope Benedict to these United States. In the on-going ecumenical dialogues, the role of the Pope is one of the issues. One thing agreed upon so far is that the Pope is a sign of the unity of the Church, not the only sign but one of the signs. With the state of the Church, he is at the same time a sign of the disunity of the Church. Which brings me, finally, to the Gospel.

You all know of my interest in grammar. Some might say my obsession with grammar! The pericope from St. John's Gospel we heard today is one of my favorites. I think it is perhaps one that needs to be heard over and over again until it really sinks in. It speaks directly to our love for choices.

Jesus is preparing his disciples for the time when he will no longer be with them. He is attempting to assure them that it is necessary for him to leave so that he may prepare a place for them all to be re-united with him. This opens a whole area for discussion, but for another day. Thomas is concerned that when Jesus leaves, the disciples will not be able to follow Jesus and thus be reunited with him. Thomas understands Jesus to be speaking about the way to God. He is concerned about knowing the way. Here comes the important part.

Jesus tells him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one come to the Father, but by me." If our nation really understood the implication of this statement, the Church would have even less of an impact than it already does. Jesus' statement flies in the face of choices. Jesus is not giving the disciples choices to make in order to come to God.

The Greek grammar is very precise at this point. The words "way", "truth" and "life" all have the definite article with them. It has the effect of saying that Jesus is the one and only way, the one and only truth, the one and only life. As if we really needed such emphasis with the ending of Jesus' statement, "?no one come to the Father, but by me."

Despite what out nation would like, there are not many different roads to God. We need not be so worried about offending someone and excluding someone that we must open THE way to all ways. From the very beginning, the Church was an exclusive organization. It was separated from the Synagogue, it was identified by those who believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah and were baptized into his name and fellowship.

I said this was difficult for us to accept. It is especially difficult for the United Church of Christ that seems Hell-bent (was that a Freudian slip?) on turning the Church into a Cole Porter musical, "Anything Goes."

We gather today to participate in the Lord's Supper. In it we feed on Christ, confessing our weakness and need. We come to be nourished by the one who has promised not to desert us, but to prepare a place for us and come again for us, that we may be with him in eternity. This life, this faith, is the way, the only way to God. Let us set out on this way, let us hold fast to truth, and let us follow life. It is The Way that leads us, The Truth that strengthens us, THE Life that is restored to us who calls to us, "Follow me."