The man with the knowledge

As the son of a black cab driver, I always enjoy meeting cabbies or cabby's families at weddings or funerals that we take as a team here in Bermondsey.

Clearly over the years Bermondsey has produced a lot of cab drivers.

At funerals, John 14.1-6 ('in my Father's house are many mansions') is a favourite bible reading for funerals.

'I'm going to prepare a place for you' says Jesus to the disciples and, then; 'you know the way to the place where I am going.'

This puzzles Thomas who says 'Lord, we do not know where you are going so how can we know the way'

That produces Jesus's magnificent answer to Thomas and to us: 'I am the way, the truth and the life.'

When I've got a cab driver in the congregation, I say that a London cabbie always knows the way. He is the man with the knowledge.

He has toured the streets on a moped with a clipboard, subjected himself to dozens of verbal examinations, and is finally awarded his 'badge' when he has completed 'the knowledge'.

I can remember my dad doing the knowledge, with maps spread out over the kitchen table, the visits to the Public Carriage Office to be quizzed by the examiners, and the day he came home with his Badge (left), the license to ply for hire on the streets of London.

Just as you can trust a London cabbie to take you to your destination - because he has the knowledge - so you can trust Jesus, the Son of God with The Knowledge, to guide you to the Father's house.

The moral is simple: follow the Man with The Knowledge.