RCL Easter 5A [i]
3 May 2026
Church of the Epiphany
Surrey BC
Although I was born in England, I was raised in the United States. My father’s family were among the first settlers from England and Wales to colonize the Hudson Valley of New York and the coast of Massachusetts. From childhood I was taught to be proud of my family’s history and proud of its role in shaping what would become the United States.
As I grew older, I began to learn things that made me more humble. I knew that some of my ancestors fought in the American Civil War to end slavery, but I did know that sixty years before the Civil War, my family had counted enslaved people as property. When I went to the Solomon Islands in 1997, I knew that clergy were treated with respect, but I did not realize that a whole family would be thrown off a small plane to make room for me and another colleague. When in 2008 I flew into Singapore from Yangon with the Bishop of British Columbia, I knew that he and I were the only white people waiting to go through customs and immigration, but I was surprised when an immigration official took us out of the line so that we could pass through more quickly at the diplomatic gate.
In our world today, there are people who are not afraid to use the privileges that come from being citizens of a particular country or from having wealth or from being white or from being male. There are people who believe that being a Jew or a Muslim or a Christian or one religion or another gives them rights to exclude, to persecute or to dominate people of other faith traditions.
Right now, both here in Canada, in the United States and in Europe, there is a movement called Christian nationalism. It is a movement that teaches its followers that their countries and cultures are under threat by other people who profess other faiths. Some of the followers of Christian nationalism believe that any efforts to ensure the fair treatment, full participation and opportunities for all people are wrong. In the minds of Christian nationalists, there is a natural superiority that belongs to certain groups of people.
Unfortunately, one verse of today’s reading from the Gospel according to John fuels the beliefs of Christian nationalists: “Jesus said to (Thomas), ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” [ii] I admit that growing up in the Church, I probably thought that these words from the Gospel according to John were intended to claim that being a Christian is better than being a member of any other religion. But this understanding is not what the writer of the Gospel means.
The Gospel of John was written during a time when the first followers of Jesus, all of whom were Jews, were trying to explain how they understood Jesus. Along with other Jews, the earlier followers of Jesus shared the same Scriptures, what you and I call the Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures. These Scriptures tell how a particular people came to believe that they had a distinct relationship with the Creator of the universe. Please note the word I used: they had a distinct relationship with God not an exclusive one. The Scriptures are full of stories of how people who were not Jews demonstrated that they were followers of God.
What distinguished the Jews from other followers of God was the law and teachings that came to the Jewish people after their exodus from Egypt. This law and its teachings came to them through Moses, but time and time again, God sent teachers and prophets to help the people find the right path, the good path. So, when the earliest followers of Jesus explained how they were being faithful to God, they said that they were followers of the way of Jesus. This way of Jesus, a way of self-giving love, of forgiveness, of generosity, of respect for the dignity of every human being, led the followers of Jesus to the truth of how to be in relationship with God and to find abundant life in the here and now.
To follow Jesus as the way is to learn the truth of who God is and how to live Christ-like lives. To follow Jesus is to know that our mission is not to be walls to set people apart but to build houses where all God’s children can live and flourish. To follow Jesus is to proclaim the Christ who had a welcome for all people, who healed non-Jews as well as Jews, who ate with sinners and outcasts as well as rabbis and other religious leaders.
I believe Jesus to be the way, the truth and the life. But this belief is not a weapon to be used to belittle others nor a claim that Christians are superior to any other religious community. Those who know the way, the truth and the life of Jesus do not carelessly speak about destroying civilizations or wage war as if it were a video game. Those who have ears to hear know that the way of Jesus teaches us to do justice. Those who have ears to hear know that the truth of Jesus teaches us to love our neighbours as God loves the world. Those who have ears to hear know that the life of Jesus teaches us to walk humbly with God.
