All Saints Episcopal Church, Hilton Head Island, SC
June 1, 2007
| Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright beams of light upon thy church, that it, being enlightened by the doctrine of thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist Saint John, may so walk in the light of thy truth that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. |
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William Temple |
This prayer stands at the beginning of Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple's book on the Readings in St John's Gospel. The book was published in 1949, a half a century ago. And while it is written in the style and language of an earlier age, it conveys how William Temple, through the Gospel of John, is after the Truth, so we may walk in the light of thy truth.
As he unpacks John's Gospel in a very accessible way (his style is very "down to earth"), he gave me some insight as I prepared for a recent sermon. He was making a point about a living God and a living faith in the context of the Gospel of John 14:23-19, and he offered a nugget of truth: When we are at a loss as to a certain direction we are to take or a controversy arises, some theologians seem more " impressed to ask "is it orthodox" rather than "is it true?" Temple then quotes poet and literary critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge: "He, who begins by loving Christianity better than the truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving him or herself better than all."
I had to think about that for a while. The truth is found in the person of Jesus the Christ, but there is more to that than meets the eye. To get at the truth is spending more than a little time understanding and reflecting upon scripture. It is getting into the heart of Jesus, even through a conversation with him or even with any of the writers of scripture. It is about knowing Jesus beyond the obvious, and experiencing Jesus in a personal way, as if you know Him and what He is about.
William Temple's quote above and the quote from Coleridge convey to me a desire to look for the truth from God beyond the limits of our own faith, to explore the boundaries that the church has set up over the centuries. Christianity, as the truth for us, is a way of life...it is about being in a relationship with God, in all God's fullness.
To get at "what is the truth" is more than mere speculation. It is beyond simply wishing something to be true. It is about testing and exploring what the Church has handed down to us. And it is about understanding the heart and mind and actions of Jesus Christ. For it is here on earth that he has spoken, and it is here that he speaks through our lives and the lives of others. Truth is not only, or exclusively, found within the Church.
May I offer:
Know what you are thinking and what it is you want clarity about.
Understand that the truth, as far as Christianity is concerned, is derived through the power of the Spirit and in our community.
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