Ephesians 4.25-5.2, John 6.35; 41-51
Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, 12 August 2018, Austwick
Putting away all falsehood, let us speak the truth to our neighbours,
for we are members of one another.
How are we to speak as Christians today? How do we get to the truth and represent it in the way we talk to others? For we’re living through times where truth is being challenged, and there are strong social pressures on us to imitate those who manipulate or deny truth.
Among all the various protests around the world in recent times, one notable event was the March for Science, a celebration and affirmation of science at a time where, to quote Michael Gove, people ‘have had enough of experts’. Last year’s inaugural march drew tens of thousands of people to Washington DC, 10,000 to London and over a million more across 200 cities worldwide, reinforcing a sense among scientists that their work is being sidelined, and that their particular claim to the truth is losing influence. [1]
Mike MacFerrin, a glaciologist in Greenland, gives an example of why this loss of truthfulness is important, in this case in relation to climate change. “People in Kangerlussuaq have a reason to care,” he says. “A bridge partly washed out in 2012, due to runoff from the ice sheet. I liken the attacks on science to turning off the headlights. We’re driving fast and people don’t want to see what’s coming up. Scientists - we’re the headlights.” [2]
In the society depicted in George Orwell’s novel 1984 the word ‘science’ is banished, because the objective reality it represents threatens the power of Big Brother to determine what truth is. [3] When we hear people parroting those who lie in plain sight in denial of painstakingly-researched truths, shouldn’t we Christians stand with the scientists in empathy and affirmation?
Putting away all falsehood, let us speak the truth to our neighbours,
for we are members of one another.
In recent times objective truth has been devalued by so-called postmodernism, wherein everything is considered to be subjective, socially constructed; in other words where you have your truth and I have mine, and, whilst they may be irreconcilable, both are equally valid. Postmodernism has been helpful in exposing the limitations of conventional ways of seeing the world and in usefully challenging oppressive established powers. But the idea that everything is relative can be pushed so far that it begins to make truthfulness irrelevant. So when an incoming president can promote himself by saying that the crowds at his inauguration were the “largest audience” ever, in defiance of all photographic evidence to the contrary, we see postmodernism twisted into an abuse of power. Men in the position of Trump and Putin tell these sorts of lies “to assert power over truth itself.” As one writer has noted, “Putin’s power lies in being able to say what he wants, regardless of the facts. He is president of his country and king of reality.” [4]
In the face of all this, what is the Christian’s task? Are we in the business of the child in the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, who dares to cry out, "But he isn't wearing anything at all!”? [5]
In the gospels we find that Jesus was often occupied in speaking truth to power. In the gospel of John we find him expressing his impatience with the complaints and weasel-words of religious leaders of a repressive system who can’t see him for who he is, “… the Word of God, the Son of the Father, the agent, messenger and apostle of the Father.” [6]
We also often find Jesus speaking truth to the powerless - the crowds following him looking for another magic trick, or healing, or free lunch - challenging them to see that only the bread of life can truly and completely satisfy their physical, spiritual, and emotional hunger.
Truth is, that “The union with God that Jesus makes available makes anything else seem wholly inferior, unnecessary and unsatisfying.” [7] The short-lived fads of every other passing healer or teacher, president or priest cannot compare with the life of everlasting satisfaction Jesus brings.
Paul entreats us,”Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love as Christ loved us.” [8] Don’t imitate polarising presidents and knee-jerk politicians. Don’t imitate shrill editorials which play on your fears and anxiety. Don’t imitate anyone who preaches hatred. Imitate God - speak as you live - in love. Paul fleshes out for us what our speaking Jesus’ truth will sound like.
According to Paul, truthful Christian speech can never be neutral. It will cause us to acknowledge our fears and anger, but will help us find ways to lay them down; it will help us recognise our shortcomings, and to make recompense. Christian speech will be full of grace, kindness, tender-heartedness and forgiveness. And above all, it will build neighbourliness and love for others.
Christian truthful talking is far from the evil talk, the angry, manipulative speech we hear around us daily. Far from being malicious and slanderous it is rooted in empathy and builds community.
This is how the previous president of the Unites States described his way of Christian speaking:
My faith is one that admits some doubt, that says that I believe in Jesus Christ and I believe in God, but I also recognise … I may not always be right, that God doesn't speak to me alone, and that the only way that I could live effectively with people who have different beliefs and different faiths is if we have a civil society that is, in fact, civil. [9]
‘Putting away all falsehood, let us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another.’ Christian speech is not just neighbourly in a soft way. It is a way of talking about all others which recognises that however different we may be in terms of culture, we are all equally valued and loved, upheld by God. With so many malign, corrupting voices in our ears all the time we need to check our influences constantly, as we train ourselves to learn to talk this way. But what a difference we each make in the world when we do.
Notes
[1] Michiko Kakutani, The Death of Truth. p.38-39. Stephen Buranyi, On the March for Science, LRB Blog, 16 April 2018.
[2] Kakutani, The Death of Truth. p.39. Marchers around the world tell us why they're taking to the streets for science. Science, 13 April 2017.
[3] Kakutani, The Death of Truth. p.37.
[4] Kakutani, The Death of Truth. p.96
[5] Wikipedia: The Emperor’s New Clothes.
[6] John Fenton, Finding The Way Through John. p.144.
[7] Fenton, Finding The Way Through John. p.144.
[8] Ephesians 5.1-2.
[9] Barack Obama, The Keyes-Obama Debates: Africans and African Americans.
Comments