Arising From Today's Tuesday Circle

The Tuesday Circle is doing its study of Eric Weiner's THE GEOGRAPHY OF BLISS, and I don't know we got to this topic and this story, but I shared a story I had used in a sermon from 2008 that remains a favorite of mine, a story that embodies the heart of the Gospel, the true inclusiveness of God.

Below is the last paragraph of a sermon I preached in April of 2008, where I shared my experience of being raised by a Muslim servant in Indonesia. Amat ("mother" in Indonesian) was an important figure in my life, and the lens with which I viewed John 14:1-14 ("I am the way, the truth, and the life..."). The story I reference above is below, though I don't want their to be a misunderstanding here: Amat or persons of other faiths are not "Judases." The story simply points out how deep God's love is for all of us...

Focusing on our own dwelling place, our own relationship with God, is something we probably need to center our selves on—we Christians have done more damage to our witness by focusing on other people’s dwelling places, other people’s relationship with God, rather than our own. One of great things about what Jesus says here in this passage, and in the other I AM saying found peppered through the Gospel of John is that he reminds that HE is the way, he the truth and the life, and not me, and he is the bread of life, and not me, and he is the good shepherd, and not me, and he is the light of the world, and not me. That means I can let go of my worry about my beloved Amat, who was of another faith, or my friends who do not and cannot believe Christianity or any other religion, or even my father, whose faith was blown apart by his experience in Vietnam. Their dwelling place, their relationship with God, is God’s business and not mine, but because I trust and believe in the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I think God will lead all people home, into a dwelling place with the divine, with the Christ spirit, or whatever way you want to name it, one way or another. In our study on forgiveness, one of the writers tells of an old medieval legend about the disciples assembling “together in heaven in order to re-celebrate the Last Supper. There was one vacant place at the table until through the door Judas came in and Christ rose and kissed him and said, “We have waited for thee.” (Wiesenthal, The Sunflower, 180). And even though it is only a legend, I suspect it is a true legend, and if so, then surely, surely, Amat and others have a place at the table as well. Amen.