Devotion: What Is Truth?
What Is Truth?
Please take a moment to read John 14:1-6
Several years ago a gentleman was leaving worship and as he shook my hand he said to me, “Do you think we could possibly do a worship series on truth?” I was a bit taken aback – mostly because this is a quiet senior who rarely makes requests or gives his opinion. I made a mental note and reflected on his request thoroughly.
I raise this for two reasons. First to give thanks for the many people who, either purposefully or accidentally, inspire the content of our worship. And also to encourage you to share ideas for worship. Liturgy literally means, “the work of the people.” At Sheridan, we want worship to come from the groundswell of the community.
In my sermon on Sunday, I began to unpack our complex and nuanced relationship with, and the many aspects of, the concept of truth. Within our culture, we are currently fighting about and over what is true – from the question of whether or not to accept basic fact, to how our own “personal truths” serve to influence us, to new research about “confirmation bias” and the advanced technology that pushes both repeated lies as truth and even “deep fakes” which make truth hard to discern. For most of us, we look heavenward and rhetorically raise the same lament that Pilate did while judging Jesus… “What is truth?”
What is your relationship with the truth? And how hard do you pursue it? When Jesus came to Jerusalem, the first thing he did was to prepare the Passover so that he might institute for us Communion – the meal in which we literally receive his presence. In that moment he said, “I earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you…”
Point is, Jesus earnestly seeks to be with you. Will you earnestly seek him? We will never get to the truth. Let’s face it, Jesus didn’t try to make the truth of his innocence win the day. Instead, he gave us a covenant of his presence in our lives, so we know that when truth is elusive, he will be near. And this, my dear friend, is the God’s honest truth!
Gracious God, earnestly seek us, we pray. Instill in our hearts the desire to earnestly seek you. And make our experience of you in our hearts enough to cover the hurt in the times of an absence of truth. Amen.
Written by Pastor Greg Bouvier
Pastor Greg heard God’s call to Sheridan in 1999 and that began a journey which has become his life’s work. Having played a variety of roles as pastor of Sheridan, Pastor Greg was called as the Senior Pastor in 2011. He leads the staff and his primary focus is on the creation of culture, the overall direction of worship and partnering with our amazing team. Pastor Greg has been married to Rose for more than 30 years and together they have two servant-hearted grown children.