If Only…

John 18:28-38

We can have all the information in the world, all of the emails and letters and TV broadcasts and newspapers and magazines and spreadsheets and campaign ads and tweets and, yes, blog posts, but at the end of the day we may be left asking the same question that Pilate asked of Jesus. Jesus said, “’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.’ Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’” (John 18:37b-38a). I can imagine Pilate smirking as he said it, as if he had heard that sort of thing before. After all, everybody claims to have the truth in some shape or fashion.

Years ago, just as the internet was becoming more common, a woman who regularly visited the church I served approached me with an email she had received. The email claimed that members of the board of directors of Proctor and Gamble were Satan worshipers and that the CEO of the company has said so publically. The woman was aghast at the news and wanted to know what I thought about it. I tried to explain to her that even though she had gotten the item off of her computer it didn’t mean that the story was factual. That particular rumor had been going around for some time.

“What is truth?” It’s a question that we all must wrestle with constantly. It is so easy to accept what we want to believe. There is no such thing as a compassionate conservative; all liberals are out to destroy the country. The president is a socialist; his main rivals are idiots. The denomination to which I belong willingly ignores the Bible; anyone who disagrees with me is filled with hate. I hear variations on these comments on a regular basis and they make me sad. Jesus spoke the truth when he said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (15:12). Love is what Jesus wants; not hate or apathy or disdain or disinterest, but love. And this love is true because Jesus died for it. If we could only begin there, with the love of God, and reorient our lives accordingly. If we would only let go of the falseness of life. If only…

Prayer: Lord God, help us to hear your truth and to embrace it even as we seek to embrace one another in love. For it is in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.

NOTE: Beginning on February 25, I will be including blog posts each Saturday written by "guest bloggers" who will offer their insights on the readings for that particular day. I deeply appreciate the willingness of these folks to share their time and talents with us. Be sure to stop by on upcoming Saturdays to see what they have to say.

Raising the Standard

2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2

John 8:12-19

What Jesus says in our reading from John today seems strange at first glance. “You judge by human standards,” he tells a group of Pharisees, “I judge no one” (John 8:15). My initial response is to say of course they judge from human standards. They are humans, what else could they do? Jesus’ next words don’t help much. “Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me” (v. 16). Well, of course Jesus has a different perspective, I say. He’s the Messiah, the Son of God. There is simply no way we could ever see things the way he does. That’s when Paul speaks up and tells me to slow down a minute. “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view” he tells his readers in Corinth (2 Corinthians 5:16a). So if I’m supposed to view people from something other than a “human point of view,” how is that going to work?

Over the years I have had the pleasure to offer training to dozens of Presbyterian lay people about to take office as elders or deacons. One of the things I will often do is show them the passage from Titus 1:5-9. where there is a list of the qualifications for elders and bishops. I will then ask those present to indicate if—based on what they have read––they are still qualified to serve. No one has ever raised his or her hand. And they shouldn’t. It’s very unlikely that anyone could ever meet such high standards. It’s just not human nature. But to me that’s not the point. The point is that here is a quality of life to which we may (must?) aspire, here is an image of what we should strive for.

I think Paul’s words to the Corinthians must be similar. It is practically impossible to see things as something we are not. But that does not remove from us the responsibility to strive, by God’s grace, to reach that point. As people of faith we are challenged to cast off, as best we can, what we have been and to put on that which is given to us in Jesus Christ. Baptism is a sign of this newness of life and a reminder of the community which walks beside us. As we enter a new year and face ever newer challenges, ever starker realities in our world, we should aspire to see things, not in the same old ways, but as new creatures born in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. May 2011 be a time of awakening for us all, and may we find our standards raised as we strive to live in the light of the gospel.

Prayer: Lord, bless our past as a time of learning, our present as a time of living, and our future as a time of achieving all to your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.