The Way - Ascension

Today we are starting a brand new series called Half-Truth. Over the next four weeks we're going to look at some popular beliefs in culture that are half-true. They are kind of right, but only kind of. It is as if, while using your GPS, you only have the right street address, but the wrong town. And if we fully embrace these half-truths they will bring us to the wrong destination. A half-truth is a statement that includes some element of truth. The statement might be partly true, but in leaving out the rest of the truth it brings about a deception. The half-truth often leads us to embrace a whole lie. Over the course of this series we are going to examine some of the half-truths of our culture. This coincides over the next few weeks as we celebrate some feasts in the Church that clarify what we believe as Catholics and followers of Christ. Today is the Ascension, and we celebrate when Jesus ascended into heaven. Next week is Pentecost. And the following week is Trinity Sunday, these feasts help us to explain and refute some of the half-truths our culture tries to teach us. Over the next few weeks, we will look at some half-truths such as “all religions are the same”; or “You don’t need a Church to connect with God”; or “The Holy Eucharist is just a symbol.” Today, we want to talk about one that might be the most wide spread half-truth. Here is the half-truth: there are many ways to God. It doesn’t matter what you believe because there are many ways to God. When people say there are many ways to God, essentially they are asserting that all the major religions have truth in them.

 Many religions contain truth about the good, the true and the beautiful, which are all a reflection of God. They are saying that we ought to respect and learn from other religions. That is true. Often when people say there are many ways to God, they mean that there are many ways to experience God, which is certainly true. You can definitely experience God in nature, or in a community of people, or in your own personal prayer time.

 But. . . here is the whole truth: there is only one way to God. What we mean by that is there is only one way to have a relationship with God and that is through the person of Jesus Christ. That isn’t a popular statement. It seems narrow minded. In our culture, our pluralistic society, it seems intolerant. Here is the deal, in saying that Jesus is the only way to God, we are not saying WE are superior, but that JESUS is superior, that he has a unique relationship with God because he is the Son of God. And because we are invited into a relationship with Jesus, we are invited into a relationship with God. Jesus said things like, “ I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one goes to the Father except through me.” He didn’t say, “I am “a” way to God among many. He said I am THE way to God.” There are not many ways to God. There is only one way to get home to God and experience this beautiful relationship, and that is through the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus invites us into this personal relationship with him. And that is why Jesus said to the disciples with his parting words before he ascended into heaven, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”

Tell everyone about the Gospel. Go out into the world because there is one way back to God, and people need to hear about it. He tells us to go on a mission to spread the Gospel because there is only one way back into a relationship with God. Then he says this, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.” That may be offensive. It may be startling in a pluralistic society like ours but it is incredibly clear.

 Anyone who hears the Gospel and believes it enough to be baptized will be saved – will get home to God. Whoever does not believe it, will be condemned. Will not be saved. I believe that because I just go with what Jesus says. If a man can predict his own death and resurrection, then I just go with what he says. And yet there can be a feeling that we need more. Those words from Jesus sound extreme. So to help us embrace them, I want to go back to that word Gospel. The gospel means Good News. What is the Good News? To better understand the Good News, you really need to know the bad news. The bad news is that something has gone wrong with the world. The evil in the world: wars, poverty, hunger, broken relationships, murder, disasters comes as a result of sin and our broken relationship with God. We are separated from God because we have placed everything, and anything, to be number one in our life instead of God. The consequence of our sin is death. The wages or the payoff to sin is death: death to relationships, death to ourselves. Sin doesn’t make you bad. Sin makes you dead.

 Our problem is that all of us have sinned. All of us are separated from God. As a result of this separation, we have an insecurity about ourselves. We have a lack of purpose and meaning to life which often leads to a need to prove our value. This is so important to know this bad news because it makes it easier then to accept the good news. So we have been separated from God, and need to get back into right relationship with Him. How do we get back into right relationship with God? How do we get saved? This is a question most religions try and answer. The answer to that is that there is a profound and fundamental difference between the way that other religions tell us to seek salvation and the way seeking salvation is described in the gospel of Jesus. All other major faiths have founders who are teachers that show the way to salvation. For every other religion that tries to answer that question, the answer is some kind of performance. Be good and then God will save you and get you into heaven. Be good and then you will be redeemed.

 But that’s not what Jesus proposed. Jesus didn’t claim to know the way of salvation but to be salvation himself. Other religions operate on the principle that I obey God and strive to be good, so God will accept me. The Good News of the Gospel is that you and I are loved by God, not because of our efforts or what we have done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. The Good News is that even though we are deeply flawed individuals, God loves us so much that he sent his Son to die for us.

 The Good News of the Gospel is that I don’t have to be good enough to be accepted by God, but that as I accept what Jesus did for me on the cross, God will make me good, which is one of the greatest desires of the human heart. The founders of every other major religion came as teachers. They were going to show us the way to God through right moral teachings. Jesus says, “I am the way. Come to me, live in relationship with me, and I will give you everlasting life.” To live in relationship with Jesus is what we mean when we talk about having a personal relationship with him. The assumption about there being many ways to God is this: it assumes that we make the roads to God. It assumes that the way to God or right relationship with God is something we do. If that was true, it would be very arrogant for us to say that there is only one way to God. But God made the road back to him, and he has only given us one road: the person of Jesus Christ.

 Now this might raise a question in your mind: What about all the people who do not hear about Jesus Christ? When you say there is only one way to God, are you are saying that all Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and people of other faiths are going to hell. No we are not saying that. If they are saved, they are still saved through the person of Jesus, whether they know it in this life or not.

 Jesus died for them. We could spend an entire homily talking about that, suffice it to say, if they are saved, they are still saved through the person of Jesus, whether they know it in this life or not. There is only one way to God, not many. Let me tell you why it matters that you embrace this truth. First of all it matters, because until you really believe Jesus is your only way back to God, that he is your only salvation, your only hope to be healed and made whole – your faith will only be a category. When you believe you desperately need a relationship with Jesus Christ to get back in a relationship with God, Church, and prayer, and spiritual disciplines will not be something you do in your leisure time, but become very, very personal. Second, this matters because when we understand there is only one way back to God, only one way to be made whole, it should intensify our commitment to connect friends, family members, co-workers to the person of Jesus Christ. If there are many ways to God, then it is ok if they go their own way. It is ok that they don’t have a relationship with Jesus. But if Jesus is THE Way back to God, if Jesus is the way back to being made whole, and having our sins forgiven, then out of love for the people around us, it is vital that we introduce people to the person of Jesus Christ. If you had the cure for cancer or another major disease, you wouldn’t feel arrogant in telling other people about the cure. It wouldn’t be arrogant, it would be loving and serving others to share the cure. We know the cure to what most ails the human heart. There is only one way to God, it is through the person of Jesus Christ.

 So here is what I want you to do this week. Would you pray that verse from John 14:6? Every day tell Jesus, “Jesus, you are the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through you.” For some of you, it will be the first time you ever confessed that and it will make a change in your relationship with God. You will pray that this week, and it will be a breakthrough in your relationship with God. If you already believe that,  I want you to pray that prayer for someone this week who does not know Jesus Christ. Pray that God will use you to bring them into a relationship with him. “Jesus, you are the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through you.”