"Preservation of the Truth"

4th in a series on the Great Ends of the Church
First Presbyterian Church
Peter S. Buehler
November 4, 2007
John 15:1-11

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower.

We have been focusing for the past few weeks on the Great Ends of the Church, the list of the church's over-arching purposes from the first chapter of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). We've considered the first three Great Ends: the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; and the maintenance of divine worship.

Today we come to the fourth Great End of the Church, preservation of the truth.
And all God's people say, Amen! Until someone raises a hand and, in the spirit of honest inquiry, asks, What do you mean? What do you mean by the truth? Do you mean facts, things that can be proven? Do you mean beliefs, things we believe are true, or hope are true? Do you mean the truth of personal experience, lessons learned; don't we speak today of "personal truth"? Does truth depend on what is true for us -- is all truth, then, relative, so that there are many truths -- or is there one higher truth? And if there is a higher truth, and we grasp it and believe it, does that mean that we are right and all who believe differently are wrong?

Joseph Small, in his wonderful book on this 4th Great End of the Church, wonders if today we don't find ourselves sounding like Pontius Pilate in his private meeting with Jesus. On the one hand, Pilate hoped he'd find some way out of the dilemma he was in, some way to spare Jesus' life and placate Jesus' enemies; we wonder if he didn't also want  to figure Jesus out, to understand him -- something people in power want to do when faced by others who seem to have power. The back-and-forth between the two is fascinating: Pilate tries to get Jesus to admit he's a king, a rival power and therefore guilty of sedition. So are you a king? Pilate asks. So you say, Jesus answers, letting Pilate answer his own question. Jesus goes on, however, declaring, 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. Yet it is Pilate's response we remember: What is truth?

Joseph Small quotes writer Frederick Buechner who imagines that Pilate asks the question …because in a world of many truths and half truths, he is hungry for truth itself or, failing that, at least for the truth that there is no truth. We are all of us Pilate in asking after the truth.

Though a lot of people today seem to have stopped asking altogether; a lot of people are cynical about any issue, any reality, larger than themselves. As someone has said, even the thinnest pancake has two sides, and so does every issue. In their opinion, it's not enough just to state the truth. After all, truth can be made to mislead, words can be used to mislead. There is the old sailing vessel story: The captain wrote in the log 'The mate was drunk today.' When he saw this, the mate added, 'The captain was sober today.'

Words carry meaning, words have power. "Sound bytes" in political campaigns have power. Words need to be used with integrity! What then is truth? What truth is the church called to preserve?

It can seem like an impossible question today, one we shy away from. But we have to ask ourselves whether we're more comfortable with Pilate's question or with the words of Jesus, 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. Are we ready to say that this is not merely our truth, not just "Christian" truth, just one truth among many, but the truth?

There is some uneasiness in making a truth claim, a bold one especially. Inevitably today such claims become adversarial, controversial, and uncomfortable, even with friends. We don't want to sound like a radio talk show host -- talk, talk, talk; shout, shout, shout. Doesn't anyone listen anymore? In conversation we say something of deep importance to us, we get beyond superficial pleasantries and feel tension enter the conversation like an unwelcome third party -- we sense the redness in our face -- is this worth it, we ask? My friend knows what I believe, I'm not going to persuade her differently; anyway, I hate proselytizing.

Writer Flannery O'Connor once said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd." Maybe we shy away from truth claims because we don't want to appear odd -- or make someone feel uncomfortable.

Yet the preservation of the truth, this Great End of the Church, is not about being uncivil, or arrogant, or rude. It is not about our truth trumping someone else's; it is not about competitive claims and opposing beliefs; it is not about winners and losers; it is not about defensiveness; it is not about feeling odd as a follower of Jesus Christ. It is about a relationship, for Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus is God's way to humanity, to us: in him we meet God, in him we are empowered to live fundamentally different lives, lives of purpose and peace.
Jesus is the truth -- there is no aspect of God that is not fully revealed in him, therefore we are not left guessing about God's goodness or our well-being.
And Jesus is the life -- in him we are supported by God and strengthened by grace. Jesus is our source for life, and in him we bear fruit.

The truth of the gospel is not less true because we live in a world of plural faiths and diverse beliefs. Many of us cling to our Reformed theological tradition and are glad to be Presbyterians precisely because we honor other religions, we believe in ecumenical and inter-faith dialogue, we always have something new to learn from other faiths, we know that there are many aspects to life that are mysterious and beyond our comprehension.

A character in one of Frederick Buechner's novels says, "Never question the truth of what you fail to understand, for the world is filled with wonders." It is indeed. Sometimes we have to wait to discover the truth and be patient for it, for the truth is not always as obvious as we would like. In poet Wallace Stevens's words, "Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake."

So in our tradition we come at the issue of truth with modesty, with respect for other believers, with kindness, with a willingness to listen first and speak second.
More than ever, followers of Jesus need to imitate Jesus.

By the same token, the stakes are high. Many people today wander; many are lured by feel-good half-truths; many are lost, sheep without a shepherd.

Though it is ironic that Americans today have never been less lost, at least in their cars. Have you noticed how many new cars come equipped with GPS, the Global Positioning System that makes maps a thing of the past. Tell your car where you want to go and it will figure out the route, show you what roads to take, where to turn, which way to go. Go the wrong way and it will politely tell you where to go -- or at least how to get back on the right route. Today with this technology it's literally impossible to get lost! Getting lost is a thing of the past.

Yet many people today are lost and there is no technology that is going to get them found. The temptation is to turn to idols for meaning, for life, idols which charm for awhile but ultimately let us down. They are not a thing of ancient history, modern idols abound: after all, work can be an idol, play can be an idol, things we buy can become idols, pleasure can be an idol, even people and relationships can become idols -- anything we believe is more worthy than God of our praise, our focus, our energy and time is an idol. Idols are known by the way they let us down. They are a lie. They are not the truth.

The church preserves the truth of the gospel not because truth will somehow get trampled on if we don't build a fence around it; preserving is different from protecting. The truth is we don't have to protect Jesus -- we can't, we don't need to; he was crucified! Good people hated and opposed him, sincere people denied and fled from him; Jesus lived an unprotected life and died a solitary death.
End of story.

We who would find the truth contained within ourselves if we would just dig deep enough, or out in the world if we would just search long enough -- it is for us and for all proud people of the world that this Christ died. Which is why his death is the beginning, and not the end, of our story. As we die with him, we are raised with him; as we let go of our striving, our need to be our own truth, and recognize that in Christ God has found us -- that in him we have been given a way to live in grace and righteousness -- we find the truth. For the truth is not an "it," the truth is a person; the truth is the one in whom we have life. He is the beginning of our story.

He is the beginning of the world's story. I believe the more we learn about other people, other nations and cultures, other religions -- the more we get outside of ourselves and see ourselves as citizens of a wide and wonderful world -- the more we learn about and love Jesus.

But we learn about him first and foremost from the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, because they are the source for what is so wonderfully and profoundly true.

If we are people of the Book, and that is how Presbyterians have been known, it is because what we learn gets expressed in how we live. The truth doesn't stay secret with us, it is communicated by our commitments, our actions, our devotion, our compassion, our love.

The word we hear over and over in our passage about the vine and the branches is "abide." Abide in me as I abide in you, says Jesus. Abide. Remain. Stay with, remain close to, trust. The message is first that we are connected to the One who loves and gives life -- we don't have to make that connection ourselves. No striving -- if we abide in this Christ, we produce fruit, we do what we need to do; we are who we need to be! We need only know who our source is, who our life is, who our truth is.

We are not holding on so much as we are being held. As we read and reflect on the scriptures, we see that support. As we grow in trust, we grow in the truth.

So too the church. As the church gives of itself, imitating its Lord, loving God and serving neighbors, the church bears fruit. Which is to say that when we open our heart wide to the world, we are preserving the truth.

Amen.