Scripture: Ephesians 4:11-16 11 The gifts [Christ] gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 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. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 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.
Sermon: “Speaking the Truth”
Verse 15 of today’s Scripture reading sounds really good, doesn’t it? “…speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” I love that verse. I quote it a lot in my ministry. Our church Covenant for Christian Communication is based on this verse. But, what does it really mean? What, exactly, is truth? (I figured that our first Sunday back in-person should deal with an easy topic J.)
What is truth? “Speaking the truth in love” is the theme for a 3-part sermon series on our Covenant for Christian Communication that we are in the middle of. This is the second sermon in the 3 part series (the last sermon happening after Mother’s Day), so let’s bravely delve right in: “What is Truth?” Philosophers and theologians have been asking this question for millenia, and they’ve been coming up with definitions, sometimes supporting, sometimes contradicting each other. The Bible--as well as ancient philosophers, such as Plato and Socrates--link truth to the Divine. In fact, Jesus himself is quoted as saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)
I read a great article this week by Dr. Neel Burton--who is both a philosopher and a psychologist. He was writing for the magazine Psychology Today and gave a very understandable, comprehensive overview of the philosophy of truth, quoting both theologians and philosophers down through the centuries, as they sought to answer the question, “What is truth?” He summarized by saying, “[many philosophers] have agreed that thought or language is true if it corresponds to an independent reality.”1 In other words, we speak truth when what we say agrees with the objective, independent reality outside ourselves. That makes sense, doesn’t it?
But lest we get too comfortable and think we can actually define truth, modern philosophers jump into the fray, reminding us that our human minds are limited and have trouble seeing things as they really are. Dr. Burton puts it this way: “the mind does not perceive reality as it is, but only as it can, filtering, distorting, and interpreting it. In modern times, it has been argued that truth is constructed by social and cultural processes, to say nothing of individual desires and dispositions.”2 [REPEAT]
Dang, just when we thought we had a handle on it, truth slips away… But I think Dr. Burton makes an extremely important point: even if we define truth as an objective, independent reality outside ourselves, we still need to acknowledge that due to the limitations of our human brains, none of us can completely perceive it. Any one human being’s understanding of truth is, at best, only partial.
Which reminds me of that old fable about the blind men and the elephant. You may have heard it before--or perhaps not. To paraphrase the fable: A bunch of blind men were sitting in a circle around a very tame elephant (it must have been a slow day at the circus…), and each blind man was instructed to use his hands to gently touch the creature, and then define, based on his own sensory experience, what an elephant is. The man who touched the trunk said, “An elephant is a long, slender creature that writhes like a snake.” The man who touched the foot said, “An elephant is a round, sturdy creature shaped like the trunk of a tree, with hard scales at its base.” The man who touched the side of the elephant said, “An elephant is a creature of vast proportion, much bigger than even a giant could wrap his arms around.” You get the picture. Each blind man described the elephant based on his own experience of the objective, independent reality that was the elephant, and each man’s description was true--but only partial. Each man needed the other’s men’s perceptions, added to his own, to come closer to understanding the complete truth, the complete, objective reality.
But even then, when we add together everyone’s perceptions, we may not be able to exactly define or describe what is true, because people’s perceptions--or their descriptions of their perceptions-- are not always accurate. And not just because each person’s understanding is partial or incomplete. Sometimes people’s descriptions or definitions of truth are inaccurate because the people themselves have ulterior motives. They are not trying to describe an objective reality. Sometimes people are deliberately trying to mislead others to get what they want! We see this dynamic sometimes in our world today, don’t we? People deliberately trying to distort “truth” to get what they want. I am sure we can all think of examples of this.
We see this dynamic also in today’s Scripture reading. Verse 14: The Apostle Paul says, “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.” Even 2000 years ago, some people--the New Testament refers to them as “false teachers”--were trying to lead sincere people astray using trickery, craftiness, and deceitful schemes. We are not told exactly what those deceitful schemes were, but when you look up the 7 references to false teachers in the New Testament where the word “deceit” is used, the motives of such false teachers become clear: power and greed.3
I found those references in a commentary this week and thought to myself cynically, “Distorting the truth, motivated by power and greed--some things never change.” But we should not despair. God is with us. And God will open our eyes, ears, and hearts to God’s truth--as Julie sang to us earlier--if we ask God to. God does not leave us destitute or at the mercy of false teachers. If we sincerely seek to “grow together in Christ” (to quote FFC’s Purpose Statement), God will help us do so.
Our covenant for Christian Communication is a practical tool to help us in that regard as well. We looked at the first part of it last week. The middle part was in our Call to Worship earlier. I’ll ask Steve to bring that back up on the screen for the people viewing the livestream. Those of you here in person can look at it in your bulletin.
FIRST SLIDE: We will be as honest as we can with each other. If we want to come close to the truth, we have to begin with honesty. We begin by honestly seeking that independent, objective reality outside ourselves, even when that reality is something that makes us uncomfortable, or something that we don’t want to hear. We only grow when we are willing to face reality as it is, not the way we may want it to be.
NEXT SLIDE: We will strive together to understand. Back to the story about the elephant. We have to strive together to understand because each of us sees only part of the picture, only part of the truth. We need each other to see the whole of it. And when I say “each other”--in the church context, I mean everyone who is honestly trying to grow in Christ--not just the people who think exactly the way I do. Because if I listen only to the people who think exactly--or very closely--to the way I think, I may well miss an important aspect of reality, something that Jesus is trying to teach me.
We will speak from factual information, rather than leaping to conclusions based on assumptions or speculation. This sounds easy to do, but it’s not always as easy as we may think it is. One reason is that factual information is not always as solid as we think it is-- or want it to be. Sometimes “factual information” changes, based on an improved understanding of the subject matter. But it is still VERY important.
We are running into this dynamic in our larger culture a lot these days, aren’t we? For example, when we try to make decisions about how to stay safe and protect ourselves and others from the corona virus. The CDC publishes factual information about the virus, but then new studies are done on the virus and new variants of the virus appear, and sometimes what people thought was a fact--or actually was a fact at the beginning of the pandemic, is different now. Then add into the mix that still today--like back in New Testament times, there are “false teachers,” whose motives are power and greed who spread false information intentionally--and everything gets mixed up and it’s hard to know who or what to believe. And it can be so tempting to just rip off our masks and throw up our hands and say, “Since we can’t know exactly what the truth is about Covid, let’s just be comfortable.” But, as tempting as that may be, it wouldn’t be mature or responsible--because we need to be concerned for the safety of our neighbors as well as ourselves. We still need to look for facts from reputable sources. And in the case of Covid, reputable sources are those whose “facts” are based in the scientific method that emphasizes the importance of continuing to ask questions, form hypotheses, conduct experiments, evaluate and share results, and revise hypotheses based on data collected.
NEXT SLIDE: We will speak only for ourselves, Not speculating about what others may think. Have you ever used this strategy in an argument? When you are trying to convince someone that what you are saying is true, you say something like, “And it’s not just my opinion. I ran this by everyone in my Zoom group, or I talked to the rest of the family--and, from what they told me, I am confident that everyone thinks you are wrong.” Yikes! I’ve done that sometimes myself, but it’s not caring, thoughtful, wise, or effective. Attempting to paraphrase the opinions of others inevitably ends up putting words in their mouths, words that others may not have chosen to say if they were in the room. To quote from today’s Scripture, verse 16, attempting to speak for others does not “build up the body of Christ” or help “each part to work properly.”
OK. There’s still A LOT more left to say about truth… but we’ve made a beginning. Let me stop there. But I’ll leave you with a summary of my main points about “speaking the truth.” 1) We need to speak with humility, recognizing that like the fable of the blind men around the elephant, none of us has the whole picture, so we need each other to come to a more complete understanding. 2) We need to be aware that--just like in Biblical times-- there are “false teachers” out there, motivated by power or greed, who distort the truth to get their own way, and we need to watch out for them and make sure we are not be taken in by their rhetoric or spread their false information. AND 3) We do this by grounding what we say in factual information, looking to reliable sources, letting people know what our sources are, and why we trust them.
As I said last week, I invite each of you to download the Covenant for Christian Communication from the email blast--if you haven’t already--or download it from the link I will put in the comments in just a few minutes. I invite you to read through the covenant --and read through this scripture from Ephesians, notice what words stand out to you, and think and pray about how God might be calling you to grow in Christ by practicing speaking the truth in love. I will be doing the same thing. Feel free to send me a short email, if you want, about insights you’ve gained or how you have practiced speaking the truth in love. May God bless all that we say, that we may continue to grow together in Christ and become equipped for ministry, for serving the world with love.
Let us pray: O God, you call us to grow to maturity in Christ--and part of how we do that is speaking the truth in love. Be with us as we practice speaking in new ways, because it isn’t always easy. Bless us in our talking together, help us to forgive each other when we mess up and our words wound, and help us grow together in compassion despite our differences, that we may become more and more like Jesus and shine the light of your love in our world.
Bless now the people and situations in our lives and in our world that are on our hearts. We lift up in prayer….
1) the people of India who are experiencing a devastating surge in Covid cases and a critical SHORTAGE of hospital space and medical supplies, especially including oxygen.
2) The people of Israel, who are mourning the loss of the 45 people who died in the stampede at a religious festival. May God hold the people in their grief, giving comfort, particularly, to the families of those who lost their lives. We pray also for the over 150 people who were wounded at that event. May they recover in body, mind, and soul.
Moment of silence…lifting up in prayer those we hold in our hearts.. others in this room and in our livestream…
O God, bless the sick… those who are struggling… those who are grieving…caregivers… Give them strength and healing…. In Jesus name, Amen
PLEASE JOIN ME IN THE LORD’S PRAYER
- Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven
- Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts
As we forgive our debtors`
- And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. AMEN
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA
FOOTNOTES
1 from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201808/what-is-truth
2 Ibid.
3 Here are the references to false teachers where the word “deceit” is used: 2 Peter 2:18 & 3:17, 1 John 4:6, Jude 11, Acts 20:29-30, 1 Tim 4:1, 2 Tim 3:13. References listed by Pheme Perkins, New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol. XI, p. 423.