A truth to tell

 In John's gospel Christ states that "I am the way, the truth and the life" and yet we often deny this as Christians in our lives. We often have very little compunction about telling things to people that will benefit ourselves and our friends rather than the truth. This is one of the most difficult things for us to undertake as our whole society is based on the telling of lies. If you do not believe me than listen to this story of an ethics class where telling lies was discussed. A student told the lecturer that she never told lies. The lecturer asked her a couple of questions: do you ever wear shoes that have increased your height in any way? the student replied , "Of course, I wear heels to go out to dinner" The lecturer then asked "Do you ever wear any form of make up?" The answer given was "yes most of the time". The lecturer than asked "how can you say you do not lie? You have said you lie about your height when you go out and each day you lie about who you are when you disguise your features with makeup".  These are minor social lies that we undertake each and every day in some form or another (gentlemen we are the same; just think aftershave, cologne, hair gel, shoes with a higher heel, etc). It becomes increasingly so when we begin to talk about advertising and politics in all of its forms. Our society is built on lies often hidden, often socially accepted and often blindly ignored even when we know the truth.

Accepted lies hide the truth that needs to be told

Christ in Marks's gospel suggests various body parts to be cut out and put out if they commit sin (Mk 9:43-47) perhaps indicating how we can tell an untruth through our bodies but most importantly not to allow ourselves to become tasteless without the truth salting our body (Mk. 9:49-50). In James' epistle the author is clear about how we must habituate our speech pattern around the truth (James 5:12). In answering questions and delivering our opinions we are often guilty of  waffling our way towards the endpoint rather than stating our feelings or what we wish done. This again is something that society has suggested is the better way as then we will not upset or disrupt relationship. Yet, if we do not truth tell we will eventually cause the same disruption of relationship. Yes, we needs must take care in how we speak the truth but this is about wisdom and understanding rather than not stating the truth. Truth telling is not always about words and how we inform each other. Truth telling goes beyond this to how we actually live our lives tot he fullest. In the book of Esther there is a clear understanding of what the cost of truth is not only for those telling it but those who have perpetuated a lie (Esther 7-8).

Just think about our own lives for a moment. The majority of us for whatever reason have a reluctance to share our lives with others, even with our family and friends. Even when we have things like RUOK day and other such ventures the understanding of privacy is so in built into our lives that we are reluctant to divulge and open our hearts. This is about truth telling of our hearts and minds and opening up to the presence of God. In James the writer goes on to speak about praising God if we are cheerful and praying if we are down, informing others of illness, etc (James 5:13-). This is about honesty in our own understanding of ourselves. This is telling the truth of our lives to others. It is not about divulging the secrets of secrets. It is about being honest about ourselves. This takes many of us a long time to understand and often we never come to this understanding of ourselves. We prevaricate and do not let others know our true feelings and were we are at in terms of our own health, spiritual, mental or physical. This has gradually become part of our lives over time and in some sense enshrined in the law of the land regarding privacy. We are reluctant to invite others into our hearts and life simply because we can shut them all out. In doing so we lessen our ties to each other and to the formation of community. It does not matter that we may dislike someone God asks us to love them irrespective of who or what they portray or are.

In order to be honest and pick up the cross to follow Christ we must pick up the burden of truth telling in our lives. It is no use for us to say yes we are OK when we are not for we then do not receive the support that the community can give us in prayer and comfort. As a result of this loss of respect and truth telling we have lost our ability to be empathetic. We no longer have the understanding of another's pain and circumstances since we have privatised our own pain and despair. Only when we can share in truth can we really begin to understand and empathise with others who are equally burdened and in pain.

Tongue in check

 The human race's most problematic issue is that more often than not we have no control over our verbalisations. We tend to speak before we think and in doing so we create more issues than solving them even when that is what we are about. The writer of James is quite correct in pointing this out (James 3:8). It is an ongoing issue and we only have to look at our current crop of politicians to gain insight into this. A few weeks ago I posted regarding our ability to listen, or not (https://faithindaba.blogspot.com/2021/08/words-and-action.html) and this comes in to play once more here. We fail to listen and in failing to listen we often open our mouths to say things that we should not be saying or are detrimental to ourselves and our neighbours.

In World War II there was a saying "loose lips sink ships", which is mirroring what is happening here. In not listening and in not understanding what God is saying to us we misinterpret and become bigoted and closed rather than open hearted and accepting. The author of James is very specific and detailing out the power of the tongue comparing it to the rudder of a boat that steers the ship (James 3:4). A small part of the overall which abused can land the ship in major difficulties. In our lack of discernment around the concepts that are interpreted for us we often allow ourselves to speak out in error thus creating tension and discriminatory practices within our communities and lives. Our outburst becomes a spark which lights the tinder of dissatisfied people this then causes a fire to burn. We just need to look at the anti vaxxers and other groups who for one reason or another believe the false information they are fed to see the harm being created in the community.

Control of our tongues comes from the control of our heart

Even the disciples are prone to a looseness of tongues as they think about themselves being the greatest (Mk. 9:34). They have not listened well to God's call upon their lives and must needs take time to listen to Christ reinforcing the need to be humble in approach rather than to speak out without understanding. Even the writer of Proverbs understands the need to keep a steadfast hold on what one says in public (Prov. 31:24). If we are unwise with what we say then we are going to be unwise in what we do for it is out of our mouths that we enunciate our plans. If, we are not careful with what we state then we will not be careful in our planning. The disciples were all gung ho with regards who was going to lord it over the others. Their plans were about themselves and not about those around them. So often in our lives our decisions are often based on what we think is best not necessarily what God thinks is best.

In our desires to become more prominent in society or increase our popularity we will do and say things which will "win over" the majority. In other words we do not necessarily tell the truth but only what our constituents wish to hear so that we can attain our goal rather than the goals of the community. Our desires overrun and manipulate our tongue, which guides our speech and our attitude. We have no control as we cannot control our desires and so we let our tongue run away with a multitude of promises with little truth. However, we need to control our tongues which means we need to control our desires so that they conform with the desires of God rather than human desires. The tongue is the symptom rather than the causal root of the problem. Yes, like any good programme we do need to eradicate the symptoms but the better way is remove the causative agent.

Everything that we do must be focused on the one thing that we profess as Christians. Our profession of belief in Christ and followers of Christ suggest that we should place before us the one single goal of love of God and neighbour. The singularity in this duality is the one word love. No matter what our thoughts, our deeds or our words may be they should be centred on this singular thing called love. The wife held up at in the last chapter of Proverbs displays this wisdom. Christ attempts to pass this understanding on to the disciples by his words and actions. Yet we still fail because our desires are not aligned with Christ or with the wisdom that is imparted. We still look to the symptoms of our loose tongues to remind ourselves of the control that is required rather than looking at our hearts which are the root of the issue.

How hard is it?

 We continue the discussion around faith and works with a question that arises following on from last week. The question that comes to mind is the one in the title: How hard is it? How hard is it to bring faith and works together as one rather than to go one way or the other? By all accounts the answer to that is an easy one: extremely hard. We know that this, of course, is not impossible but, yes, for us living in a society that is based solely and almost irrevocably on the selfishness inherent in the human condition, the answer is extremely difficult. We have been conditioned over years to take the most selfish view of our world by advertising, big corporates and governments throughout the world. Of course, that seems a very cynical but perhaps accurate description of the reality in which we live. Being present in the world as followers of Christ there is a constant need to remind ourselves that there is a different way, the way that the first disciples and Christ himself proposes, the way of self sacrifice or sacrifice for the other. 

In Mark's gospel Christ clearly states that as followers we need to sacrifice ourselves and pick up the cross before we begin to follow Christ (8:34). This is more and more a thing of the past. Self sacrifice seems to have left the psyche of the Australian people as a whole during our struggles with COVID and our new environment. One would think that the memories of the ANZAC are things of the past that are only celebrated as part of a national day and that is all it means. Yet, as Christians we are specifically called into all situations in terms of sacrifice. We are asked to make things holy and sacred through our actions and our total belief in Christ. Few today would even consider that this is a viable option moving forward in a world that is shattered by viral overload and violence. Most would persevere in the preserving of oneself rather than offering a true sacrifice to assist the other. In doing so, we do not lay down that which Christ calls us to leave behind but rather we embrace our selfishness as a life belt rather than the anchor that it truly is. In writing this I am reminded of being told of a person who after strict orders to remain in his car while his medication was put in to the boot, on arrival entered the pharmacy and harangued the staff. He basically said that if he was infected with COVID Albury was anyway as he had already entered two other stores.

Only by using both do we go straight

The reading from Proverbs encapsulates this in such a brilliant fashion when the writer speaking for Wisdom declares that "Evil men (sic)" reject wisdom as they hate this and are told that they will only come to a poor end (Prov. 1:31-33). The wisdom that comes from God, in this case, is not that of humanity at the present time. It is a wisdom that is timeless and is honoured by more than just Christian believers. We just need to look at some of the writings of indigenous peoples from across the world who proclaim the same sense of understanding and compassion for the other as being the true path that a wise person travels. It is only when we begin to chase after faith or works on its own that we are tempted by the selfishness that is at the heart of our species make-up and fail to recognise their two sided nature. The author of James is succinct and correct when they state that "faith without works is dead" (James 2: 26), just as you cannot have a single sided coin of any worth. We treat the two as being individual rather than a singularity which is why we do not pick up the cross and follow Christ.

Christ did not just stay on the mountain top but he went down to Jerusalem. Christ did not just walk among the community but also went to the desolate places. Both needs to be done and if we neglect the one we do not feed the other. In this time of lockdowns and other issues, when it comes to how we interact with each other, there is a sense of loss and grief. Only when we put that to the side and pick up those things that are given to us to undertake will we have a real sense of Christ's presence in ourselves. Only when we put aside our own wants and griefs and stand in the shoes of those in greater need then ourselves will we be able to truly experience the love of God flowing into the community through our actions and our contemplations. We abide in Christ in the eucharistic presence so that we can show Christ in the works that we undertake sheltering the community and opening their eyes to God's redeeming love.

Love works

Continuing on from previous weeks and the problem of faith and works or Luther's conundrum which appears to do away with works. Last week we saw the need to listen carefully and fully, rather than just hear the words, so that we are led to do what God requires.  The letter of James makes clear that faith and works are two sides of the same coin and work in tandem, the one cannot exist to its fullest without the other (James 2:14-17).  There is a danger here from both sides of the equation or coin. the one danger is the one that Luther pointed out and that is that works on their own cannot achieve anything. The second danger is the opposite that faith on its own whilst good will also not achieve anything in the end. Let me explain this a bit more.

Everyone will be up in arms about faith not achieving everything on its own. This path is the path of the mystic or the path of the spiritualist. All their energy goes into showing their piety and their faith in worship and prayer. The ascetic is a good example of this as they bring all their thought and energy into the exercise of achieving oneness with God and Christ. In doing so the person forgets that first and foremost Christ was as human as you who reads and I who writes. The Gospel passages are full of the deeds of Christ. They are not full of his withdrawal from the world into a spiritual paradise of praise and worship. In fact, he sometimes criticised the leaders of society for their improper worship and rules without understanding the practice. If we are to become the body of Christ in the world then we must be incarnate in this world and not patting ourselves on our backs for our piety and the way we worship. All that Christ did in the world were works, healing, doing, feeding, etc. Only after doing and working did Christ try to get away and pray, commune and understand what God wanted.

The other, which most people agree with, is the over abundance of works. Christ did not do his working outside of the presence of God. We have a tendency to do only that which we think is right and "looks good" to others in the community. Unless we actively participate in bringing God into what we do we are only doing what we think is best. This is what Luther railed against and it is what is easily done by all of us. We jump on the bandwagon of doing good works thinking that this is all that God wants. We are after all doing those things which are good but the old proverb that giving something only feeds the poor for a day is right. We are only alleviating the misery by a day we are no seeking to instil God's love and justice but to alleviate it to fill our own minds with the thought that we are doing good. At some point it becomes obvious that what we are doing is no more than an appeasement effort on our own part to relieve our consciences and feel good.

We reach out to help the other not for ourselves but for the other

There must be a way around this dilemma if Christ points the way and he is out and about doing good. Yes, there is and that is doing it Christ's way not our way which is what the writer of James is attempting to point out. Only when we start doing the things that bring justice into the world, not for ourselves and not for our benefit, for those who are forsaken do we begin to do works to the glory and presence of God. We allow our faith to guide and direct us in our doing just as Christ allowed God's presence to guide and direct his doings. When he healed the deaf man who had trouble speaking and he healed him Christ deliberately tells them not to speak of the work (Mk 7:36) for he did this to the glory of God not for his own glory. Typically, of course, they spread the word to give him glory and not God (Mk. 7:37). In other places to Christ does not want his works publicised and often tells the receivers of his works to go and give praise to God. Christ puts his faith in God to lead him to do that which is needed in works within the community to bring the community to see truth and justice as the way forward, not just doing good deeds as was the norm then and today.

The wisdom contained in Proverbs tells the same thing especially in chapter 22 verse 8-9. The cheerful giver may be blessed but God ensures that his vanity about the giving is destroyed in the end whilst the person who gives without regard for reward has his own reward from God by not being left out in the cold. In verses 22-23 the writer of Proverbs just reinforces this by suggesting that when we imprint God's requirements on our hearts we will be blessed and act in accord with God not for ourselves but for the other. Let us then remind ourselves that it is both faith and works that are important not one or the other but both acting in accord with each other for the good of the other not just for ourselves and our own wants.