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Inspirational Christian Writing

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Truth or tolerance?
John Tucker, 20 August 2003

Does truth matter?

Well the war is over. Saddam has gone. His sons have been killed and his lieutenants captured. But where are the weapons of mass destruction? Did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction? Did the American and British governments actually believe that Iraq represented a real and imminent threat to the rest of the world?

Current events would suggest not. In Britain the evidence before the Hutton Inquiry suggests that the British Government's dossier on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction was "sexed up." In other words, it appears that the British Government lied.

Now the fascinating thing is that for most of the New Zealand public this news has been greeted not with moral outrage but a casual toss of the head: "So they twisted the truth, fed us a few lies . so what! If their motives were good, and the outcome positive - freeing an oppressed people from the grip of a tyrannical dictator - who cares? What does it matter?"

What matters is this: Do we believe that some things are morally right and others are morally wrong? In our culture today, does the truth matter? Well increasingly, for many people, the answer appears to be "No."

The real invasion

The kiwi journalist, Kate Belgrave, writes about the sort of scandals embroiling high profile politicians and sports stars like Pauline Hanson and Shane Warne. She observes that Gen X (the under 35s) are much less judgmental than the older Baby Boom generation when it comes to what public people do in their private lives. She says:

"As the Baby Boom generation slowly dies off it'll be better news for those in public life in terms of any skeletons that might come rattling out of their wardrobes. Don't worry that your past might come up and bite you on the behind one day . You're about to see a generation that truly doesn't give a [fig.]"

Take the film The Contender. It came out as another Hollywood sermon in the wake of the Clinton presidency. It preaches the message that when it comes to public competence your private life is irrelevant. Telling the truth doesn't really matter.

So it seems that the old idea that there are moral absolutes to which we all have access and to which we are all subject has been strangled by the pluralism invading our culture. Pluralism is the idea that there is no truth, only truths; there are no principles, only preferences. At best, truth is a matter of personal opinion. At worst, it is a mask for power.

According to the Kate Belgraves and Michael Laws of our society, all moral values are relative - each person or culture develops their own sense of what's morally acceptable. And the question is not "Is it right?" but "Does it work for me?" So we assume the attitude of Marilyn Monroe, who is said to have declared, "I believe in everything - a little bit."

Whether we realise it or not, this assumption - pluralism - is the air we breathe, the background noise in our culture today. And in this sort of cultural climate the only heresy is telling someone else that they are wrong. Tolerance, or political correctness, is the ultimate virtue. Not truth.

Strategies for battle

This is the battle line today. For Christians, pluralism is the enemy we must conquer if we are to win the hearts of our friends and our culture. Truth - not tolerance - is the ultimate virtue. And we must fight for it. How? Here are three strategies.

First, gently expose the logical weaknesses in the initially attractive pluralist position. Push pluralism to its logical conclusion and it crumbles. For example, pluralists claim to have a true perspective, but that is not possible if there is no such thing as truth. Their demand for absolute tolerance is itself intolerant, for it excludes the Christian worldview on the grounds of being exclusive. Moreover, if there is no such thing as right and wrong, anything goes; there is no defence against nonsense. And without moral absolutes, without truth, we have no effective references by which to live. In the words of Crossan, "There is no light house keeper. There is no lighthouse. There is no dry land. There are only people on rafts made from their own imaginations. And there is the sea."

A second strategy is to affirm both the existence of truth and the possibility of knowing it (if not fully). God has revealed himself both through the Bible and through his Son. The Bible says a great deal about truth. The gospel message concerning the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is spoken of as "the word of truth" (Ephesians 1:13). Jesus himself declared himself to be "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6). By the way he acted and related to people, Jesus demonstrated the way to live - God's moral standard, the truth about ourselves - that we all fall a long way short of God's glory (Romans 3:23), and the life he freely offers each of us. Our part is to simply own up to our sins, receive his forgiveness, and trust his Spirit to transform us from the inside out (1 John 1:9; Romans 3:24; 1 Corinthians 6:19).

But there's one more strategy, perhaps the most important. Many people are deaf to the claims of the Bible. It's not surprising: they don't believe it's true. It's no good shouting louder or quoting more verses. We need to live the truth. Like Jesus, we need to embody the truth of the gospel. Only if we credibly demonstrate it by way the way we live will our friends and families acknowledge the truth of the gospel. So are we a Christian community marked by unity, sacrificial love, and truth? Do we incarnate the goodness and glory of God by the way we relate to one another? As the body of Christ, the family of God, the temple of his Spirit, isn't that our calling? In the words of the Apostle John, we are people who "belong to the truth" (1 John 3:19).

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Communion means ... remembering

I heard an interesting and utterly useless piece of information the other day. The average goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. (That's why goldfish don't go crazy swimming around a tiny glass bowl - the scenery is always new. Every three seconds).

Some times I feel like a goldfish. I ring someone on the phone and, just as the other person comes on the line, I realise I have forgotten who I'm calling. Or I walk into a room and find myself standing there thinking, "Now what on earth did I come in here for." I've forgotten, completely forgotten in less than three seconds. Can you relate to that?

I know of a family who have a wonderful tradition. They play a game every dinner time. It's called "High and Low." Each of the kids has to share with the family a high point from their day as well as a low point. The purpose of the game, at least from the parents' point of view, is to teach the kids how to both learn from their struggles and be grateful for their blessings.

It's easy to forget our blessings, isn't it - to take them for granted, to take the people we love for granted. I guess that's why we celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, even Anzac Day. These traditions help us remember how some people have changed our lives.

Now if there was one word that summarises what we do when we share communion - this symbolic meal known as the Lord's Supper, it would be remember. In his first letter to the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:23-26), Paul says: 23 "For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,  24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."  25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."  26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

In other words, Jesus says, "Whenever you do this, remember me - my body broken for you, my blood spilled for you. I laid down my life for you, to both save you from your sins - reconciling you to God - and also to show you that the way to live is not to serve yourself but to serve others. Even if that means being nailed to a cross, lay down your life for others, because - like me - you have a Father who looks after you and your interests. He can turn tragedy into triumph. He will raise you to new life if you will die to yourself."

So when you take communion, as you take the bread, let it remind you of Jesus, the Bread of Life. How has he changed your life? What "highs" has he brought?

And as you take the juice or wine, remember what it cost Jesus to save you and bring you God's forgiveness. How is he calling you to take up your cross and follow him in laying down your life for someone else?

John Tucker

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Taken from a sermon of pastor John Tucker:

My Work Commitment

  I believe that God has made me, (name), in his image
to work for him as his partner
in redeeming this beautiful but fallen world.
I recognise that through all my work,
both paid and unpaid, exciting and mundane,
God wants to transform my character
my family, my friends,
my neighbours, my co-workers,
restoring my small corner of the world.
Whatever I do,
as (insert your key relationships e.g son to Pauline, friend to James, husband of Alice etc)
I will try to work with all my heart
knowing that I am working for God, worshipping God,
and that my work therefore has eternal significance.

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The Church Board commences its business meetings with prayer and a short period of devotions when members bring some thoughts to focus the meeting on the principal purpose for which we meet - caring for God's Church. Elizabeth McNee brought these thoughts:

" I'm no theologian so I'd just like to share some thoughts I've had as I've pottered around enjoying my retirement.

Those of you who are gardeners and frequent local garden centres will no doubt be familiar with this verse that's often inscribed on plaques there:

This is certainly so for me. I love working away in the garden with plants, birds and insects, and having the opportunity and time to entertain all the thoughts that come into my head. It's there that I've made up some anthropomorphic stories and poems for my grandchildren -

* the little wax eyes that could fly to any tree in the garden except the sticky bird catcher tree and ...

* Alexander Ant who has six little feet so needs three pair of shoes to wear to school

* Yetta the Weta who overheard some boys say she was ugly but whose mother assured her that she was the most beautiful creature in the world.......

The other day I was clearing the side of the drive. It was an absolute tangle of jasmine, campsis, ivy and two other equally noxious vines that had formed a canopy over a large area. Underneath the canopy were huge, ugly, old tree stumps that had never been removed when the section was subdivided. They were obviously too big of a problem to be dealt with, so vines were planted as a cover up.

The strange thing was though, that to a casual glance the growth looked OK. In fact it looked lush. It was only when you looked closely that you could see that the lushness was nothing other than ugly vines that were entwining themselves around each other and around the few good nearby trees, biting into their flesh and strangling their growth.

While I was hacking, cutting and sawing, the canopy made me think of the cover-ups, the fraud and lies that we seem to read and hear about every day - not only overseas, but also close to home.

* In Germany, the ruling Social Democrats embroiled in a series of bribery and embezzlement scandals involving dozens of local and national politicians

* France's Jacques Chirac named in seven corruption investigations and prior to the presidential election, lampooned as "Superliar" on a satirical TV programme.

* In Spain, one of the country's leading banks in turmoil after revelations that managers kept secret slush funds for, among other things, influencing election campaigns.

* In the USA, the Enron debacle.

* In New Zealand, illegal fishing and fraud at the top levels of the Ministry of Fisheries; the Prime Minister signing pieces of art she never painted; John Davy dismissed as Head of the Maori Television Service for submitting a CV with phoney qualifications

Saturday week ago "The Herald" printed this statement in relation to one of its articles:

                  Of all the traits that set humans apart from animals, the one that causes the most trouble is our ability to lie.

Throughout the Bible there are accounts of people who have lied. Even in the very first book, Genesis, we read where Abram lost faith in God's protection and lied about his relationship to Sarai and where Jacob, (with the help of his mother Rebekah), lied and cheated his brother Esau of his father's blessing. The other well-known story about a liar is in 2 Kings - Gehazi, Elisha's servant who first lied to Naaman to get money and clothing and then lied to Elisha. In the New Testament, Ananias and Sapphira come to mind. They covered up the fact that they had kept back part of the money they got from selling their land. Peter told them they had not lied to men but to God. You can probably come up with many more examples.

In his letter to the Ephesians Paul wrote, "... each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbour."

Jesus emphasised the importance of telling the truth in His teachings in the Sermon on the Mount - "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No,' 'No'. (Matt. 5:37)

Lying creates conflicts, destroys trust, and tears down relationships.

So, my time in the garden reinforced for me the importance of being truthful at all times, to all with whom I have a relationship.

When I'd made progress with my hacking I was delighted to find a real treasure - a clump of clivias, which can't be affected by vines because of their leaf formation. This made me wonder if despite all the bad press about people being fraudulent, covering up and lying, there might also be some treasure, some good news. After I went inside, I scanned  the paper specifically looking for it. I found it unexpectedly, under the heading "Faith shows the way says 'sinner' Bush."  

President Bush was calling on Congress to let religious groups share in the federal money available to deliver social services to the less fortunate. The article went on to say that the President opens Cabinet meetings with a prayer and prays in the Oval office. It also quoted from his speech. He said - "Faith is a powerful motivator ... I know first-hand what faith can mean to somebody's life, so I remind people I am just a humble sinner who saw redemption."

That clump of clivias reminded me that good can exist even in the middle of despairing situations and that I should make an effort to look for it and thank God for it.

It's my prayer that you will allow God to speak to you in various ways as you go about your ordinary everyday tasks."

(Note: The NZ Herald Story on President Bush can be found on the NZ Herald web site at: www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&storyID=1842814 )

 

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