A reading of the holy gospel according to John. Jesus said to his disciples, do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God. Have faith in me. In my father's house, there are many dwelling places.
Otherwise, how could I have told you that I was going to prepare a place for you? I am indeed going to prepare a place for you, and then I shall come back to take you with me that where I am, you also may be. You know the way that leads where I go. To all of this, Thomas replied, Lord, we do not not know where you're going. How can we know the way?
Jesus answered him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. One of the most successful, if you weigh it in terms of sales, of Clive Staples Lewis Lewis' publications was a small book called Mere Christianity.
Mere Christianity. It's an excellent book. It has an introduction which Lewis wrote in which now first of all, I have to remind you if it's if I need to, that Lewis went from being a model coddled, namdi pamdi Episcopalian to a first rate god fearing atheist. Then from mere atheism, he passed on to belief in god, and finally became a very devout Christian of the sort of high church Episcopalian sort. So it was during the war, Second World War, that he gave some lectures to the troops, and that those lectures became this thin volume called Mere Christianity.
It's an excellent book. I recommend it highly. I know some of you have certainly read it, but if you haven't, it's worth having in your book in your home. I think we have it on our shelves back there. But there's an introduction that Lewis wrote to that.
And in that introduction, Lewis says this. This is after he became a Christian and was a practicing Church of England man, that becoming a Christian is like walking into a hotel where there's a beautiful, immense, spacious corridor. So you're in the hotel, You have become a Christian. Then opening off of this spacious, magnificent, splendid corridor, you have a lot of other rooms. And he said that's the way it is with becoming a Christian.
You come into this institution and you're in this magnificent, spacious, gorgeous, elegant lobby, if you want to call it that. Now, what room are you going to go into? And, see what that's that's how he leaves it. You're going to go into one room, but it gives you the impression that, well, it doesn't make much difference. As long as you're in the hotel, as long as you're in that spacious corridor, then it's of minor importance what door you go into.
After all, Caldifference, They all have running water and shower baths, I guess. Now you see, is that true? Now this word of our lord is used to substantiate that view that, you see, in my father's house, there are many dwelling places. He doesn't say one. He says there are many dwelling places.
So let's not get let's not get excited. Let's not break down the ecumenical spirit by being having differences of opinion about this mere matter of truth. Because after all, who knows what truth is? After all, you know, it's much more important to live like civilized human beings than it is to be arguing, debating, and fighting about truth. Because after all, who can get a hold of truth?
And this goes on and on. This goes on and on. I remember there was some friends of mine who used to have sort of a Saturday night soiree or some kind of an ensemble. And as you went into the living room, there was a sign put up on Saturday night. No discussion of politics or religion.
And I often thought, what more important subjects are there for human beings to discuss than politics, which has to which have to do with man's living in the polis or the city or the state, and religion which has to do with his living in God's kingdom, the two cities. Yet we were forbidden by the owner of the mansion, of the mons, or whatever you call the joint, that we should not argue on the subjects of religion or politics. Of course, that was obeyed by not being obeyed, of course, because you can't escape these subjects, you know. Now is it true that this is that that's interpretation that Christ is saying, look, don't worry about these mere matter of differences of belief. The main thing is to commit yourself to Christ.
Take up a book. Read the book. Commit yourself, and and follow his word, the written word. And it works. In many instances, this works.
You and I, I certainly have met people who have taken this view and are utterly sincere and have given their lives to this and are very, very devout Christians, if I ever met any. But when you talk to this matter of what what room to go into, what church to belong to, oh, they'll say, don't bother about that. You know, that's disturbing and that's dividing. You're you're introducing a discordant note. And after all, what difference does it make?
After all, all I need to do is to to give my life over to to Jesus. And you know the language. I can't I don't I can't repeat it. I don't know it enough. But they it gets very enthusiastic, you know.
Now, as I say, this is with us. And remember, this attitude is the attitude that is growing today. Mainline religions are shrinking. Whereas this attitude which I have proposed to you in a simplistic way, I know, but not overly simplistic, they are the ones who are accumulating followers and very devout and sacrificial followers. This is a fact of life today, 05/07/1982.
You see, it's very difficult now to argue that, well, now look, what you're doing is fine, but that's it's not enough. Because did Christ or did he not establish a church? Did he or did he not give us a way, the truth, and the life? Where is that way, the truth, and the life? Where is it?
Christ said he was going to be there. Now if you say that that is between you and God and a book that you're holding in your hand, where did you get the book? Secondly, when you read it, who's telling you what how to understand the text? Now that question is going to be answered in different ways. Luther never answered it.
Calvin never answered it. But you see, when you discuss this because it's hard to get it's hard to have a discussion like this with these people because they'll say, this is that doesn't matter. This is unimportant. It's what I feel that's important. And I know that I'm saved because I feel that I'm saved.
And there's been a conversion in my life, and they can point to it, and it is. See, you're dealing here with facts. But can you say it makes no difference what church you belong to? Does it can you say it makes no difference what Christ meant when he said this is my body? Can you say that when he said this is my body, it may have meant first, just like you said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the gate. When Christ said I am a lot of things, but you don't take him literally. You say, oh, was allegorical. He that was metaphorical. He didn't.
He was only speaking in with figures of speech. Or you say, this is my body. It means, well, I'm in it. I'm with it by your faith. That's Lutheran Calvin.
Can it mean that? Of course, it can mean that. Then somebody comes along and said, well, no. Christ said this is my body. And, therefore, in some sense, it must be there.
And this was Luther again. At Marburg, when when they when you got all these first Protestants together they weren't called Protestants then, they were called reformers. When they said, Let's get together and ask what this text means. The first thing happened was Luther this is a fact, this isn't just a nice little rumor. Luther took and wrote on the table, This is my body, and put a circle around it and said, This is the way it's got to be and nothing else.
You had Calvin present, you had Carl Stock, Zwingli was there. All the big the first and early reformers were there. This was the great issue. They couldn't come to any agreement at all. They all agreed on the text.
This is my body because it's in Greek and it's in Latin and any other language. Anybody can translate that. But what does it mean? Now can you say it makes no difference what it means? That you have four people sitting in that pew and one says, oh, this is just bread.
Forget it. This is just a fine symbolism. In other words, oh, no. There's a sacred right here, but that's all it is. It's created by my faith.
Or you say, oh, no. It's it's more than that, following, say, Luther, because my act of faith makes Christ present there. Therefore, it is something different. But you don't need any priest for all this stuff, remember. Then finally, you say, oh, no.
Christ said this is my body, and this is what took place. And we called it, following Aristotle, transubstantiation. Well, you see you see that word I brought in, Aristotle? That old pagan? But that was the tradition.
That was what the church taught up until the sixteenth century. Well and what the church still teaches too. But the thing is, who's gonna say which one of those guys is right? And are you then going to say it doesn't make any difference? Can you take that attitude?
Is it possible as a rational being to take that position? And the answer is, as a rational being, you can't. But you see, what I'm pointing out is this. This attitude towards religion is not rational. It's the rejection of one's intelligence.
Does God ask me to do that? Does God say, Oh no, there's no such thing as truth? Does God does God ever say that? Plenty of human beings say it, but did I don't think God ever said it. And if you read the New Testament, our blessed Lord is pretty pretty sure that he knew a thing or two, that there is black and there is white and that there is gray.
Not just not just gray, but black and white. And so this needs a lot of looking into. It needs a lot of faith, but it needs a lot of common sense. Religion, remember, is not nonsense. In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit.
Amen.