Podcast of "Facts" (MP3)
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Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
When I was in college my fraternity brothers and I played a stupid game. At the dawn of what we call “basic cable” The USA Network was more than reruns of NCIS and Law and Order: You Pick ‘Em. They showed reruns of Dragnet. For those of you who aren’t snickering, Dragnet was a late ‘60’s police procedural drama that focused on Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Detective Bill Gannon. In the first minute of the show Sergeant Friday would tell the audience what the day was, what the weather was in Los Angeles
So when I was in college, my idea of amusment was sitting in the basement of a fraternity house with six guys waiting to hear “It was the tenth of October, it was sunny in Los Angeles
One of the trademarks of the series was was labored dialogue, but what stuck out was Jack Webb’s vocal delivery. It was low key, barely varied in pitch or tempo, but there was still something very distinctive. So when the witnesses they were interviewing would make a side comment or follow a rabbit hole in the dialogue, the Sergeant would say “Just the facts” in a quick, curt, business like way.
Fifty years later, “Just the facts”[1] is still the trademark of the show. Looking at today’s gospel reading, I got this feeling of just the facts. There are a lot of facts in the narrative.
Here’s the first fact we get in our reading today, in the Father’s house there are many rooms. Since the dawn of the faith, Jews identified “the Father’s house” with a heavenly dwelling place. This is clearly the image that Jesus is using. There are enough rooms in the Father’s house. This is the first fact.
The narrative moves on when Jesus says “you know the way to the place where I am going.” What the editor doesn’t say is that this is a setup. Jesus hopes someone will ask what he means so he can switch the conversation to a new way of living as the family of God. Thomas takes the bait and Jesus sets the hook. Thomas says “we don’t know the way” which leads Jesus to the second fact, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. This is followed by the fact that no one comes to the Father except through him.
But there is always more to the facts than simply meets the eye. To be useful facts demand interpretation.
As we talk about the Father’s house we miss a very important part of the picture. When we look at the Father’s house image, we think of heaven, the final eternal reward, but this is not what Jesus means. Referring back to John 8:35, Jesus says “Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.” The Greek word the New International Version translates as “family” in 8:35 is translated in 14:2 as house. These editors understood that the house of God is the family of God and could have easily written “the Father’s family” instead of “the Father’s house.”
What this means to us is that where we know that a house has rooms; what we don’t so much get out of the translation is that Jesus was not talking about a physical location in the afterlife, he was talking this life and relationship with him and with the Father. This passage can be poorly interpreted to mean that in heaven there are more than enough rooms for each of us to have our own view of the beach and the mountains. What it means is that God has so much love that we are sons and daughters in the heavenly family. It means that God’s love is never ending and overflowing.
Jesus says that he is going there to prepare our place. Another way to say this is Jesus intercedes for us. The resurrection is often described as the lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of the world. This is how Jesus intercedes for us. This was the final earthly action preparing a place for us. His sacrifice makes it possible for us to take our place as children of God.
This revelation also points to the truth Jesus shares when he says I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Their relationship is so full and so glorious that while the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father, they are so close that they and their work are in complete harmony. This is the relationship Jesus came to show us. This is the relationship that we are called to share with him and with one another.
Looking at Jesus saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life;” he uses the ancient name of God and describes himself as God and then he says more. He begins with the way. This word literally means “the path” or “the road” not “the way we do things.” In a more literary way, it means a journey. We are called to take this life voyage as Jesus traveled it. We are to walk with his holy wise compassion. We are called to work to reconcile creation to God. Anything less is not the path God intends.
When we say he is “the truth,” we think of factual truth. This is right for as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. When Jesus says he is the truth he says he is reliable and he is faithful, which is much more than factually correct. When Jesus says he is the truth, he says he is truth personified as he is God personified. By him God’s truth is accessible to all. By him truth is the reality of the fully human fully divine Messiah.
When we say that he is the life, we say that he is life eternal. What is amazing is that while we will never know what it means to be fully divine, we won’t know what it means to be fully human either. Jesus is more human than we can hope to be. He lives in the way we cannot live without his real presence in our lives. He is the life that he wants us to live. He is the life that he shares. He is the life we are called to share.
Again, we know the facts of “the way, the truth, and the life,” but until we look at them in the light that shines beyond simple facts, we don’t know our Lord as well as God desires.
There is one more piece to this, when Jesus says no one comes to the Father except through me. Nineteen hundred years after these words were written we look at them through the eyes of our lives and our faith, not the lives of those who first heard them. We need to get past the facts we read in English and find their truth. That’s what makes this difficult to hear.
When we look at this phrase, we read it to mean that Jesus is the only way to God. When we read the passage this way what it means is that we’re right. We’re in church, we worship God, we’re right. We’re right and anyone who doesn’t agree with us is wrong. But that should never be our benchmark. The cornerstone of the church is not that we are right about anything. The foundation of our faith must always be God is right.
So those who heard this letter didn’t hear it the way we hear it today. What this meant when it was written is that the claims Jesus makes, the truth he tells, is the full expression of the complete revelation the authors of John’s gospel received. It was how they had experienced the Father and the Son, and what it means to be a member of the church. It means that they are no longer a part of the Jewish community. It means that they are no longer part of the gentile community either. It means that in the community of Christ where no one comes to the Father except through the Son.
Yes, this truth does establish boundaries. It says this is who we are and this is how we understand God. It says who we are. It doesn’t say a word about who anybody else is.
It says that through a man named Jesus of Nazareth God reveals his holy presence and the means to reconciliation with God the Father Almighty. It says that salvation comes through the Son. It says this is the particular truth that separates Christians from all other peoples. As for me, I say this is better than being right.
As for me, I say the truth of Jesus Christ is more than just the facts.
Six months ago I attended the PC(USA) transformation conference in Fort Worth Transforming Church
I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about our code here at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall , Texas
Many thoughts have gone through my head about our code. I have heard and I myself have said that this congregation is a family. With apologies to The Olive Garden, I find it true; when you’re here you are family. I have also heard us called “The Church of the Bells.” When folks ask me what church I pastor and I say “First Presbyterian” they usually have no idea which church I’m talking about. When I say “The Church of the Bells” you can see their eyes light up in recognition. Everybody knows “The Church of the Bells” and where it’s located. We also say we are a downtown church, not one on the fringe of town.
I am sure there are many others and I hope you will share your insights with me. At the Session meeting tonight I hope the Elders will add to this conversation that is so far in my head.
These are all bits and pieces of our code. But the problem with code is that it’s just facts, what they are not is the truth. Like DNA, code is the building block but it’s not the building. The truth is found when we use the code to seek the answers to questions like “What does it mean to be a part of the heavenly family?” “What is so important about ‘The Church of the Bells’?” “What does it mean to be a downtown church?” “What does it mean to us that we testify that no one comes to the Father except through the Son,” especially in a world with a new religion on every corner.
Our code helps us frame who we are, in Peter’s words a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people. But the furniture is added only when we find what the code means as we trust in God and trust in Jesus so we may proclaim the mighty acts of God who calls us out of the darkness into his marvelous light. Knowing the code doesn’t matter until we do something with it to do God’s reconciling work.
Sergeant Joe Friday took just the facts. Each witness can testify only to what they saw. But it was Friday who took the facts and interpreted them to find the truth. He took “Just the facts” and made them into more. We have wonderful and glorious facts, but it isn’t until we seek the truth that they matter. This is our call, our vocation, and in this we grow in the faith of relationship with the Father and the Son.
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