Pascha VIII Pentecost

Pascha VIII – The Solemnity of Pentecost

Acts: 2:1-11; Psalm 104; Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 15:26-27; 16:12-15

Do you recognize truth when you encounter it? Recognition has become more difficult, has it not? I believe we are living in a period in which we are experiencing a crisis of ‘truth’. Truth is no longer objective. It is apparently whatever an individual or group decide it to be.

The Turkish people do not want to confront their history; so the Armenian genocide did not happen they tell themselves and the world. The Israelis do not want to confront the apartheid Palestinian state they have virtually created; so they speak about justifiably defending themselves against the Palestinian people who have lived there for 2000 years. For many Americans in the south, the Civil War was not about slavery but northern aggression. “If you stayed up north, ain’t nothing would’ve happened,” said a man named, Jeff, to a reporter in the current issue of The Atlantic.

The stories individuals, families, groups of people, and nation-states tell about themselves matter. Because our stories reflect back to us the ‘truth’ we want to believe often despite objective facts. You tell a story often enough, even celebrate it with ceremony, song and pride and any self-defining story no matter how inaccurate or false can become truth.

We hear the phrase “cancel culture.” What is ‘cancel culture’? We use such terms these days without defining them. The better to create verbal weapons against perceived enemies. Is ‘cancel culture’ changing facts for a biased purpose or is it uncovering the fullness of facts that often make us uncomfortable, confront our self-perceptions and thus invite us to change.

The buying and selling of human beings from Africa and the genocide of indigenous peoples are both part of the foundation story of America.  Uncomfortable and inconvenient facts.  

Why are people morbidly fascinated by the opening of the Vatican Archives to the reign of the World War II pope, Pius XII?

Truth. Do we really want to know the truth?

The media is filled with what is called by the curious term, misinformation. Just enough ‘truth’ but also inaccurate enough to lead people astray. This has always been the approach of dictators throughout history.

A photograph can be photo-shopped, that is, altered. This way we can either lie to ourselves about what we actually looked like or to disseminate as a lie for political or slanderous purposes.

What is the truth about vaccinations? Why is the expertise of the scientist and medical professional, and wisdom and knowledge in general, suddenly questioned to the degree that we have become our own personal universes of diverse knowledge with nothing to learn from any other source?

We are also experiencing a privatization of the meaning of words. If we cannot agree on what words mean, how can we communicate, discuss complex issues and come to consensus in such a multicultural church and society? The meaning of what constitutes human life is at the heart of the abortion issue. But for years the discussion has centered on personal ‘rights’ and privacy cordoning off any and all valuable communal insight and truth on such a complex human and primarily women’s experience. This privatization and distortion of words and meaning has created the extreme atmosphere we live in – polarization.

Words have come to mean their opposite: bullying and brazenness are considered courage; a desire for peace is understood as weakness; speaking up for truth, especially to people in power, is considered betrayal.

Truth has become so distorted and manipulated that it is to us – illusive.

At the trial of Jesus, Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” has never been more relevant than today. And if you remember, Jesus gave no verbal response. For the answer to Pilate’s question down to our own time is the same; the glory of the cross; this self-giving love of God for the world. “For God so loved the world as to give the Only-Begotten Son that whoever believes may not die, but have eternal life.”

Here, at the foot of the cross, is found truth. Truth nailed to a tree like an ensign. Thus Jesus declares, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” These three aspects of Jesus’ self-identification are bound together.

For the work of the Spirit of truth is to confront our lies; the lies we tell ourselves; the lie of our sin in not receiving the love of God at work in Jesus and in each other. The work of the Spirit of truth is to destroy death; the deaths we inflict on each other that deprive all of us of a fuller life. The work of the Spirit of truth is to guide us along unknown paths into a future of hope.

So, what are we disciples to do in these uncertain and extreme times?

Jesus tells us directly, “You [along with the Spirit of truth] are to testify to me because you have been with me…”

If we are to testify to the truth of Jesus crucified and risen, we had better have more than a working knowledge of Jesus. If the world is to believe us, we must be in an intimate relationship with Jesus which since the encounter of the disciples at Emmaus and that of dear doubting Thomas only comes about through gathering in community which guards us against falsehood, confronting and confessing our sins which gives us insight and a clear vision forward and sharing Word, Body and Blood in the Eucharist which is eternal life itself.

In these actions of the Christian community truth can be found amidst all the world’s noise. For truth is a relationship. Truth is not a what, but a who.