What is truth?

Jeremiah 23:23-29. False prophets and their “dreams” are here contrasted with the voices of true prophets. True prophets can be distinguished by the fact that true prophesy is like fire and a hammer – that is, words that unsettle and disturb, rock the established order, and unmask hypocrisy and injustice. True prophets can only really be discerned in hindsight, and in private may be wracked by self-doubt.

Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2. The faith (and the suffering) of all the Old Testament figures is given to encourage the faith of contemporary Christians. They are included and lauded not just as figures from a long dead past but as a present “cloud of witnesses” to whom the current crop of believers owe a debt of responsibility. All of those figures were driven by faith in God despite themselves never seeing the fulfilment of God’s will – Jesus Christ – “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (12:1).

Luke 12: 49-56. Jesus describes the reality of the situation that his message of peace will ironically cause division, even amongst families. His “baptism” refers to his crucifixion (and St. Paul also describes Christian baptism as being baptised into Jesus’ death). Fire is also associated with cleansing and more positively with the Holy Spirit. Jesus then derides people for being able to forecast the weather accurately but are blind to the signs of the times.

How do you know that what I, or anyone taking a service is telling you is the true word of God?

One answer to that is that within the structures of the ordination process, the church tries to ensure that within certain parameters like high or low church, or theological emphasis, they have confidence in the person chosen to try and accurately discern, reflect and interpret what the Spirit reveals to them.

In short, the church tries to weed out false prophets. There wasn’t any kind of process in Jeremiah’s time of course. Who was a true prophet and who was a false prophet was a very grey area. Prophesy itself came into huge disrepute so that what turned out to be genuine prophets didn’t actually want to be associated with the title at all.

Amos, one of the most respected prophets tried to distance himself by saying,

“I was not a prophet, nor a prophet’s son but a sheep breeder and a dresser of sycamore trees” (7:14).

One way that Jeremiah offers to discern a true prophet from a false one, is that a true prophet’s words are like a fire and a hammer. That is, the true word of God unsettles, disturbs, shakes the foundations, and confronts hypocrisy and injustice. Today we might say it speaks truth to power.

The honeyed words of the false prophets just say what they think people want to hear. Prophesy not from conviction but by focus group and opinion poll.

A great modern hero of mine was Harry Williams CR, a monk at Mirfield when I was there, since sadly died.

Harry had been a great and highly thought of theologian, preacher and teacher, and had been a fellow, lecturer and Dean of Trinity college Cambridge.

Right up until his nervous breakdown caused by his cognitive dissonance between his life and the gospel he was preaching.

When he had recovered after years of psychotherapy his true ministry really started, when he became concerned by true experience.

He vowed never to ever preach anything ever again which didn’t have its roots in true lived experience and he became a true prophet, rather than just a “dreamer” as Jeremiah calls it.

Words and ideas can purify like fire, and shatter peace like a hammer and this is what Jesus rightly prophesied when he said to his disciples,

“Don’t think my words are going to bring peace, it’ll be more like a sword. I will divide opinion, split families”. His words and actions weren’t designed to do that – they were words of love and peace – but he correctly forecast that discord would be a natural result, because words and actions divide people.

For us it means that as long as we are as certain as we can be that we are speaking truthfully and representing as accurately as possible the nature and purposes of God, we shouldn’t be either surprised or deflated if our words cause division.

One of the most pertinent questions in the whole new testament is posed not by Jesus or an apostle but came out of the mouth of Pontius Pilate, when he asked Jesus “What is truth?” (John 18:38)

This itself was a retort to Jesus saying he was a witness to the truth, and John’s gospel contains the answer to that question when Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)

We worship truth, embodied for a while here on earth in Jesus.

The way of Jesus is the way of sacrificial love.

The truth of Jesus is that he is the eternal word made flesh.

And in that truth and love is revealed the true nature of being, of life itself, which is God, which cannot be destroyed.

Whatever else we preach, to be a true prophet of God we have to preach that. Only God can save anyone. If Jesus is the true son of God and God is one, then true Salvation cannot be found anywhere else except in God and the truth of God is made manifest in Jesus. In that way salvation being found no-where else is not a statement that excludes anyone but states a fact about God who is entirely inclusive no matter what religion or none that you follow.

Coming home.

Genesis 15: 1-6. This section provides the proof text to St. Paul that Grace preceded law in God’s economy of salvation because Abraham predates Moses (and the ten commandments) by several centuries. Abram believed God “and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness” (verse 6). That Abram continually doubted and questioned God though should encourage us. Faith is no easy option.

Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16. The Genesis reading is a good accompaniment to this reading from Hebrews which lauds the faith of Abraham among others. Without knowing that Abraham often doubted though, we could end up having a false view of faith as necessarily being full assurance all the time, which is unrealistic. We are human and subject to human frailty. But at our best, the vision of everlasting life in a new heaven and a new earth should spur us on to become the person God always wanted us to be.

Luke 12: 32-40. Jesus says to his disciples. First of all get your priorities right. The “treasure” that should be motivating us is of the Kingdom of God. This will have economic repercussions on our earthly treasure but the kingdom is all that really counts in the end. We are told then to keep awake, as a slave should keep awake for the return of his master in the early hours – so a warning against Christian complacency.

That we are saved by faith in God’s grace and not by following the law was absolutely fundamental to St. Paul and in his great treatise on the subject in his letter to the Romans, the incident we heard read to us from Genesis was pivotal.

Abraham had “righteousness” – that is declared right before God simply because he believed God’s promise, well before he was circumcised and certainly well before the written law which wasn’t delivered to Moses until many centuries later.

Being declared righteous includes being accepted and forgiven – a spiritual healing of the soul we call Salvation – the divine healing.

The author of the book of Hebrews also looks back to the example of Abraham amongst others as an example of great faith and verse one defines faith like this;

“The assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things not seen.”

But if you are anything like me, that description of faith could be daunting because in reality faith oscillates and is stronger on some days than on others.

But a simple reading of the story of Abraham and Sarah reveals that while  their faith was often strong, the doubts and scepticism were constant companions as well. Which is good news for all of us that despite the doubt and scepticism along the way, God declared Abraham right with Him.

Jesus spoke some comforting words to his disciples, many of whom doubted Jesus even after the resurrection according to Matthew’s gospel and the words we heard today are ones we all need to hear,

“Do not be afraid little flock, for it the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”

Having the kingdom – God’s Spirit working with your Spirit to bear fruit for you and the world is the only real treasure worth having because the kingdom is eternal. Our money and possessions stay here when we move on. “You can’t take it with you” as they say,

But the kingdom is an eternal transcendent possession. Fruit grown here will serve you for ever in your purse which is your soul. 

But living a virtuous, good life here is often hard. It is not glamourous or cool and life can grind us down, but the advice is not to lose patience. Keep faith and don’t tire of being and doing good or worshipping God. In the poetic language of the parable,

“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit”.

For the promises of God contained within the Bible are that which inform our faith. And the person making those promises is important.

It is often reported that Jesus spoke, not as the scribes and Pharisees, but as one who had authority.

We are much more inclined to believe someone who is manifestly upright and wise and true and speaks with authority.

The promises of God in the mouth of Jesus have divine authority. He is a person to be believed and followed in full confidence.

That future that we cannot see, or even well understand, is described in Hebrews as a homeland. Finding God and his kingdom is a “homecoming” and discovering that God was there all the time, waiting for you is a description of salvation we recognise from the parable of the good Samaritan.  

And we all thrive best when we have a secure homelife. Finding God and his Kingdom is coming home.

Towards a new perspective

Ecclesiastes 1: 2, 12-14; 2: 18-23. This is an honest antidote to all those who say that the world naturally points to God. The author is a pessimist who is sensitive to the injustice of the world (4:1-3) and uncertain about organised religion (5: 1-6). Trying to find any meaning to life by human effort is folly, and human achievements are temporary, and life is unhappy. The “Teacher” ends up acknowledging the awesomeness of God and deciding that God doesn’t have to justify himself. That this tract is in the Bible at all is a testimony to the breadth and search for truth that the Bible encompasses.

Colossians 3: 1-11. All the morality that follows is dependent on verse 1 which says “If you have been raised with Christ”. The morality that follows is pretty conventional and one of the main messages is contained in verse 11 which says that in this renewal all differences between race and culture are transcended for those “raised with Christ”.

Luke 12:13-21. Luke is adamant that property and wealth are spiritually dangerous and this parable echoes Ecclesiastes in saying that effectively this is vanity because all lives come to an end. But there is no mention here of the good that money can do or how terrible poverty can be, and common ownership and a collective pot were ideals that were never taken up by the church. But how we use money can be seen as a prime indicator of where our heart’s loyalty lies.  

I have a confession to make. When I had a crisis of faith after encountering the wild claims of certain people on the charismatic fringe of the church, it was reading Ecclesiastes that brought me back into the church.

Its decidedly pessimistic understanding of our lot, human ambition, and apparent futility of life was a powerful corrective to the wild claims of magical healing, speaking in tongues, and people falling over that had such a negative impact on me at the time.

The very fact that such a book could be included in the canon of the Bible spoke volumes to me of a much more realistic, truth seeking version of the Judeo-Christian tradition that took opinion and testimony from all sides. That took contrary sceptical views and insights seriously. It took the search for truth itself very seriously. Apparently, this is the only piece of Ecclesiastes that is included in the whole three-year Sunday lectionary cycle, which is a shame.

The pursuit of truth is very important. Scientific truth, or spiritual truth makes no difference. One cannot be in competition with the other.

Getting to the bottom of the essential nuggets of truth contained within scripture is a part of my job description which I do to the very best of my ability.

Applying that wisdom and insight to our two other readings today what can we discern with any certainty?

Both of them assert that when we accept the truth claims of Christianity our values and way of looking at the world changes. We re-orient our outlook and ways of being and doing to reflect new information – new truths. This dramatic sea change the Bible calls Metanoia – which we translate as repentance. It involves changing our standpoint from a self-centred way of looking at things to a more God-centred way of looking at things.

Paul writes in Colossians that “if we have been raised with Christ” (ie, changed our view of the world) the following should happen, and then he lists a whole litany of things we should no longer do, a list which prioritises self-gratification over the good of all, mentioning everything from fornication to abusive language. The list is pretty uncontroversial in itself but are marks of the process of the re-orientation of the self.

One mark of that re-orientation is seeing all people whatever their race or culture as equal in the sight of God because God made all human beings in the image and likeness of God and Jesus died for the sins of a Somali drug dealer as much as he died for a English stockbroker. We need to be reminded of this radical insight into the truths of Christianity on a regular basis because it runs so counter to conventional human wisdom which wants to put everyone on a scale of goodness from 1 to 10. Shifting from human wisdom to God’s wisdom seriously taxes our ability to accept these kinds of insights.

Likewise, Luke’s gospel if taken too literally could be said to say, “Don’t ever plan or prepare for the future”, but that is not I believe what it is saying. As part of the re-orientation of our life should come the realisation that the proper use of the money we have is an indicator of where our heart’s loyalties really lies.  It is also a reminder that we are mortal and what God desires from us in our dealings on earth is respect for others, a concern for fairness and justice, using our money to further the kingdom of God no less, instead of our own kingdoms.

Discipleship is a word which we have heard of but perhaps haven’t realised that it is the task of every baptised Christian. Think of discipleship as you and God working together in your very being to gradually turn us around, to look at life, other people, politics, everything really from God’s perspective who wills the best for everyone and make that more and more, our perspective.

It is a narrow path to walk, and requires a certain discipline to make it happen but as Jesus said in Luke 17, the kingdom of God is within you and any change we want to see in the world has to start with us.