April 25, 2021 “Beloved….Truth” - Pastor Jacqueline Hines

 

April 25, 2021

“Beloved….Truth” - Pastor Jacqueline Hines

 

I love the epistles, the letters, of John because they are so tender and loving. It could be that the gospel of John and the three pastoral letters are written by the same person. It could also be that they are written by different people who used the name “John” like we name drop a Gucci purse or a Stradivarius violin to mark quality and credibility.  Whether it was one writer or several, they clearly had the intention – to glorify God and to urge us to love one another. Verse 16 of our reading goes straight to the point that just as Jesus gave his all and laid down his life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for one another, even though giving our all is different for each of us.

We aim for love every day! There are many who have made great sacrifices for love. We have no doubts about the sacrifices that parents make, reflecting that they, like all of us, are made in the image of God. Friends sacrifice. Strangers sacrifice. In last week’s news a house mysteriously collapsed and caught on fire. A passerby named Rakym Dyer ran into the building and rescued Mike an injured 61 year old man trapped in the rubble, putting him on his back and carrying him to safety. In an interview Rakym said that when he looked back and saw what he went into he was afraid and surprised that he had done it. Sometimes we are surprised by the amazing abilities to take risks and make sacrifices that God has put in us!

 

Love is worth every effort and every sacrifice, though love is not easy to accomplish. It is not easy to be patient and kind, to not envy, be boastful, arrogant or rude. It is not easy to stop insisting on our own way, showing our resentment or being irritable…and that is just part of the list we find in what is called the love chapter I Corinthians 13. Love is not easy, but it’s worth it. A wise woman said, “If it were easy then everyone would be doing it.”

Love is not easy but God gives us strength. We need strength to love. Loving is not for the weak at heart. Verse 18 tells us “Little children let us not love in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Some families make a point of leaving every visit and every phone call with words such as, “See you later. I love you!! I love you, too.” They are very important words, but when they gather for family dinners, they put those words into action. It is when folk get together, work together, play together, and worship together that those words become true. John tells us to love one another not just with words but with truth and with action. You’ve heard the saying, “Action speaks louder than words!”

How do we know words are true? Can we always know that our true love is true? That our motives are pure? We do know that the truth sets us free. We know that the truth can hurt. We know that the truth is the light, that Jesus is the way - the truth - and the light. With all we do know, we still ask the same question that Pilot asked, “What is truth?”

We all wonder from time to time where the lies begin and where the truth ends. Who has the fake news and who is bringing alternative facts? We wonder sometime. Seeing is believing, but what we see may not always be truth. So says psychiatrist and philosopher Neel Burton.

 In his article entitled, “What Is Truth? The Art of Self-deception, Dr. Neel makes reference to truth being more a construct of our social and cultural processes and our desires and dispositions. We have so filtered, distorted and interpreted ideas and we call them truth.

We choose to believe certain truths if they fit comfortably into our system. The system may actually be a “giant fiction,” fake news, entirely detached from reality. But, as we think, reflect, investigate our own beliefs, and open ourselves to the possibility of new ideas, we are more apt to share a love that is true. The truths we live by lead to success that affirms truthfulness. Dr. Neel’s example says:  “Clearly, we could not have sent a rocket to the moon if our science had been wide off the mark… If something works, it may well be true; if it doesn’t, it most probably isn’t.”

Neel quotes atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)  known for the phrase “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” He also said, “truth is power, and power truth: ‘The falseness of a judgment is not necessarily an objection to a judgment … The question is to what extent it is life-advancing, life-preserving, species-preserving, perhaps even species-breeding …’ Nietzsche’s thoughts bring to mind the idea that lies can die out. At the same time, if truth is only for human advancement, it is a power that can corrupt and can live on for generations, bringing great harm to humanity. Truth can become any mere attitude and way of life for those who embrace it. But, attitudes and cultures are not always rooted in the truth.

I John speaks of a truth that is a holy truth that is so loving it leads to true justice and divine peace. John speaks of a love that is not afraid to have courageous conversations. It is a love that lasts forever and refuses to die in spite of the odds against it. When we crucify love, does it not always rise again in the heart of humanity?

We cannot see our future, but we know that God is there with plenty of love. We can only see what God reveals to us in a dream, in the evening news, in a vision, in the eyes and words and deeds of those who love us. We do not know just how pure love is or when it might fade away or get buried like a seed and grow into something that looks nothing like the seed at all.

Christian philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) is quoted by Neel saying, Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion—and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion… while truth again reverts to a new minority.

There is a reason I am not a philosopher, for weaving through these tangled concepts freezes my brain, but what I hear in Kierkegaard’s words is that truth evolves, and is rare and precious and finding it is not easy. Being truly loving is hard. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Amen.