Why I Love My Church

Somewhere in the 14th Chapter of the Gospel of John is the following text: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

There are churches of the Christian persuasion who will use this as proof that you've got to be a Christian or you're going to hell.

The priest today tackled this text head-on (as a digression). She spoke of the historical context of the statement. I don't remember the specific scenarios (but a copy of the sermon will be posted here at some point), but there were folks who were basically disinherited from their synagogue. Jesus was saying, "Hey, I'm an option over here!" And part of it was vengeance, "Hey, you get there through me so ha ha on those folks that disinherited you are really going to be feeling it later!" It actually ENCOURAGES discourse between different faiths, because then you're not going to be feeling the wrath otherwise.

I've had the foundation of the Episcopal Church often described to me as being a three-legged stool. You've got Scripture. You've got Tradition. And you've got Reason. You're actually ENCOURAGED to think! I like that in a church. And the fact that the Priests are willing to take on these passages from the Bible and give us a real-life historical portrayal of them. It would be a lot easier in trying to market the church to go with the standard "You'd best be a Christian or you're going to hell" approach to things, but I prefer being allowed to use my brain.