You are a truth. You are meant to be an embodied truth. You may not fully know your own truth, but you know some of it. Whether you present yourself as truth to others is your choice. Some people feel they have to live a lie in front of others. But, the truth is, we all conceal parts of our lives. No one goes around with life’s most embarrassing episodes recorded on a sign around their neck.

You are a truth. You are meant to be an embodied truth. At times, all of us perform in front of others. We don’t always offer our truth to others. As human beings, we have the power to present ourselves as bigger, more imposing, more impressive than we actually are. And for those lacking self-esteem, we can present a shrunken version of ourselves. However, if we lose sight of our truth we become inauthentic. It’s not only sad – it’s dangerous.

Advertising tends to offer pretense rather than truth. To sell a product, you don’t tell the truth about it. You don’t say, “Buy our packaged food product. It’s true that several basic ingredients have no nutritional value, and in fact are imported from China by unregulated companies, and in several independent laboratory tests have been shown to cause cancer, but it tastes good, so buy it anyway!” That would be a disastrous advertising campaign.

Advertising tells us that we will be sexier if we drive this car, or more appealing if we use this hygiene product, or more “with it” if we purchase the latest I-pad. Advertising is built a little on truth and a lot on hype. Social commentator Huston Smith writes, “It is marketing that forms the backdrop of our culture. The message that advertising dins into our conscious and unconscious minds is that fulfillment derives from the things we possess. Because this is not true, the message serves us badly…” (p. 48, Why Religion Matters, Harper)

You are a truth. When you embody your own truth, you exhibit integrity. Your life was meant to be lived as an integrity. When you are authentically yourself, you are your most true self.

At the heart of your existence, you are not a fraud, you are not a lie, you are not fake. At the heart of your existence, you are a truth. When you genuinely love someone, you let them see your truth. You don’t need to perform for them. When you love yourself, you value your own truth. How blessed is a mother who claims her own truth and shares her truth with her children.

If you pretend to be someone other than yourself, you risk losing your truth. Life can be straight-forward: simply be yourself; be your own truth. You are meant to be an embodied truth.

My truth means that I see the world in a certain way. Therefore, it can be difficult for me to recognize your truth as legitimate because it is different from my own. Why can’t you see reality as I see it? Why isn’t it obvious to you that my truth is better?

There was a man about to jump off a bridge when another fellow ran up to him, shouting, “Stop. Please stop. Don’t jump!”

The man on the bridge looked down and asked, “Why not?”
“Well, there’s too much to live for.”
“Like what?”, the desperate man asked.
The Good Samaritan said, “Well, your faith. Aren’t you religious?”
The man standing on the edge of the bridge answered, “Yes.”
“Me, too. Are you Christian or Jewish or Buddhist?”
“I’m Christian.”
“Me, too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?”
“Protestant.”
“Me, too. Are you Methodist, or Presbyterian, or Baptist?”
“Baptist.”
“Me, too. Are you original Baptist Church of God or Reformed Baptist Church of God?”
“Reformed Baptist Church of God.”
Now they were actually both getting excited realizing they had met a true brother in the faith. The man on the bridge took a step back.
“Me, too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God Reformation of 1820 or Reformed Baptist Church of God Reformation of 1912.”
“1912.”
Whereupon the fellow down on the road turned red in the face and shouted, “1912? Oh, go ahead and jump! You’re beyond saving!”

Fundamentalists tend to see their truth as The Only Truth. They reason, “if it’s true for me, then it has to be true for you.” And the goal of fundamentalism is for its truth to prevail no matter the cost.

Yet, we have all been guilty of imposing our truth upon others. We judge others all the time by whether they are in sync with what we know to be true. There is absolutely nothing wrong with offering our truth to others. We owe that to others and to the world. It should be shared because the world needs to hear our truth alongside others. When we share our truth openly and without coercion, we invite others to the truth within themselves.

My truth is part of The Truth. But it isn’t entirely The Truth. It is only one perspective. The early disciples had difficulty accepting the idea that truth expresses itself in diversity, not uniformity. Because the early disciples were Jewish, they had difficulty accepting that truth could be expressed by Gentiles who had not first converted to Judaism. They knew how they had come to experience the truth as Jews and it was challenging for them to realize that there could be other ways to experience the truth that Jesus offers. And this became a controversial issue in the early church.

The more we congregate with others who share a similar perspective, the more convinced we may become that ours is the only truth. But we don’t have a monopoly on truth.

Religion becomes dangerous when assuming it has the Whole Truth. The quote from Jesus, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by me,” has been mis-used by the religiously arrogant. I do not believe that this is what Jesus meant. First, this statement has to be seen in view of the Gospel of John’s famous “I am…” statements by Jesus. When Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,” did he mean, “there is no other light in this world ?” Surely not. When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” did he mean that there is no other source of spiritual nourishment, that he alone has soul food? Surely not. When Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” did he mean that his is the only way, the only truth, and there is no life apart from him? Surely not. If so, he would have been condemning every other Jew and every other Jewish rabbi. That is inconceivable for a man who never turned from Judaism.

Listen to Jesus’ words: “I am the good shepherd…I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” (John 10:14a, 16)

A great spiritual teacher is closer to the truth than the rest of us. She or he embodies a fuller truth. I would have to say that through Jesus’ way of compassion, and the way he revealed the sacred, he embodied God’s Truth. He is a reliable path to the truth, a credible way to the Father. But Jesus doesn’t hoard or confiscate the truth.

This much I know: Jesus is true for me. He illumines God as Truth for me. He is the way, the truth and the life for me. This is why he told his disciples, “If you continue in my word…, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” (Jn 8:32)

In the Pentecost Story, when the miracle of communication occurred, some who passed by sneered at them and said, “They are filled with new wine.” (2:13) And Peter stood before the crowd and revealed the truth which the early disciples held in common. Truth is convincing. When you share your truth, it calls forth truth within others. And that is why so many people were converted on that day, because Truth spoke to Truth.

God is Truth. My truth is part of God’s Truth, and so is yours, but not the Whole of it. If people look into my life and recognize God within me, they are seeing my truth as it reveals God’s Truth. The truth within each of us is a reflection of God’s truth, the sure evidence that we were created in God’s image.

Is there such a thing as objective truth, “the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” We may be deceived into thinking that what we read in the newspapers or view on television news is “the objective truth.” But those who write the news have their own bias. Even the scientist has a slant, a bent. We are seeing this more and more as some scientists attempt to prove creation science to be true and others attempt to disprove it, and the same bias toward differing perspectives on global warming.

Science attempts to get closer to the Objective Truth but it becomes arrogant and closed when it assumes it has arrived.

When I claim that God is Truth I don’t mean that God is Objective Fact. I mean that God is so fundamentally Real, so thoroughly Genuine, as to call forth the authentic truth within each of us. You can’t fake a relationship with God. In your heart of hearts, God knows you as Truth, created you as Truth and calls you to be a reflection of Truth. When you are your most authentic self, when you exhibit personal integrity, you are closer to God’s Truth than if you prayed and fasted for weeks.

Jesus presented the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of Truth. Jesus said, “When the Spirit comes, he will guide you into all the truth…” (Jn 16:13a) Jesus anticipated that the Spirit would follow after him to call forth the truth that is in each of us. And it happened first on Pentecost, when, like tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit descended upon the earliest followers, igniting the truth they held in common.

I had no idea of myself as a truth during my teen years and barely a glimpse of it into my 20’s. I was at mid-life before I had much of a sense of myself as a Truth, as an Integrity.

My growing up years occurred in a small town of 3,000 people surrounded by farms. And yet, I was a “townie.” And as silly and embarrassing as it is to admit now, all of my friends growing up lived in town. Never once during my growing up years did I even visit a farm around Eldon where many of my classmates lived. I knew nothing about farm life. I might as well have grown up in Prairie Village. It seems so arrogant or exclusive to admit that now, as if my town life made me different or better. It lacks integrity to define myself falsely by something I was trying hard not to be.

My dad retired when he was around my current age. And he took up gardening in retirement. Every time I went home, one of the first things my dad and I would do was to walk around his garden. We often had great conversations standing out in his garden. He became an expert in organic gardening and composting. And it was his great joy to share the bounty of his harvest. I have never had any interest whatsoever in gardening. I’ve never had so much as a tomato plant growing – no herbal garden – nothing. I went from being a “townie” to being a big city dweller. And gardening was in the opposite direction.

I know that dad’s death was one real reason for our return to Missouri and that dad’s death is a reason why I take such joy in growing plants in my yard. Today, I stand by plants that I have just placed in the ground, and I have great conversations with my dad, whose presence I feel there more than elsewhere. My flower gardens are a new expression of my Truth: the coming together of my childhood origins, my father’s passion, and new-found authenticity. Ross Snyder says, “You are always becoming a truth. No person is a finished or perfected truth… The truth you were meant to be is a life-long pilgrimage.” (p. 71, 73, On Becoming Human)

One of our favorite movies is Regarding Henry. (Paramount Pictures, 1991) It tells the story of Henry Turner, played by Harrison Ford, a hard-driving upscale corporate lawyer who was the darling of his firm, winning huge lawsuits for his corporate clients. Late one night he went out to get cigarettes and was shot by a young street kid at a neighborhood convenience store. The shortage of oxygen to his brain caused a serious head injury and Henry was months recuperating. He couldn’t speak or walk or remember anything about his former life.

As he began putting his life back together two interesting subplots unfold. First, he is almost like a child in having to learn social skills. His childlike nature embarrasses his sophisticated friends. But the other subplot is that an entirely new person is emerging, a much more centered person. Henry told his wife, “I thought I could go back to the way I was, but I don’t like who I was.”

He learned that his wife had been having an affair before his accident and that he had also been having an affair. His marriage had mostly been a fraud and now Henry and his wife were rediscovering a new intimacy, excitement and laughter to their relationship. He discovered in his law practice that he had cheated an older couple out of their rightful settlement just before his injury. Henry couldn’t live with that injustice.

Henry had discovered the truth of his life that had been buried in his hyper-achievement, fraudulent marriage, and harsh attitude toward his young daughter. He no longer wanted to keep up a public façade. He wanted to be himself. He wanted to be true to himself. He wanted integrity to his life.

After the accident, Henry Turner became acquainted with the truth that was within him. He learned the importance of becoming the truth to himself and to others. It was like a tongue of fire ignited within him, and Henry discovered how to be true to himself, true to the stranger, and true to those he loved.

This also is what the earliest believers learned on Pentecost. When they proclaimed the truth with authenticity and integrity, it captured the attention of others.

May the tongue of fire ignite that Spirit of Truth within us. Amen.