How We Know--June 16, 2021

How We Know--June 16, 2021

"When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one great by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, 'I will surely bless you and multiply you.' And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise." [Hebrews 6:13-15]

What does somebody say to bolster their opinion with the appearance of popular support when they don't have facts to back their words up?  "People are saying...."  Lord, have mercy.  That phrase by itself, or its variations like, "I hear many people thinking..." or, "Lots of very smart people are asking..." or "Everybody is saying that..." should be a red flag right from the start that the rest of that sentence needs further scrutiny, right?  

Who are these people--do we know?  What makes them qualified to say what they think "everybody" is saying?  How many people makes for "many"? And sometimes, you know you just get the sense that the person insisting that "people are saying," whether it's a politician at a podium, a talking head on cable news, or an acquaintance in a one-on-one conversation, is really just trying to voice their own opinion without attaching their names to it.  So, here's a free rule of thumb for public conversation:  if you're listening to someone who says, "People are saying," but they can't or won't back that up with how many people, who they are, or what their experience is on the subject, take their words with a sizable pinch of salt. This is the challenge for people who want to be wise, informed, critical thinkers in a world full of voices that just say things without evidence or logical support.  And in the age of social media and the blurring of opinion and news, it's hard to be a discerning listener and to know whose voice you can trust, and on what basis.

Now, on the other hand, it turns out that God--the actual Creator of the universe--has the opposite challenge.  God never gets fooled by hucksters and snake-oil salesmen, because already knows the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  But how does God convince us that God's words and promises are sure?  In a world full of liars and their Big Lies, spin doctors, and propaganda, God knows that we have reason to be skeptical of the claims that seem to come out of nowhere, especially the ones that sound too good to be true.  So when God makes a promise, God swears--not on a Bible or to some other god or even on your great-grandmother's grave--but by God's own self.

The writer of Hebrews calls attention to this move on God's part from the story of Abraham and Sarah back in Genesis.  When God had made the promise to the wandering migrant couple that they would one day have children, and a land of their own, and blessing for all peoples, it raised the question for Abraham, "How can I know this is for real?"  After all, it was a promise seemingly grounded in sheer grace, rather than anything that old Abe had done to deserve it.  And there was no evidence to back it up--how could he trust a promise that sounded so outlandishly impossible and too good to be true?  At one point in the storytelling, in fact, (see early in Genesis 15, if you want to check), Abraham even brings his doubts right in God's face and says, "How can I know that you're telling me the truth, and that this big promise of yours is real?"

And God's answer is to swear an oath--but an oath that invokes God's own being, rather than someone else.  For us human beings, our usual way of backing up our claims is to reference some higher authority--whether that's appealing to someone who is an expert in the subject you are talking about, citing a governmental authority, or calling on the divine as a witness to your oath.  The basic gist of an oath, after all is to say, "If I'm lying, or if I flake out on my commitment, may my God or gods judge, punish, or zap me in the following ways..."  That works for humans, who presumably stand under the authority of God--or, depending on one's religious persuasion, gods, goddesses, or the Force, or whatever other Higher Power one may name.  But if you actually are God, and you are trying to get through to human beings who are skittish about believing you, after having been let down and disappointed before by so many makers of empty promises, the way to assure a human you love that you are telling the truth is to swear an oath by your own self.

Now, just to be clear what that means on God's part, both in the story of Abraham and for us, it means that the living God invokes self-destruction rather than unfaithfulness to a promise.  Like a kid on the playground swearing the old, "Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye" is invoking the heavens to kill or harm himself if he isn't telling the truth, God's vow to Abraham is basically saying, "I will be torn apart before I give out on you.  I will die before I prove unfaithful.  I will choose death rather than bail out on you."  That's how God gets through to cynical hearts like ours who have been burned too many times by liars to trust a voice out of nowhere.

Wow!  That is how you are loved.  That is the length God will go to--and has gone to--to make it clear that God's promises are sure, and that God is telling the truth to us.  Death before unfaithfulness. Death before breaking a promise.  A cross rather than giving up on us.

I  can't stop the talking heads, advertiser, social media posts from your angry racist uncles, or bloviating demagogues from making absurd claims that don't hold water, while they appeal to a vague "people are saying" kind of reasoning.  But we can, like the writer of Hebrews, point people to the way God makes promises--and the cross that stands as evidence of the lengths God will go to in order keep them.

And that may just be enough, even in a world full of empty talk and shallow nonsense.

Lord God, help us to trust in your promises, and to be voices of discernment and truth against all the loud claims and big lies around us.