Sermon On The Way as Tourists or Travelers.
When I am out driving, spending countless hours on the Freeway, I am never bored as I always make sure to use the driving time wisely. I listen to good music, or I listen to enlightening interviews: I listen to reviews of books or movies, or I am on the phone – handless off course with carpooling confession or confidential talks – calling people on my way.
Recently I have been listening to a Danish Program on DR Radio. It is a Correspondence Mailbox with the intriguing title: Hvad ville Jesus have sagt? What would Jesus say?
Every week the host of the program invites 3 Danish pastors to the broadcast, and they listen to questions or dilemmas and are asked what Jesus’ answers would be.
It might sound a little bit light, and fancy, but it is not.
It has been so fascinating to listen to it too – so fascinating that I sometimes cannot remember if I drove on 91 or 57 or which off-road, I took to get home.
It is fascinating as it is indeed a very honest, committed, compassionate, and varied program with different voices and answers. All from the perspective of Jesus or broader the Bible.
Driving on the Freeway I have been spending time with people who had lost their way trying to find back to their faith or their families. Trying to rebuild and restore and reconcile. Trying to make sense of this life of ours, as it truly sends us on so many paths in life and gives us so many choices to make; and so much faith to either lose or find.
I have been listening to a grieving father trying to find his way forward with the living memory of his constant grief over his 9-year-old son whom he lost to cancer.
I have been listening to a heartbroken grandmother, as she lost contact with her children and grandchildren.
I have felt the pain and loneliness of the young couple trying to restore trust in the marriage after infidelity.
I have heard the heartache of a young gay man, trying to find his way back into the church.
All of them lay bare and vulnerable as they have lost their way, their hope, their faith, and some even their lives – as they are like the living dead.
What would Jesus say to them?
Pastors are as different and diverse as any other group, but of course, we have a common bond and common perspective in our faith. But this faith of ours is a living daring thing… so different from person to person, from pastor to pastor. How we read the bible, and how we understand Jesus. What we focus on and what we disagree on. That is exactly why the Bible is a Living Book filled with Spirit and wisdom but even more possibilities and interpretations.
One of the returning passages and quotes that the pastors keep coming back to is from today’s Gospel:” Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe in me.”
That we need to dare to believe and dare to trust our way, our happiness, our hopes and lives in the hands of God.
What would Jesus say?
“I am the way and the truth and the life,” Jesus says.
Early Christians used the Greek word HODOS/ the way to describe the literal and the figurative paths of life. The wise men returned from Bethlehem by another road as they were warned and as they were changed, the Christmas Gospel tells us; and Jesus’ disciples found their way along the way to Emmaus because someone walked with them and showed them a new path.
Hodos could also refer to a way of living. A way of righteousness. A way of compassion.
In the Gospel Jesus tells his followers “I am the Way.”
I am the way has an openness, grace, grandeur, and an adventurous journey to it and an acceptance of the journey along uncertain and unknown paths with doubts and turns along the way. I am the way that speaks to us as we all experience life as a journey, a travel, a pilgrimage finding our way.
Life is messy. It is changing and challenging. It is burdensome and beautiful. It is lonely and shared. It is filled with choices, turns, uncertainties, and unexpected experiences.
Listening to the broadcast on the road of Southern California’s endless freeways and massive traffic, I am reminded of and aware of all the people constantly on the go, to somewhere, nowhere, anywhere, to work, to visit, to home, to hospitals, to school, to church, to nature…
So often I think driving: where are they all going? Why are they on the road? So many many people. So many many stories. So many ways.
And how are we on the road or on the way? How are we living?
Are we travelers or tourists?
Through centuries and through history, travelers were those interested in unfamiliar settings and wild encounters that broadened their perspective. The travelers were active. They were searching for people, for an adventure, or a new experience.
In contrast, the tourists are passive. They expect to be entertained and that interesting things will come to them. They are sightseeing and observing, not searching, living, and exploring.
Tourism in our time and age of endless cruises and flights truly is a spectator’s spirit filled with prefabricated, safe, and planned experiences.
After GPS made us so secure in planning our travels, we hardly get lost along the way and hardly ever go to unexpected places before we are told: “Make a U-turn, a legal U-turn as soon as possible. You have left the route.”
A true traveler takes risks, plunges into diverse and diverse cultures, and seeks to learn something – not just to observe and be entertained. Unplanned experiences are the traveler’s norm, and sometimes involve some challenging exploits and choices.
I remember traveling in Europe with a friend after Highschool and getting totally and completely lost in the streets of Rome only to find that special restaurant or those streets that we would never have found if we had not gotten lost.
A tourist is safer. A tourist is a pleasure seeker who just passes through various places only to return to a comfortable bed. Preferably in a hotel or on a cruise ship that looks very much like your own room and smells of cleaning products you know.
I am the way. The Truth. The life.
How do we find the way, the truth and the life?
Are we tourists or travelers in the way of life?
I do believe that Jesus would say to us: go explore. Go new ways and you will find your way. The way and path you find is what you expected or planned but it may be your way. So often we get lost in our own set ways, in our routines and safety, that we miss the new paths in front of us.
So often in the gospel stories Jesus walks into the lives of others, and changes their perspective, their sight, their view, their lives, and hopes. By giving them new sight and new hope, by touching them and gently nudging them in a new direction or breathing and speaking hope into their messy lives.
Jesus is the way as he is never sending us in the wrong direction but in a different unexpected direction.
Jesus is the life as he is always preserving life, rebuilding and restoring, and reclaiming possibilities and dreams.
Jesus is the truth as he is never leading us to deceit, to lies, to darkness, but always to honesty, love, and light.
“What would Jesus say?”
He would tell us to be travelers on the road of life, not just tourists. He would open the road of possibilities paved with reconciliation, forgiveness, second chances, new friendships and love.
Because Jesus truly is the way, the life and the truth. And Jesus would say: “Dont let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God.” Amen.