The Way of Jesus: A Vision for a Post-Pandemic World

Fortune Teller Road, Sumter County, Florida (2017)

 

“I am the Way, the Truth, the Life….

These words that the writer of John’s Gospel place in the mouth of Jesus are familiar to most Christians. They will serve as the launching point for a movement within Judaism that will later become a religion in its own right called Christianity. Today the Way of Jesus has become the calling of many who seek to know who Jesus was, discover what he was about and then live into the life to which his Way calls us.

It’s important to put these words into context. Our reading today comes from Chapter 14 of John’s gospel. In the preceding chapter, Jesus has just engaged in a ritual foot washing of his disciples, shared a final meal with them, announced that one of his disciples would betray him and that another would, when put to the test, deny him. Bear in mind this is Jesus’ last night before crucifixion. He will die the following day.

Jesus Washing the Feet of his Disciples, (1898)

Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt

It is at this point that the gospel writer has Jesus begin a set of teachings called the Farewell Discourse. These teachings will stretch over the next four chapters of John’s Gospel. They begin with the admonition, “Do not let your hearts be distressed.”

That’s hardly surprising given the circumstances in which they find themselves.

Jesus spends the next few minutes with them trying to reassure them that even once he is gone physically, he will not abandon them. And neither will G_d. “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?”  

Now, that’s all well and good while your master is sitting in front of you. But what about tomorrow? And the day after? And the weeks and months thereafter? How in the world will his disciples experience Jesus’ presence when he is no longer physically with them? Like many of us, his disciples do not readily trust his assurances. That’s not real surprising given their situation. For them and for many of us, seeing is believing. 

Making a Giant Leap 

But Jesus is very intentional here. He is trying to help his disciples make a giant leap from being a rag tag group of fishermen and tax collectors wandering around behind him in the Galilee to becoming a movement that can survive his crucifixion and continue on after his death. It is at this point that he says two crucial things.

Christ of the Desert, Robert Lentz, O.F.M. (2016)

First, he reassures them of G-d’s presence with them. “If you know me, you will know the Father.” Jesus is telling them something important: He is the revealer of G_d, here and now. That has always been his calling. And now that his time on Earth is ending, it is critical that they understand this. Because if G-d is to be revealed thereafter it will be up to those who follow him to be the means of that revelation.

But then comes the important part. How has Jesus endeavored to reveal G-d here and now? He has modeled for them a way of life.  And it is by living in a manner that is dedicated to a truth that sometimes runs counter to social convention and a way of living the insures life in abundance for all that G-d is revealed here and now.

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

For three years these disciples have followed Jesus around the Galilee and now into Judea. And yet on the eve of his being taken from them, they still are not clear on the concept. What is the Way of Jesus? How do we recognize it, much less practice it?

The Values of a New Way of Being Human

Franciscan friar and teacher Richard Rohr is prone to say “If you want to find Jesus in the Gospels, look for the suffering. Jesus always goes to where the suffering is occurring.” By definition the Way of Jesus was marked by compassion, a focus on those who suffered physically through his ministry of healing.

A woman lights a candle as she visits graves on the

Day of the Dead festival in San Andre de Mixquic, Mexico.

The Independent, Nov. 3, 2014.

Perhaps more importantly, Jesus’ ministry was directed at those who suffered spiritually, those whom society had taught that their very existence was lacking in value – prostitutes, tax collectors, foreigners, and the working poor who comprised the vast majority of the population in the Roman colony of Palestine. 

Everything in their world told them “You have no value, no right to be here.” But Jesus spoke directly to them:

“You are the light of the world, the salt of the Earth…Blessed are the poor…”

If he were speaking to us today, he might well say:

“You are the essential workers of the world. We cannot live with you. You deserve to be treated with respect.”

Jesus also spent much of his time emphasizing the goodness of the Creation that his generous Father in heaven had provided all living beings to enjoy. “G-d makes the rains to fall on the good and evil alike,” he said. G-d’s providence is for all of Creation, not just the privileged. If there is poverty and starvation, it is always the result of human willingness to amass excess in the hands of a few at the expense of the many. While such is common to human societies historically, it is not inevitable; it is always a choice.

Jesus modeled for his disciples a distinct Way of being human. The goal of this Way was a devotion to an essential Truth: The ultimate concern of the Father that Jesus reveals is Life in abundance for all of Creation.  No exceptions. No excuses.

I am the Way, the Truth, the Life.

To their credit, the disciples ended up being good students. Long before anything resembling the religion of Christianity with its dogmatic beliefs and institutional structures to enforce them arose, the descendants of the Jesus movement came to live in an intentional manner which evidenced the values he had taught them. They were countercultural communities of economic sharing, scripture study, participatory worship, and service to the poor. They called themselves The Way of Jesus. 

Mosaic, Emperor Justinian, San Vitale Basilica, Ravenna, Italy (547 CE)

  

However, within a couple of centuries, this simple religion of Jesus would be lost in the rise of a new institutional religion about Jesus called Christianity. That religion would ironically become the official religion of the very Roman Empire that had crucified him. It is the view of many observers of Christian history that much was lost in that transaction.

On the Other Side: Enormous Opportunity

So why talk about the Way of Jesus now? What difference does it make? What relevance to our lives today?

Much like the night before Jesus’s crucifixion, we live in a time of great upheaval and resulting apprehension. Were Jesus physically present with us today, he might well begin with the same words he gave to his disciples that last night of his life: Do not let your hearts be distressed. In plain English, Don’t worry.

Jesus was facing his own death the following day at Golgotha. The community of followers he had drawn to him were in for some very difficult times. Hence the need to reassure them.

We, too, are facing very difficult times. If ever there ever was a time when we needed to be assured of G-d’s presence in our lives, it is right now. The world we knew a mere two months ago is dying.  It is becoming increasingly clear that some of that pre-pandemic world is never coming back. We simply cannot pick back up where we left off a couple of months ago and proceed as if nothing has happened. And in some ways, that’s actually a good thing.

While there is much to mourn in these losses even as the damage to our society is not yet completely clear, we should not lose sight of the fact that on the other side of this pandemic an enormous opportunity is staring us in the face. We have the chance – and the challenge – to rebuild our world. Few people have ever been afforded such an opportunity. But that rebuilding process is going to require a vision because, as the writer of Proverbs has wisely recognized long ago, “Without a vision the people perish.”

I think I have an idea of what that vision could be.

Kelly Latimore, La Sagrada Familia, (Holy Family)

(2016)

The Way of Jesus practiced radical hospitality. That value is reflected in the words of our former Presiding Bishop, “This church of ours will be open to all. There will be no outcasts.” That’s a good starting place for us as a parish community and for the most part I observe that it reflects our practice. Now imagine what that would look like if the new world we build is based on that value. Imagine the way countries would treat refugees at their borders. Imagine how they might treat those within their borders who differ ethnically, sexually and culturally from the majority.  

                   

The Way of Jesus was intensely focused on healing of suffering body, mind and soul. I believe that value is well reflected in the pastoral care practiced in this parish. Now imagine what that would look like if our country joined the rest of the modern world in insuring that everyone had access to healthcare and mandated work policies that accommodated sick workers and their family members. Imagine how we might treat workers whose labor we now know to be essential to our survival, workers in meat plants, prisons, grocery stores and nursing homes.

Here’s the most important part of this. The Way of Jesus expressed a confidence in the capacities of everyday human beings like you and me to build the kingdom of G-d. This is not a kingdom that is imposed from the top down. G_d is not going to save us from ourselves.

Father Tom Lumpkin, Manna Community Meals,

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Corktown, Detroit (2018)

The kingdom of G-d is marked by right relation and just dealings with one another regardless of one’s place in society. It is a reality that bubbles up from below. It emerges from average people who don’t think they amount to much, people whom Jesus recognized as being “the light of the world, the salt of the Earth.”

People like you and me.

As we prepare to leave the safety of quarantine, reenter our social worlds and assess the damage this pandemic has caused us personally and collectively, may we remember Jesus’ words to us this day: Don’t let your hearts be distressed. G-d is present with us. And Jesus has left us a Way to follow. It is a way of being human that has the potential to change not only our individual lives but ultimately the whole world. If that sounds familiar to you, it should. It is our parish mission statement.

If G-d’s presence with us comes to be known by all, it will be precisely through our living into that Way that Jesus has taught us, a way that reveals truth and brings life in abundance. This day let us pray for the strength and courage to be lights in a world of darkness, salt in a world that has lost its savor, and agents of hope in a world of despair. 

Dr. Stuart Malcolm, Haight Ashbury Free Clinic,

San Francisco, California, March 17, 2020.

 Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.    (Collect, 5^th Sunday of Eastertide)            

[A sermon preached at St. Richard’s Episcopal Church, Winter Park, FL on May 10, 2020 Fifth Sunday of Easter]

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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida

frharry@cfl.rr.com

hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering d not come in sound bites.

For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d? (Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures)

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

 © Harry Coverston, 2020
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