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"Why Truth Never Needs Defending” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – July 12, 2015 Centenary United
Psalm 34:15-22; Mark 6:14-29 This morning we are going to consider why
truth never needs to be
defended. This sounds counter to
everything that we have been taught.
A quality that
truth has is that it is
always pointing to where humanity is headed.
Truth never points to the present.
As a result,
truth is often greeted with
fear, while numerous authorities do everything they can to resist change
by protecting and holding onto what they already know. How many times have we arrived at the
truth of an Iron Lung as
being the best treatment for polio?
However, when Jonas Salk brought a different
truth in the form of a
vaccine packaged in a sugar cube, his discovery allowed us to let go of
something that was once truth.
Until recently, polio had all but disappeared. How about the King James version of the Bible being
God's Holy Word?
Eugene Peterson and others like him created clearer
interpretations from the old manuscripts and unlocked our understanding
of what the Scriptures were saying.
Centuries ago the Peterson's of our day would have been killed.
How about people whose
truth is to drink only bottled water, even after they read the label
that says "filtered"? The
marketing of these products can be quite seductive, i.e., "our water
comes from a hidden, pristine spring high in the One
of the interesting qualities of
truth
is that we cannot see it or understand it until it arrives and becomes
part of our daily lives.
Truth
often comes in strange and disguised forms. One of the activities
that was on my bucket list
when I was a younger man was to experience working on an archaeological
dig for an entire season.
Lois and I had the opportunity to do that early in our marriage.
In Lois' area, the workers discovered a beautiful mosaic.
The process of preserving one of these works of art is extremely
tedious and time consuming. From
the design, we learned that Heshbon, on the east bank of When we consider the work that goes into preserving ancient
artifacts, it was incredibly painful to witness ISIL militants
destroying countless carefully preserved symbols from a former culture.
Once the fighters conquered The militants believe that all non-Islamic artifacts must be
destroyed in the same manner in which they believe Muhammad commanded
his followers to do centuries ago. The
lack of tolerance for differences in people's beliefs reveals a
truth that the
militants cannot see. When a group believes that it possesses the
truth, what would be the
point of destroying what others once held sacred hundreds of years
earlier? People
can destroy the ancient footprints to the future made by primitive
cultures, but what they cannot destroy is how those earlier people
provided the foundations upon which future cultures built their systems
of beliefs. Nothing
can prevent truth from
coming! All that the
mightiest forces in our world have been able to accomplish is to slow
truth entering our lives.
In this morning's Gospel lesson, we have the story of the
senseless murder of Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist.
John had angered King Herod because he had taken Herodias, his
brother Philip's wife, and moved into the palace with her. John was
nonstop in his public denunciation of the ruling couple.
Herodias hated John but because John was loved by the people,
Herod would not permit anything to happen to him. Herodias developed a plan to get rid of
this evil prophet.
The plot unfolded by means of a large birthday party that Herod
had planned for himself.
All the movers and shakers of
the kingdom were present. There was considerable alcohol flowing and
soon Herod had set aside most of his inhibitions.
Herodias' daughter put on such a performance with her sensuous
dancing, that Herod publicly exclaimed that he would give her anything
she wanted, even half his kingdom.
She went to her mother to enquire what she should request.
Herodias' well-planned trap worked perfectly.
She said, "Ask him for the head of John the Baptist to be brought
to you on a plate." John was bold enough to stand up and denounce the misbehavior of his country's ruling monarch. John paid for his words against King Herod with his life. Herodias, however, had her victory. Two years after John's murder, the enemies of a new level of
truth struck again by crucifying Jesus between two thieves. The greatest
teacher to awaken others to the power of an unseen world was silenced.
Yet, as we sang last week in our closing hymn, "Glory, glory hallelujah,
His truth is marching on."
These deaths had the potential to destroy any enthusiasm for the
truth that John and Jesus
represented. The
attacks did not stop at just these two.
First century writers revealed to future readers what happened to
many of the early Christian disciples and leaders.
Matthew was
slain with a sword in Spiritual Truths have
had a very challenging time surviving in human history just as
truth has in every pursuit of
humankind. We wonder how
truth survived.
When we think about it, the answer is clear.
Truth will always remain a
moving, dynamic, constantly expanding quality of our lives.
Nothing can stop
truth from entering our lives
until it becomes the new normal
that is waiting for the arrival of the next installment. What has
frozen the religious communities is their theology, dogma and
true doctrines
masquerading as
truth.
Since believers are convinced
that their spiritual treasure
comes from God, no religious leader can expand or reinterpret any of it
without losing their followers and their own credibility. This has
placed all major religions on a collision course because they cannot all
be correct. Jesus taught something
that no one had ever heard until he said it.
Matthew recorded Jesus' words, "What good does it do if people
gain control over the entire world if, during their takeover bid, they
have missed the point of why they are alive."
(Matthew 16:26) Jesus
knew there are two worlds. Only one of them is available to our
senses. He also said, "Render
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God, the things that are
God's." (Mark 12:17) The Apostle Paul captured the essence of Jesus' understanding of
the two worlds when he wrote:
"Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but
let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your
mind." (Romans 12:2)
People who know this do not lose confidence in God's creative
abilities. People who know
this do not feel that truth
is being snuffed out by those that want
to cleanse our planet of all
the infidels that will not
submit to their orthodoxy. What is intriguing about ISIL's theology is that they are seeking
world-domination for Islam, knowing that this is
the
will of Allah.
These fighters never stopped to learn the teachings of the Sufis
whose shrines they reduced to rubble last month.
Sufis
believe that they are carriers of the pure form and spirit of Islam.
I have no doubt that they
have a greater truth than
their ISIL brothers. The Sufis know about the presence of the inner world that no one
can see. Jesus told Pontius
Pilate, "My Kingdom is not
of this world." (John
18:36) The Sufis teach that
once awakened (born again)
people are able to put on the
outer garment of the material world and adapt beautifully because
they also wear an inner garment
that knows the mystical way (Jesus'
Kingdom of God). What is even more remarkable is that a Sufi Master named
Al-Hallaj was crucified in AD 1191, for his teachings and poetry,
portions of which describe how he and his beloved (God)
are one. Jesus said, "The Father and I are one.
(John 10:30)
Al-Hallaj died with very familiar words on his lips, "Forgive them, they
know not what they do." Why is it that truth
never needs defending?
Truth
will always face headwinds
caused by people that need to cling to what they know.
Even though every definitive ceiling has been shattered in all
areas of life, theology only moves forward grudgingly.
When
truth is seemingly being crushed by
the gods
of the material world, it will always experience a resurrection in the
lives of individuals who can
handle it.
Not everyone can handle truth
as it is dawning. The
truth only comes when
individuals are open to receiving it. What gives us hope during the darkest of times of our lives is
that humanity is headed toward a remarkable future while living in our
physical forms, one that our present vocabulary cannot describe.
We happen to be living in
one of those in-between times.
Tagor, one of the great poets from |