It is said that one day years ago the young Reverend Billy Graham was off on one of his earlier evangelistic journeys when he came to a town and wanted to mail a letter.  So he asked a young boy walking by which way it was to the post office. When the boy told him, Dr. Graham thanked him and said, "If you'll come to the Baptist Church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to heaven."  The boy replied, "I don't think I'll be there. You don't even know the way to the Post Office!"

     Certainly over the centuries humanity has expressed a great deal of interest in knowing "the way": the way to heaven...to eternal life....to the kingdom of God.  Jesus' own disciples were no different.  Of course, before Jesus died they assumed, like their fellow Jews, that Jesus would bring the Kingdom of God to earth - heaven on earth, so to speak. They thought they were following Him to earthly victory. So when Jesus, at the Last Supper, tells them, "Where I am going, you cannot come," the disciples panic. Peter speaks for them all then says, "Wait a minute Jesus, what was that? ‘We can't go with You,' You just said. So where are You going?" "Where I am going, you cannot follow Me now," Jesus replied, "but you will follow afterward." Peter presses on. "Lord, WHY can I not follow You now?"  [John 13:33-37]

     Anne Braden, the Washington socialite who loved going to new places and seeing new things, often said to her friends about to travel, "Do I get to go?" There's a part of all of us who wants to "get to go" where we think the action is, where we think we will enjoy life better. Peter and the disciples wanted to "get to go" with Jesus, to be with Him when His Kingdom triumphed on this earth. But what Jesus went on to say - in our Gospel reading today - threw them for a loop.

     "In My Father's house there are many dwelling places," he remarked. "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 you may be also." (see John 14:1-14) I can imagine the frowns on the disciples' faces. Hmmm. What does Jesus mean by "My Father's house?" So (of course!) when Jesus THEN says to them, "You know the way to the place where I am going," Thomas replies, "Lord, we do not know where You are going. [So] How can we know the way?"

     Poor Thomas. Poor disciples. It was difficult for them to follow such an independent, unpredictable Leader.  Jesus wanted to take them in a new direction, a new way. It reminds me of a pastor who went to the local golf course and walked over to a bunch of his parishioners on the first tee, two men and a woman. He said to the first man, "Do you want to go to heaven?" The man replied, "I do, Pastor." The pastor said, "Then go and stand over by the wall of that building." And so he did. Then the pastor said to the woman, "Do you want to go to heaven?" "Certainly, Pastor." "Then go and stand over there, too." Then the pastor went to Frank, the third person. "Frank, do you want to go to heaven?" "No I don't, Pastor." The pastor did a double-take and said, "I don't believe this. You mean to tell me that when you die you don't want to go to heaven?" Frank replied, "Oh, when I die, yes.  I thought you were getting a group together to go right now!"

     Frank wanted to play golf and enjoy his life first, before going to heaven. He wasn't ready to go - THAT way!  Another direction!  And you know, a part of us is like Frank. Our sinful selves don't want to go another direction, another way!  And neither did the disciples, that confusing night.  All their assumptions about how it would go once they got to Jerusalem...all their plans...were now in great danger. They could sense that the authorities - and even the crowds - were turning against Jesus, and therefore against them. Jesus, do something!

     In response to their fear, Jesus said two things. "Do not let your hearts be troubled," He pleaded. "Believe in God; believe also in Me." He's saying to them, "Put away your expectations of the future. Don't be controlled by them. Don't be afraid if I don't meet your expectations. God knows what He is doing. And so do I." He's asking them to trust Him...to trust and obey.

     And the second thing He says is, "For 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." You see, Jesus knows how determined we sinners are to keep the focus on US, and off of HIM.  They had thought Jesus was the Bridge to their own dreams of power and glory, of success and renown. Living in the richest and most successful section of this vast "Indy" metropolis, we can relate to that, can't we?  But Jesus was revealing to His disciples something very, very different.  Yes, He was The Bridge - not just for them but for all of humankind. But He was NOT their bridge - is NOT our bridge - to power and glory.  Jesus was - and is - our bridge to God, the Father...to God, the Creator...to God the only Source of True Love...and True Life.

     And in the process of bringing us to God, Jesus shows us just who this God really IS.  We "find" the real God that our sinful minds and hearts had "lost." It reminds me of two little boys - brothers - who were terrible troublemakers.  They were always vandalizing, stealing things, lying, stuff like that. The parents had tried everything to get the boys to change, to no avail.  Finally out of options, they ask their preacher if he can help. He says he will talk to the boys, but only one at a time.  The parents drop off the younger of the two at the church. The preacher takes the boy to the parlor, where they sit, across from each other, just staring at each other.

     Finally the preacher says, "Where is God?" The boy just sits there and doesn't answer. The preacher begins to look stern and loudly says, "Where is God?" The little boy shifts in his seat, but still doesn't answer.  The preacher is now upset that the boy won't talk and practically shouts, "Where is God?" Then, to the preacher's surprise, the little boy jumps up out of his chair, and runs out of the church. He goes all the way home, up the stairs and into his brother's room. He shuts the door and pants, "We're in big trouble. God's missing and they're trying to pin it on us!"

     Depending on the poll, somewhere between 80 to 90 percent of the American people believe in God.  But do they believe in God as He really is, or is the real God lost, like those two boys thought He was?  Well, if He IS lost, then it is JESUS who has "found" Him for us. In fact, that was Christ's mission, for He was God in the flesh (and still is). So it's understandable, Jesus' aggravation, when, at that Last Supper, after Philip says, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied," Jesus says, "Have I been with you guys all this time, Philip, and you still do not know Me? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father!!"

     The disciples were not so sure about that, and their doubts would grow over the next few days, as Jesus was arrested, tortured, and crucified, dying a cursed, horrible death, their dreams dying with Him. Yet when Jesus rose again, and gave them His Holy Spirit, and explained the Scriptures and God's overall purpose to them, they began to believe what Jesus had said - and they proclaimed that to everyone, to you and me.  "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father!" He had said. So we see Jesus suffering on the cross for our sins, and know that God the Father would do that. We see a loving Jesus forgiving those who denied and betrayed Him and know that a loving God the Father would do that. We see Jesus heal rejected, laughed-at people, give people food and hope and a way out and now know that God the Father would do that.  We see Jesus turn upside down the religious assumptions of His day and we now know that God the Father wants us to do that today, to overcome our own religious assumptions, together, as the Body of Christ on this Earth.

     You know, in worship today we did something different; we read the Gospel first, then the Lesson. I wanted to do it that way today to underline for you the fact that it is God's Gospel message that came first and that freed Philip to do what we heard he did in the Lesson, and who can free us as well to fulfill Christ's promise, when He says today, "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and, in fact, do greater works than these...." (John 14:12) Greater works than Jesus did!

     Philip was the first disciple to tentatively venture away from the their dream of earthly triumph when he said to Jesus, "Show us the Father and we will be satisfied." Philip began to see that the Way to God was the first, most important thing, and we must do the same. First Jesus connected Philip back up to His Father God, and then, in the Lesson, we see how Philip, filled with new life, led the Way to new vistas in the Mission of the Church. Within a few months after Easter, Philip and all the Christians had been threatened with death and banished from Jerusalem. They were sent away from all the precious places they had shared with Jesus. Their lives had been shaken as if by a great earthquake.  But Philip was just fine, because he had, through Jesus, found God. He knew that God would be found wherever he was banished to, among whomever God sent him to be with. Thus Philip becomes the first apostle to reach out and convert non-Jews - first to the Samaritans, and then to the Ethiopian, who was the first Gentile believer. That's what a deep connection to God can do.

     As I said before, Jesus said that His Spirit would spur us on - we millions of Christians - to do, together, greater works for others than He could do in His short time on earth. But that is only because we follow the path which He charted, and continues still to chart. For His Way is the only Way we must go; His truth is the only Truth we must speak; and His life is the only life we must lead.

     So, in the midst of our troubles and challenges, trials and tribulations, it is good to know that Jesus is the Way Home and that, as Cronkite used to say, "That's the Way it is."  Christ is the Way Home eternally; He tells us His eternal home has many rooms, and one of the rooms He has prepared for you.  But He is also the Way Home today, and for the rest of our time on earth, because Jesus also said this: "You who love Me will keep My Word, and My Father will love you, and we will come to you and make our home with you" right here and right now. (John 14:23)

     The Way, Truth, and Life: following His Way...obeying His Truth...we are given His Life as a precious treasure. You have treasure, because you have Him.  You have Him as surely as you will have, in a few minutes, His Body in your hands; you have Him as surely as you will have His blood, the fruit of the grape, on your lips. As really and as truly as THAT.       Amen!