TRUTH

Pilate was a cynic. He believed all truth was relative. Even more, since he was a person in authority, truth was what he said it was. If power could alter the truth, as it obviously could in Pilate’s mind, who wouldn’t be cynical? Thus, if one has power, one can easily be tempted to play loose with the truth and even get away with it. Pilate, of course, was not the only one in power who has played loose with the truth. History is replete with like examples.

The truth is that no one has a lock on the truth. Why? Because not all truth is known, that’s why. There is still much about life we do not know and do not understand. We are still learning: about this universe, about our bodies, about how we think, about life and death, about so much. Every year Nobel Awards are given out to researchers and scientists who have learned something about us and our world that we never knew before or what they proved to be incorrect. We know so much more today than did the people of Pilate’s time. So much of what Pilate honestly believed to be true has proven to be false.

Jesus said as much, not to Pilate who was not about to listen to anyone, but to his disciples in the hours leading up to his arrest and crucifixion. As they were eating their last Passover meal together, Jesus was preparing his followers for what was to come. They did not understand everything he was saying nor did they even have the foggiest notion of what was to come. That is why he told them that he would send them the Holy Spirit who would lead them into all truth.

The Holy Spirit is still guiding, leading us into all the truth. But we do not receive it all at once. Would, perhaps, that we could. Would that there be one book in which we could find all the truth in clear and sure and uncertain terms. Opps, I guess there is. It’s called the Bible. The truth is all there – somewhere in there. Unfortunately, it is not all that clear. The truth has to be mined, if you will. It has to be dug up and dug out of the words of scripture, refined, polished, and then refined and polished over and over again.

All of the truth is in there, but it is not all black and white. And sometimes what once seemed so sure and certain proved to be simply in error. Slavery was permitted; the earth as the center of the universe was an accepted scientific truth; women were second class citizens, if that; polygamy was allowed especially to those in power; prostitutes were part of the landscape: weary soldiers deserved some reward did they not? All this and more is only for starters.

The point is that no one generation has ever had a lock on the truth, not even today’s generation that arrogantly considers itself the best and the brightest – a truth that is truly relative. The Holy Spirit is still with us, still leading us into the truth. It is guaranteed that some truths we hold today will be proved false some day.

Each generation has to deal with issues that were never addressed in scripture but whose truths can be found in there somewhere –with the grace and wisdom and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Each generation has to deal with newly discovered truths that make what was once believed to be true, even if scripturally accepted, now known to be false.

Does that mean that scripture is in error? No. It simply means that the writers only dealt with the truth as they knew it and as they understood it – as do we, as does every generation. We have struggled to discover the truth from Day One. We have struggled to accept the truth once we have found it, also from Day One. The Holy Spirit will continue to lead all of us into the truth, as the Spirit has done from Day One. Our response is not to be cynical like Pilate or arrogant like we can all be at times, but to be open, honest and, most of all, patient.

JESUS: THE ULTIMATE CONSERVATIVE/LIBERAL/INDEPENDENT

At first glance upon reading the Gospels it might seem that Jesus is the ultimate and consummate liberal, at least as we understand that quite political term these days. Perhaps I should rather say, “as that term is misunderstood” these days. Also, at first glance, one could also conclude that Jesus is the ultimate conservative, again, as that term seems to be (mis)understood these days. And finally, Jesus certainly had to be the ultimate independent.

Jesus said that he came not to change one iota of they Law but to fulfill it. In that he was a true conservative. Jesus himself followed the Law, kept the Holy Days, fasted as the Law demanded. The Law had its purpose else God would not have given us the Law in the first place. However, it was never meant to be an end in itself. It was given to help us be better people and not to prevent us from doing what the dictates of the heart demanded. Sometimes the Law would have to cede to love. The Sabbath had its purpose but sometimes the laws of the Sabbath had to be set aside to take care of the needs of those in need. In saying that and in fact in doing just that, Jesus was a true liberal.

Perhaps one might thus conclude from all this that Jesus was the ultimate and consummate independent in that he was beholden to neither liberal of conservative, neither right nor left and certainly not to the Law. Of course, it does take a lot of courage, even gall, to attempt to define someone else’s political, sociological and theological stances. We know what they say about those who make assumptions about anyone or anything.

Nevertheless, when we do read scripture and read about Jesus’ actions and listen to his words, and when we are tempted to try to categorize those words and actions into a present-day political perspective, we can come away somewhat confused. We want to get a handle on Jesus but Jesus always seems to elude us; yet that does not deter us from making the attempt and from forming a conclusion which we will gladly share with anyone and everyone, especially those who disagree with us and to whom we want to prove that Jesus is on our side.

The safest course, it would seem, if one has the courage to actually define Jesus, is to assert that Jesus was an independent, that he marched to the tune of his own drumming; and that he did. But he did it in the context of his Jewish faith. He was neither a loose cannon nor a radical polarizer. He simply challenged everyone he encountered, from those in highest authority to those on the outskirts of society, to examine the reasons why they did what they did and why they avoided doing what they so refused to do. He demanded complete honesty. Asserting “It’s the Law,” was, for Jesus, disingenuous if not dishonest as well.

What he got in return was often a lot of self-defense and sass. Instead of people taking him seriously they refused to take themselves seriously. Instead of questioning their own motives, they questioned his. But he never let them off the hook. In the end those who refused to listen, to take him seriously, to change, silenced him on the cross. Yet, the words they heard were never silenced. They had to live with them. And his loving actions, the Law notwithstanding, were seared into their memories.

 Jesus challenges us today in no less a way than he did when he walked the highways and byways of ancient Palestine. As with his contemporaries, so with us: we are often tempted to label him, to assert that Jesus is on our side, to use him as a cudgel to beat over the head into defeat those who oppose us. The only person we should be beating over the head is the one we see in the mirror. His words and actions speak as loudly to us today as they did two thousand years ago. Categories aside, Jesus was always on the side of those who at that moment in time needed him the most, who needed to be loved and cared for, Law or no Law. So should we, no matter how we label Jesus and no matter how we label ourselves.

COMPASSIONATE LISTENING

There is either too much or not enough, let alone none at all going on in this world and even in this church of ours – talking, that is. On the one hand, there seems to be too much talking going on. Everybody’s talking at us. Everyone has an opinion and everyone seems willing and able to make that opinion known and heard. It is almost a Tower of Babel out there and it is all dissonance, lots of yelling and screaming.

Now talking in and of itself is not bad. That is often the best way to communicate thoughts and ideas to others. When we speak, we use body language and body language often conveys more than even profound words. Talking becomes bad when it degenerates into pontificating. Give some of us the opportunity to mount the pulpit and we will tell anyone who is listening what is wrong with the world, wrong with him and how to fix it. Why would others not think we have the answers, all of them, in fact, or maybe most?

On the other hand, there is not enough talking going on. When we are at odds with someone else, with another nation, with another belief, we tend to stand apart and glare at each other. We are unwilling to talk, for whatever reasons we may have. And if we do give in and agree to sit across the table with those with whom we disagree or whom we do not understand, we have a penchant for pontificating.

What is even worse is that when we talk too much, we do not listen. When we do not talk at all, no one is listening. When we do not listen because we are drowning out the other with our words or when there is nothing to listen for because there is no one to speak to us, we fail to communicate. And the failure to communicate is the primary cause for so many of the problems we have in our world today, the church included. In fact, I tend to believe it is the reason for the great number of problems we have.

We must speak with one another, communicate with the other, no matter who the other is, especially when we find ourselves at odds with the other. But more importantly we must listen to the other, truly listen, and listen compassionately. To listen with compassion we have to put aside for the moment our beliefs, our prejudices, and our opinions and put ourselves in the place of the speaker. That is in and of itself always difficult. But we must.

We cannot do that if we are listening sitting on the edge of our seat ready to interrupt or interject our retort. That is not listening and that prevents us from truly hearing what the other is saying. And so we fail to communicate even as we think that is what we are doing. If we are communicating anything, it is that we are not listening, certainly not listening with any sense of compassion and willingness to understand.

Even if we are convinced of the correctness of our position and the incorrectness of the other’s, we must listen with compassion. We must try to understand why he believes or thinks or acts the way he does. When it is our turn to speak, we simply do the same and trust the other will listen with compassion to us. In the end we may continue to disagree with the other, but at least we will have heard each other out and will understand why we each believe the way we do.

Listening with compassion also enables us to hear what we may not have heard before because we talked too much or talked too little or talked not at all or hear something we never thought about before. Imagine that! Speaking and listening with compassion, with an open heart and mind, enables communication to take place and will go a long way in bringing peace and help mend broken relationships of any shape or size or form.

 

THERE'S A CONSPIRACY AFOOT

 As Sherlock Holmes might say to Dr. Watson, after investigating all that is going on in the church, “Ah, Watson, there’s a conspiracy afoot; and it’s a good one.” And there is; and it is good – both in the correct meanings of those two words, thank God. Conspiracy, as in it’s Latin base – cum spirare, to breathe together; ­good, as in virtuous. There is a good, virtuous conspiracy, a breathing together, that’s afoot in the church. Some may disagree, but I digress.

Too often when we hear the word conspiracy, we immediately think of a group of people gathering together to commit some nefarious action. In fact, that is now the basic definition of the word. How far we have come. Thus, if someone were to observe that there is indeed a conspiracy afoot in the church, most would be speaking of something that is not good. They would be asserting that there is a group planning, scheming even, to destroy the church.

Of course there will always be those who do indeed conspire to work against the work of God. Of course there will be those conspiracy theorists who insist that there is a deliberate one afoot aimed precisely at them and their beliefs. Of course there are those who conspire to denigrate the good others do. Pun intended, they are wasting their breath with such protestations.

But is not the work of a church, a parish family, that of a conspiracy? Does not the Holy Spirit breathe in and through us as we breathe and work together doing the work, the ministry, God calls us to do? But this does not happen automatically. The truth is that we have to deliberately conspire to do God’s work. We have to willingly and lovingly breathe together, work as one, or else the work we are called to do won’t get done. We must be intentional about it because it will not happen on its own. The further truth is that when people are breathing together, acting as one, conspiring to be of one mind and one heart, more often than not they are doing so for good and not for evil.

We do not need any theorist, moreover, to remind us that the greater the conspiracy, the greater the breathing together for good, the more good things will be done – and vice versa, of course. Since as church we are called to do good, to remove evil, to work together for the good of all, we have no choice but to conspire together. The mission and ministry is simply too great to be accomplished alone.

The more we conspire, the merrier – and in the original meaning of that word as well, as in delightful. For that is what it is, is it not? We have all discovered just how delightful it is to work together doing the work of God wherever and whenever we do it. It is a good conspiracy. Granted, that work will not always be easy. Sometimes it may not be the work, the ministry, we like to do even as we know it must be done. But we do it because it is indeed good and delightful.

There is conspiracy afoot. Hang on for the ride. God only knows where the breath of the Spirit will blow!