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We have a problem with honesty these
days. I remember a story when I was a
kid, which in itself was a lie, that they taught us down in the States to try
to instil in us that honesty was an American virtue. I’m sure you folks heard it up here. It was about a young George Washington, the
first PROTUS, owning up to chopping down his father’s cherry tree. Let’s see, how did it go. Little George got an axe and gave that tree
forty whacks. When his father discovered
the butchered tree, he asked George who cut it down. And let me see how’d that story end. George
replies, “I did nothing wrong. It was a
perfect conversation with the tree. Just
read the transcript I gave you.”
No? How about, “I cannot tell a
lie, I did not have a chopping relationship with that tree.” No?
Maybe it was, “I am not a chopper.”
No? Hmmm. Hold on. “I cannot say. I was out of the loop.” No? Oh,
now I remember. He bullied his cronies
and wouldn’t let the ones who saw him do it talk to his father. No? Well, who would have thought he said, “I
cannot tell a lie. I cut it down.” Honesty?
Honestly!”
Well, honesty is very important. That George Washington story was taught to me
as a child down in the States to instil in me what sort of people Americans are. We are honest people; so honest that our
consciences simply will not allow us to tell a lie. But times have obviously changed. Truth no longer seems to matter. If I still lived in the States and was raising
my children there I would be livid that my government by example was teaching
my children that there are no consequences to lying, that the truth does not
have to be told particularly the higher up you get on the power, wealth, and
status ladder. But, government lies
matter. They come at a cost – the
corrosion of national community.
Well, believe it or not things today
are not all that different than they were in Jesus’ time with respect to
telling the truth. Back then lying was
commonplace. People were not expected to
tell the truth. In fact the only time
that it was necessary to tell the truth was when someone higher up the social
ladder required a lesser to be honest for some official reason. Not unlike today, back then if you were a
person of position or status you had the power to decide to whom you would tell
the truth. You were entitled to tell no
one the truth. It had to have been a
very difficult time in which to live. You
could not count on anyone really being honest.
So, people tried to create a false sense of honesty by swearing oaths
when they wanted someone else to know they were most likely telling the truth. They would say, “I swear by Heaven.” “I swear on my life.” “I swear on my honour.” Taking an oath was necessary to guarantee
that a person was being honest.
At the heart of Jesus’ teaching here
on oath taking is, I think, his fundamental dislike for the way people could so
easily lie. In matters of faith there
was a law in the Old Testament that Hebrews observed about keeping the vows
they made to the Lord. If you say you
are going to do something for the Lord, then do it. But in our passage today, Jesus indicates
that he expects his followers not only to keep their word when it comes to the
activities of their faith but we are to go further and be honest in every
matter. There is an underlying and continuous message running through the
Sermon on the Mount that Jesus’ expects his followers to be of higher moral
character than just simply being good folk who stay out of trouble or worse, who
are religious legalists. His disciples
should be of such high moral character that they should not have to swear an
oath to guarantee to others that they are telling the truth. Jesus’ disciples are to be known for their
honesty, honestly!
Honest is not an easy thing to be. We lie in so many ways. There are times when telling a little lie
seems to be almost necessary to keep from hurting someone’s feelings. Those types of lies are what we call white
lies because supposedly no one gets hurt.
Then there are those people whom we would call pathological liars. They simply cannot tell the truth about
anything and make up story after story to make themselves appear grand. And then there are the flat out lies that we
tell. We simply decide for whatever
reason not to tell the truth when asked.
Usually it’s because we don’t want to take the time to explain things. Here lately it seems that it is acceptable to
tell lies about other people, particularly your enemies or people you think are
undesirable to have in your great community, in order to motivate other people
to join your self-destructive circle of hate.
There is another type of lying that we
do which we simply call living a lie, living a life that at the core is
oriented towards self. We will do
anything to make ourselves feel like we are somebody more than who we are. Instead of being honest and accepting that we
need the care and support of other people we try to appear strong and
self-sufficient. We build up walls of
power and intimidation and compete with others. Whenever there is a mountain of debt, be it
personal or national, there is a lie being lived.
Being honest is difficult. We lie as a way to protect and preserve our
self-image. But Jesus shows us a better
way. This morning we will be partaking
of the Lord’s Supper. We eat the bread
and drink the juice remembering how Jesus gave his life for us simply because
he honestly loves us. That’s the Truth. Jesus shows us the truth about ourselves. That we crucified the Son of God who came to
heal us is the truest word of truth about who and how we humans are that was
ever spoken.
This meal is an invitation to live the
honest life. It is the invitation to
live our lives fundamentally oriented to doing what God in his great love for
us expects of us which is to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and
mind and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves; by love we keep Jesus
great commandment for us to love as he loved us by giving his life for us. In so doing we will come face to face with
the reality of God’s love for everybody. True, we will feel great discomfort as we
discover the self-destructive and community-destroying lies we believe about
ourselves and others; but that Truth will set us free. We are to live our lives not to serve
ourselves but in service of others because we care about more than looking out
for number one. As we come to the table
let us remember that being honest begins with saying yes, I will keep my word to
follow Jesus faithfully. Yes, I will
allow myself to be weak and broken so that I and others might experience God’s
love and be healed. Indeed, the one
honest thing in this world that we can count on to be true is how much God
loves us. Come. Amen.
