Truth or Truthiness
Ephesians 4:25-5:2, sermon delivered to FPCE, 8.12.18.Remember Walter Cronkite? For those who don’t, Cronkite was the anchorman of the CBS Evening News from 1962-81. Walter Cronkite was the commencement speaker when I graduated from the University of Michigan, and I was thrilled. He had reported from battle zones and political conventions. When, as a seven-year-old, I stayed up late to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, it was Cronkite’s voice that I heard. If Walter Cronkite reported it, then I believed it.Today, we’re aware that several newspaper reporters and television journalists have lost their jobs because they disregarded the truth, usually to further an agenda they favored, or to improve their own standing. David Brock, who once wrote for the Washington Times, reflected upon how it happened to him: “As a young zealot, I disciplined myself to ignore the soft tug of my own conscience, and see only what I was supposed to see. In fighting for what I saw as a larger good, in this case anti-Communism and the moral superiority of democratic capitalism, I turned a blind eye to facts that did not suit my political aims. With little awareness of what I was doing, I proved myself capable of papering over monstrous moral wrongs ….”[1]When I came of age to vote, I thought many things about politicians like Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, including that they were rather old and boring, and, naturally, that their proposed policies might not have a whole lot to do with me or my future. But I respected their life experience, the paths they had taken to get where they were. When they talked about their political positions and platforms, I believed that they were speaking truthfully about what they intended.Today, I’m not sure that I know what politicians believe or intend, because most of what I hear seems so exaggerated and cartoon-like. I know that political attack ads have been around a long time, but they seem to receive more emphasis and start earlier each election cycle. The balance between political discourse and campaigning has blurred, and now it feels like even some routine political speeches have become attack ads. The Washington Post now regularly updates a “fact checker” analysis about the President’s false or misleading claims. On July 31, the number stood at 4,229 through the first 558 days in office.[2]On the one hand, the Bible says, “So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” On the other hand, we live in a society that devalues truth in favor of “truthiness,” a term coined by Stephen Colbert. Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true, without regard to evidence or facts. It must be difficult for young adults, for high schoolers, for our middle-school youth to live in a world defined by truthiness rather than truth. What can the average preacher say about these things?That’s a question I asked myself early in the week. Today, I’m afraid that I don’t have more than a very partial answer. What I can tell you is that after I asked the question, I found myself re-reading major portions of a book by one of my favorite Presbyterian ministers. It’s called “Telling the Truth …” by Frederick Buechner, and in it he shares his reflections on the “truth” as defined by the biblical accounts of the One who is Truth.Buechner is not for everyone: he tells rambling stories and uses literary references; he takes a while to get to his point. But, when he gets there, it’s usually an interesting place to be. I’ve distilled as best I can Buechner’s thoughts about “truth,” and condensed them into three points.
- The truth is so vast, no one knows it all; each of us has flaws, biases, preconceptionsthat limit our apprehension.If you’re looking for a verse of scripture to hang that thought on, Buechner uses one that Reformed theologians have for hundreds of years: Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The emphasis here is on all, meaning “me too.” We can point to Bible characters, including most of Jesus’ closest disciples. There’s a seemingly unlimited supply of figures from history. Buechner writes, “The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror … what he sees is chicken, phony, slob.”
This is a truth to be handled carefully. It should never be used as a weapon against others. Buechner says, “to tell the truth in love means to tell it with concern not only for the truth that is being told, but with concern also for the people it is being told to.”[3]But it is a truth that should give each of us a reason for humility.
- Everyone knows some truth; each of us is capable of offering a valuable personal perspective. Again, if you’d like a Bible verse for this truth, try John 3:16-17: “‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Buechner, who says the gospel is bad news, also says it is “the news that (we are) loved anyway, cherished, forgiven ….”[4] We may not know all the truth, but because we experience God’s love in Jesus Christ, we do know some truth.
The truth we know isn’t just something we read; it’s not cutting and pasting a link on Facebook to an article we agree with. I think the truth we know best, which we can speak about with authority, is our personal life experience. That’s the truth we should be most honest about, most attentive to interweaving with the truth we receive from other honest sources. You have a unique character, life experience, and faith journey: from them, what can you say about the world that no one else can? When you figure that out, that’s your contribution to the world’s conversation about truth.
- The truth is something we discern in deeper and more accurate ways as we develop our relationship with God and one another. It’s more than a philosophical proposition or political platform. Buechner points to Zacchaeus, whose curiosity leads to a conversation with Jesus. He climbs up a sycamore tree a crook, and climbs down a saint. Or take Paul, whose deep study and prejudice led him down the wrong road. As Buechner says, he set out “a hatchet man for the Pharisees and comes back a fool for Christ.”[5]
If we open ourselves to relationships with one another, then there’s usually some truth we can learn from almost everyone. Sometimes, the truth we all learn together is so beautiful and different that it has the quality of God’s revelation staring us in the face. That’s the truth that Buechner describes when he says the Gospel is “Fairy Tale,” leaving you with a sense of wonderment and joy so strong it feels like magic.A few months ago, we went over to the Plaza Frontenac Cinema to see the documentary about Fred Rogers called “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” It’s a film I highly recommend; it will make you proud to be part of the Christian denomination that ordained Fred Rogers to ministry. One part of the film highlights the way in which Mr. Rogers responded calmly and courageously to the awful scenes of civil unrest that were playing out in the 1960s. After an ugly incident in which a pool owner poured corrosive chemicals in a swimming pool to force black children out of the water, Fred Rogers offered a different vision for the children watching his program.The scene was set up with Mr. Rogers, in his cardigan sweater, seated in a chair, his shoes off, pant legs rolled up, and his feet dangling in a children’s swimming pool, the plastic kind you buy at a department store. Francois Clemmons was the first African-American to have a recurring role in a children’s show; he was cast as the neighborhood police officer, Officer Clemmons. He recalls the way the scene unfolded, as Officer Clemons showed up on the edge of the set on what was a hot summer day."He invited me to come over and to rest my feet in the water with him," Clemmons recalls. "The icon Fred Rogers not only was showing my brown skin in the tub with his white skin as two friends, but as I was getting out of that tub, he was helping me dry my feet” …. "I think he was making a very strong statement. That was his way ….Clemmons says he'll never forget the day Rogers wrapped up the program, as he always did, by hanging up his sweater and saying, "You make every day a special day just by being you, and I like you just the way you are." This time in particular, Rogers had been looking right at Clemmons, and after they wrapped, he walked over.Clemmons asked him, "Fred, were you talking to me?""Yes, I have been talking to you for years," Rogers said. "But you heard me today." "It was like telling me I'm OK as a human being," Clemmons says. "That was one of the most meaningful experiences I'd ever had."That’s probably enough to try to say in one sermon about truth. In contrast to the truthiness that characterizes our age,
- no one knows all truth, which should keep us humble;
- everyone knows some truth, particularly the truth of our personal experience, which is valuable;
- truth is something we discern in deeper and more accurate ways as we develop our relationship with God and one another.
When that happens, it’s like the magic of a black man and white man modeling friendship on a children’s program, the moment when the power of the gospel displays its vibrant power. Buechner says it’s like ordinary things you’ve seen a thousand times suddenly seen in a new way as if for the first time. It’s the moment when a strange new world opens up, and wonderful things that couldn’t possibly happen suddenly do happen.[6] May that kind of truth be ours to experience, and ours to share.ENDNOTES[1]David Brock, “Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative,” New York: Crown Publishers, 2002, p. 29.[2]https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?utm_term=.f7a71b728ccd, accessed 8 August 2018. [3]Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, p. 8.[4]Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, p. 7.[5]Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, p. 7.[6]Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, p.78.