I felt that some of my friends
had things I did not.

It was a very self-centered thought,
for I had everything I really needed.

But, this particular time
I must have been a bit blue,
and I asked my Dad
why I, at age 8,
did not have my own radio
my own house
my own car.

And, my Dad said,
Hey, don't forget
that everything I have is yours.

Now, did he really mean that?
Yes, absolutely,
and I smiled.
I still smile today
at the knowledge of his love,

and, that love abides with me to this day.

Now, it is also possible for sons and daughters
to miss the transforming love of a parent,
or to try to claim it all
for herself or himself,
or simply to ignore the parent and the love
and fight over the things.
By then, of course, nothing of importance remains.

I look at the Middle East
and see sons and daughters of God
killing one another's children.
It is the greatest blasphemy of all.

They fight over scraps
and miss the important stuff.
Children die,
and God weeps.
Friends, you have seen it too.
and not only in the Middle East.

And, that is one reason
the Gospel of John has such power for us,
for it is a Gospel
about the transforming love of God.

It is a love song.
But, to hear its love best,
perhaps one needs some background.

I believe the book was written
in or near Ephesus
in Asia Minor,
about 60 years after the death of Jesus.

This was after the Apostolic age,
when the church was causing the uproar
depicted in the first reading today.

The book was written specifically
to a group of people
who called themselves Christians,
but had lost their rooted-ness in the Jesus
of the Apostolic witness.
They were Hellenized Jewish Christians
who considered themselves
to be far too sophisticated and intelligent
to believe that God would really
be present in a man as simple as Jesus.

In so believing, they were buying into
the dominant culture of the day.
It was "so the in thing to do",
they might have said.

Instead of being followers of Jesus,
they spoke of the brilliant sophistry of Greek thought
and the need to save themselves
through the exercise of their minds
to achieve respect and to control others.

And, since there can never be enough of any of that
to change how we feel inside,
they were never fulfilled,
never satisfied,
never saved from themselves.

This Gospel was written
in at least the tradition
of the Disciple, John.
who is thought to have founded a monastery
at Ephesus.

It was crafted to proclaim
to these very people
that something was terribly missing
from their lives;

and what was missing
was the Love of God
given them in Jesus, his Son.

John casts the people,
who so badly need
the reality of that love,
as the disciples, Thomas and Philip
at the last supper,
just before the arrest and trial of Jesus.

"You know the way,"
says Jesus to the little band
as he prepares to leave them.

How are we supposed to know that?
asks Thomas.

We don't know were you are going,
therefore, it is impossible for us
to know the directions.

Jesus says to Thomas
and the doubting Christians
of Asia Minor,
"I am the way,
the truth and the life,
no one comes to the Father
except by me."

Note that there are only incomplete Christians here.
No faithful Jews are there.
No Muslims are there -
none were to exist for another 500 years.

These words of Jesus
are not intended to help siblings
beat up on each other
in the name of their selfish interpretation of God,
but, rather, the purpose of the story
is to draw incomplete Christians
to the love of God
shown in Jesus.

Directly to them, he says,
"If you know me, you know God."

And, Philip chimes in,
"Lord, show us the father
and we will be satisfied."

That is exactly what those Gnostic, Hellenized,
half-Christians of 60 years later
would have been saying.

John answers them
in the guise of Jesus addressing Philip
at the last supper.

"Have I been with you all this time, Philip,
and you still do not know me?"
Just what does it take?

The Father and I are one
and, in fact,
you lack so much
that is crucial to true life
and I love you so much,
that whatever you ask in my Name
I will give to you.

Everything I have is yours.

The Gospel of John
is a love song of God
delivered to us from Jesus of Nazareth,
that we might have life in his name.
- So says John himself, in chapter 20, verse 30.

We are a culture that has decided,
for the most part,
that we are too smart, too sophisticated
too self-serving, or just too busy,
to let religion tell us how to live.

So, instead of basking in the love of God
we bask in the glow of the television set,
and watch 20,000 murders before age 21,

and live our whole lives stunted,
unable to relate to God or one another
unable to create, or to love,
assured that exercise of will, and violence
are the answers to our emptiness.

We end up fighting over our abundant stuff
and loosing God's Abundant Life.

Faith is not about stuff.
It is not about intelligence,
or sophisticated discourse.

Faith is more like a hen
clucking endearments and encouragement
to her chicks.

This story is for incomplete Christians
of any age, time, or place,
who have lost their way,
and need to hear God's love song
for them,

and, in that love,
says Jesus,
Everything I have is yours.

Once upon a time
when I was a little boy,

I felt that some of my friends
had things I did not.

It was a very self-centered thought,
for I had everything I really needed.

But, this particular time
I must have been a bit blue,
and I asked my Dad
why I, at age 8,
did not have my own radio
my own house
my own car.

And, my Dad said,
Hey, don't forget
that everything I have is yours.