Jesus said, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's 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." (John 14:1-14)
I remember when the assistant of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church; San Antonio, TX, the Reverend Richard Craig, offered me the chance to check out The Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX. Anna and I were newly married and new to The Episcopal Church and I had already expressed an interest in entering the process to see whether or not I and the Diocese of West Texas could call me into the ordained priesthood. So in the Spring of 1994, Anna and I drove from San Antonio to Austin.
Austin is a great place. It is the capitol of Texas and the pink granite capitol building is taller than the capitol building in Washington, DC. It is the center of the Texas music scene spawning such musicians as Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Eric Johnson and became one of the important stops on every tour of important punk/new wave acts. Many of these bands, such as the Police, Joe Jackson, Blondie and the Talking Heads, played at the Armadillo. A number of them, including the Clash, Elvis Costello and Blondie would make appearances at other venues. In other words, Austin was and is a happening place. It is so “happening” that driving in Austin is a nightmare as the roads and by-ways cannot handle the traffic . The same is true today.
You have to drive by the Capitol building and the University of Texas football stadium without looking at them because you are traveling 80 miles per hour on IH-35 and don’t dare take your eyes off the road. You can’t even look at a map or even a GPS screen.
Austin at the time of Anna and I’s visit was going a through a huge period of construction and the map we had did not show the varied and many changes that was happening to Austin’s thoroughfares. We could see where we needed to go but we could not get there. We drove in, through, and out of Austin more than once and were beside ourselves. Having missed an exit that may have been or may not have been on the map, I gripped the steering wheel, my knuckles going white, and lost my mind. Then for the next 10 minutes Anna and I collectively lost our minds and greatly tested the bonds of our 5 month old marriage.
An outdated map, a broken compass, a misprogramed GPS, and an uncentered and misguided mentor can lead those who follow them to a bad end and even to destruction. Jesus in his very life reveals the Way, the Truth, and the Life of our lives. In Jesus we are witnesses and discoverers of who we are meant to be. In Jesus we discover that we have been created, been born, to reveal God’s love in Jesus Christ our Lord. We learn and practice that way of being with one another as we live our lives in and out of the Church but if we who are the Church cannot practice the life that Christ has set before us and reveal the immensity of Christ’s love to our brothers and sisters in Christ then how will the world experience Jesus Christ through us.
Jesus reveals that it is only by, in, and through him that we are able to live as revelations of God’s love. It is only by, in, and through Jesus that we are able to discover all that God offers us and all that we can offer to the world. It is by, in, and only through Jesus that the paths of life and of death are set before us. While we are indeed free to choose a path that is death dealing to ourselves and others Christ does want us to choose him as the path that is life-giving to ourselves and others.
When we follow Jesus Christ we experience Eternal Life as a present reality not as some event that happens to us after death, but as a quality of life that leads to more and more life, abundant life, because it eternally leads us to God who is the source of life and all that is good. We are revelations of Abundant Life, of Eternal Life, of a life that is centered and immersed in God and it is Jesus who is the One who leads into living lives of such revelation-The Reverend Adrian A. Amaya.
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