What Is My Truth
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
February 18, 2024
Good morning, Friends, and welcome to Light Reflections. This morning we continue looking at Quaker virtues. The scripture I have chosen is Matthew 5:33-37 from The Message.
“And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.
Over the last several weeks, we have explored Integrity, Patience, and last week Prudence. All of which can be considered Quaker Virtues. Today, I want us to look at another Quaker virtue, that being telling and seeking truth.
A while back, the title of a blog post caught my attention. It read, “The World Needs Truth Tellers More than Ever — Will You Step Up?”
In it, Lon Shapiro says,
“I think it’s safe to say that truth tellers have done more to aid the evolution of our species than any king, conqueror or cult.”
He quotes people like Joseph Campbell, Rosa Parks, and several others who made their voices and lives heard by being “Truth Tellers.”
Obviously, the need for people who seek and tell the truth is evident from the big arenas like politics and media to the smallest, in our families around our own kitchen tables.
And even more these days, seeking and telling the truth seems to have become a gray area of interpretation and contention. Yet, seeking and telling the truth is as old as time itself.
If you go all-the-way-back for a moment to the opening story of the Bible, you will find an interesting dialogue between God and Adam and Eve. In that story God tells Adam and Eve they are free to eat from every tree in the Garden of Eden but one.
And in a rather odd pronouncement, God says that one tree is his alone. If they eat from this forbidden tree, they will surely die.
As with all good stories that are written to teach us a lesson, Adam and Eve determine they could not live with God deciding the nature of what was good or bad.
No, they would rather choose good and bad for themselves.
So, Adam and Eve become the first sophists. Sophists were people who made good points about an issue — until you realize those points aren't entirely true, like a political candidate who twists an opponent's words or gives misleading facts during a speech.
The story from Genesis goes on to show how Adam and Eve began twisting the truth to themselves about the tree and God.
They had to twist this by creating a new scenario – “God is holding out on us.” And this thinking, quickly led to a downward spiral of lies which ultimately finds them naked and afraid.
Sadly, this story of Adam and Eve, is a great metaphor for the “truth twisters” we have become and see so prevalent in our world, today.
Our scriptures for today were speaking to this truth twisting. That last line said, “Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.”
Another great story is “Lying Up a Storm” by Julia Cook. It is a children’s story where a storm is brewing… Whenever Levi doesn’t like the truth, he kinda, sorta makes up other stuff to say.
One day his mother explains to him that telling lies will damage the trust of his friends and make him very sad. This is how it reads in the story.
Whenever you tell a lie, your inside sun goes away.
Then a lying cloud forms, and glooms up your day.
Each time you tell a lie, another cloud starts to form,
and before you can stop it from happening, your insides start to storm.
I have a feeling we all have had storms brewing inside of us?
I believe this is why the early Quakers were committed so strongly to seeking and telling the truth. They knew the effects of not telling the truth on themselves and those around them. Thus, truth makes up a major part of the Quaker testimony of integrity. And Quakers didn’t just keep truth about personal integrity, instead they translated it into all areas of their lives – from politics and legislation to civil liberties, to education, to economics, even to workplace scenarios and business practices.
As well, the Early Quakers believed truth telling involved speaking in a way that does not exaggerate, minimize, deny, rationalize or manage the truth. Wow, imagine if we took this seriously, today.
Could it be the storms brewing in our lives are because this exaggeration, this minimization, this denial, this rationalization and managing of truth is what we are constantly surrounded with in our world?
German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer kind of warned us about this, when he said,
“Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to dramatic art, for the object of journalism is to make events go as far as possible.”
Think about it, this is the mindset that created 24-hour news and media sources – and it is what keeps people tuning in and even becoming addicted. I am sure there are some of you who leave Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC going all day in your home. I wonder how helpful that really is.
Because of this, our world has come to have an affinity for blowing things out of proportion, minimizing the truly important things, finding a way to rationalize things that cannot be rationalized, and managing the truth to be more acceptable.
And that could be the news, that could be politics, or that could even be the church, but that is only if we buy into it. And Quakers have always worked hard at not buying into it.
For example, a couple weeks ago, I was summoned to serve Jury Duty, and in preparation, I went back to review my Quaker response to swearing and telling the truth by looking at something Quaker Louis Cox wrote. He says,
DO YOU SWEAR that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?...
Early Quakers were known for their refusal to take such oaths in a court of law (often at the risk of fines and imprisonment).
Sometimes their stand was explained by reference to the Bible:
"But above all things, my brethren, do not swear, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath; but let your words be yes, yes, and no, no, lest you fall under condemnation. [James 5:12]
But these Friends were not just obeying written commandments. Oath-refusal and other distinctive practices came to be known as "testimonies" only because these actions were bearing witness to a deeper spiritual Truth.
The Kingdom of God is not an ideal or hope projected into the future. It is emerging here and now through our actions and examples.
Again, this has me asking, what is my truth?
I did not have to go to jury duty, but if I would have gone, I would have objected to swearing an oath, and instead given an affirmation that I would tell the truth – let my yes be yes and my no be no. Many are unaware that our judicial system allows for this affirmation because of Quakers. Did you know that even the president has the choice to swear or affirm? Only Francis Pierce has affirmed – but Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon who were actual Quakers both chose to swear instead of affirm.
Going a little further, Gray Cox in his Pendle Hill Pamphlet, Bearing Witness-Quaker Process and a Culture of Peace says the following:
...Quakers view truth as something that happens, it occurs...Truth is not a dead fact which is known: It is a living occurrence in which we participate....
The guiding concern of people bearing witness is to live rightly, in ways that are exemplary. Insofar as they have an end they aim at, it is perhaps most helpful to think of it as the aim of cultivating their souls and converting others.....
Quakers are convinced that genuine leadings all proceed from a common ground, spring from a unity which we seek and find...
In a world, that lacks a great deal of truth and the desire to uphold it, we are seeing a rise in anxiety, frustration, and misinformation. You may feel that we have no influence on the current state of our world, but honestly, that, too, is a lie we have told ourselves.
Just as the early Quakers, our voices and lives need to be heard and seen, pronouncing truth and integrity on a daily basis – and in ALL the areas of our lives.
As Cox said, we need to cultivate this in our own souls, first, and then allow it to convert those around us, so that we can find a common ground to work from.
I wonder what would happen if as Quakers we re-committed ourselves to work on our deficiencies in the areas of seeking and telling the truth? Consider the following:
· What if we refused to twist truth in order to impress others?
· What if we stopped exaggerating?
· Or like I talked about last week, what if we stopped cheating on tests, taxes, insurance forms, etc…?
· What if we kept promises and followed through?
· What if we admitted we were wrong, and informed others of when we have lied to them?
· What if we spoke truth in love?
· What if we refused to flatter or dissemble?
· What if we said what we meant and meant what we said?
· What if we refused to slander another?
· What if we refused to gossip or pass gossip and rumors?
That is a lot to ponder, and a good place to end for this week. I want to leave us with a final quote from Lon Shapiro who I quoted at the beginning of this sermon,
It is up to us to aggregate and synthesize to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of the world…Sometimes, we may come up with a solution…Even if we don’t, the conversations spurred by this discovery create ripples that may eventually cause revolutions in society, technology and culture.
That is my hope and I hope it is yours as well.
As we enter waiting worship this morning, let’s start by taking some time to assess our honesty – or ask ourselves - what is my truth? Maybe, think back over the past week, and ask yourself the following…
· When have I stretched the truth, taken advantage of my privilege, broken a commitment, or gossiped about someone? What does that say about my truth?
· When is it hardest for me to tell the truth? When is it easiest for me to lie? Is there a storm brewing inside me?
· Who might I need to admit to that I have not been telling the truth?