To tell the truth

 

John 18: 33-37
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
November 21, 2021

Jesus came to tell the truth and yet the truth is twisted in this scripture passage. Pilate wants to be in control of this interrogation, but Jesus turns the questions back to him. Jesus does not admit or deny anything. Pilate is not interested in the truth or justice but rather ensuring that this is one crucifixion that doesn’t come back to haunt him. Unlike what the gospel writer would have us think, Jesus is not being handed over to the Jews but to the Roman authority to be executed by the state. This verse, among others, will justify and fuel centuries of violent anti-Semitism enacted by Christians.



In the late 19th c. Emily Dickinson wrote, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant”, that the truth full on, like the intense brightness of the sun, will only serve to overwhelm us. Like Jack Nicholson’s growling outburst in the film A Few Good Men, “You can’t handle the truth!”, there are some who believe that humankind is not strong enough to comprehend important truths about itself. In 2005, Stephen Colbert, on his show The Colbert Report, came up with the intentionally ridiculous word truthiness, defined as the belief in what you feel to be true rather than what the facts will support, and it was Merriam-Webster’s word of the year in 2006. This in turn gave rise to the word ‘post-truth’, “in which people are more likely to accept an argument based on their emotions and beliefs, rather than one based on facts”. In other words, truth has been supplanted by opinion.

Who would have thought that we would be living through an era of post-truth and so much disinformation? The next verse in the reading from the gospel of John is Pilate’s famous question: “What is truth?”, as if all truth is relative, as if human beings cannot be trusted to discern what is true and what is false. Said the man with all the power of life and death. Even when the truth is told slant, gradually, we still resist it, evidenced not only by vehement opposition to things such as Critical Race Theory but when any of our implicit biases or cherished beliefs are challenged.



The harm done to all of us is that we’ve grown less curious about the world outside of our own sphere, about one another, and even our own inner lives. A few years ago, Stephanie Chang who worked with Student Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Delaware shared some important wisdom with me. Affixed to the wall above my desk are two sticky notes with these two questions: How do you know I know who I am? How do I know I can talk to you about who I am? Perhaps some of us haven’t had cause to ask those questions but imagine how important they are to someone who is transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming.

Friday evening at the vigil for the Transgender Day of Remembrance, David and I, along with two others, listened to Rev. Sarah Carpenter give a heart-wrenching, unflinching presentation about the history of the Transgender Day of Remembrance and then read aloud the names of those who have been killed or who died due to suicide in the past year. And it was then I remembered those questions. How do you know I know who I am? How do I know I can talk to you about who I am? At the heart of those questions is a yearning for connection, belonging, and trust: trust that one’s truth is 100% heard and welcomed and affirmed. And the ones who need this trust the most are the ones whose truth is marginalized and criminalized, discounted and denied: those who are poor, unhoused, trans, queer, Black, Indigenous, disabled, incarcerated.



Jesus testified to the truth with his life. As one who was unhoused and a child refugee, he relied on the mercy and resources of others. He was a brown-skinned, Palestinian Jew whose homeland was colonized by the Roman Empire. He was executed by the state and criminalized by religious authorities. He criticized those who hoarded wealth and power and those who practiced a hollow piety. He was a friend of outcasts, sex workers, drunks, tax collectors, and the poor—the first to enter the kindom. He sought to liberate the oppressed and subvert empire.

When Jesus told the truth, he didn’t tell it slant. With the truth Jesus comforted the oppressed and put himself in direct confrontation with the comfortable. And right now the world needs courageous community that is willing to live that same truth, the truth that does not promise to keep us safe but to set us free.



How does this church comfort the oppressed and put itself in direct confrontation with the comfortable? How do we testify to the truth Jesus lived, that of unconditional love, restorative justice, fearless compassion, and radical forgiveness?

We can’t keep quiet. We can’t keep quiet for anyone anymore. We are a beloved community riot for the truth. If there’s someone who must understand, who can be trusted with the truth of the despised, discounted, and denied, let it be us.



Amen.

Benediction - © Jeff Shrowder (http://thebillabong.info) 

Used with permission.


Go now to follow the way of Jesus:
regard others as he did;
dare to give freely as he did;
and to love unconditionally as he did.
Go, embraced by the Source of life, love and hope;
in the company of the Word of life;
encouraged by the Breath of life. Amen.