Speaking Truth in Love
(Luke 4:21-30)
February 2, 2025
While driving into work recently I was listening to an interview on the CBC with Order of Canada recipient Pinchas Gutter, an over 90 years old survivor of several Nazi death camps during the Holocaust. After living in the Polish ghetto, he and his family were sent by train to the first camp when he was separated from his parents and his twin sister who was just 8. He was the only one of 150 members of his family to survive. Yet he describes himself as an optimist and throughout his life he has endeavored not only to make a better world for his own children, grandchildren and great grandchildren but for all. He doesn’t believe in Tolerance. He believes in Acceptance. When asked how he feels about the current state of the world and the increased Anti-Semitism that seems prevalent he responded that he still felt hopeful that people can be good and see the good in others and that we can all work together to make the world a more accepting place. Like drops of water, he said, everyone has something to contribute that will ultimately have a positive impact.
Last week we began our series on Holy currencies with Rev. Gary talking about the blessings of relationships and the interconnectedness we have as the body of Christ, no one more important than another but all vital for the well-being of the whole. If we see one another as all parts of the same body; all components of humanity, then we cannot treat one another ill or badly because we would then be harming ourselves.
It seems impossible to believe that our world could be moving in a similar direction of hatred and harm that millions of Jews and other “edge-people’, those outcasts, scapegoated or villainized by those in power experienced prior to the Second World War. Pinchas speaks of the importance of not being silent, of speaking out, of not succumbing to apathy. Otherwise, we are complicit.
We must speak the truth, even to power, as was so eloquently, bravely and faithfully done last week by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde at Washington Cathedral directly to the President of the United States. She addressed him saying, Mr. President, In the name of God I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country, who are scared now,” and went on to name gay, lesbian, transgender, immigrants, undocumented workers. She said, “The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labour in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbours. She spoke truth to power. And in the days following she received nasty comments and accusations even people wishing her dead and a congressional statement calling for her dismissal. Bishop Budde spoke truthfully to those in power sitting in the pew in front of her.
To speak in truth, is to truly see what is around us, and literally, not turn a blind eye. And that is not always easy. Depending on who we are and where we grew up and what has influenced our view of things we may be seeing the world through a kind of lens or filter that is different than an others. I keep asking myself how so many Americans voted for and support the current president. I wonder what truths they see and how a president who so often distorts, exaggerates or outright avoids telling the truth can hold such power and influence, but he does. And as we ourselves move into both Provincial and Federal elections how do we know the best leader moving forward. So how do we discern the truth? How do we know what is true or false in this tsunami of seemingly opposite opinions and points of view.
Eric Lay, in his Holy Currency of Truth speaks of the Chinese letters that make up the word Truth, it is a table with multiple eyes around it. He speaks of the importance of always including the “powerless’ when we are trying to come to a decision or increase our understanding of a situation, for without all the voices, the powerful and the powerless, the privileged and the oppressed we can never truly understand the truth of any situation.
In our gospel lesson read this morning Jesus speaks to his hometown crowd and declares that the Scriptures have been fulfilled in him, through him. I suspect that many who listened were a lot like those for whom Bishop Budde asked for mercy.
Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. Law writes: The Hebrew word that is translated as “truth” emet, is composed of three letters, aleph, mem and tav- the first, middle and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The composition of the word may signify that in order to discern the truth, one must know the beginning, the middle and the end of the event. He concludes that we cannot take one moment, one feeling, or one perspective and call that the truth. He goes on to say that the Chinese word for “truthful” or “genuine” includes two ideograms, shi, mu, and the number ten. The bottom part is the symbol of a table. The number 10 symbolizes completeness or wholeness. Discerning the truth requires that we look at an issue or event in a holistic way, perhaps through ten different eyes, or ten different perspectives around the table.
Jesus understood the importance of Truth. He witnessed it in the lives of those he grew up with under the oppressive Roman rule. He witnessed it in the self-righteousness of some of the Temple priests and in the anger of the townspeople he had grown up with. He saw the Truth of their fear of something new, in the anguished faces of the bereaved, in the hollow eyes of the hungry and in the weary step of the poor. Compassion was his vehicle of truth as he sat with the sinner, conversed with the outsider at the well and spoke of a new creation to those on the fringe and the edges of society.
We live in a world that believes in either-or thinking, true or false. It is dangerous if we claim our own experience as the truth and not hear or listen to the experiences of others that might be different than our own. And it is certainly easier to maintain what we understand as Truth when we don’t step out of what is familiar or comfortable to test our truth. Law wisely says that the truth-discerning process is always complex and messy.
Biblical Commentator David L. Ostendorf describes Jesus as the “insider”, the son of Joseph, grew up in Nazareth, known among the town since childhood who becomes the “outsider” angered by Jesus, suggestion that they would not be the vessels for the unfolding of God’s new narrative. A new narrative out of the ancient narrative.
God is unfolding a new narrative through the particularities of “outsiders”, of edge-people who come to God and bear witness to God through God’s actions in edge-places, and occasionally in temple settings.”
He writes: “This is God at work, as God has been at work across the millennia, as God is at work even now – unfolding a new narrative with, through, and among particular people, who are often outsiders to the assumed faithful. …So, it is with new narratives born of God. In the midst of the global complexities of this era, this century, the church faces the daunting possibility – indeed, the reality-that God is unfolding a new narrative through the particularities of “outsiders”, of edge-people who come to God and bear witness to God through God’s actions in edge-places, and occasionally in temple settings.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, “Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely, in order to realize our need of one another.” Law correctly points out that truth emerges out of the exploration and understanding of the many different points of view based on different experiences of the people in the community. In the same spirit, a community also needs to know how to raise up the experiences and perspectives that might have been ignored by the dominant view. Speaking truthfully is the first step toward understanding and ultimately realizing a new reality. Ostendorf talks of this new narrative. He writes “This is a dynamic, raucous God who jars us to wrath or to faithfulness, and simultaneously provides us the opportunity to partner in the creation of a new narrative, woven with edge-people in edge-places, and in the particularities of daily living and daily people. Indeed, new narratives are unfolding in our midst, in some of the most peculiar places, where God continues to act, far outside our holy walls”.
I wonder, if the church isn’t in the midst of the birthing pains of a new narrative, a new way of being the body of Christ in our world?
I wonder if as we listen more closely to those different or apart from us we might begin to hear a new story. I wonder, if we are able to put aside what we understand as our own truths long enough to hear of the truth of another. I wonder if we can be a part of the new narrative.
The Truth & Reconciliation process gave the Indigenous people of Turtle Island the opportunity, and thankfully they took it, to share their experience of being a First Nations people in a colonialized country. They spoke their Truths to the powerful and privileged and continue to increase their voices to be heard on climate change and justice and right relations for their people on this land.
As described in our gospel reading this morning the people gathered around Jesus in the synagogue listening to him speak, at first eager and attentive, but then as they listened to his words, began to hear truths they were not open to and fueled by anger and fear they chased him to the cliffs edge. But there were those who were open to the new narrative, the truths of their time and their faith and their God and Jesus managed to slip away, perhaps shielded or assisted by those who were willing to hear the Truth.
David Ostenorf goes on to say that “We are given to opportunity to respond to this new narrative that God will unfold with or without us and perhaps, even in spite of us. We can listen but not hear, we can hear but not respond, we can respond but not follow. We can be filled with wrath, as were those in the temple who hear the young, upstart Jesus when he came home and spoke of the new narrative. We can be quietly indifferent, or we can, indeed we are called to – follow, and by following contribute to that renewing, redeeming narrative that is God’s relentlessly powerful story, come alive on the edges of the human family and the faith community. To follow this new narrative is also to be open to its costs. It is to risk what is to be an edge people, outsiders. Walking through the desert, plunging headlong down the hillside, making our way to Jerusalem and the cross. “
But for all its’ demands and challenges, following this new narrative is also to be open to a fullness of life that we might never have imagined. To participate in the promises of God in Micah’s words, to seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God. It is to be a part of God’s unfolding narrative in this time and place fueled by love, God’s most powerful tool against hatred and greed. And we don’t do this alone. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him or knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” John 14:16-17
I like to think of it as Livin’ on the edge with God’s People
We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:4-16)
Sounds a lot to me like Holy Currencies and the blessings of Truth & Relationships. As the body of Christ, brothers and sisters, we are all called to seek and speak the Truth in love, Livin’ on the edge, as Jesus did. May it be so.