Jesus says "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" and then he says twice "I am in the Father and the Father is in me." These two utterances of Jesus basically sum up much of John's Gospel: which revolves around the unity of God and Jesus. We are talking about the decisive revelation of God in the act of incarnation: the in-fleshing of God in human form. We are asked to believe Jesus when he says these things, yet even Thomas and Philip do not understand or believe: Thomas unsure of how to find Jesus when he goes away; and Philip wanting to be shown God the Father. These two, Thomas and Philip, have been with Jesus for three years and they still don't understand.

We had Thomas doubting three weeks ago, wanting to put his fingers in Jesus' hand wounds and his own hand in Jesus' side wound: wanting to touch in order to believe. Thomas is joined this week in his difficulty in believing by Philip who just does not get this idea of Jesus being the Father and the Father being Jesus...And Jesus does not get angry or lose his patience at these doubts and requests. Jesus does not mock their doubt and their lack of understanding. Instead, Jesus responds, he explains as best he can. To Thomas' question in regard to not knowing the way, Jesus replies that he is the way, he is the truth, that he is the life. To Phillip, Jesus reiterates that anyone who has seen him has seen God.... Jesus also gives Philip a different way to believe when he says "then believe me because of the works themselves."  Jesus continues by saying "Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do."  

When we think of "the works" of Jesus we many times think of miracles: healing the blind, making the lame walk or some other miracle of healing. We can also think of Jesus' first miracle in the Gospel of John where he turns water into wine. Jesus says "Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do," this can give hope to those of us who are wine lovers. Maybe we will be able to do things like that. But no, when we are out of merlot, we can wave our arms over a carafe of water all we want, eventually we will still have to go to the store and buy some more wine.

What are these works? What can those of us who believe or struggle to believe actually do? The works of God are many and varied. Jesus had his and we have ours. Once in a great while there is a healing that can only be described as a miracle, and everyone is taken aback by it. But, generally, healing and repair happen every day, and these too, are works of God that can aid in our belief.   

Yet, there are other kinds of works that exhibit God's hand in our world: where we act in certain ways that effectuate the kingdom's happening now, here among us. In Logan County, Oklahoma last week, 74 year old Marland Thompson experienced just such an action. He was driving his pickup truck home, and went to cross the creek bed he had been crossing for 50 years without incident and his truck got swept away by flood waters.