fifth sunday of easter: way, truth, life

this post is another one of those times i feel like i have a good answer to an excellent question quite a while after the question has been asked. knightr4 said in response to the previous post, "folks still want revealed truth but are not sure where to find it because they are not finding it in the books that they used to." i rose to the bait of books and said, " i have noticed that many of the books "'they are used to' use orthodoxy as the big-bad-word." but it's not about books, but about our search for, amongst modern-thinking folk, infallibility, and among post-modern-thinking folk, what ryan calls "revealed truth." neither are really found in books, except, i would suggest, in the very specific way which the bible reveals the word of god.

yesterday's gospel, john 14:1-14, takes place in the room where jesus and the disciples met on the thursday before the crucifixion. philip, who a bit before had been asked by some greeks to show them jesus, now asks, “lord, show us the father, and we will be satisfied.” jesus responds, "whoever has seen me has seen the father."

this is leading up to one of the conclusions as it were of john's gospel. we so often read the gospels in little bits and bobs, which we sometimes fancy up with the term "pericopes," that it is easy to lose sight of the fact that they are excellent works of writing. everyone knows john 3:16, more or less. i was confronted saturday with a flock of youngsters in red t-shirts that said in big black letters "3:16" only saturday. but seldom do i find t-shirts that say "17:3": "and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true god, and jesus christ whom you have sent."

in a rather famous interview, theresa of calcultta was asked what she and her sisters did that was so successful, since people were flocking to them, and not only the dying to whom they particularly ministered. she replied, "we give them jesus." the interviewer thought she was being coy, so insisted, "but you must do something special." theresa replied, "we give them jesus."

it is the person of jesus who reveals the way, the truth, the life, indeed the very nature of god. anything else, books or sermons or even this blog, can only point to him or away from him.