I Am the Way: Embracing Strangeness, Love, Resurrection

Devotional

Day 1: The Way Through Locked Doors

Jesus stood in the upper room, dust still clinging to his feet from washing the disciples’. Thomas leaned forward, voice cracking: “How can we know the way?” Jesus met his eyes, not with roadmaps but a declaration: “I AM the Way.” No formulas, no five-step plans—just His scarred hands outstretched. The disciples’ confusion lingered like Jerusalem’s twilight shadows. [01:01:12]

Jesus didn’t offer escape routes from grief or anxiety. He offered Himself—the path worn by resurrection, the truth that outlives tombs. When He said “No one comes to the Father except through me,” it wasn’t a membership test but a promise: His presence would outlast every locked door.

You clutch life’s GPS, demanding turn-by-turn directions. Jesus says, “Walk WITH me, not toward some destination.” Where are you straining to control the route instead of resting in the Guide?

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? You know the way to the place where I am going.”
(John 14:1-4, ESV)

Prayer: Ask Jesus to reveal one situation where you’re clinging to maps instead of His hand.
Challenge: Text someone today: “Jesus is our way—let’s walk together.”

Day 2: Blossoms on Foreign Soil

Cherry petals snowed onto Okinawan soil as the pastor traced his grandfather’s roots. Conquered nations, borrowed traditions—the Ryukyu Kingdom’s identity persisted like stubborn sakura blooming through concrete. Jesus knew displacement: a Nazarene in Samaria, a king in a borrowed tomb. [19:43]

God plants holiness in contested ground. The disciples, huddled in a foreign-feeling upper room, discovered belonging wasn’t about geography but allegiance. “In my Father’s house” isn’t a zip code but the heartbeat of “follow me.”

Your cultural hybridity—the recipes, accents, or traditions that feel neither-here-nor-there—are soil for resurrection. What if your “in-between” spaces become altars where others meet Christ?

“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.”
(1 Peter 2:11, NIV)

Prayer: Thank God for three cultural inheritances that shape your walk with Christ.
Challenge: Share a family tradition with someone outside your ethnicity this week.

Day 3: Seeds in the Tsunami’s Shadow

Fuji’s dormant volcano loomed as the pastor noted tsunami warning signs. Jesus spoke of seeds dying to sprout while soldiers planted nails in wood. Creation groans in tectonic shifts—both soil and soul cracking for resurrection. [21:17]

God doesn’t erase disasters but transfigures them. The cross looked like nature’s end; Easter proved it creation’s germination. Every buried hope, every personal apocalypse, becomes fodder for greening.

You’re clutching dead dreams like dried kernels. What if you open your palm and let the Spirit plant them? Where is God composting your pain into new growth?

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
(John 12:24, NIV)

Prayer: Confess one “dead” thing you’re afraid to release to God’s soil.
Challenge: Plant a literal seed today, praying over what God wants to resurrect.

Day 4: Binoculars and Mustache Guards

The pastor stood foreign in Japan—binoculars, Tilley hat, mismatched against salarymen. Thomas fumbled with Jesus’ metaphors like unfamiliar utensils. Strangeness reveals our hunger: “Lord, show us the Father!” [46:19]

Jesus didn’t sanitize His oddness. He healed on Sabbaths, praised Samaritans, and called dead friends from tombs. His “way” disrupts like cherry blossoms overtaking urban sprawl—beauty that refuses assimilation.

Your quirks—the hobbies, questions, or passions that feel too peculiar—are kingdom tools. What eccentricity have you hidden that God wants to display?

“Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered: ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’”
(John 14:8-9, NIV)

Prayer: Ask God to bless the part of you that feels “too much” for others.
Challenge: Wear or carry something today that expresses your God-given uniqueness.

Day 5: Algorithms and Eagle’s Wings

As OpenAI’s CEO apologized, the church prayed for AI shaped by Christ’s love. The upper room birthed a virus of grace—uncontainable, adapting across empires and algorithms. [01:16:12]

Jesus’ “way” outlives Jerusalem’s walls and Silicon Valley’s servers. The Advocate still whispers through firewalls, turning programmers’ hands toward justice. Technology, like spring rains, can drown or nourish—depending on who holds the cloud.

You navigate a world of tsunamis and tweets. How might your daily clicks align with the “eleventh commandment” to love?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
(Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV)

Prayer: Name one technology you’ll surrender to Christ’s wisdom this week.
Challenge: Research an ethical AI initiative; pray for its leaders by name.

Sermon Summary

A personal lineage that traces to Okinawa frames a meditation on place, identity, and faithful belonging. Ancestral ties surface as a lens for a land acknowledgment that names colonization, cultural blending, and the struggle to maintain indigenous identity amid dominant powers. That remembrance opens into a practiced stillness: breathing, listening to heartbeats, and noticing the cycle of seasons as a mirror of life, death, and resurrection. Creation appears not merely as backdrop but as sacrament, inviting gratitude and care.

The liturgy moves from wonder to confession. Congregants are urged to admit ways that progress has trampled the natural world and to seek restoration. Assurance follows: the Holy Spirit reveals truth, opens eyes to right relation, and grounds the community as a resurrection people. Worship anchors ordinary moments—dew on grass, bird song, cherry blossoms—as signs that God keeps covenant with the world and with human frailty.

Travel imagery sharpens the theme of strangeness. Photographs from Japan—cherry blossoms, samurai artifacts, Fuji—become metaphors for being foreign and seen as foreign. That dissonance illuminates the Gospel image of Jesus as outsider who heals, breaks boundaries, and eats with the marginalized. The disciples’ confusion in the upper room models faithful bewilderment for modern followers who seek directions through grief and upheaval.

A close reading of John 14 reframes a contested phrase. When Jesus declares, I am the way, the words function as promise rather than exclusive barricade. The declaration comforts a frightened band about an imminent leaving; it assures presence and guides a shared path into life. The claim sustains a theology of accompaniment: knowing Jesus opens access to the Father, not by gatekeeping, but by inviting into a way of truth and life practiced in love.

Practical faith appears in concrete commitments. Offerings and prayers connect worship with neighborly action. Concern for emerging technologies prompts a petition for wisdom in developing artificial intelligence so that innovation serves all, honors justice, and fosters transitions with care. The liturgy closes on a sending that names Jesus as resurrection and life, commissioning the community to follow Christ with hope, confidence, and power.

Key Takeaways

1. Ancestral roots shape faithful witness Ancestral memory anchors ethical attention to land and people, exposing how histories of conquest and occupation complicate belonging. Remembering Okinawa and indigenous Ryukyu identity calls the faithful to repair relationships and to act with cultural humility. The practice of naming past harms becomes an ethic for stewardship and advocacy in present communities. [18:06]
2. Seasons reveal life death resurrection The liturgy reads natural cycles as theological grammar: sprouts require seed death, blossoms follow dormancy, and renewal arrives in expected and unexpected ways. This pattern invites patience in grief and trust that endings can bear new life when held within God’s creative economy. Attending to seasons cultivates spiritual rhythms that resist quick fixes and small comforts. [21:17]
3. Confession opens restorative relationship Acknowledging ways human progress has harmed creation reunites repentance with responsibility, shifting guilt into concrete repair. Public confession names interconnectedness and invites the Spirit to reorient practices toward right relation with earth and neighbor. True repentance transforms habits, policy, and communal care. [28:33]
4. Jesus as way invites inclusion The statement I am the way functions as promise for frightened companions, not an exclusionary test for outsiders. It assures presence and models a path of truth and life formed by love, not by gatekeeping. Following this way means embodying accompaniment for the lost, the marginalized, and the uncertain. [62:58]
5. Ethics required for new technologies Prayer for wisdom around AI reframes innovation as moral labor that must protect human dignity and ecological integrity. Developers, regulators, and users need virtues of justice, empathy, and accountability to steward technology for common good. Spiritual discernment belongs at the table where power and profit decide futures. [72:35]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[17:19] - Opening remarks and land acknowledgment
[20:15] - Centering breath and prayer
[22:49] - Call to worship and creation
[28:33] - Confession and assurance
[38:03] - Japan images and reflection
[46:34] - Strangeness and belonging
[54:22] - Homiletics and exegesis
[62:58] - John 14 explained
[72:35] - Offering and AI prayer
[81:05] - Sending and benediction

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
John 14:1-6 (ESV)
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Observation questions

In John 14:1-6, what emotions do the disciples seem to be experiencing, and how does Jesus respond to their fears?
How does the sermon connect Jesus’ statement “I am the way” to the idea of inclusion rather than exclusion? [01:02:58]
What examples from nature (like seeds, blossoms, or seasons) does the sermon use to illustrate the connection between death and new life? [21:17]
According to the sermon, how does Jesus’ identity as a “stranger” or outsider relate to his ministry of healing and eating with marginalized people? [46:34]

Interpretation questions

Why might Jesus’ words “I am the way” have been comforting to the disciples in the upper room, and how might this same statement be misunderstood as exclusionary today?
The sermon describes creation as a “sacrament” that invites gratitude and care. How might viewing nature this way change our relationship with the environment? [28:33]
The sermon argues that Jesus’ statement in John 14:6 is a promise rather than a “gatekeeping” test. What difference does this interpretation make for people who feel like outsiders? [01:02:58]
How does the cycle of seasons (life, death, resurrection) mirror the disciples’ experience of confusion and hope after Jesus’ death? [21:29]

Application questions

What practices could help you “notice God’s covenant” in ordinary moments—like dew on grass or bird songs—this week? [23:20]
The sermon urges confession of ways we’ve harmed creation. What is one concrete step you could take to repair your relationship with the environment? (e.g., reducing waste, advocating for conservation) [28:33]
How might your cultural or ancestral background shape how you advocate for marginalized people or “act with cultural humility”? [18:06]
The sermon warns about the ethical risks of AI. How can you encourage accountability in technology’s development or use in your workplace or community? [01:12:35]
When have you felt like a “stranger” in a situation? How could Jesus’ example of solidarity with outsiders guide your response to others who feel excluded? [46:34]
The sermon links resurrection hope to patience in grief. What current “ending” in your life could you entrust to God’s promise of new life? [21:17]

Sermon Clips

68s

#AlwaysWithJesus

“Jesus will be there for us and for all. Jesus is there for us and for all every day. If we follow the way that Jesus has taught, even if we were never part of the 12 or part of any specific institution or franchise, then we need to remember that God and Jesus include all in that statement. But perhaps, we just need to think of this very simply, just because we can, knowing the story that is about to happen. There in the upper room, there with Jesus and the disciples, that shared intimacy of the moment, and we hear Jesus' gentle voice telling us that we are loved enough that Jesus will be there for us, just as Jesus is there for us always.”

58s

#FaithForEveryone

“So when I think upon this sentence, this sentence from John, it is not a threat for those outside or inside the upper room, or those outside or inside of Christianity as we know it today, not a filter or a club membership that validates our parking in a particular orthodoxy or doctrine. It is a promise made to his disciples that he would be there for them when that time was right, that he would be there and they would be with him. And if we take that as the exegesis here today, that message to apply to the hermeneutic that we need to know and learn from, then we know that Jesus made that statement for us and everyone today.”

53s

#BibleInContext

“Proof texting is when we take biblical passages and use them out of context to make some point or to win some kind of argument about either doctrine or dogma. So a lot of things just before we get to the opening paragraph. So we come to our reading today in John 14, where Jesus is with the disciples in the upper room. Just a little before, Jesus had washed the feet of the disciples, told them something that we today call the eleventh commandment, otherwise known as love each other as I have loved you.”

50s

#CalmInConfusion

“And Jesus almost impossibly is telling them, let not your hearts be troubled. Jesus will make a place for them in God's home, and he will come for them. This is really meant to put their fears to rest. Although, with so much confusion, there was no doubt that nothing Jesus could say would calm the anxiety that they felt about what Jesus was telling them. So much so that Thomas, and I should point out, he is arguably my favorite disciple. He would always voice the question that likely everyone was thinking, but no one would have the guts or the chutzpah to actually ask.”

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