“I am the way, the truth, and the life - no one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6) A difficult saying of Jesus. There are several difficult sayings of our Lord,, things it make it harder to for us to hear the Good News, that make it harder for Christians to understand the Word, and perhaps even harder for our non-Christian friends to come to believe the Word. This teaching in this morning’s Gospel, seems especially out of character. It seems a bit off-putting. It seems to marginalize and exclude and repel, things our Lord never did. It seems to write off the majority of humans now living on earth - something our Lord never did. He said boldly and loudly and very publicly, “Come unto me, All the Father gives me. I have other sheep who are not of this flock, I came to save the world not condemn it, I came that they might have life and have it abundantly." And he did not just preach this, he lived it, boldly and openly: he embraced and accepted and enjoyed tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners, public adulterers. He did not marginalize or dismiss or exclude them. So it seems very unlikely that he would, with some sweeping judgmental dismissal, exclude and marginalize many wonderful people throughout our world. People as good and decent, possibly better, than we are. What on earth is going on here? Well it is our Lord speaking, so we must be careful. This is Jesus talking to his Church, to his followers, to committed Christians. Sowed need to be careful to take it with utmost seriousness, even if it is a difficult saying. Thus we need to avoid two unacceptable approaches: we cannot dismiss it out-of-hand in a breezy, even contemptuous, fashion, as in: “Oh, I just don’t accept that, I don’t go along with that.” On the other hand, neither do we water it down, adapt it beyond recognition, or interpret it away altogether, or apologize for it. We seek to understand it, knowing full well we may not finally understand it, as we do not understand many of the mysteries of faith. But we can, and we must at the very least take care that we never misapply it. There is, always has been a real risk for Christians, a real, but subtle temptation - taking a phrase a teaching of our Lord in whose hands it is safe, and using it for our own purpose, in our own hands, where the same idea is probably not safe, but possibly problematic, using his message for our own human purposes, conformed to our own human prejudices, with seeming disregard for the teaching of similar or contradictory verses in other places in Scripture. Over and over and over again we have clear messages that Jesus did not intend to exclude or diminish or restrict his message of hope and love and salvation. Only we do that, we human, yes, we Christians, who in his Name and thinking to be faithful to him, use his very own words against his purpose, and use them in our worst moments to set ourselves apart as special and more precious than all others. We are the ones who exclude and marginalize, not God, not Jesus, not the Bible. This passage is from our Lord’s Last Discourse, his final teaching to his disciples, before he was handed over to his suffering and death in that last week in Jerusalem. The public ministry has drawn to a close, the events of the Passion are upon Jesus and his disciples. The three years since the Baptism in the Jordan have ended. There is to be no more teaching, no more detailed revelation of the Kingdom of God until after the Resurrection. The time is short. The work is, in our phrase, being wrapped up. And now two of the Twelve, who have been with him constantly over the last three years. two of the ones he has chosen to hear all the teaching, know all about him, and then to proclaim all of this to the whole world after his death and resurrection, two of them, show at the very last minute that they have not understood it - do not know what it has all been about, what it has all meant. Jesus, in what I believe might well have been some mild exasperation, says. “How can you ask these questions? How can you not understand?” Jesus has just said that he is going on toward the fulfillment of all he has taught and lived, and mentions that the way he is setting out on is well known to the disciples. It is none other than the way of God, the way appointed by God, the way Jesus and his followers will follow. Jesus says, “And you know the way.” Thomas, in innocence or incomprehension, says: "Uh, no we don’t know the way, how could we know the way, we have no idea about the way. how could we know the way?” And Jesus says, "Thomas, Thomas! I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the Life. Of course you know the way, Thomas, I am the way!” Then Philip chimes in at what has to be the worst possible moment of bad timing, and says, “By the way, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied.” Phillip who has been with the Incarnation of God decisively reveled as such, now wants some glimpse, some vague peek at what God might possible be like. Jesus, in what I consider the most unimaginable patience says, "Philip, how can you say show us the Father? Do you not know that in seeing me you have seen the Father? I and the Father are one. You have seen me, so then you have seen all you can see on God in this life, this mortal life. How can you possibly, at this point say, show us the Father!!!” He is astounded, and is just as astounded when we view, assess, maybe judge, and then dismiss other people with other ways, seeing other truths, and living other lives. We can rest assured there is no otherness in God, in Jesus - all ways are his way, all truth is from and of and about him. He is life, and life for all. We better not take a different approach to those who are not of this flock, who he is determined to call, to show them the way, in their own way, and reveal the truth as they will understand it and believe it, and so give them and us, all together, life. I almost hear him saying: “Have I been with you so long and you do not know this?”