Pastor Darren: Here now today starts with this story that actually came from some of our United Methodist material from Reverend Dr.
Pastor Darren: Derek Weber, uh, who was talking about uh an experience he had in Minneapolis at a conference.
Pastor Darren: Right?
Pastor Darren: And he's moving in and out of the city as one does at a conference.
Pastor Darren: And uh what he noticed in particular was this sign that said, the bus does not stop here.
Pastor Darren: Isn't that an interesting sign to have up?
Pastor Darren: Because there's like millions of places you could put that sign up and be accurate and correct.
Pastor Darren: Yeah, you know, we're looking at sort of the logical part of this of saying, shouldn't we be naming the places where the bus does stop instead of this sign, the bus does not stop here?
Pastor Darren: Uh, but he's using the story to talk about how a lot of us uh in the Christian church uh we're pretty good at focusing on what we're not, right?
Pastor Darren: You start talking about a church, and how often is it when we talk about what we will not abide in a church as opposed to what we're looking for, what feeds us, what nourishes us.
Pastor Darren: So this passage today walks into that dilemma uh in my mind, uh, kind of easily.
Pastor Darren: All right, this Jesus here preparing these disciples for his absence, and we get a bit of um, well, this is the season in the Christian year where we're trying to understand the resurrection more deeply.
Pastor Darren: And so it helps us to go to those passages where Jesus was talking about what uh it was going to be like when he was gone, because those are good descriptors, right?
Pastor Darren: And Jesus tells them, uh, tells them that they, the disciples, are going to be able to join him in wherever he's going next.
Pastor Darren: Right?
Pastor Darren: And Thomas he says, Well, how can we know the place where you go?
Pastor Darren: How can we go and join you?
Pastor Darren: We've not been to that place.
Pastor Darren: And Jesus gives an interesting answer.
Pastor Darren: He says, You know the way.
Pastor Darren: You know the way.
Pastor Darren: It's an interesting answer to me, uh, given that these disciples have only known Jesus really in this earthly context, in their interactions with him.
Pastor Darren: If they know Jesus, it's because they've been watching how he behaves, how he lives day to day.
Pastor Darren: So when he says you know the way, it's easy for me to think, oh, I've been showing you the way now for three years.
Pastor Darren: Surely you know the way, the way that is you are invited to walk in order to be with me again.
Pastor Darren: So I like that as a it's just a curious question or curious answer to a difficult question, but ultimately what he's telling Thomas is, and I think he's talking to us too, I think that you know the way.
Pastor Darren: This isn't an answer you do not know.
Pastor Darren: He says, You know me.
Pastor Darren: I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.
Pastor Darren: Now many of us have heard this passage before, and it's a provocative passage.
Pastor Darren: There are some people who love this passage.
Pastor Darren: Why do they love it?
Pastor Darren: Because it confirms an understanding, a belief that they have that Christianity is the main religion, maybe the only real religion.
Pastor Darren: And it feels like Jesus is acknowledging that here.
Pastor Darren: So people who think that way, well, or believe that way, they're like, there it is, black and white, here in scriptures, gospel of John.
Pastor Darren: Interestingly enough, others don't appreciate that passage.
Pastor Darren: And you know why?
Pastor Darren: The same reason.
Pastor Darren: Because it feels like Jesus is being un unnecessarily exclusive here.
Pastor Darren: It sounds, or at least as people read it, they think, oh, well, Jesus is it looks like he's saying this is the only way is to go through him.
Pastor Darren: Christianity is the only way to God.
Pastor Darren: And so we end up in this dilemma.
Pastor Darren: Christians on both sides arguing over whether or not Christianity is the only opportunity, the only option.
Pastor Darren: It better not be this option.
Pastor Darren: I'm not gonna go to that church, I'm not gonna believe this way, and the bus stops right, or the bus doesn't stop here.
Pastor Darren: This is not a place the bus is going to go.
Pastor Darren: Or maybe to it's the opposite, which is how it works in my head.
Pastor Darren: The bus stops right here and it progresses no further.
Pastor Darren: We land in that spot where we're debating this theological point that truly, at least in our capacities, has no answer.
Pastor Darren: Stuck at a bus stop, bus not going anywhere else.
Pastor Darren: So Jesus tells us that we know the way.
Pastor Darren: That we know the way to be with Jesus, even in this new understanding of Jesus' life, even after crucifixion and resurrection, we know the way.
Pastor Darren: I started in my journey with this passage this week thinking about a time way back when I was a youth director down at Laguna United Methodist Church.
Pastor Darren: Has anybody been to Laguna United Methodist Church?
Pastor Darren: I heard somebody.
Pastor Darren: Oh, and well, my mom has.
Pastor Darren: A couple of you others, beautiful church, right?
Pastor Darren: They have cursed the pastor in this church because this one side is a big window that looks out on the Pacific Ocean.
Pastor Darren: And this side is a big window, looks out on this beautiful meditative garden.
Pastor Darren: Nobody hears a sermon in this place.
Pastor Darren: Beautiful, beautiful church, right?
Pastor Darren: And I remember as the youth director down there, so I don't know how old I am at that point, 21, 22, I get this advertisement for this uh program called Sierra Service Project, a project you guys have taken part in at certain points in the uh history of the place.
Pastor Darren: It is a project where young people are invited to go work on Native American reservations, do little jobs for communities that maybe can't afford to do those themselves.
Pastor Darren: So uh I'm looking through it, and this is really early on in the SSP history, and I'm reading through, and I'm thinking, this is cool.
Pastor Darren: I'd been a summer camp guy, and so I thought, oh shoot, building, building as an act of mission and an act of faith.
Pastor Darren: That sounds really, really cool, right?
Pastor Darren: And I'm looking at what they do and who they're helping, and and uh I zero in on this number one hundred dollars.
Pastor Darren: And my first thought was wow, that's not a lot for them to pay me to go work on their reservation.
Pastor Darren: Doesn't that make sense?
Pastor Darren: I'm gonna go work for a week.
Pastor Darren: My gift to you, I'll do it for a hundred dollars.
Pastor Darren: That's what I'm gonna do it for.
Pastor Darren: Then I read further and I'm like, I think they want me to pay them.
Pastor Darren: They want me to give them money to be able to go work for them and build their homes.
Pastor Darren: Now, obviously, here we're like, well, no duh, they didn't have the money to build this stuff.
Pastor Darren: That's part of the gift that you bring.
Pastor Darren: But in my brain, I'm like, holy smokes! And then I'm in Laguna Beach, which is, you know, fairly comfortable economically, shall we say?
Pastor Darren: And I'm thinking, how am I going to convince all these young people to go spend$100 to go do this work?
Pastor Darren: And I took the brochure and I tossed it away.
Pastor Darren: So this is not how this is going to work.
Pastor Darren: So then as life rolls out, I end up at another church, this time as kind of the youth pastor.
Pastor Darren: Uh, this is at San Ramon Valley United Methodist Church.
Pastor Darren: Has anybody been up in the Danville, Walnut Creek, in that area?
Pastor Darren: I spent seven years at the church up there.
Pastor Darren: Really great church.
Pastor Darren: Anyway, they already went to SSP.
Pastor Darren: That was their tradition.
Pastor Darren: So now I'm like, oh, okay, well, I guess we're gonna do it.
Pastor Darren: We're gonna start spending$100.
Pastor Darren: Get up there.
Pastor Darren: I, you know, I've at this point I've probably been to 10 or 12 SSPs.
Pastor Darren: So I've I've done many, many of them.
Pastor Darren: And uh I had a really, really great experience.
Pastor Darren: You know, you get up there, not only are you engaging with this culture that you don't always get to learn too much about, uh, you know, now you're living amongst them and uh uh having direct experiences.
Pastor Darren: Uh, you get this experience of being able to do something kind for them.
Pastor Darren: Uh uh that, you know, for Christians, that's how we understand the core of the beauty of being a Christian is getting that experience of helping somebody else out.
Pastor Darren: I remember as a goofy experience, it was so early on in SSP, they got to where they would go to high schools for showers.
Pastor Darren: But my first year, a big barrel that they had hoisted up about eight feet, tar all around it so it would warm the water inside.
Pastor Darren: Yeah, that was the shower.
Pastor Darren: We took a shower in this thing.
Pastor Darren: I tell you what, it was one of the most meaningful experiences I've ever had, so much so that I went every year, obviously, for years and years.
Pastor Darren: We grew into other missions where we were taking kids down to Mexico.
Pastor Darren: And not only were we doing repairs, which is another cool part, we learned some construction, basic construction, but it's cool to learn how to roof, how to build a deck, you know, how to do drywalls, stuff like that, that not everybody gets to learn how to do.
Pastor Darren: Then you go into Mexico and you actually build a full two-bedroom home.
Pastor Darren: Usually the one we did, we had to do the foundation itself and then grow it up.
Pastor Darren: Really meaningful experiences.
Pastor Darren: They were so powerful to me, not only from what I learned, but the experiences of working with different cultures and the opportunity to be offering God's love to somebody else and to experience what that feels like in my heart.
Pastor Darren: Makes me think to myself, yeah, we know the way.
Pastor Darren: We know the truth, we know the life.
Pastor Darren: Jesus was right.
Pastor Darren: I remember later on in my life, I was in uh church in Austin, Texas, Bethany United Methodist Church.
Pastor Darren: And that uh I took an adventure because uh um it was a big church.
Pastor Darren: San Auron Valley was bigger than this church, God.
Pastor Darren: So that was a big church too.
Pastor Darren: This one worshipped 1,700 people.
Pastor Darren: I was the youth pastor over there, and and uh my my roster just of young people of youth was 400 names.
Pastor Darren: How fun is that?
Pastor Darren: Nancy, was that fun?
Pastor Darren: Yeah, yeah, but you know it was fun.
Pastor Darren: That's kind of why I went.
Pastor Darren: I wanted to see something like that.
Pastor Darren: A story came to my mind this week as we're thinking through, getting prepared.
Pastor Darren: Uh um, we had a young man in the youth program, didn't have a lot of money, turning 16.
Pastor Darren: And what happens at 16?
Pastor Darren: Get the driver's license, right?
Pastor Darren: And we live in an age where so many 16-year-olds do get a car, they figure it out, you know, whatever the however the economy's working, it might not be the best car, it might be the best car.
Pastor Darren: But usually that's how it lands.
Pastor Darren: It wasn't gonna happen for this young man.
Pastor Darren: One of my youth uh counselors, he uh had opportunity to get another car, but he still had his truck.
unknown: Right?
Pastor Darren: And you're thinking, oh yeah, well that's great.
Pastor Darren: You can go sell that truck.
Pastor Darren: Get a little bit of money, you know, who doesn't like a little bit of money?
Pastor Darren: But what did he do?
Pastor Darren: Just gave it straight to the young man who couldn't afford a car.
Pastor Darren: Your first reaction is, whoa, hey, okay, settled down there.
Pastor Darren: His name is Roman, Roman Smith.
Pastor Darren: What are you doing, Roman?
Pastor Darren: You're not a rich guy.
Pastor Darren: Can you afford to be doing that?
Pastor Darren: And it wasn't too long before I realized, no, no, he was the smart one.
Pastor Darren: You could feel him bubbling up with the joy, the love in his heart to not only uh uh um be able to share that such a meaningful gift, because we knew how meaningful it was going to be to this young man, but to get to feel it inside of himself, the love of God just bursting at having done such a kind thing.
Pastor Darren: We know the way.
Pastor Darren: We know the truth, we know where life is.
Pastor Darren: Here's another fun one.
Pastor Darren: You know, as the pastor, I get in on uh certain uh text loops.
Pastor Darren: Alright, alright.
Pastor Darren: And this one, our good friend, Roy Brewbaker, recovering from getting his getting a new hip, and it was uh an emergency new hip.
Pastor Darren: So it was a little bit of crazy.
Pastor Darren: Right, and I bring you good news.
Pastor Darren: He texted me last night.
Pastor Darren: Here is the latest.
Pastor Darren: Good first week at home with physical therapy and health, continued good progress.
Pastor Darren: So yay for Roy.
Pastor Darren: Roy, if you're watching us, praise to you.
Pastor Darren: But see, I get other ones like this, and you don't get to hear these.
Pastor Darren: Good week here.
Pastor Darren: My daughter will be here.
Pastor Darren: Sunday I'm going home on Monday, made good progress.
Pastor Darren: Thank you for church community support.
Pastor Darren: Boyd helped me greatly on Wednesday.
Pastor Darren: I get to hear those.
Pastor Darren: You don't always get to hear them, so it's kind of cool.
Pastor Darren: We know the way, we know the truth, we know the life.
Pastor Darren: Amen.