WHICH WAY TO GOD? HERE: I AM THE WAY. John 14:1-14

GOSPEL READING: John 14:1-14
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

NOTES: Jesus said "I am the gate"; now Jesus says "I am the sidewalk, road, path, etc....THE WAY" Another metaphor, another "I am..." statement from John's gospel. Often, Christians recite this particular pericope as foundational in the doctrine of the exclusivity of Christ; Jesus says he is God's single chosen agent of salvation; i.e. "I am THE Way..." Certainly this is one aspect of Jesus' promise you can't easily ignore. But there is more here than mere identification, especially when we examine the context of this promise, how it was spoken AS A WORD OF COMFORT, to stressed out disciples. This promise - that God's savior Son is the way, truth, life - is primarily a word of assurance, a promise of truth meant to encourage, strengthen, guide. When the comfort of this promise is left out, the promise is reduced to a mere "belief/knowledge ticket," a fact one must possess simply to make the right choice. It isn't necessarily good news, just news. But when Jesus responds to Thomas, 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him," then a few moments later to Philip with "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.... it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work," Jesus is offering liberation and relief: relieving God-seekers, liberating them, from the pressures of figuring out the confusing cosmology riddle, or the pressure of the moral conformist, the legalist, the religionist, mystic, etc. Jesus says to Thomas, Philip, and the others, "I am here with you right now; God is here with you right now; if you're with me, you're with God; the way to God has come to you! That is the truth, and it gives life!" This is good news; that being with God, life with God, is promised by this Jesus, who invites anyone and everyone, who demonstrates and commands forgiveness, who demonstrates that God is all these wonderful things, and commands us to live up to our created calling to live in God's image, not as a condition of acceptance, but to restore all things. To each of us, looking for God, reading the Bible and being dissatisfied with it's "answers," trying to live right and failing, unhappy with God's distance, worried about missing our destiny, impatient for God to do something great in our lives, praying and waiting for an audible answer, wondering whether God will fall in line with our expectations, Jesus asks the same thing he asks Philip: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?" The disciples, and we, overlook what is here in and among us: the presence of God, in Spirit, in the Word, in the Body; looking for the right "temple" or worship experience or program, Apostle Peter reminds us in our Epistle Reading of I Peter 2:2-10 that God is making us the temple where the presence of the God connects with our world. How do we live in this reality? What gets in the way of walking in THE WAY?

FOR KIDS: it's a great surprise to discover how the things you really need are already with you. This is a biblical truth, part of Jesus' admonition not to worry or be anxious about the clothes we wear, or how we'll be taken care of, etc. This is also one of the lessons of L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, where the Lion who is cowardly, the Tin Man (machine) who thinks he's unfeeling, and the Scarecrow who thinks he's dumb, learn that they do have courage, heart, and brains; Dorothy discovers that her silver slippers, the ones she's had all along, are all she's needed to get home to Kansas. Whether or not Baum was inspired by Jesus and the disciples for his "you've-had-the-answer-all-along" kind of story, the wisdom is similar: Jesus has to spell it out for Thomas, Philip, and others: "The WAY to God is ME; being with me, in me, alongside me, is being WITH GOD." There's no special magic or religious ceremony that needs to take place. This is a comforting truth, a life-giving truth, that Jesus needs to impress upon his disciples, as they are about to have their whole world turned upside down. This is the comforting promise we need, too. To effectively tell this story to kids, it's important to draw out the types of emotions, stress, and confusions that Thomas, Philip and the others, may have experienced. Did they imagine the WAY to God being something like a yellow brick road? What did they expect Jesus to show them? A special, hidden tunnel beneath the Temple in Jerusalem? A sacred spot on a mountain, or a cave? Did they imagine they'd be lost and abandoned? Jesus promises to be with them, and promises that as they remember him, pray, keep his words fresh, love each other as he has loved them, etc., his Spirit, his Counselor, will remain in them and help them to remember what's most important. And Jesus' presence IS the presence of God their Father. 

GAME IDEA: A leader pretends to think that they're blind; with eyes closed, they complain, cry, grope around - but their companions, the other kids present, tell them "Open your eyes," which the leader finally does and exclaims astonishment about being able to see. This silly, but illustrative, exercise could be repeated with many variations:
"I can't walk! I'm stuck!" "Use your legs!"
"I can't pick anything up; my fists can't hold this object!" "Use your fingers!"
"I'm scared; I'm all alone!" "Look at us we're right here!"
This may get the younger kids laughing for a while and they might want to each act it out a few times. Don't know about the older kids.
ANOTHER RELATED EXERCISE: Peter's lesson from I Peter 2:2-10, our Epistle Reading, is that God is building a temple out of us people. What kind of church, cathedral, temple building would God like to inhabit? Where could we find it? How could we build it? Do we know this place? In the same way that Thomas and Philip asked "Where is the way?" and Jesus says "I am the way; the way is right here, it's me with you," we might ask "Where is God's house, where is the temple," and Peter says "You are the temple, you are God's house." This is a deep mystery for the kids to interpret in drawing. What kind of walls, rooms, roof, floors would the temple have? How beautiful would it be? How can people be like the aspects of a holy temple - strong, beautiful, supportive, sheltering, warm, tall, majestic, interesting, etc.?