The Naked Truth--May 31, 2023

The Naked Truth--May 31, 2023

[Jesus said to his disciples:] "Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when the comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned." [John 16:7-11]

I used to think the old fable of "The Emperor's New Clothes" was too preposterous a tale to take seriously.  Then I became an adult--particularly an adult in the age of social media--and it became clear just how easily we can be duped into believing the naked ruler is wearing fine royal robes, just because somebody else says they believe it, too.  Ours is a time of conspiracy theories, outlandish claims, and news stories spun into distortion.  And to see how quickly a false claim or a big lie can go viral, we've got to admit that even in the "information age" we would likely find ourselves amid the crowd cheering for an emperor in his birthday suit and swearing up and down he's dressed to the nines. And that means we need someone who can tell us the truth, even if we don't want to admit it, that the emperor is wearing no clothes.  

In the old fable, of course, it's a little child in the crowd who hasn't yet learned to give in to the social pressure of agreeing with what everyone else says, just because everyone else says it.  And to be sure, there is something to be said for the way children sometimes cut through the pleasant deceptions and euphemisms of adults to say things as they are.  But there are also plenty of times when children get swept up in the same fantasies and falsities as their parents, because they trust what the grown-ups around them say. For every incisive youngster who tells it like it is, there are two more who are wholeheartedly believe in the Tooth Fairy because the grown-ups told them it was real. Blessedly, the Tooth Fairy is a basically harmless ruse--but sometimes the deception is devastating. (There was a reason, after all, for the use of groups like the Hitler Youth or the child-soldier armies in the Rwandan genocide--if you persuade children from a young age to believe what you tell them, you can make them agreeable to horrible actions and ideologies.) Like the old line of Voltaire's puts it, "People who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."  In other words, we can't count on there always being a plucky and guileless child in the crowd to speak up--sometimes the little moppets have been brainwashed like the adults...or by them.

That's why, as uncomfortable as it might be to face, we need the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sends.  At least part of the Spirit's work among us is to show us the places we've gotten swept up in the crowd, fawning over a naked emperor's invisible regalia.  And make no mistake--as much as we don't want to admit when we've been fooled, it is a deep act of love on the Spirit's part to free us from the illusion of the mob.

When we forget that, we turn the Spirit's work of truth-telling merely into spiteful scolding.  But Jesus says that the Spirit's presence among us is a gift, because we are constantly pulled by the crowd who insists the emperor has the nicest set of robes on, and we are called to be people who can say he doesn't have a stitch on.  That's why there is sometimes hostility between the prophetic voices that really come from God and the world's so-called "conventional wisdom."  Nobody likes to be told they've been hoodwinked, and the Spirit's job is to be willing to take all of that pent up hostility that comes from being a voice of truth.  Like the old line attributed to George Orwell goes, "In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."  The prophets of Israel's past who were led by the Spirit to help the people see when they'd been bamboozled by the lies of idols and empire all faced rejection, torture, or death.  Jesus, too, for that matter, doesn't go the cross on charges of being too milquetoast--he has upset the Powers That Be and the Respectable Religious People because he is willing to tell them where they've fallen for lies.  So it shouldn't surprise us that Jesus says the Spirit of truth will end up showing the whole world where we've gotten it wrong. And it shouldn't surprise us that the world is going to reject that Spirit, exactly because the Spirit shows us where we've got it wrong.  The emperor is never going to see clearly because his power clouds his vision.  The crowd is not reliable, either, because people get swept up in believing whatever they think "everybody else says."  We need a voice who is reliable... who will tell us the truth when we can't see it ourselves... and who loves us enough to be honest.  That's why we need the Spirit whom Jesus gives.

For us on this day, the challenge is to remember that the Spirit speaks to us, and not just to "those OTHER people out there in the world."  The Spirit isn't our possession, repeating only what we've taught, like some heavenly parrot.  Rather, the Spirit keeps speaking to show US as well as the whole wider world where we've been hornswoggled by comforting or self-serving lies.  And the Spirit keeps doing that because God loves us--and when you love someone, you seek to be honest with them.  God loves us--and indeed the whole world--enough to be honest with us. And when we know that love is unshakable, we can bear to hear the Spirit's voice telling us the emperor is wearing no clothes.

Today, know you are loved enough for God to keep raising up truth-telling voices by the Spirit.  Today, let us be brave enough to listen when they speak.

Lord God, enable us to listen to the voice of your Spirit when you are showing us truths we needed to face but have not wanted to admit.