There's Fake News and There's Good News

            In September, I started a weekly Bible study which meets every Wednesday at 12 noon – you are all welcome. It is not one of those Bible studies where the preacher rambles on for 45 minutes. There is no theme. You don’t have to come every week to understand what is going on.

Instead, we use a simple practice called Dwelling in the Word where we focus on the reading for the upcoming Sunday, and the practice relies heavily class participation.  And like any good discipline, it takes several weeks to get in the rhythm.

            In short, we each take turns discussing the word or phrase that stood out to us the most in the selected passage. At the end of our time together, we name what God is up to in our lives and in the world. It is always amazing to see how the Holy Spirit works through this process.

            Anyway, I want to share with you the word or phrase that stood out to me this week. I was stopped by the eighth and final Be Attitude. “Blessed are you when people all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

            I was particularly drawn to the word “falsely.” In the year of “fake news,” I can’t help but wonder how much of our lives are informed by fake or false news. Even worse, how much of our lives are informed by people who intentionally use false news to persuade people into thinking about it “their” way. The consequences are devastating.

            Let me be clear. When I speak of false news, I am not talking about stuff that is completely out-of-bounds. I am not talking about stuff that has no basis in fact. I am talking about incomplete truths which are more dangerous than flat out lies because incomplete truths are harder to discern because they are, as I said, rooted in some kind of fact.

I am talking about stuff that is created out of our own biases and near-sightedness that fits our own narrow world views. I am talking about the lies we construct to justify ourselves and our own actions. I am talking about the stuff that creates derision and division all in a vain effort to save-face, all in an effort to say we are right and they are wrong.

Take for example the issue of slavery. While we can all agree that slavery is wrong today, we must remember that for most of human history slavery was an accepted institution in our collective societies. And for much of that history, people used the Bible to support the institution of slavery.

Many would argue because slavery is commonplace in the Bible then that must mean that God is okay with it. But as one reads scripture, it becomes abundantly clear slavery is antithetical to the kingdom of God.

Consider today’s lesson from Revelation, God’s kingdom includes people of all races and cultures worshiping together in the same place. In the end, slavery was about controlling the weak and vulnerable with power and control. And any institution or system which preys on the weak and vulnerable is antithetical to the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus exposes these corrupt institutions and systems, which are built on false news, with the good news of his kingdom. And today’s gospel lesson couldn’t be any clearer on what the kingdom of heaven looks like. In the Be Attitudes, Jesus is telling his followers that his kingdom looks totally different than the kingdoms of this world.

In Jesus’ kingdom, blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who thirst for righteousness. He goes on to say, blessed are those who respond to the weak and vulnerable with goodness and compassion. Blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure of heart, blessed are the peacemakers, and finally blessed are those who are persecuted and reviled and cursed for sharing the good news of the kingdom. Blessed are those who would gladly be talked about falsely for the sake of the kingdom.

Today, on All Saints’ Sunday, the Church looks to the myriads of people who gladly accepted the burden of discipleship for the sake of Jesus and his kingdom come on earth. Today, we look to the saints who inspire our own witness to the kingdom. Today, we draw strength and encouragement from those who did not waiver in the face of opposition and persecution, from those who exposed false news with the good news of Jesus.

On Facebook this week, I asked, “Who is your favorite saint?” And so, I ask you this morning, who is your favorite saint? They may be listed in the church calendar. They may not. Who, living or dead, remember we are bound together in the communion of saints, has and continues to inspire your Christian witness? Who gives you strength to fight the good fight when you are weak or afraid?

It is hard for me to pick just one because there are so many. I have been especially nourished and inspired by the communion of saints, the great cloud of witnesses, at our Wednesday morning Eucharist – again you are always invited – we meet at 7 a.m. and have breakfast afterwards. As Edgar Reeves says, you get Jesus and breakfast by 8. But wait, there’s more – the Adult Forum meets every Sunday to talk about a different saint. Today we reflected on St. John Chrysostom.

While it is hard to choose just one saint, there are consistencies in all their stories. Like all of us, they struggled. They all experienced moments of crisis in their life. They laughed and cried and sinned just like you and me.

Ultimately, they all let God use them to make known the plan of salvation, to make known the kingdom of God in the here and now. As we collectively named at the Wednesday Bible study, they all came before the Lord as empty vessels.

For some reason or another, life made them empty. They came before God in their poverty, in their grief, in their humility, and in their hunger and thirst for righteousness, in their hunger and thirst for truth in a world full of lies and fake news. It was here in their emptiness where they were filled with the eternal truth of God. And like an empty vessel that gets too full, the truth of God’s enduring love poured out into the world around them.

These saints flooded the world with the healing power of God’s mercy and purity and peace – not because they were good but because God is good. Their lives reflected the power of God through their emptiness.  And since this past week marked 500 years since Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses, I’ll quote Luther. He said, “God made man out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing, God can make something out of us.”

And ultimately, these saints of God did not conform to culture. These saints were remarkably different but in a way that affected change in the church and in society. They were willing to translate scripture into English even if that meant death. They were willing to preach grace to the same people who imprisoned them. They were willing to proclaim Jesus as Lord even as a sword rest on their neck.

No amount of fake news would dissuade them from proclaiming the good news of Jesus. In fact, incomplete truths and lies only strengthened their resolve to proclaim Jesus and his kingdom.

Beloved child of God, may you find strength and courage to take up the cross of Jesus Christ today. Do not be afraid of what they may say about you. Do not be afraid of what the cross might cost you. Do not be persuaded by false news but stand firm and proclaim the good news of the Jesus and his kingdom which endures from age to age. Amen.