Sermon 22nd May 2011
John 14:1-14
‘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.
If I had taken notice of an American preacher, Harold Camping, then this sermon would be unnecessary. In 1992, Camping published a book titled 1994?, in which he proclaimed that Christ's return might be on September 6, 1994. In that publication, he also mentioned that 2011 could be the end of the world. To be more precise, he has come up with 21 May, which was yesterday.
Christian history is littered with predictions about the end of the world, and it is an embarrassment that critics of religion use to show that religion is superstitious or morally harmful or unnecessary. One of the merits of critics is that they keep us honest in what we claim, and make us sharpen up our act. For it is true that the Church and some of its beliefs can be said to be wacky, odd, and on the human rights score, there are moral challenges for the church. Critics will point to the wacky views of people like Harold Camping as evidence that religion is like this.
The German theologian Schliermacher wrote a book to his cultured despisers in 1799 - so attacking religious thinking is not new. Schliermacher is one of a strong tradition of theologians who have produced intelligent and reasoned arguments, and we should invite modern day critics to engage with the best brains that Christendom has produced, not the silly or the naïve examples that lack reason or commonsense. To put it another way, if you want to engage with literature, you do not confine your reading to comic books.
This morning I want to look at an argument advanced about religious knowledge and connect it with the question that Philip asks:
Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’
Philip wants some evidence of God the Father. “Show us” he asks.
It is a question with a modern ring to it. Where is the evidence? There is a tradition in the biblical stories that God is elusive or hidden. The argument goes something like this:
God is subject and personal, not an object to be scientifically studied. For example, Richard Dawkins has a definition of God as an hypothesis. Well religious thinking does not understand God in scientific terms. If we use the analogy of being a person, when I am in a relationship with a person, there are aspects to each person that are yet to be discovered or disclosed. There are parts of you or me that we do not see. That’s the nature of human relationships. And God is like that too. An example of that kind of thinking is found in Matthew 11:25-27
At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
This is an example of how God is elusive or hidden. Perhaps we could understand this as saying that pride or greed or ego can easily hinder or block understanding the spiritual way. Certainly there are plenty of examples of self importance that hinder knowledge of the spiritual way.
Now the critic will say that this is a circular evasion. If we want to know something about God, we find that God is elusive and hidden. This, they say, is a convenient evasion for establishing any insight or truth claim. If God exists and is present, where is he? How can we know God, if God is hidden?
It is similar to the request that Philip makes:
Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’
Now in John’s gospel Jesus is said to give a different answer than that in Matthew:
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.
Christ enables us with the eyes of faith to see the invisible God, to know the transcendent source of all being. When Jesus says believe me, he is saying trust me as the source of knowledge of God.
Our knowledge of God, then, is found in Christ. He is the way to finding the truth and the life.
John 14:6 is a very well know verse:
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.’
Truth in John’s gospel is always personal life giving truth. We are not talking here of science or history or knowledge from other sources. We are talking here about a way to truth and life. How we access this knowledge of God is through Christ.
If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.’
John’s gospel is in conversation with Judaism of his day, and is pointing to the belief that Jesus was the Messiah, the chosen one who would reveal God of the Hebrews in a new way. The Jews were looking for a Messiah – John’s gospel is saying this is him - you do not need to look elsewhere.
But there is a strong connection between knowing Christ and knowing God. Knowledge in this sense is personal, it is knowledge by acquaintance, knowledge that comes through encounter or relationship. It may be closer to what we call wisdom – truths that guide us into the good life. For us, the way is by the way of Christ.
John Howell
|