Acts 6:8-15, 7:51-60; John 14:1-14 The Cost of Discipleship 5 14 17

Jesus makes it all sound so easy, doesnt he? Whenever we are

perplexed about his identity, or about what we should do in life, or how to
deal with hardship, his voice rings out, I am the way, the truth and the life.
That should be enough. If we embrace this message, there shouldnt be
anything else we need to know or ask or wrestle with. And truly, for many of
us, this core message of Jesus is the very thing that brings calm to the storm
and a light in the darkness.
Unfortunately for you, it is in my nature to stir the pot. I tend to see the
tensions in Christian teachings that I am compelled to share. Jesus said, I am
the way, the truth and the life. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be
disciples or learners of his nature and his actions his way, his truth, his life.
Lets look at each one.
The Way. We just heard the story of Stephen a young man who
followed the way, and ended up losing his life for what he believed. Stephens
witness to others about how Jesus is the fulfillment of Hebrew scripture, and
his subsequent challenge to those in power who sentenced Jesus to death, are
models of faithfulness for us today. United Methodist pastor Timothy Hare
wrote in his commentary on this story: Though many of us may never be asked
to die for our faith, our faith still calls us to measure our priorities, to take a
stand, and to express our beliefs through action. For those of us in this
position, Stephens story is still very much a relevant model of faithfulness and
obedience. There it is. A model of witnessing about our experiences, and then
challenging our enemies. Being a person of faith is following the way of Christ
even if the natural consequence of following is painful.

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 The Truth. A few weeks ago we talked about alternative doubts and
truthiness. Needless to say, we are living (and almost drowning) in a sea of
information. We receive surveys about where we get our information, and the
list of options seems endless all the options are check-able in the survey!
TV? Yes. Radio? Yes. Online? Yes, yes and yes. Friends? Fliers, billboards,
demonstrations, t-shirts, churches, sporting events, bus drivers, tweets,
photos, books, magazines, tattoos, almanacs, menus, newspapers, faxes,
meetings Ive got a longer list of sources of information, but Ill stop there.
The kicker is, we have information, but we are struggling with how to discern
what is true. Once we absorb all the information and internalize it, is the truth
that inner voice that we have? Is that inner voice of truth a mothers voice?
The voice of Self? The Collective Unconscious? Or the voice of Gods truth?
How do we know? We turn to scripture as a place of grounding and peace,
and then the pastor decides to stir the pot! (The nerve of some preachers!)
The tension is that seeking the truth can be more distressing than comforting.
The Life. In the gospel of John, written some 70 years after the death of
Jesus, presents the connection between belief in Jesus and Gods gift of
eternal life. The John authors paint images of rooms and places where
believers will be in the company of Jesus the Christ. For a group of followers
that didnt necessarily believe in an afterlife, this was probably confusing.
Youre going where we cant go? But eventually well be able to go? How can
we know the way? Jesus is simultaneously telling his disciples that he is going
to die, and that he will always be with them. This can be confusing for us, too.
Many of us are not as concerned about navigating eternal life as we are
concerned about how to navigate this life here and now. It would be handy if

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Jesus were the Life of our time, not in the hereafter. In sum, we face these
tengions:
Jesus is the way the way of witnessing and challenging our enemies.
Jesus is the truth the plumbline of certainty in the midst of chaos if we
can find it.
Jesus is the life the promise of eternal life at some point after death.
It is into these tensions that Jesus enters. Jesus comes to us in our
distress and says in all earnestness: Let not your hearts be troubled, neither
let them be afraid. When we say that Jesus is savior, we hold that we are
being freed from/saved from the chaotic fear and confusion that keeps us
from living as disciples.
The way. The way of discipleship comes at a cost, yes, but the cost is a
willingness to love, bless and forgive. I cannot say it any better than German
pastor, world war II prisoner and Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer did in
his book, The Cost of Discipleship: Christian love draws no distinction
between one enemy and another, except that the more bitter our enemy's
hatred, the greater is the need of love. Be their enmity political or religious,
they have nothing to expect from a follower of Jesus but unqualified love...
Bless them that persecute you. If our enemies cannot put up with us any
longer and take to cursing us, our immediate reaction must be to lift up our
hands and bless them. Our enemies are the blessed of the Lord. Their curse can
do us no harm. May their poverty be enriched with all the riches of God, with
the blessing of the God whom they seek to oppose in vain. Let not your heart
be troubled by the Way all you need to do is offer Gods love.

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 The Truth. We may not always be able to discern what is true or factual
in our current onslaught of information, but we always will know what is THE
truth. Those words and actions and programs and movements that are
grounded in justice, reconciliation, love and compassion are connected to the
truth of God. Jesus said simply, if you have seen me, then you have seen God;
you have seen the source of life and love. This is the truth in which we can
trust above all things a truth that will not change day to day, but that grows
clearer the more we align our actions with it. Let not your heart be troubled
by the truth, believe in the God you see in Jesus.
The Life. When Jesus told his disciples that he was the life, he was
responding to their palpable anxiety about his departure. He wanted to assure
them that they would not be alone. Regrettably, I think, he used a concrete
image of a house or mansions or rooms, so the disciples were thinking about a
literal place they could be with him. What I believe he wanted to get across,
was a sense of the expanse or roominess of time, not a physical space. Once
you and I are connected to Jesus/to God, time is endless. There is no line
between this life and the next, no separation we need to suffer, rather a
roomy expanse of time where we are one. Let not your heart be troubled by
Life life with God is endless time, including life in this moment.
So Jesus response to our troubled hearts and our fears is to say:
The Way is the way of loing our enemies
The Truth is the nature of God we know in Jesus
And the Life is this expanse of time where we are never separated from God in
Christ.
Amen.

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Acts 6:8-15, 7:51-60
Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the
people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen
(as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and
Asia, stood up and argued with Stephen. But they could not withstand the
wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. Then they secretly instigated some
men to say, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and
God.
They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they
suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the
council. They set up false witnesses who said, This man never stops saying
things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this
Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that
Moses handed on to us. And all who sat in the council looked intently at him,
and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

[Stephen recounted the history of Yahweh and the Jewish people, and then
said]

You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever
opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the
prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the
coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and
murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and
yet you have not kept it.

When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at
Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory
of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, he said, I see the
heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! But
they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against
him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the
witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they
were stoning Stephen, he prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he knelt
down and cried out in a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
When he had said this, he died.

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John 14:1-14

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my
Fathers house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have
told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there
you may be also.

And you know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him,
Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the
way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my
Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.Philip said to
him, Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.Jesus said to him,
Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the
Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who
dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father
is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I
do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the
Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

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In the last resort it is immaterial whether we pray in the open street or in
the secrecy of our chambers, whether briefly or lengthily, in the Litany of
the Church, or with the sigh of those who know not what they should
pray for. True prayer does not depend either on the individual or the
whole body of the faithful, but solely upon the knowledge that our
Heavenly God knows our needs.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship