Wednesday, November 23, 2016

                There used to be a saying which went, “Don’t confuse me with the facts.” Apparently, there is a word that now describes this point-of-view: “post-truth”.  The Oxford Dictionary folk have chosen this word, “post-truth”, as its international word of the year. It is technically defined as relating to objective facts which are less influential in shaping public opinion rather than appeals to emotion and personal belief. Less technically, friends, some of what I am talking about used to be called BS, balderdash, baloney,  claptrap,  hogwash,  and utter nonsense.

                Nevertheless, a lot of people seem very uninterested in the truth. Truth is relative and subjective. Truth is gathered mostly by reading whatever is on the Internet and accepting without question that it must be true simply because it is on the Internet, especially if it confirms your fears, prejudices, biases, assumptions and values.

How can Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a million hits on some topic possibly be wrong? I have had people check the veracity of my sermons by researching my  biblical texts on-line. Frankly, I am sure that one could find some Google article which would back-up just about anything one wanted, no matter how diametrically opposed the opinions might be.

Fake news, fake science, fake medicine, fake theories, fake conspiracies, fake love advice, fake religions, and fake accusations are nothing new to humankind but it is becoming epidemic. Everybody feels, and that is the operative word here, FEELS that they are experts and thereby know the truth.  Just don’t confuse me with the facts! Or as good, old Isaiah claimed centuries ago, “Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey,” (Isaiah 59:15). See, I told you that this was nothing new.

One of the better-known statements from Jesus are the words, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” (John 8:32). Jesus was confidently connecting truth with his way of love, grace, forgiveness, compassion, mercy, and healing as the way to God and to each other – what he calls discipleship. Living this way will set us free from the traps, snares and chains of living a life that is tethered to lies, falseness, self-deceit, conceit, dishonesty and fraudulence about ourselves, others and the world.

Under the care of God’s grace, we can be honest about ourselves, about our relationships, our opinions, our weaknesses, our fears, our desires and wishes. As we open up to God the real persons under our masks and facades, there is forgiveness, healing and redemption.

In the truth of God’s Love comes the freedom to see and welcome the truth that is in the other person. In Jesus’ truth one acts toward the other with empathy, compassion, acceptance, judgeless-ness, and one moves toward the other with an open hand and an open heart.

We let go of the untruths that weigh us down and leap forward in a new, fresh truth that sets us free. It is a resurrection moment!

Most of us have heard that classic line, “You can’t handle the truth!” from the movie A Few Good Men. But I think we are given the critical capacity to handle the truth. We are given the human talent to be wise, to be discerning, to be perceptive, to be judicious, to be intelligent and smart, to be careful, to be authentic and lean into the truth which creates a better you and me, a better neighbourhood and a better world.

And that’s the truth!

Dale