What is Truth?

What is the truth…and what is a lie?

It seems the answer should be obvious. Whatever actually happened is what is true…and what didn’t is a lie. Right?
Well, I had a professor who taught in Madagascar for much of his career…and he let us know that truth isn’t actually so clear. You see, in many other cultures truth isn’t judged by the veracity of what actually happened…or what is empirically true…but rather, truth is whatever is good for the relationship. What is true is what brings people together, rather than tearing them apart. I have to say…as a person raised to believe in empirical truth…I wasn’t convinced.

Yet, we all know that truth can be a bit nebulous at times. We know that 5 people can watch the same event and tell 5 different stories about what happened and each one of them will be absolutely convinced that they have the “True” story. It happens with adult siblings all the time. Maybe you’ve experienced it. You each remember something that happened in the family…but the details are completely different and yet you’re both absolutely sure you are correct. And then, if you ask the parent, you get another story again.

So what is true? Well, in Madagascar, the truth would be the story that brings people together rather than tearing them apart.

I say this…because these Bible stories were not written in our empirically minded Western culture. They were written in cultures more similar to Madagascar. So when John talks about what has been true from the beginning… and the lies we believe…John is talking about the truth that brings people together. John is talking about the love that brings people closer to each other and closer to God as the truth. The lies…well, those are the things that rip people apart and separate us from God.

The story we read today about Adam and Eve in the Garden…is about how we so quickly believe lies — lies that cause us to hide from God and to hurt one another. And it’s important that we realize that this story isn’t meant to be a history story….but more of a campfire story…passed on for generations to remind people who we are…and who we always have been as human beings.

We are created good. Beloved. Made in God’s image. But we easily become discontented. What the snake tells Eve and Adam is that if they eat the fruit…they will become like God and they will know what is good and evil. They will get to judge one another…instead of trusting God. They will be in charge. That is the original sin. This is the story of how humans break God’s heart and cause brokenness in the world again and again and again…since the beginning of time….by wanting to be in charge…wanting power. By judging one another…tearing others down for the sake of being “right”. By not trusting God…who calls you “good”….who calls your neighbor “good”…and believing the liars who tell us that our neighbors should be hated or feared.

So what lies have we believed? What lies are causing us to judge one another? To tear one another down? Oh there are lots of them. But I think Dr. Paul Farmer said it best when he said — “The Lie that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong in the world.” The lie that some lives matter less than others…is the root of all that is wrong with the world. That’s the lie the snake tells. The lie that Black lives matter less…and they could be treated like livestock. The lie that Jewish lives matter less…and they can be exterminated. The lie that migrant lives matter less….that they can be caged, and their children stolen…that they can be hunted along the border. The lie that women’s lives matter less….that their rights can be denied, their voices silenced. The lie that Native lies matter less…and they can be uprooted and confined on reservations. The lie that poor people’s lives matter less. The lie that LGBTQ lives matter less. The lie that homeless lives matter less. The lie that rural lives matter less. The lie that addicted lives matter less. The lie that incarcerated lives matter less. The lie that mentally challenged lives matter less. The lie that mentally ill lives matter less. That lie that for any reason, your life matters less than mine is what is wrong with the world. Because the truth…the truth is whatever brings us together. Whatever heals our relationships. The truth is that we are all children of God. That is the truth. And Jesus lives that truth…he is that truth. Jesus who came to reconcile us to God and to one another.

When God comes to see Adam and Eve…when God calls for them after they have chosen to believe the snake’s lies…they hide in shame. And you know, after listing all the ways we lie about who matters less…I want to hide in shame. I am ashamed of our human story. Ashamed of all the evil we have done. Ashamed to be human. We humans are capable of the worst atrocities and I would like to think it’s “those people” who have done those horrible things. But we’re all just people….we’re all part of this story. I’m no different than any of those others.

People have said the difference between shame and guilt is that guilt is knowing I have done something bad….but shame is believing I am bad. Adam and Eve believed they were bad. They were no longer children of God, no longer loved, no longer worthy.

But Jesus calls that shame a lie as well. No person is bad. We do bad things…but Jesus offers us God’s forgiveness. And calls us back to the truth. Calls us to abide in him. And friends…when we abide in Jesus, we do not have to hide in shame.

Friends, you are God’s beloved ones and that is the truth. We are all part of this broken human story…but You do not have to hide in shame. God calls you to live with confidence…and live in the truth. The truth that binds us together…the truth that heals our relationships with one another. The truth that we are all God’s children, and God’s forgiveness is absolute. God calls us to tell the truth. The truth in love. The truth of love.

And what is truth? Pilate asked that, if you remember….when it was standing right in front of him. Jesus is the truth. Jesus, God with us…God abiding with us and in us. That is the truth. Thanks be to God. Amen.