The Truth

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
November 22, 2009; Last Pentecost; Proper 29, Year B
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(John 18:33-37) – Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
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In 1919 a shattered Europe reeled from the vast death and destruction of what they had named "The Great War." The Russian revolution and rise of fascism sent shudders through the continent. In 1919 William Butler Yeats wrote a poem of apocalyptic timelessness, opening with these words:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. (1)

In 2009 Yeats words seem to describe our own apocalyptic age, when things fall apart and the center does not hold; innocence is drowned, cynicism parades as wisdom and the worst in our world are full of passionate certainties and intensity.

I got an email from a friend this week. His presenting issue was an election for a bishop in his diocese. But he spoke of a wider malaise. "I'm actually pretty disgusted at the state of humanity in this country in general right now," he said. "The overall ethical fiber, no matter what phase you look at is shot. Things do not bode well in my opinion." His conclusion: "I fully expect us to elect the wrong bishop. Oh well!"

Around the year 30 of the Common Era, a young Jew stood beaten, bound, and trapped in front of the governor of a province in the Roman Empire. For his small circle of friends, their world was turning and turning in the widening gyre. The falcon could not hear the falconer. Things were falling apart and the center faced execution.

In apocalyptic times, fear seeps into us. We want something sound and secure to place our hope in. When the foundations are shaking, we turn anxiously searching for something with authority, something unshakable and true.

The scene with Jesus before Pilate shows us some options for truth. First, the characters in the scene. There are the scribes who have turned Jesus over to Pilate. There is Pilate the governor. But over his shoulder there is the ghost of Caesar, at whose pleasure Pilate rules. And there is Jesus. Each of these characters has a version of authority and truth that they follow.

The scribes are the people of the book. They study the scriptures and adhere to its teaching. They have redacted the teachings into 613 commandments, and they apply its laws with confidence that they know and follow God's will. According to the book, according to the law, they are certain: Jesus deserves death as a blasphemer.

People love objective truth – the truth of prescriptive authority. When in doubt, look it up. Search the scriptures; quote the Qur'an. Declare a moralism with absolute certainty. Then throw the book at them, secure in your truth. "The worst are full of passionate intensity."

Looming over the scene between Jesus and Pilate is the truth of power. For Caesar power is truth. Might makes right. If you can't buy the results you want, take it by force. Caesar's ghost hovers threateningly over this interrogation.

And there is Pilate. For a moment he looks like an investigator, trying to learn the facts, to ferret out information like a detective or scientist. But when it gets personal, when Jesus asks him to commit himself to the process, he retreats into the abstract towers of the Greek academy. "What is truth?" he asks rhetorically.

Three traditions of truth confront Jesus – the objective truth of the book; the truth that power claims; the abstract truth of the rational. None of these are the way of Jesus.

Listen instead to these words from 1852, spoken by the noted preacher Frederic W. Robertson in the elevated rhetoric of those days. You'll have to listen with some concentration. Preachers expected a lot from their listeners in 1852:

[Jesus] taught not by elaborate trains of argument, like a scribe or a philosopher: He uttered His truths rather as detached intuitions, recognized by intuition, to be judged only by being felt. For instance, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you.” Prove that - by force - by authority - by argument - you can not. It suffices that a man reply, “It is not so to me: it is more blessed to receive than it is to give.” You have no reply: if he be not of the truth, you can not make him hear Christ’s voice. The truth of Christ is true to the unselfish; a falsehood to the selfish. They that are of the truth, like Him, hear His voice: and if you ask the Christian’s proof of the truth of such things, he has no other than this: It is true to me, as any other intuitive truth is true; equals are equal, because my mind is so constituted that they seem so perforce. Purity is good, because my heart is so made that it feels it to be good.

Brother men, the truer you are, the humbler, the nobler, the more will you feel Christ to be your king. (2)

Jesus speaks truth in the first person . Jesus makes truth personal. "I am the way and the truth and the life." Then he tells his friends of the way and life of truth. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the peacemakers. Love one another. Love your neighbor as yourself. Turn the other cheek. Jesus makes concrete in a human life the truth of God. He reveals to us a God who is eternally a God of love and grace.

God loves us eternally. That is truth. God eternally wills the blessing of creation. That is truth. God works in and through us to make blessing. That's what Jesus tells us and shows us. If you get that, follow him. You'll be living in the truth. In Jesus, truth becomes a verb. "Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

So listen. Do you hear the hint of goodness or a sound of love? Hear it. Then use your intuition. Follow it.

The nineteenth century spiritual director Jean Pierre deCaussade said that the only duty we have is to do God's will in the present moment. He said further that God's will can only be three things: (1) to do some present duty; or (2) to enjoy some present opportunity; or (3) in the dark mystery of God, to suffer something for God's sake. Accept the circumstances of the present moment, and let your intuition tell you what God's will is. Then do it with perfect confidence. Either do some duty, enjoy some opportunity, or suffer something necessary, and live in peace. You are in perfect relationship with God and you are advancing God's kingdom insofar as it is within your means. DeCaussade's teaching is an eighteenth century version of today's maxim: WWJD. "What would Jesus do?" Do that.

Trust love and compassion, for those are the very being of God. Then do what your intuition tells you that God wills. Everyone who belongs to truth listens to the voice that speaks love and grace, eternally.

You can be a falcon who does hear the voice of the falconer. Love is the center that holds all things in its orbit. Justice and compassion are loosed upon the world. The blood from Jesus heals and restores innocence. Here is something worth giving your life to with a passionate intensity that heals and restores rather than uses and abuses. Brothers and sisters, the truer you are, the humbler, the nobler, the more will you feel Christ. And that is the truth.

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1. William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming. www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html
2. The Kingdom of the Truth, sermon by Frederic W. Robertson. www.fwrobertson.com/sermons/ser20.htm
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