​Now it would be almost impossible to lift the original colours off the plate without getting any blended colours.

Our eyes can still tell, for the most part, what the original colours were. But we are pretty much beyond able to parse out the individual colours.
​
And in this next one…

​Now we can hardly tell what the original colours were with our eyes. We certainly wouldn’t be able to lift any of the original colours at this point from the plate.
​
And finally…

​Can anyone tell what the original colours were anymore?

If I asked you to take this plate of paint and separate out the original colours, could you do it?

Definitely not. Not without some extremely fancy tool of some kind.

I’m sure it exists… somewhere. But it’s not something we could do on our own for sure.

This final photo is essentially colour chaos. Well, really, it’s a totally new colour.
 
But if we look at where we started and where we are now, this image is pure chaos of blended colour. It is impossible to discern what colours we started with, and extra impossible to separate out those colours if we were given this task to do.

And yet, this is exactly the task that our Creator God set out to do.

“When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos…”

In other words, God started with our blended colour photo and set out to try to separate the chaos into some kind of order.
 
This is a task that, to us, would seem utterly impossible.

And yet God simply had to say “let there be light” and the light separated from the jumbled chaos.

If I had our blended, chaotic colour plate here in front of me and I said “let there be turquoise,” absolutely nothing would happen. You would look at me like I’d lost my mind.

So it would be helpful for us to take a brief moment to recognize the magnitude of God’s ability to create order from chaos.
 
The Message

Scholars have written an abundance of theories and analyses of Genesis 1-2. You could spend your entire life reading and analyzing these two verses if you wanted to.

But, for our purposes, it might be useful to think about the enormity – the gravity – the magnitude – of this passage and of what this creation story might mean for us on a practical level in our lives today. 
 
It’s easy to assume that this passage is some cosmic story written to impress us, or to emphasize some theological fact or perspective.

But what if the purpose is simply to help us understand just how amazing it is that we are here in this time and place in the first place?

I’d like to share with you a couple paragraphs from John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara. John O’Donohue was an Irish poet, author, and priest, and many would say he was a prolific Christian mystic as well.

He has written many blessings, poems, and deeply spiritual passages.

Today, I want to share with you two paragraphs from the section of his book called “To Be Born Is to Be Chosen.”

He says,

“To be born is to be chosen. No one is here by accident. Each one of us was sent here for a special destiny. When a fact is read in a spiritual way, its deeper meaning often emerges. When you consider the moment of conception, there are endless possibilities. Yet in most cases, only one child is conceived. This seems to suggest that a certain selectivity is already at work.
 
“This selectivity intimates a sheltering providence that dreamed you, created you, and always minds you. You were not consulted on the major factors that shaped your destiny: when you were to be born; where you would be born; to whom you would be born. Imagine the difference it would have made to your life had you been born into the house next door. Your identity was not offered for your choosing. In other words, a special destiny was prepared for you. But you were also given freedom and creativity to go beyond the given, to make a new set of relationships and to forge an ever new identity, inclusive of the old but not limited to it. 
 
“This is the secret pulse of growth, which is quietly at work behind the outer façade of your life. Destiny sets the outer frame of experience and life; freedom finds and fills its inner form.

“For millions of years, before you arrived here, the dream of your individuality was carefully prepared. You were sent to a shape of destiny which you would be able to express the special gift you bring to the world. Sometimes this gift may involve suffering and pain that can neither be accounted for nor explained. There is a unique destiny for each person.
 
“Each one of us has something to do here that can be done by no one else. If someone else could fulfill your destiny, then they would be in your place, and you would not be here. It is in the depths of your life that you will discover the invisible necessity that has brought you here. When you begin to decipher this, your gift and giftedness come alive. Your heart quickens and the urgency of living rekindles your creativity.”

- John O’Donohue, from Anam Cara
 
I think some would hear this and believe it is a nod to the concept of predestination. That is not where we are going today, but I don’t read that here.

Instead, I read this in light of our Genesis passage and the amazing feat that God undertook to separate out light from darkness, heaven from earth, night and day, plants and animals, and ultimately, humans.

And even if you aren’t fully convinced of the creation story and lean instead toward the scientific explanations of creation, the fact of the matter is that our being here is incredible.
 
The complexity of biological and environmental circumstances that had to manifest themselves such that each one of us could be born into this time and place is uniquely special and important.

I think John O’Donohue emphasises the enormity of this perfectly.

To simplify it all, none of us should take our lives for granted because we have been gifted something amazing.

Yes, life throws us curveballs sometimes. Yes, life is hard sometimes.
 
Yes, some of us grew up in difficult or traumatic homes. Some of us have been through incredibly difficult circumstances or life experiences.

I am not discounting those things, and I am not saying that we shouldn’t feel the emotions or the pain, the grief or the longing, the shame or the regret that come along with those things.

But what I am saying is that in order for each of us to be here now, not only did the biology of our parents’ reproductive systems have to mingle perfectly, but so did the systems and circumstances of every one of our ancestors before us.
 
We know that many movies and stories throughout history have played with this concept.

Back to the Future, for instance, plays with the idea of time travel and the notion that even one small change to the past could make it such that we couldn’t exist in the present.

In short, we are just one of many examples of order being created out of chaos.

Each one of us was created to be here in this time and place.
 
And often, when we think of the magnitude of this reality, we may struggle with our sense of purpose or our reason for being here.

We are inclined to think that we must do something grand and memorable with our life. We must live our life with purpose, and if we don’t feel that we are fulfilling that “duty,” then we feel a weight of failure fall upon our shoulders.

But I don’t think Genesis or John O’Donohue is telling us that we are failures if we don’t fulfill some grand purpose.

What if our purpose is simply to live a life of wonder, or to love and care for our family, or to create art of some kind, or to impact another person’s life in some way?

We don’t need to stress over this, but neither should we take our lives for granted.

We were each uniquely and wonderfully chosen to be here. Somehow, God separated us from the chaos and created us for this time and place.

And, we have each been brought to this community – in some way or another – for a reason.
 
We were created from the “dust of the ground” as a reminder that our calling is always toward the flourishing of life in the world.

Made from the dust of the ground, we are designed to return to the earth, for the replenishing and renewal of the world.

It is a vision of the past and future that can transform our present.

We are in humble service to a God who can do the impossible and separate order from chaos. 
 
We are each unique and this fact should leave us in absolute awe and wonder of a God who created us and chose us for this time and place.

So, may we leave here with a sense of assurance that God loves us and chose to separate us from the chaos – to combine our unique DNA and life circumstances such that we are capable of being here now, together.

You are a wonder. You have been chosen. You are loved beyond measure and beyond human comprehension. Amen.

Let us pray:
​
Gracious and loving God, we are in absolute awe at your creation, and our existence here in this world. Not only are we in awe, but we are filled with deep and unending gratitude for our lives and your presence in them. We are grateful for this community and the love and care we experience from, with, and for one another. Be with us as we move through our day and our week ahead. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

​The Message
 
The first kiss is a very powerful and meaningful thing, right?
Recently I read a report in a magazine stating that the average person claims to have had 26 first kisses. Wow! What that says to me is that I missed out on a lot of first kisses!
Don’t spend the next fifteen minutes trying to remember, and then adding up, the number of your first kisses; let’s try to stay focused folks.
Again, a kiss is a powerful thing. All the fairy tales know it: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and so on. But how does the Bible in general, and the story of Pentecost specifically, fit into this discussion about kissing? Some say the first kiss recorded in scripture comes right at the beginning, in Genesis 2. God breathed the breath of life into the first human, performing the first, primordial mouth to mouth resuscitation — which, by the way, is often known as the kiss of life. The gospel reading for today seems to echo or hark back to the creation story in Genesis. When Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Spirit, he then breathes on his disciples the breath of resurrection life.
There used to be a television commercial featuring cute little donuts, onions, slices of pizza, etc. all cavorting around trying to get your attention as sensuous and trendy things to eat. But the big bad breath associated with these snacks wasn't sensuous or trendy at all. So, to the rescue came the advertised product, some sort of chewing gum if I recall correctly and voila, one is sexy and trendy all over again with good breath. Yeah!
Now the gospel reading for this Pentecost Sunday isn’t about bad breath, but the true, refreshing breath of life. Like the wonder of a first kiss, the true breath of life changes everything. It changes you and your outlook on life. Paradoxically, this spiritual kiss of life is based on the death of another — of our loved one — Jesus.
In today’s reading we go back into the Easter season and one of Jesus’ earliest resurrection appearances. The risen Christ shows up unexpectedly in the upper room to confront the disciples’ lingering fears and doubts with his blessing of peace, but they don’t get it at first. They can’t appreciate Jesus’ appearing to them until they see the scars on his hands and in his side. Then, we are told, they rejoiced.
While the disciples didn’t understand at first, interestingly, all the fairy tales seem to get it. True, most fairy tales end with everyone living “happily ever-after,” but to get there the heroine and the hero always have to go through struggle and suffering and even sometimes a mortal wound before that transformative first kiss of true love. True love, in almost all of the best stories, is proved through suffering, which is a thoroughly biblical concept. I suppose you could say, "you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your true love."
Therefore, the disciples were glad to see the scars of Jesus because, by seeing the wounds on his hands and in his side, they knew this wasn’t just a dream. This relationship with God through Jesus wasn’t like a schoolyard crush or a one-night stand — the scars were proof that God was serious and committed and faithful, no matter what.
We need to see the scars. The scars prove that God has truly dealt with us and our root problem of sin and rebellion. It is the scars that prove the penalty for our sin has been paid, once and for all. The scars remind us of how precious we are in the sight of God. It is the scars that make it all real.
So the disciples then knew, and we can know now, that what God did in Christ Jesus was the real deal. The real one was standing before those trembling disciples, so that when Jesus breathed on them it was the true kiss of life they received. That “kiss” meant a new beginning, a new creation was breathed by God into existence, and that breath has been passed on down to us here today and in this place.
The power of this ultimate kiss of life is the power of forgiveness: after he breathed on his disciples in the upper room, Jesus said to them:
Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. — John 20:22b-23
The gift of God’s Spirit to God’s people is not first and foremost about spectacular signs and wonders that we can now do, but about forgiveness: receiving it and giving it out. We are sent with the same mission as that upon which the Father sent the Son. The Spirit breathed into us is not a spirit of timidity, but one that opposes all evil and injustice, and dares to stand up to evil in defense of others, as Jesus did. However, our only weapon for battling the evil in us and around us is the power of the forgiveness of sins and the kiss of peace.
We breathe in God’s forgiveness of us through the cross of Christ, and breathe out the blessing of God’s peace through our pronouncement of God’s forgiveness of others in Jesus’ name. The kiss of God’s Spirit working through forgiveness is the only thing that can revive stale relationships, and it has the power to breathe new, unexpected life into dead relationships. Again, forgiveness is actually the only power that we, as believers, have, but it is the most powerful force in the entire world. God’s Spirit active in us is the spirit of forgiveness let loose on the world, so that the kiss of God’s love can awaken the dead, free the enslaved, and open the hearts and minds of those who have been blinded by the power of sin, death, and the devil.
In other words, this new Spirit-filled life is not to be kept safely locked up behind closed doors of fear, doubt, and selfish self-righteous contentment with the status quo; we are sent out even as the Son was sent to us. Jesus could not be held down by the power of death in the tomb. Neither can we, who have had the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit breathed into us, stay behind closed doors. There are still doubting, hurting, lonely people out there whose fear and skepticism can be transformed into faith. There are people out there who need to be raised up from the death of despair, and whose hearts can be made glad by seeing the scars of the risen Christ through our lives of love and forgiveness.
It’s time for us who have already been kissed by God’s Spirit to give out the kiss of life through the forgiveness of sins to others. It’s time to break the enchantment so that they too might live eternally ever after.
Amen.

The Message

*Note: There is no sermon recording today because we will be spending most of the sermon time in discussion groups.

Does it ever feel to you like our society has shifted from a “we” society to a “me” society?

It should. A while back, Google released a searchable database of 5.2 million books published since 1500.

Researchers quickly discovered that, between 1960 and 2008, individualistic words increasingly overshadowed communal ones.

The usage of “kindness” and “helpfulness” dropped by 56%.
 
The words “modesty” and “humbleness” dropped by 52%.

Our language is a reflection of our lives. Phrases like “community” and “common good” have been overshadowed in popularity by phrases like “I can do it myself” and “I come first.”

In essence, we’ve moved from “we” to “me.” And I suspect that many of you have noticed this shift throughout your lifetime.

It is not overly surprising.
 
Today’s scripture passage from 1 Peter says, “be humble in the presence of God’s mighty power, and he will honor you when the time comes. God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to him.”

The virtue of humility seems to be increasingly lost in our “me, me, me” society. And along with it, compassion seems to be reduced, as well.

For those who are wondering, humility can be defined as “the quiet, powerful practice of recognizing one's own limitations, valuing others, and putting ego aside.”
 
What I would like to do today, since it’s been a while since we have had a chance to have some dedicated conversations with one another, is I would like to share a short story with you and then have you break into discussion groups.

I know that some of you really enjoy this – especially those of you who find fellowship time to be overwhelming and prefer 1:1 conversations.

And I know that some of you grin and bear it. ☺ 

But, I hope you will find some value in being in conversation with one another today as we talk about compassion and humility in community.
 
I’ll share a short story with you, and then I’ll keep the questions on the screen for you to discuss.

I encourage you to find a person to talk with who you do not talk with often.

You can get into small groups of 2-3 for this conversation so that you can have some good time to discuss together.

Please be back in the sanctuary in 15 minutes if you choose to go elsewhere to talk.

I’ll ring my singing bowl to bring us back together.
 
Here is the short story I’d like to share with you:

“In the late 70s, two Buddhist monks -- Rev. Heng Sure and Heng Chau -- began a mind-blowing bowing pilgrimage along the California coastline.

For 900 miles, they would walk three steps and take one full bow to the ground.

Their practice was to meet everything as a reflection of their mind and rebound it with a heart of love.
 
One day, crossing through a rough neighborhood in LA, they found themselves surrounded by a bunch of gang members.

One of them threw down a trash can, removed the rod connecting the can with its lid, and threateningly started screeching that rod around the side of the trash can.

It was as if he was sharpening his blade and signaling the impending fate of the monk’s head. Other friends egged him on with a menacing chant.
 
As Rev. Heng Sure would later write in his journals, “All the hair of my body stood up in fear.”

Yet his commitment was to unconditional compassion: no matter what you bring to this moment, I bow to the goodness in you. May you be blessed.

And so he humbly went for that final bow at the teenager’s feet.

His would-be attacker’s fist was raised in the air poised to strike, but he froze.
 
Completely froze.

Others around him fell silent.

Imagine if you’re about to pummel someone and he bows to you with great compassion.

The monks continued bowing right past the dumbstruck gang.”

So, my questions to you today are these:
 
Considering our definition of humility: the quiet, powerful practice of recognizing one's own limitations, valuing others, and putting ego aside.

AND,

The story of the monks and their incredible humility and compassion,
​
What does having humility and compassion mean to you, and how can you apply these lessons to your life? Do you have any stories to share about humbling yourself in your own life? What does it mean to humble yourself before God?
 
Let us pray:
 
Loving and gracious God, help us to humble ourselves before you. Help us to understand what that means. Help us to set aside our own egos - the personas we have created to protect ourselves - such that we can open ourselves fully to a relationship with you and with others. God, help us to bring more compassion into the world, and help us to work toward a “we” society instead of a “me” society. In your holy and loving name, we pray. Amen.

Young at Heart Message

Most of us are familiar with the traditional ways that people handle saying the words, “I love you.”

Usually, one person will say “I love you,” and the other person will respond, “I love you, too.”

It’s a very familiar and routine response.

In fact, it can become so automatic and routine that we don’t put much thought into it most of the time. Someone says, “I love you,” and we automatically say, “I love you, too.”
 
It can be so automatic for some of us that we become accustomed to saying “I love you” every time we do certain things, like leave the house, for example.

I remember once when I was a kid that I had gotten a ride home from one of my friends from basketball practice.

As I got out of the car, I said, “bye, love you!” without thinking. It was such an automatic, routine thing for me to say to my parents as I got out of the car that my brain ended up saying it to my friend and their parents.
 
Of course, I was embarrassed at the time, but it speaks to our tendency to allow the words “I love you” to become ordinary and routine.

But, I wonder what would happen if, instead of automatically saying “I love you” and “I love you, too,” when one person says “I love you,” we responded with “why?” Or, “what are your reasons?”

First of all, it would give us pause to think, wouldn’t it? If I said “I love you” at the end of a phone call with my mom and she said, “why?,” I would be thrown off, for sure.
 
Of course I have lots of reasons that I love my mom, but I rarely, if ever, articulate them to her.

In fact, recently my mom was telling me something and I said something along the lines of, “you are amazing and you deserve it.”

She stopped abruptly and said, “wow, thank you so much, that’s a really nice thing to say.”

It made me realize just how infrequently I actually tell my mom why I love her, or that I think she’s an incredible person.
 
In some ways, our automatic “I love you,” and “I love you, too” responses don’t actually always convey our love very well.

Asking, “what are your reasons” forces someone to think about what they are saying while they are saying it, and challenges them to make the “why” of their love more concrete.

The assurance that comes with being loved and knowing that there are reasons for it has the power to breathe new life into a person. It can sustain and uplift us through even the worst of times.
 
In many ways, telling a person specifically what reasons we have for loving them can be far more meaningful than just saying the words “I love you.”

And, demonstrating that love in physical ways can also be deeply meaningful for people.

If you haven’t told someone in a while (or ever) why you love them, it would be worth trying. They may be surprised at first, but how might our worlds change if we began offering more specific expressions of our love?
 
The Message

Jesus is very aware of the human need for more than a simple “I love you, too.”

When Jesus tells us he loves us, we ask for concreteness. We want reasons. We want demonstrations. (Well, the disciples say what we would all be thinking on our behalf.)

When Phillip said last week, “If you show us the Father, we will be satisfied,” we said it right along with him.
 
We don’t ask for these demonstrations or reasons because we are faithless. We ask because we are human. Phillip asks on behalf of all humanity.

Jesus giving us more – reasons and demonstrations instead of just words – helps us feel more secure and stable in times of anxiety and uncertainty.

If he wanted to, Jesus could get frustrated with this insistence on wanting more from him. Especially because he has already given us so much.

However, Jesus knows that getting frustrated would not be helpful. A different approach is needed.
 
Last week, we heard the first half of John 14, in which Jesus calls us to have faith and to believe in God and in him.

Today, in the second half of John 14, Jesus tells us just how much we are loved.

Actually, he doesn’t just tell us. He shows us. He makes that love concrete.

He makes a promise that there is not a need to worry or be anxious, because an Advocate – a Helper or Comforter – is coming.
 
The Spirit certainly brings help and comfort, but the idea here is slightly different.

The Advocate defends us, stands by us, and makes a case for us before others. Not just now, but forever.

Jesus is basically providing proof of his love.

If we demand reasons – if Jesus says “I love you” and we respond with “what are your reasons,” he provides them now.
Jesus basically says, “you want me to show you? OK, I’ll show you.”
 
How about an Advocate who will be with you always? How about an empty tomb that announces across time that not even death can stop the plans and purposes of God?

Is that enough for you?

God gives us reasons to love and works to teach us how to love. One of the ways God does that is through Jesus, who demonstrates for us how to love.

Deep relationships are built on trust and reciprocity.
 
A new friend will tell us what we want to hear. A best friend will tell us what we need to hear.

Jesus demonstrates this reciprocity, but he wants more than a simple “I love you, too” in response.

We can’t hear Jesus say “I love you,” and then respond by saying “why?” but then expect that when we say “I love you” to Jesus, that he wouldn’t also respond with “what are your reasons?”

At the beginning of today’s scripture Jesus says, “If you love me, you will do as I command.”
 
And, at the end of the passage, he reiterates, “If you love me, you will do what I have said, and my Father will love you. I will also love you and show you what I am like.”

Jesus is setting the expectation for us that he will demonstrate his love for us, but he expects it to be a two-way street. We must also demonstrate our love for Jesus.

And, one of the ways we can do that is by demonstrating Jesus’s love to others.
 
Jesus isn’t necessarily asking us to sit back and be admirers. Admirers stand in awe and appreciation, but do not take any action.

Disciples, on the other hand, follow in love and obedience.

Jesus is saying, “so, you say you love me? Show me.”

Just like we say to Jesus. Show us.

The relationship is mutual. There is give and take on both sides. Jesus loves us and is willing to show us.
 
He also wants us to show him that we love him.

How do we make good on this promise, then? Certainly, we can receive the Advocate – the Holy Spirit – with grace and appreciation for the magnitude of the gift.

But, I think more importantly, we can use that gift to do good in the world.

In our first reading today, 1 Peter 3 says, “Even if you have to suffer for doing good things, God will bless you… You are better off to obey God and suffer for doing right than to suffer for doing wrong.”
 
Jesus demonstrates his love for us, and wants us to do good in the world. We cannot control how other people respond to us.

Nor can we control the less-than-good things that others do in and to the world.

But we can control what we do. We can accept Jesus’s love with grace and then extend that love outward toward others.

Even if others do not respond in the way we might expect. We cannot control other people.
 
We can only manage our own responses to the world.

So, may you receive Jesus’s gifts – his demonstrations of love for you – and may you recognize those demonstrations as proof of his love.

May you use those gifts in your own life to do good in your world – in whatever ways you are capable of and comfortable with.
​
And, may you know, without question, that you are loved and cared for so deeply that you do not even need to ask why Jesus loves you. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
God of all time and space, you initiated the relationship of love and generosity with creation at a time before and beyond all knowing. Through the Word and the Spirit, you continue in eternal love for all beings. Fill us with a deep and abiding awareness of your presence, your call, and your grace in our lives and in our world. Shape us to into the people you have made us to be – poured out in creative mercy for the sake of Jesus Christ in all creation. Amen.

Young at Heart Message

For anyone who has ever moved to a new town or city, or even simply to a new part of the city, you know that it can be difficult to navigate your way at first.

Until you get to know the area – the roads, the turns, the landmarks – it can be quite a challenge.

When I first moved to Calgary, I had only been here one time previously.

And, that one time, I did not drive myself anywhere.
 
Many kind people from our church board drove me around town when I needed to be somewhere. But, being driven around an unfamiliar place doesn’t lend itself well to learning the area.

So, when I arrived here officially and crossed over that threshold into the city of Calgary, I had no idea what to expect – not really, anyway.

I was not only learning a new city, but I was learning how to understand kilometres instead of miles, new road signs, and a city much larger than any city I’d been in before.
 
I had no idea what a “playground zone” was, and those darn signs aren’t very noticeable if you’ve never seen anything like them before.

Also, similar “school zones” where I’m from were marked more obviously, and you only had to slow down if children were present.

Here, I learned quickly that I needed to pay attention to those areas, and slowing down was mandatory, unless I wanted a hefty fine. Luckily, I didn’t get caught speeding through those areas when I didn’t know I was supposed to slow down!
 
When Erick and I met, I had not been here quite one year yet. I had become somewhat more familiar with the city, but I still relied heavily on my GPS.

One of the things he was excited about was showing me all around town. He also lived in the South, and I was just getting to know the North part of the city and relying on my GPS a bit less in that area.

The South was mostly an entirely new area for me.
 
One of the benefits to me of meeting someone who is intimately familiar with Calgary is that he knew his way around. It came easily to him, and because he knew his way, it made it much easier for me to learn my way, too.

Having someone to help gently navigate a new world is helpful! It was also helpful to have someone who wanted to show me some of the cool things this city had to offer.

I no longer had to figure out what might be fun to do here in Calgary. I didn’t feel like a tourist as much anymore.
 
Instead of bumbling around by myself, trying to learn about the things there are to do here, I had someone who was proud of knowing the city well enough to be able to suggest fun things to do together.

What a joy to have a “guide!”

Now, two years later, I feel like I know the city pretty well. Certainly not perfectly, but there are lots of places I can get to now without using my GPS. I just “know” the way!
 
“Knowing” the way is nice when it comes to navigating a new city or a new place. And, having a guide who knows the way is even better.

But, there are other aspects of our lives that we can better navigate when we have a guide. Specifically, I am talking about our spiritual life.
 
The Message

You may or may not know that I have been working toward a graduate certificate in Spiritual Direction over the last two years or so.

I submitted my final paper for this program on Friday, and I technically graduate this coming Friday.

And one of the things I have learned through this program is that navigating our spiritual world can become much easier with a guide. And we are all quite familiar with the most famous spiritual guide.
 
Jesus was a spiritual guide, and Jesus is one of our spiritual guides.

There are many others throughout Christian history who have been spiritual guides, and many of us consider people we know to be our spiritual guides as well, but Jesus ranks pretty darn high on the list!

Jesus is our equivalent of a person familiar with a new place who can help us get where we are going, spiritually speaking.

Today, we heard a passage that is likely quite familiar to many of you.
 
Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to his Father’s house to prepare a place for each of them. And, they know the way to where he is going.

And the disciples, in true disciple fashion, say “How can we know the way?”

And Jesus responds with “I am the way, the truth, and the life!”

Jesus is the way.

In the program I just finished, we were introduced to a beautiful song called “The Way Knows the Way.”
 
In this song, Lyndsey Scott sings:

You don’t have to know the way
The Way knows the way.
You don’t have to plan the way
Trust the way
Feel your way
The Way knows the way.

This became a mantra for us throughout our program, and we were often reminded, especially when faced with uncertainty or doubt, that we don’t have to know the way or the final outcome.
 
The Way knows the way.

Jesus is the Way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus knows the way.

Jesus is our guide when we are in unfamiliar territory. When we are uncertain. When we are facing something new, something unexpected, or something scary.

We spend a lot of time in our life worrying about what’s to come.
 
We worry about outcomes of our health, our finances, and global events, just to name a few examples. In essence, we are constantly worrying about the future.

But Jesus reminds us that we don’t need to worry, because the Way knows the way. All we need to do is trust the way.

Much like all I needed to do when I met Erick was trust that he knew the way. I no longer needed to worry about how to get around the city, because he knew. He was my guide.
 
Similarly, when we try to navigate the twists and turns of life, we only need to trust that the Way knows the way.

Jesus knows the way.

It’s simple, right?

Or is it?

Even the disciples struggled with this, as we can see from our scripture today. They say, “How can we know the way?”
 
Phillip isn’t actually asking how they can know the way. He knows the answer already.

What he is asking Jesus is how can they trust what he says – trust that Jesus knows the way. How can they surrender their own control and their own worry about what the future holds?

These are the same questions we find ourselves wondering as we try to navigate our own lives and our own spiritual journeys.

How can we know the way?
 
How can we trust the Way?

How can we surrender completely to our Guide - to the Way, the Truth, and the Life?

I often do a Yoga practice that’s made specifically for runners. Toward the beginning of the video, the instructor says, “find your breath… bring a sense of you, a softness to these active postures.” Then she asks, “how can we do that? I think by staying conscious with the breath… and with practice!”

So, how can we surrender completely and allow Jesus to be the Way?
 
With practice.

I know that many of you have been practicing this surrender – this total trust that Jesus knows the way – for a very long time.

And some of us are new to this idea of surrender.

Even those among us who are seasoned and practiced and could act as guides for the rest of us still need to continue practicing.

It is not something we ever fully “arrive” at.
 
Trusting that Jesus knows the way – surrendering to the Way – is not something to achieve. It is not the destination.
It is the journey.

Our path is always going to be uncertain. We can not know the future.

But we can trust that the Way knows the way so that we don’t ever have to know the way or the future.
We can focus instead on the present moment.
 
We can’t know what will happen to a loved one who is in the hospital, or to our retirement accounts if the economy starts to turn downward, or to the world as climate changes increase.

We can certainly do whatever is within our power in the moment to try to set ourselves up for future outcomes. We take steps to protect ourselves – emotionally, financially, physically.

But once that work is done, all we have left is to trust that the Way knows the way, so we don’t have to.
 
We don’t need to worry about the future beyond what is within our ability to control. Instead, we can focus on the here and now.

We can laugh with our loved ones, share memories and stories, and enjoy their presence.

We can monitor our finances, tighten the belt when it’s needed, and make the next best decision for the moment.

We can try to reduce our carbon footprint, we can vote, and we can stay up-to-date on the newest science around climate change.
 
And then, we can rest assured that the Way knows the way.

This is the Good News of our scripture passage today. Jesus gives us the answers, and we can rest assured in this knowledge.

May we allow Jesus to be our gentle, loving Guide.

May we surrender. May we trust. May we breathe.
​
And then let it be. Let Jesus be the Way. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
God of compassion, we come before you today in gratitude for the gift of your son, Jesus. Thank you for sending Jesus to teach us to trust. Help us to allow Jesus to lead the way so we don’t have to worry or fret about the future. Help us to settle into the here and now and to enjoy this beautiful life we have been given. In your holy and precious name, we pray. Amen.