2-13-12<\/p>\n
A political season can get people thinking about promises \u2013 promises for the future (by candidates we like) and the potential of broken promises (by those whom we don\u2019t). When I was a kid I wrote a fan letter to Walt Kelly, the cartoonist of \u201cPogo,\u201d who sent a drawing of Albert the Alligator\u2019s platform as a political advisor: \u201cI promise you voters to not promise anything. And if I do make a promise, I promise not to keep it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That would be refreshing, really. But the problem with promises is not politics or politicians \u2013 it\u2019s human nature; which, I promise you, will never change on its own.<\/p>\n
Truth is something we all must confront, and deal with. Even Pontius Pilate, yielding to public pressure, desperately trying by symbolism to wash his hands of the guilty act of condemning an innocent man to die, looked at Jesus, probably knowing better than the mob did Whom he addressed. He asked, \u201cWhat is Truth?\u201d People don\u2019t ask such questions of criminals or strangers or even politicians, of Pilate\u2019s day or our own day.<\/p>\n
One aspect of human nature is that when we are confronted with Truth, it frequently is our tendency not to change ourselves or our habits, but to bend truth, explain it away, weaken it, even deny it. Heretics through the history of Christianity, \u201crelativists\u201d in philosophy, and leaders of the Emergent movement on the fringes of today\u2019s religion, all have tacked adjectives to the word \u201ctruth.\u201d They give us relational truth, conditional truth, relative truth\u2026 everything except the firmly rejected Absolute Truth. Which the Bible teaches. And what God IS. And what Jesus embodied \u2013 \u201cI am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.\u201d<\/p>\n
I have noticed that a lot of Christians can be timid about the truth, and frequently they justify it by not wanting to offend non-believers. Some even think that being too bold with the truth about God \u2013 maybe at first, anyway \u2013 might alienate prospective Christians. \u201cMeet them at the their level,\u201d because, after all, doesn\u2019t God say He loves us just as we are? \u2026 and pretty soon, the well-meaning Christian is the enabler of sin and a rebellious lifestyle, instead of speaking the truth.<\/p>\n
If someone were to approach you on the street, and say, \u201cSic enim dilexit Deus mundum ut Filium suum unigenitum daret ut omnis qui credit in eum non pereat sed habeat vitam aeternam,\u201d chance are you would not know what the person said. I wouldn\u2019t. How about if someone in the supermarket called to you, \u201cDenn so hat Gott die Welt geliebt, da\u00df er seinen eingeborenen Sohn gab, damit jeder, der an ihn glaubt, nicht verloren gehe, sondern ewiges Leben habe!\u201d it probably would not be much different. Are they asking a question, telling a joke, or cursing at you? Then you get a phone call: \u201cCar Dieu a tant aim\u00e9 le monde qu’il a donn\u00e9 son Fils unique, afin que quiconque croit en lui ne p\u00e9risse point, mais qu’il ait la vie \u00e9ternelle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, these are the Latin, German, and French translations of John 3:16. \u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.\u201d If you went to Sunday School, if you watch football games on TV, you know the verse. Do you know it in Latin?<\/p>\n
It makes no difference whether you understand it or not: it is still true. <\/p>\n
And this is a lesson for how you and I should relate to non-believers. Some Christian counselors dismiss bad behavior, for fear of offending those who need help. Some youth workers try to dress and talk and act like adolescents, subconsciously (or maybe quite deliberately) thinking that they have found a way to reach kids that is better than sharing God\u2019s truth. No: we should speak the truth, and the Holy Spirit takes over when the seed is planted \u2013 part of the job description.<\/p>\n
Most of us live on smaller stages, but we should remember that when St Paul explained that he was willing to be \u201call things to all people,\u201d he didn\u2019t mean compromising his faith; he meant that, unlike haughty priests, he knew it was necessary to meet everyone where they were, literally. He \u201cspoke Greek to Greeks,\u201d and showed up in front of pagan temples \u2013 not to join in their rituals but to share Jesus with people who would never otherwise hear such words. <\/p>\n
Likewise, Jesus Himself. He had fellowship with Mary Magdalene, and the woman at the well, not to have sex but to discuss their sins. Not even to condemn, but to forgive. But He did not \u201caccept\u201d them \u201cwhere they were\u201d in terms of accepting their transgressions. Just the opposite. Jesus was, and is, quick and hard with the Truth. \u201cSin no more.\u201d<\/p>\n
If we do less \u2013 whether confronting our own sins; or the sometimes excruciating obligation to share the gospel with others; or in confronting integrity in national debates \u2013 if we do less, we fail not by slight degrees, but miserably.<\/p>\n
For then we brand ourselves as \u201chalf-truthers,\u201d which is tradition\u2019s polite term for liars. All things to all people? Unless you define it as Paul did\u2026 far better it is to be one thing to the One God. If truth be told.<\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n
Truth does not vary according to the audience or the culture or the times. That is the definition of truth. Like a rock. Not just as a last refuge but a first affection, we should cling to the Rock of Ages. Here some Homecoming singers at the Cove, Billy Graham\u2019s conference center, gathered to sing the classic hymn. Sitting next to Gloria Gaither that day, under a portrait of Billy Graham, was Billy\u2019s late wife Ruth.<\/p>\n