Scripture can be found here
Jesus Light of the World, Shine Upon Us,
Set us free with the truth you now bring us.
When I was a child, my sister and I fought tooth and claw.
And, the fight’s outcome ALWAYS hinged on whose story was believed.
Whose panted defense and justification was more plausible.
Panted, because we’d go running to be the FIRST to get to whichever parent appeared to pass judgement.
And, I can tell you...that I always told the truth.
Equally, I can tell you...my sister believed her truth to be true.
So, I ask you, whose truth is true?
Will you decide? Will you be the arbitrator of our lifelong battle?
[pause]
Whose narrative are we to believe? Who is the righteous one? And, who decides?
“the righteous [who] will be kept in everlasting remembrance. [Who] will not be afraid of any evil rumors;”
You chanted these words just a few minutes ago.
Do you believe them? Or do you believe evil rumors?
Do you know how to tell the truth?
Do you know how to hear the truth?
As a child, I fully believed that I told the truth and that the words my sister spoke were but evil rumors.
But truth, I’ve come to know, is far more complicated than right and wrong. And, I now know that the lie of any truth we told was the way in which we used our truth to destroy.
Truth that does not lead to freedom, is rooted in lies. The lie that some are less than others. The lie that creation is ours to exploit rather than steward. The lie that cleverness is better than goodness. So many lies…
Which brings me back to the truth which we seek…the truth that is salt, the truth that is light, the truth that leads to life.
How will we know this truth when we see it?
“I didn’t know if I believed it because it was true, or because it was beautiful”
These words were the unscripted reaction of the physicist, Peter Higgs, who first theorized the Higgs Boson particle. He spoke these words in a candid video shared by a fellow physicist who had come to his home to surprise Professor Higgs with the news that his theory had been proved, and when I saw that video I was moved by his words. I was moved, because the pairing of truth and beauty seems a useful and powerful tool for discerning the good and the right.
What would it mean if we were to dismiss the vicious and the ugly, the unkind and the evil, the manipulative and the disingenuous, from the point of prioritizing the beautiful truth?
The beautiful truth of God, the beautiful truth of belovedness, beautiful truth of creation, the beautiful truth of God’s desire for all to be set free...
Can anything short of this beautiful truth be true?
We cut today’s reading from Isaiah short in the interest of time, an option offered by the lectionary but, for us to explore the truth, I must share the remainder of the lesson assigned for today. So, listen, listen...
“If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday…
and your gloom be like the noonday…
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.”
the restorer of streets to live in.”
Does the truth we speak repair? Does the truth we speak restore?
Or is it the pointing of the finger and the speaking of evil?
What is the truth for, if it is not for liberation?
I believe that the beautiful truth of God’s love, as made known to us in creation, is the a priori truth--the first and essential truth. And, as such, anything that does not speak of this truth must be examined and unpacked and questioned, no matter where that “truth” has come from.
Hence, Paul’s assertion that “My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.”
Our faith rests not in human words, but in the power of God. God whose generosity of love has brought light to the world—a light that shines on all, a light that allows us to see and to notice God’s care for all of God’s beloved children.
Hear the words of God as proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah,
“Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
and oppress all your workers.
and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.”
and to strike with a wicked fist.”
Hear the words of the prophet. If we fail to see or notice the love of God which we are called to serve, none of this— the prayers, the music, the sermon, the fellowship, will matter. It doesn’t matter if we don’t tell the beautiful truth, the beautiful truth of God’s love. The world needs our beautiful truth, our beautiful truth to counter any forces of evil that would deny and destroy any of God’s beloved children.
Telling this truth, will take work. It will take the indefatigable voice of a body sharing the labor, sharing the labor so that when one falters another fills. It will take hope, hope that love will win and that the kingdom of God, in its perfect mercy, will overpower the imperfect judgments and casual cruelty of the kingdoms of this world.
So, thanks be to God, that as Christians we share one body, that as Christians we know what it is to hope even in the face of death, and that as Christians we know that love will prevail.
A beautiful truth indeed…
One of the beautiful truth tellers of our faith, is a man I had the opportunity to meet when I was a college student—the Reverend William Sloane Coffin.
He was the retired pastor of the acclaimed Riverside Church in New York City, a Freedom Rider during the Civil Rights Movement, arrested with Daniel Berrigan and Dr. Spock for protesting the Vietnam War, and an advocate for gay rights who urged his congregation not to condemn people for “the way that they love”. And, there he was, hanging out with a bunch of college students who had no idea of the witness they had in their midst…
A prophet, a truth teller, a witness. A witness to the transformative power of God’s love who, in his famous benediction, reminded his congregation that,
“The world is too dangerous for anything but truth, and too small for anything but love.”
If these words sound familiar, it is because I’ve spoken them in blessing upon you all here, at St. Clement’s.
But, I’ve never used the entirety of his benediction, and so I want to offer it to you, as a gift. As a gift, and as an act of hope and defiance,
“May the Lord bless you
and keep you.
May God’s face
shine upon you and
be gracious unto you.
May God give you the grace
never to sell yourself short;
grace to risk something big
for something good;
grace to remember that the
world is too dangerous
for anything but truth and
too small for anything but love.
So, may God take your minds
and think through them;
may God take your lips
and speak through them;
may God take your hearts
and set them on fire.”
Amen.
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