Jarrett McLaughlin
“Truth in Order to Goodness”
November 24, 2024
John 18:28-38
Cold Open:
John Colcough (Col-cuff) was nearing the end of his life, but he had something that he needed to share – a secret that he needed to tell.
His neighbor, Macky Alston, was shooting a documentary that we recently showed here at UPC, and what the two men discussed was the Penfield Cemetery. This is where many of the historic heroes of Mercer University are buried and memorialized with grand monuments.
John spoke through the oxygen tube that had become a permanent fixture around his face.
“I’m not going to be around much longer,” he said, “and I need to tell you something. On the other side of the wall there is a whole other cemetery. You need to go see it.”
Macky and his daughter drove to the graveyard and jumped the wall. What they found on the other side was a tumble of broken, faded gravestones covered in weeds and fallen trees – a segregated cemetery where Penfield’s black community had to lay their loved ones to rest – over time it had been forgotten and it was this close to slipping into history’s great oblivion.
John Colcough died three weeks later.
Sometimes a secret can weigh heavily on the human soul.
Sometimes there is a truth that must be spoken aloud before it is too late.
Today is Christ the King Sunday, the last stop in the liturgical year before we head into Advent and Christmas.
It occupies this spot on the calendar because, before we get to singing Christmas carols hailing the birth of this new-born King, we would do well to remember who this King actually is – that Jesus is not always tender and mild, but the one who can completely upend our lives.
Our Scripture reading this morning recounts a bit of Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate.
The lectionary pushes this text forward because Jesus and Pilate talk an awful lot about kings and kingdoms, but the two also have an interesting conversation about the truth, and that is what I would like to focus on today.
As we prepare to hear this word, let us pray:
We are here, God, ready to listen, ready to receive.
Speak something true to us, we pray. Amen.
Scripture:
Then they took Jesus from [the Priest] Caiaphas to Pilate’s headquarters. It was early in the morning.
They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover.
So Pilate went out to them and said, ‘What accusation do you bring against this man?’
They answered, ‘If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.’
Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.’
The2024 replied, ‘We are not permitted to put anyone to death.’
Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’
Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’
Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’
Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’
Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’
Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’
This is the word of the Lord.
THANKS BE TO GOD.
Sermon:
In the United States we do not have Kings or Queens.
That hasn’t stopped us from entertaining a deep fascination with monarchy – from children obsessing over Disney Princesses to grown adults gluing themselves to the television whenever anything of note happens among the British royal family – but by design the origins of this nation expressly rejected the very idea of a king.
Instead, we have Presidents and Governors and Senators – public servants elected by the People to serve the People.
A little Pop Quiz action for us today – let’s leave the first question for the children.
The first President of the United States was…?
George Washington. See, easy stuff.
There are many stories of General Washington from the Revolutionary War, but there is one about his childhood that is oft repeated.
Does anybody know it? George Washington and the….?
Cherry Tree.
It may be that not everyone knows it – so let’s review.
As a child, George’s father gifts him with…
An Axe…a hatchet.
He wandered around the farm with his new hatchet and then he came upon a cherry tree – his father’s favorite cherry tree – and he took a swing at it and another and another until the tree fell down.
Later, discovering that his favorite tree had been cut down, his father was furious.
“Who cut down my tree?” he asked.
Young George steps forward and says…does anybody know?
“I cannot tell a lie…I cut the tree with my hatchet.”
And then his father scoops him up in his arms, saying that his son’s honesty was worth more to him than a thousand cherry trees.
So, is the story real? Maybe…maybe not.
But what is the function of telling such a story about our nation’s first President?
The takeaway is that honesty is important. In this fledgling nation, the truth matters.
—
In the Prayer of Confession this morning we nodded to one of what the Presbyterian Book of Order lists as the Six Great Ends of the Church.
Our tradition confesses that the Church has been entrusted with six sacred responsibilities.
One among them is the Preservation of The Truth.
In these days, it can feel a bit odd to talk about The Capital-T Truth.
Perhaps that is more true for quote-in-quote “progressive” people, but I have noticed a certain discomfort with claiming any kind of fixed, static Truth.
“All truth is relative,” some might say, “what’s true for you is not necessarily true for me.”
I suspect this is intended to be a gesture of humility – an acknowledgment that absolute truth cannot be dictated by force; a recognition that what’s true for you depends on many things – where you grow up, how you grew up, the life-experiences that have shaped you.
But, as with all things, there is a corrupted version of this as well – one that jettisons all the humility and replaces it with a smug certainty in one’s own, personal truth.
We see this in spades today. We live in the age of alternative facts and designer news networks; where any information that conflicts with our worldview is dismissed with a cynical shrug.
—
I know that we like to think of this as unprecedented in the history of the world.
I know that it’s tempting to wax nostalgic about yesteryear when we had a common set of facts and trusted sources for reporting those Facts and decisions were made based on those FACTS!
But disregarding the facts and dismissing the truth is nothing new.
Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, on trial for his life, and when he began speaking about the truth, Pilate gave his own cynical shrug and asked “What is truth?”
Power has always suppressed any truth that doesn’t fit into its preferred worldview.
So – If this is the world that we live in – where facts are manufactured to support the narrative and no one, singular truth determines what is real – if this is the world we live in what does it mean for the Church to devote ourselves to the Preservation of the Truth?
I want to introduce you to another deep-cut from the Presbyterian tradition that might prove insightful for what it means to preserve the truth.
Let’s continue the pop quiz – this is a bit harder:
Can anybody tell me anything important that happened in the United States in the year 1789?
The Constitution of the USA was adopted.
George Washington was elected as the first President.
Bi-cameral legislature formed – Senate and Congress.
State Department, War Department, Treasury and Attorney General were created
(Hamilton taught you that didn’t it?)
Well, a glaring omission from that list is that the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church convened in 1789. I cannot for the life of me figure how that got lost in the year-end roundup.
At that first General Assembly, the denomination adopted a form of government that included a set of Principles that would inform how the church would operate and make decisions.
These same principles still live in our current Book of Order some 235 years later. We took the liberty of printing one of them in the sidebar of your bulletin. I won’t read the entire thing but the first part is fascinating to me:
“Truth is in order to goodness; and the great touchstone of truth is its tendency to promote holiness.”
If they had to write that in 1789, it sounds like truth has always been a bit slippery.
But in a world where one person says this is true and another says the opposite is true –
the Church said – “how’s this for a litmus test? Truth is in order to goodness.”
Truth that is really true leads to goodness.
And if a so-called “truth” does nothing but generate negativity – then maybe it isn’t true at all.
To drive the point home, it quotes Jesus himself – and here is the extended passage from Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them.”
In a world where truth and falsehood are so very difficult to tell apart –
Taste the fruit and judge it accordingly.
Does it taste like peace, and goodness, and kindness, and compassion?
If so then perhaps that truth is more true.
But if it bears a vindictive and vengeful fruit; If it is bitter and bullying and divisive?
Well, perhaps that truth ought to be seriously questioned.
—
Pilate was so sure of his truth – of Rome’s crushing reality – that he never stopped to consider the fruit that it bears…the fruit that he himself is bearing.
Pilate enforced Rome’s truth with the edge of a sword.
The occupation of Judea could be very bloody, and even as he goes back and forth between Jesus and the crowd, he shows so little regard for the people he is charged to govern.
He toys with them and reminds them just how little power they have. This whole trial is an exercise in domination and humiliation.
That’s the fruit of his truth and there is nothing particularly good about it.
Jesus invites him to consider a different way.
“If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”
It’s as if Jesus were saying to him, “This is NOT the only way to be King. It’s not even close to being the best way. I see you, Pilate – I see how trapped you are in a truth that has no goodness, no compassion and certainly no joy.”
Ever the Good Shepherd, even in what would be his last encounter with another living person this side of the cross, Jesus invites Pilate to be honest. He says to him: “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
It’s a statement – but there’s also an unspoken question buried in there:
“Will you listen to my voice, Pilate?”
“Will you embrace a truth that is so much more true than Rome’s crushing reality?”
It’s difficult to capture what a hinge moment this is for the governor.
Will he break down and say “I cannot tell a lie” – I cannot live this lie?
I imagine him silenced for the first time in his life as he seriously considers listening to this no-name peasant preacher from Nazareth; as he ponders what it might mean to drop the pretense, to stop pretending and finally tell the truth.
The moment, however, is fleeting – as they often are.
It blows away with that cynical shrug of a question, “What is truth?”
And that is how Pilate reveals himself to be one more power-player who cannot handle the truth that bears good fruit.
And instead of preserving the truth he sends it to die on a cross.
But Jesus is still the very good shepherd, and the same invitation comes to us – whether we be Kings, Presidents or ordinary folk – he invites us all to listen to his voice.
In every age he still invites his Church to pursue and preserve the best truth of all.
Last pop quiz – this one’s more of a review.
How will the Church know the truth from falsehood?
Truth is in order to…what?
Goodness
By their (What) will you know them?
Fruits.
Church – We have been charged with the sacred responsibility of preserving the truth.
This means we cannot tell a lie and we certainly cannot live a lie.
Not now…not ever.
May the Good Shepherd King keep testifying to the truth – and may we listen to his voice so long as this world keeps turning. Amen.