During my time in Selma, I had the privilege of being a part of the Rotary Club. Before each meeting, we would recite what is called the “Four-Way Test.” The test includes four questions which are meant to direct the things we think, say, and do. The questions are: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
In my years of reciting the test, it occurred to me that one of these questions is not like the other. What I mean is: one of these questions has the potential to contradict the rest especially as we think theologically. Is it the truth?
As I think about the gospel of Jesus Christ, as I consider the nature of God’s kingdom, I can’t help but think that sometimes the truth isn’t fair to all concerned. Did the older brother in the Parable of the Prodigal Son think it was fair that his ne’er do-well brother was the one who got the big party?
Sometimes the truth does not build goodwill and better friendships. Jesus tells his disciples that the truth of the gospel will tear families apart. Sometimes the truth isn’t beneficial to all concerned. Jesus is crucified for telling the truth about God and God’s kingdom not to mention the countless martyrs over the centuries.
I’m not here today to discredit the “Four-Way Test.” These are good questions to consider in our daily lives. Rather, I am here to name the gravity God’s truth and the implications of that truth as we strive to follow Jesus in our daily lives. Pursing and proclaiming the truth of God turns everything in this world upside down, the truth of God so often disrupts what we thought we knew to be true.
Today’s lesson ends with Jesus saying to Pilate, “I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” What we don’t hear today is the response of Pilate. In response to Jesus’ statement on his vocation to testify to the truth, Pilate asks, “What is truth?”
We live in a world with countless variations of the truth leaving us asking the very same question. What is truth? There is the liberal truth, the conservative truth, the moderate truth. There is the Catholic truth, the Protestant truth, the Anglican truth. There is the Jewish truth, the Hindu truth, the Islamic truth. There is Western medicine. There is Eastern medicine. There is the AP Poll, the Coaches Poll, and the College Football Playoff Committee. How do we know who to believe?
The problem with truth claims that come from the thoughts of mortals and earthly institutions is not that they are wrong but that they are incomplete. There is a nugget of truth in almost every religious or political or social or civic ideology. Contradictions begin to occur when our little nuggets turn into boulders and blind us from someone else’s nugget of truth and ultimately from the eternal truth of God.
The early church faced the issue of competing truth claims after Christianity was first legalized by Constantine. For the first time in over three centuries, Christians could come out of hiding for there was no longer fear of persecution. Different Christian leaders started to compare notes and not surprisingly these leaders had varying opinions on doctrine.
The most contentious debate revolved around the nature of Jesus. Is Jesus God in the flesh? Or is he simply a creation of God? Is he a just a perfect human being? Or is he more like a spirit who seems to have flesh and bones? Is Jesus half God and half human? Finally, a decision was made. Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. We Anglicans would call this the “both/and” strategy to articulating truth or the “we don’t know how but we believe” strategy.
In fact, I used the Anglican strategy on my five-year old daughter the other day. We were watching The Star– a Christmas movie told through the eyes of animals. Her inquiring mind asked, “If Jesus is God and God was the first person and Jesus was just born, then how is Jesus God?” I replied, “It is hard to explain, but we believe that Jesus is God and that God was first and that Jesus was born like you and me to a real mommy and daddy.”
In my years of study and worship, I have come to the conclusion that the truth of the gospel is never adequately explained only adequately experienced through a relationship with God. Note, for example, the Nicene Creed. The Creed does not explain how God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Rather, the Creed articulates the experiences that have called humanity into relationship with the triune God. Even though we can’t explain it, we proclaim the Creed to be true because the Creed reflects the experience of the Church in relationship to God. We, too, are invited into that experience as we say it week after week.
In the end, our experiences with God call us deeper into truth than does intellectual and rational thought. We discover truth through a relationship with God instead of ideas about God. There is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God.
And it is for this reason that God became flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth – to show us the way to the truth. Instead of counting on earthly leaders and institutions to point the way, we are called to follow the One who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” In other words, if you want to know truth, then follow Jesus, learn from him, even consume his life, his flesh and blood.
In a world with competing truth claims, this is very good news indeed. Today is Christ the King Sunday. The designation as Christ the King Sunday is relatively new in church history. Following World War I, nationalism and secularism were on the rise around the world. Pope Pious XI noted that more attention was being paid to the nation’s flag and types of governments than to the way of the cross. Today, we are reminded that our ultimate allegiance belongs to Christ the King – even when that way contradicts the truth claims of earthly leaders and institutions (preachers and churches are not excluded from this list).
Sometimes our allegiance to Christ the King, the bearer of all truth, puts us at odds with our lesser allegiances. Sometimes our pursuit of truth puts us at odds with our social, political, civic, professional, and even religious life. Sometimes our pursuit of truth puts us at odds with friends and family members. Sometimes our pursuit of truth puts us at odds with ideas we ourselves always thought were true.
For us as Christians, there is only one big question to ask as we consider the things we think, say, and do. Is it the truth?And in my experience with God, the truth as revealed in Jesus looks like compassion and mercy and justice and peace. The truth as revealed in Jesus looks like a life of putting the needs of others before our own.
The truth as revealed in Jesus looks like paying particular attention to the least, the last, and the lost. The truth as revealed in Jesus is a love that cannot be contained by social constructs, a love that not even sin and death can stop. In your prayers and reflections this week, I consider you to ask, “What is truth as I consider my own relationship with Jesus?”
As you discover the truth revealed in Jesus, I pray you are further entrenched in the truth that the way of Jesus is meant to lead us all to a place where the peoples and nations of the world – with their varying nuggets of truth – find healing and dwell in unity and harmony with one another.
And God knows this dwelling place of peace and harmony cannot be orchestrated by earthly leaders and institutions. I don’t say this because earthly leaders and institutions are all bad. Some are but most have a desire to do good. Archbishop Cranmer, the writer of the Book of Common Prayer, said there is nothing so well devised by the wit of man that isn’t corrupted in the continuance of time.
We mortals only see the truth dimly. We only see a nugget of the truth. We too often resort to either/or instead of both/and. We let our intellectual pursuit of truth get in the way of our experience of truth. We become polarized. But as followers of Jesus, we proclaim not our own truth but the truth of Jesus and God’s kingdom.
As we consider the enormity and gravity of God’s truth, I hope we are humbled to say, like Thomas, how can we know the way in this confusing and chaotic world? And like Thomas, I pray we find the courage to say, if this truth of God puts us at odds with the world and even gets us killed, then so be it – we are with Jesus. We are with the One whose truth is risen above the forces of evil and death. We belong to the only leader who can grant this true freedom and true peace – Christ the King. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment