Great End #4: Youth Group Info

Great Ends of the Church Bible Study
“The Preservation of the Truth”
September 2, 2008

Truth.

What is truth?

How do we know what truth is?

There is no absolute truth…except for this statement? No, that just is not right either.

Truth.

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” Mark Twain
“Peace if possible, truth at all costs.” Martin Luther
“It matters enormously if I alienate anyone from the truth.” CS Lewis

All around us, we find ourselves being consumed by lies, half-truth’s or sadly, stories. All these give life to falsehoods and potential to devastating events that could prevent community. From people leaving out one key piece of a story to make them sound as if they are a hero, to children flat out lying to their parents about breaking a vase or spilling the milk, lying creeps itself into our lives no matter what age you are. Even though we know the consequences, why must we fib, lie or tell only half the story? Indeed, if you tell the truth, you never have to worry about what piece you left out.

Yet what does this look like for us being a faith community? How does this truth telling play into our daily life together? Better yet, with so many claims by many denominations that they have it “right”, how do we know who has what right and who is wrong? Where do we then find truth and hold on to this truth in the context of a body of faith? As the church, the bride of Christ, we have practiced preserving the truth for thousands of years. Thus, now in a time of definite uncertainty and pluralism, we have what we’ve always had to cling on to aid us in “The Preservation of the Truth,” our 4th Great End of the Church.

This is a difficult topic to discuss on many levels. Let’s face it, what I believe is truth may not be what you believe is truth. We all have our own truths, others have their truths and we are suspicions to anyone who claims to have the truth. Yet as disciples we have one thing in common that unites us and binds us together, the truth that lies in Jesus Christ. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” Jesus tells his disciples in Jon 14.6. For us this means that Jesus was the One who dwelt among us “full of grace and truth,” the One who came to “bear witness to the truth,” the one who promises “the Spirit of truth,” the One who is truth. Jesus, God with us, is truth, it is Christ that shows us the way of living and the way to God. Thus the fourth Great End of the Church is the church’s calling to preserve the gospel of Jesus Christ, holding fast to the way, the truth and the life. Truth then comes to life in our relationship to God in Christ through the leading and working of the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit.

As a body of Christ, a community, we have already seen what this means. We are called to be good news bearers, to dedicate ourselves to each other and pray, talk and learn about our faith, and proclaim the goodness of God and worship God through just that, worship. Now we are called to live out the truth, to become a people who preserve the truth by praying, thinking and talking with one another. To put it simply, we are to become theologians. To do this then we are to find our way back to how our fathers and mothers of the faith had practice theology, by living it out. Theology became a way of life for a community: worshipping together, studying the Scriptures together, searching tradition, and seeking to know truth and living it out together. Today, we have come to a place where this is not such a priority or way of life. Instead we lean on others to do the “tough” thinking for us. Yet it is important to know that we as a community, the body of Christ, are ALL called to live into the preservation of the truth, to talk about God, to ask questions about God, to pray to God, to put God at the center of our entire beings. This does not mean that our roles are all the same, but we are all called to do these things that are mentioned, to speak with each other about the way, the truth and the life.

Often times when we think about theology we think of lots of words that require great intelligence and a good understanding of faith. This causes some to sit back and say nothing about God and what God has been doing in their lives, leaving them and possibly their experiences invaluable or not important to the community. Yet theology is not limited to words and because of this, theology does matter to the betterment of the community and ultimately, the Kingdom.

There are many ways we as people of God, theologians, can enter into this great conversation about preserving the truth. As many among us will devote their lives to the academic level of faith, others will enlighten the community about the truth of God through their singing of hymns, their insight during a Bible study, by gathering with others in prayer groups, by reciting creeds and other personal ways to study God. All of these, again to reiterate the importance of the community entire to get involved in the discussion, is important for us to better “understand” the Truth. Theology is not a private matter. We would not have each other to lean on for understanding, for prayers or for better explanation if we tried to do this alone. Ultimately, keeping our theology to ourselves will only distort the truth or become delusional, as we now have it “right”. This is why we must be together; be theologians together, talk, pray, read, study the Truth. Together, we can preserve the truth.

Our voices will join with those who have gone before us, who are with us now and who will follow us. For those who have gone before us we are accountable to them and the way they lived their faith. “We are not alone in the present, for we live within the communion of saints, accompanied by mothers and fathers In faith that lived the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.” To aid us in this preservation of the truth, we keep Christ at the center of a circle that includes all of the voices of the church, those from the very beginning to the ones now and eventually the ones in the end. Our conversations then as a church longing to preserve the truth will always be about Christ, which will always pass through Christ. Essentially this conversation with entire generations comes to us through our confessions. Confession in worship allows us to become truth-tellers. It is in these confessions that we do not use them to judge the church, but rather to be questioned by them. Listening to the confessions of our forefathers, we will hear their hard questions addressed to us, forcing us to face honestly our own accommodations to the spirit of the present age.

To live as theologians together and to encourage one another to dive deep into the conversation about God, will help us preserve the truth. Which we as Christians, share that truth of God, in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Christ is the center of this truth, showing us the Truth of the Father, demonstrating the ways of truth with a life lived for the Father and the Spirit of truth to be our companion on our journey of truth living and finding. May it be so that together we will become theologians, holding tightly to the truth of Christ, sharing it with the world, all the while exhibiting the Kingdom of Heaven to all people.