Sunday 20th April 2008EASTER V

Fr Julian Browning

Acts  7  :  55 – 60  ; I  Peter  2  :  2 – 10  ;  John  14  :  1 - 14 

No one comes to the Father except through me.   John 14.6  

...it is because each one of us has been called into the household of faith, called by name, and each of us has all that he or she needs to work for God

What a gift for a Bible basher! God is now ringfenced for you and for me. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. The Bible is full of similar texts, and the temptation, to which conservative Christians easily succumb, is to collect these texts and fire them like rubber bullets at anyone who dares to question the Christian claim to the truth about God. This is religion built on certainties, not on faith. These are the New Puritans. Of course, these claims, these evangelical outbursts provoke a reaction. So modern liberal Christians might claim that all religions worship the same God, so it is wrong to discriminate, and wrong to claim exclusive access to God. They are just as bad. In my wide experience of conservative and liberal churchmen and women, right wing and left wing, I have often found that beneath the smiles of welcome the teeth are often filed into sharp points. Do not be deceived by these siren voices from right and left. We have had an example recently in the decision by the Dean and Chapter of Southwark Cathedral to ban the singing of the hymn Jerusalem. This keeps happening. The hymn Jerusalem is part of a poem, which, in the way we sing it, becomes a prayer of commitment to a  just society. It has been banned on the grounds that it is not to the glory of God. That's not the real reason. The real reason for the ban is that those singing the hymn are harbouring dark patriotic thoughts which are beyond the control of the Church – and they're enjoying this short musical awayday – so let's ban it. Religion, whether Christian or non-Christian, is very unattractive when it takes a jealous form, and becomes a form of control over God and what He does, and over us and what we think. Beware of what religion can do to people. It does not always liberate us and draw us closer to God. The New Puritans, of whatever religion, can hide God from us.

So come with me, away from all that, to the religion of the Gospel of St.John, the story of a God who gives up that control, who gives up his life to that we may have a new life, a life of faith, not a life of certainties. This is a truly liberal religion which lets us leave other people alone. It's not a question whether people outside the Church are saved, but whether people inside the Church, you and I, have any idea about how Christianity makes a difference to us. What is distinctive about the Christian, what is special about the Church? Are you interested in finding out? We are so much a part of the social and political culture of our day, that it is not always easy to discover a unique identity for the Church. But St.John knew what that was. He could look, as we do, at the many different religions and sects of his day, and see that they are ineffective. No religious or mystical approach to God, no looking up into the skies and begging, achieves its goal. But if God was to come down and walk among us, then we could get to know God, walk with him, and understand him. And was the holy Lamb of God on England's pleasant pastures seen? Yes, He was, He is, and always will be there. In every generation Jesus shows his disciples the truth He has learned from God. He tells us about the way, the truth and the life. When Jesus is recorded as saying, No one comes to the Father except through me, it is not a rubber bullet fired at the infidel, it is a considered rebuke to us, his disciples, who think we can be Christians on our own, without recognising the Jesus who walks with us, and whom we can encounter. If you had known me, He says, you would have known my Father also.

It gets better. We hear not just a gentle rebuke, but words of encouragement. Jesus says 'I am the way, the truth, and the life'. That is what we now have: the way, the truth, the life. Every one of us. Not just the specialists, the experts, the New Puritans who want to ration the distribution of truth, but all of us. It is like being part of a household, as described in today's epistle, a household which all are welcome to join, and like all households it has a social dimension. In a household, everybody has a place and work to do. He who believes in me, says Jesus, will also do the works that I do. We can do so much more than we think we can. So when we go on and on about doing things together, about regular attendance, about this church as your church, making plans together,  annual general meetings and so on, it is not relentless modern groupiness, it is because each one of us has been called into the household of faith, called by name, and each of us has all that he or she needs to work for God – because, in all sorts of different ways, we have glimpsed the way, the truth, and the life. That's what's special about us. I am all too conscious, as life passes, and I talk not just about this church but about our whole lives, that we could waste it, our life, I mean – or maybe, just maybe, do something or be someone, who can help to build Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land.