Show us the Way

A sermon preached at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Mason, Texas.

The lectionary readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter are here.

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Have you ever mislaid something and after searching for it unsuccessfully, return to where you searched to find it? A dear friend and colleague, and well versed fisherman, wrote a poem about doing that and he gave me permission to share it with you:

I wanted to find my cast net
so I could tell how the apostles fished:
not with cane poles and worms,
not with spinning reels or bait casters,
not even by delicately casting a fly.

First I found an ancient, small, oval landing net.
Next, a large and newer aluminum landing net.
Then a polished blue telescoping landing net,
big enough to catch a Ridley.
Still, I did not find my cast net.

The oddest thing I found,
in a box on the top shelf
of the third bookshelf down from the door,
was an old wooden stick—
likely mesquite, which is a fair bet in Texas.

Just over a foot long
and wrapped in kite string,
by my own hands,
fifty years ago,
for flying kites on the beach.

But still, I had not found my cast net.
Then I went away—not in despair—
strangely sure that I would find my net,
exactly where I had laid it down.

Hours later I came to look again,
certain that if I did not think too hard,
my cast net would appear.

Once more I stepped into my office.
I moved a single box
from a corner near the door,
and underneath it was an old Dutch oven,
upon which sat, quite comfortably,
my cast net—
exactly where I had laid it down.

by The Rev. A. Peter Thaddeus

In our gospel story today, Philip and the other disciples are having this kind of experience. They just can’t find what they’ve been looking for.

Since the very beginning, God has walked with God’s people, showing them and teaching them how to be who and Whose they are made to be. God gave Adam and Eve guidance in the Garden. God gave assurance to Abraham and Sarah. Moses was the messenger to offer the Ten Commandments. The judges, prophets, and kings of the Old Testament stories were to be God’s messengers, shown how to lead God’s people into the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. Jesus said in so many different ways, “I am here to bring all these lessons together, to show you in flesh and blood what it is to be God’s People, God’s Beloved, heirs of God’s glorious Kingdom. I’ve come to show you the Way of life-giving, liberating Love.”

And Philip and the others are still asking, “show us the Way.” Now, it is important to be aware of how our 21st century western world lens might color our understanding of this life to which God has made us for and Jesus has shown us is the Way. In first century Roman-occupied Palestine Jewish culture, their main thought would not be the life after this one but the life they were actively living in their ‘here and now’. When we say ‘eternal life’ our brains can tend to project forward to something after our physical death. But the disciples wouldn’t have thought that, and neither should we. Eternal isn’t pointing forward but stepping beyond our understanding of time as linear movement with a beginning and an end. Eternal means to exist outside of time and without interruption, no beginning, no end, just now and always.

So, when the disciples say “Lord show us the way and we will be satisfied” they are thinking here and now, physical life in a physical creation, and what they are really wanting Jesus to do is to force fit God’s plan into their plan, their ideas of the good life, their way, their timeline. And before we go shaming the disciples we have to ask ourselves how we do the very same.

Throughout the ages, God has shown us what it is to be God’s people, God’s image bearers who are called to reveal the God of Love to this world as an invitation to all people. And through the ages, we humans have decided we know better than God, that being God’s people should make us better than others and some how give us power over others, that being heirs to God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven should be exclusionary.

We keep looking for the Way among the accumulation of our life, much of which is useful, some decorative, some that we’ve even forgotten was there, some that we’ve long outgrown, and some is the clutter of a competitive and transactional way of living. And then we turn to Jesus and say ‘show us the Way and we’ll be satisfied.’ And Jesus responds, patiently, fervently, and with the sternness that parents use when they know how dangerous our unguided life choices can be. “I am the Way, the Truth, the Life. I’ve shown you since the beginning of time. You keep mislaying the Good News to pick up something else. Look to me and you will find it again in the place where you laid it down last.” And Jesus waits for us to step back in without overthinking it and receive the gift of being God’s beloved.

The life that we are made for, life lived in relationship with God and each other, is right here among us. Sometimes it’s just hard to see with all that we’ve piled up around it as we try to use our own map to find our way into God’s Kingdom or as my friend Peter so eloquently described it, we can’t use the wrong type of net to learn to live as Jesus teaches us to live.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life and the only way to live as we are made to truly live is to follow him, loving God, our neighbors, ourselves … and, yes, Jesus includes our enemies in that list … so that in the here and now we all have what we need to thrive. We don’t earn or prove ourselves worthy of it or get more of it than the next person. This Jesus-led life is who and Whose we are: Beloved image bearers of the Loving God. It’s been right here all along. We just have to let Jesus show us where. Amen.