Immediate Word

Like many other things in our culture, truth seems to be a concept that is often for sale to the highest bidder. In fields as diverse as science, politics, entertainment, and advertising -- and in more personal ways like fudging our taxes or telling "little white lies" to smooth social relationships -- truth is viewed as malleable, a subjective perception that we assume will be shaped and interpreted to fit any agenda or interest. Whether it's contempt for the truth, or just a sense that we can never know the full truth and that it is subject to endless debate, our society often tolerates and sometimes even celebrates the ability of politicians and other public figures to tell "the big lie" as long as they do it with style. As New York Times columnist Frank Rich recently opined: "What matters most now is whether a story can be sold as truth, preferably on television." In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Steve McCutchan examines the age-old question "What is truth?" and suggests that the Gospel lesson for Transfiguration Sunday offers a powerful example of eternal truth -- because the disciples see him as he truly is, the transfigured Jesus on the mountaintop offers a vision of unvarnished truth. Team member Carlos Wilton shares his perspective and calls for integrity in preaching, lest our sloppiness impede the truthfulness of our larger message. In addition to several illustrations, a children's sermon, and worship resources, this installment also includes a special bonus -- a moving communion liturgy for Ash Wednesday that weaves together prayers with Taizé songs.


What Is Truth?
by Stephen P. McCutchan

THE WORLD

Pilate asked Jesus "What is truth?" almost 2,000 years ago. This question was in response to Jesus' declaration that he "came into the world to testify to the truth" (John 18:37-38). In that brief interchange, we see displayed the tension between Christ and the world. Along with Pilate, we live in a society that seems increasingly confused about what is truth.

Satirist Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, has added a new term to the debate -- "truthiness." A February 13 article in Newsweek (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11182033/site/newsweek/) suggests that he defines "truthiness" as "a devotion to information that he wishes were true even if it's not." As Colbert deadpans: "I'm not a fan of facts. You see, facts can change, but my opinion will never change, no matter what the facts are." Colbert is a comedian, but in hearing him one wonders whether he has not opened a window into our souls.

With the recent debate over James Frey's book A Million Little Pieces, the apparently embellished biography of Judge Samuel Alito, and the increasing disregard for accuracy in political ads, one begins to wonder whether our society understands the meaning of or the value of truth. Politicians have created a whole industry of what they call "spin doctors" whose purpose is to provide an interpretation of events that will favor their candidate. As Stephen Colbert might say, "It's not the facts, but how you feel that is important."

William Bastone, the editor of The Smoking Gun website (www.thesmokinggun.com) which researched and exposed the fabrications in Frey's "memoir," was stunned when 40 percent of those who responded to The Smoking Gun's exposÈ were furious at its reporters rather than at the lack of truth in Frey's book. Whistleblowers, whether in business, research, the military, politics, or some other institution, often experience similar responses to their attempts to expose lies and corruption in their agencies. Harry G. Frankfurt, a retired Princeton philosophy professor whose brief treatise On Bull---- has become a best-seller, speculates that perhaps as a society we have become so accustomed to lying in all areas that we are no longer surprised, let alone outraged, when it is exposed. "The country has lost its taste for the truth," he says.

In such a society, what is the response of the church in light of our savior's declaration: "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice" (John 18:37b)? Perhaps the transfiguration story in Mark 9:2-9 and Paul's words to the Corinthians can shed some light on these questions.


THE WORD

2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Paul suggested that, "the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4). In Mark, while the disciples have seen Jesus do many wondrous things, until the time of the transfiguration they still cannot perceive the full truth about him. It is only shortly before the transfiguration that Peter finally confesses Jesus as the Christ (Mark 8:27-29), and even then he immediately stands in opposition to the very truth he has proclaimed (8:31-33).

There is an echo of the Genesis statement that we were created in the "image of God" (Genesis 1:27) in Paul's statement. In that sense, Jesus is what we should have been. The image of God in each of us has been defaced because we have been blinded by the god of this world. It is not hard to identify the various manifestations of the worldly loyalties that "blind" us to what in Christ we could be. Our loyalty to the lie is one manifestation of that distortion. As the Gospel of John declared, we have become children of the "father of lies" (John 8:44).

Our own transfiguration, in which we can once more shine forth in the beauty that God originally intended for us, can only take place as we submit ourselves like "slaves for Jesus' sake" (2 Corinthians 4:5). The very idea of submitting ourselves to anyone is contrary to our prideful independence. Yet the irony of faith is that we are asked to risk our independence by submitting ourselves like a slave to the very one who has chosen to be our slave. As the old hymn puts it, "Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free."

"The light of the knowledge of the glory of God [is seen] in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). The truth for Christians that counters the "truthiness" of our society is seen in Christ, who "came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28). This counters the world's truth. Most of the lies in our society are given in order to protect and cover up self or institution. As Jesus said: "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave" (Matthew 20:25b-27).

Mark 9:2-9
This is a story rich with symbolism that deepens our understanding. It begins with the phrase "six days later." Is this simply chronology, or is there an echo of the creation story and a suggestion that we are marking a Sabbath which both brings to an end the old, distorted life and indicates the beginning of a new creation? The image of God is restored in Christ, and the disciples are privileged to see the full truth of creation.

The disciples are led "up a high mountain apart." It is common to believe that you can experience a closeness to God on a high mountain, far from the bustle of civilization. People have traditionally believed that certain mountains provided a window onto eternity. The truth of Christ requires us to step outside the bustle of our life and open ourselves to God's Word. The church boldly proclaims that when people gather in the name of Christ, they experience this portable "window onto eternity" (Matthew 18:20).

The presence of God is marked by a transformation that cannot be explained by earthly events: "and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them." Bleach is meant to cleanse, but this is a form of a purity that cannot be equaled by human effort. We are, in the end, dependent on God for our full truth.

The confirmation of this revelation was made manifest by the presence of the two premier figures through which God had spoken in the past. There is Moses, the bearer of the law, and Elijah, symbolizing all the prophets who recalled people to obedience. Peter, representing all disciples, spoke out of the terror that anyone would experience in the presence of the holy. Most interpreters suggest that he wanted to freeze the experience by making three booths there on top of the mountain. If that is correct, it is certainly a warning to those who cling to a profound religious experience and seem never to be able to move beyond repeating the story over and over again.

However, one could interpret Peter's offer as a willingness to demonstrate hospitality. It was in response to Peter's offer that God overshadowed them with a cloud. The message was clear: " 'This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!' Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus." The entire interpretation of God's revelation from law to prophecy was now seen in Jesus. The response expected was not to stay frozen in terror but to listen to the one who has overcome our fears and opens for us the manifestation of God in our lives. We are invited to be part of God's new creation.


CRAFTING THE SERMON

The pastor has a rich variety of opportunities in these texts to counter the "truthiness" of our society. Andrea Simakis provides an excellent description of the condition of our world in an article titled "Is the 'Big Lie' No Big Deal?" which originally appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. There are ample examples of how our politicians, businesses, and (sadly) even our church institutions find it all to easy to "spin" the truth to their own advantage. If one is a fan of Comedy Central, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show humorously skewer these contemporary examples. If Jesus is, as Mark declared at the transfiguration experience, "God's beloved," and a reflection of the image of God in which we were created, then one could build a contrast between the image that the world has created of humanity and the image seen in Christ. One could build a vivid contrast between those who are the children of the "father of lies" and the children of God that we can become in Christ (John 1:12).

One could also build on Paul's image of being slaves for Jesus' sake and the paradox of choosing to be a slave so that we can be free. The fact is that we all choose to obey someone or something in making our choices in life. The world offers us the opportunity to be a slave of the fear of death, the lust for wealth, or the hunger to be loved. God offers us in Christ the opportunity to be a slave of the one who has given everything for our sakes. The "god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers," but in Christ we have an opportunity to experience the full truth about ourselves and our world.

While you would be on solid ground to emphasize the danger of trying to freeze our mountaintop religious experiences rather than returning to the problems of the world down below, I think the Mark pericope offers us another opportunity. If, as the text asserts, it was when Peter, representing all of us, offered hospitality (made space) for the law and the prophets (as interpreted through Christ) that God spoke, then maybe a case could be made for the importance of the church offering that same hospitality to the Word of God as a counter voice to the lies of the world. The power of Christ to challenge the "spin doctors" of our society can offer us the possibility of seeing through the lies and hearing God speak truth to power.

Finally, one could build an interesting sermon around the temptation of the world to protect self or one's institution (even at the cost of truth) versus Christ, who offers us the opportunity to experience God's truth through allowing ourselves to be vulnerable to the pain and hunger of others. While one would have to expand the lectionary reading in Mark to include the interchange between Peter and Jesus, the clear contrast is between Peter, who wanted to protect Jesus by having him not go to Jerusalem, and Jesus, who was willing to make himself vulnerable for the world's sake. The question then becomes whether we are interested in being children of the father of lies or children of the father of Christ.

To experience transfiguration as a church is to allow ourselves to see beyond the self-serving behavior of our world and to allow ourselves to be transformed by Christ who invites us to be the Body of Christ, who came not to be served but to serve.


ANOTHER VIEW
by Carlos Wilton

Steve, the Andrea Simakis piece you cite was one of the most dispiriting things I've read in a long time, when it comes to our national life. One of the most telling remarks in the article is that of David Bastone, editor of the web journal The Smoking Gun, who observes (reflecting on the nation's response to Watergate thirty years ago): "Nixon was a shunned man. He went into exile. No one goes in exile anymore."

Ronald Reagan may have started our nation on our slow slide toward contempt of the truth. We were profoundly tired of scandal in high places, so we collectively decided to look the other way. The so-called "Great Communicator" told us everything we wanted to hear, and we loved it. He invented the myth of "welfare queens" driving Cadillacs purchased with welfare benefits, and he schmoozed his way through the Iran-Contra scandal, in which White House staffers demonstrated a contempt of the law every bit as egregious as anything Haldeman or Ehrlichman ever perpetrated -- but they got away with it. When this smooth-talking former actor died, there were some who wanted to carve his face into Mount Rushmore -- that's how much we loved the Big Lie.

Then we had Bill Clinton, parsing the meaning of the word "is" in order to cover up his sexual peccadilloes. We Americans loved Big Bill's confident, ebullient style, and still do. He continues to jet around the world, enjoying the elder-statesman role -- his squirming "I did not have sex with that woman" defense all but forgotten.

Now we have a president who once stood on an carrier flight deck under a "Mission Accomplished" banner, while soldiers continue to die today in Iraq in even greater numbers than they were back then. This same president claims no one in the White House heard about New Orleans' levees being washed out, when firsthand reports by FEMA staffers and Coast Guard officers have been well-documented. As long as our government's official communications shimmer with the elusive quality Stephen Colbert has called "truthiness," we cheerfully accept them.

Oprah Winfrey's belated but firm indictment of the widespread lies in James Frey's memoir A Million Little Pieces is an encouraging development. Dare we hope that at least some movers and shakers in our culture are starting to value truth for its own sake?

The image of Jesus standing on the mountaintop, disappearing for a moment into a blaze of heavenly light, provides a potent symbol of a truth that is immutable and eternal. It is time we in the churches stood up for truth as an ideal that's worth defending, in and of itself. We've got to call for an end to political "business as usual" as we've known and -- to our shame -- loved it for the past quarter-century. If we Christians don't stand up for truth, who will?

Now I'm going to stop preaching, as they say, and go to meddling. Reverence for the truth has got to start right here -- with us, who stand in pulpit and endeavor to proclaim God's Word. In our sermon writing, we need to take particular care to cite our sources carefully and not allow the slightest opportunity that our words and thoughts could be confused with the words and thoughts of others. I'm not saying we need to pepper our sermons with detailed oral footnotes. Even prefacing an anecdote with "The story is told..." or "I once read somewhere..." alerts our listeners to the fact that the story we're about to tell was not something we personally experienced.

As a person who listens to sermons, I've had a couple of bad experiences in this regard over the years. I can testify that the long-term impact of this sort of thing on the credibility of the speaker is enormous and long lasting. The first of these incidents occurred when I was seminarian in the late 1970s, doing field education in a local church. I was listening to the interim pastor deliver a sermon one day when I started to notice that his words sounded oddly familiar. After a few moments, it clicked: the entire third point of his sermon, a section about five minutes in length, had been lifted, word for word and illustration for illustration, from a famous sermon of Harry Emerson Fosdick, "The Importance of Doubting our Doubts." It just so happened that I had read the Fosdick sermon the week before, as an assignment for my Introduction to Preaching class. During our supervisory session that afternoon, I revealed to him that I knew where that part of his sermon had come from. He hemmed and hawed, and grew sheepish, but he never did give an adequate explanation. It was an awkward moment that both of us allowed to pass, by mutual consent. He was a retired minister, a well-respected figure in the local area. Everyone knew he was preaching mostly "from the barrel," as he supplied pulpits on an interim basis -- but that made his offense even worse, in my mind. His plagiarism was by then years, maybe even decades, old. It had probably been repeated dozens of times, both in the churches he'd served as installed pastor and those he'd visited as a supply preacher. The greatest irony was the congregation had responded to his sermon that day with tremendous acclaim. That was no great surprise -- it was, after all, one of Fosdick's best -- but there was something fundamentally dishonest in the way he had presented it.

The second incident happened about a year ago as I was listening to a colleague preach at a special worship service dedicating a new church. This preacher told a particularly timeworn sermon illustration -- the one about the boy with one arm who couldn't join the rest of his Sunday school class in the "here is the church, here is the steeple" rhyme, but who was aided by a classmate who said, "Let's make the church together." The problem was, this preacher told it as though the incident had recently happened to a Sunday school teacher from his church, and had been related to him by that person. I realized instantly that this was extremely unlikely -- the illustration, as I've said, has been making the rounds for the past thirty years or so, if not longer, and he hasn't been in ministry that long. It's still a good story, despite being rather dog-eared from overuse. It would surely have spoken just as strongly had he told it as something he'd read somewhere. Yet, out of a misplaced desire to provide extra verisimilitude, he crossed the line between truth and falsehood. The consequence, for me as a listener, was that I began to doubt the veracity of everything he'd said that day. Out of a vain desire to polish his sermon to a bright stylistic sheen, he had lost everything.

It's not worth it for us, as preachers, to play fast and loose with the truth. The larger truth we are trying to convey will only be obscured by our own vanity. How will we then be able to address the larger truth issues that are front and center these days in our national discourse? Let us all seek to honor truth as God's precious gift to us: a blazing beacon on the mountaintop that illumines all our lives.


ILLUSTRATIONS

Abe Lincoln made the great speech of his famous senatorial campaign at Springfield, Illinois. The convention before which he spoke consisted of a thousand delegates plus the crowd that had gathered with them.

The speech was carefully prepared -- every sentence was guarded and emphatic. It has since become famous as the "Divided House" speech. Before entering the hall where it was to be delivered, Lincoln stepped into the office of his law partner, Mr. Herndon, and locking the door so that their interview might be private, took his manuscript from his pocket and read one of the opening sentences: "I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free." Mr. Herndon remarked that the sentiment was true, but suggested that it might not be good policy to utter it at that time. Mr. Lincoln replied with great firmness: "No matter about the policy. It is true, and the nation is entitled to it. The proposition has been true for six thousand years, and I will deliver it as it is written."

***

Once there was an emperor in the Far East who was growing old and knew it was coming time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or one of his own children, he decided to do something different.

He called all the young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It has come time for me to step down and to choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you." The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued: "I am going to give each one of you a seed today -- one seed. It is a very special seed. I want you to go home, plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring to me, and the one I choose will be the next emperor of the kingdom!"

There was one boy named Ling who was there that day, and like the others, he received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the whole story. She helped him get a pot and some planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown.

After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept going home and checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by... still nothing.

By now others were talking about their plants, but Ling didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by, and there was still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she encouraged him to go, take his pot, and be honest about what happened. Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace.

When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by all the other youths. They were beautiful, in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor, and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey, nice try." When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!"

All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring the boy to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a failure!" he thought. "Maybe he will have me killed!"

When Ling got to the front, the emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!" Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed -- how could he be the new emperor?

Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"

***

One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
-- Mark Twain

***

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
-- Mark Twain

***

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.
-- Thomas Jefferson

***

No legacy is so rich as honesty.
-- William Shakespeare

***

Once upon a time, Americans generally assumed it was important to tell the truth. We honored leaders like Abraham Lincoln -- "Honest Abe," we called him. Why, they say that when Lincoln was a young lawyer, he used to divide the cash he received from clients into two envelopes, right on the spot. One envelope had his name on it, the other his law partner's. That way, if Abe fell off his horse on the ride home and died, his partner would be sure to get his share.

Once upon a time, we Americans felt proud of leaders like Harry Truman -- who, they say, kept a roll of his own three-cent stamps in his desk at the White House for personal letters.

But no longer. Politics has changed. Most folks today assume that public officials will lie whenever it suits them -- without even the semblance of an excuse.

Most political pundits -- the "talking heads" of the public-affairs shows -- now speak frankly about lying as a necessary evil in public life. It's just one more useful instrument in the spin doctor's little black bag. "What's the big deal?" they exclaim to anyone who raises a question. "It's only politics!"

When so-called "informed sources" reveal that a politician has done something scandalous, the experts speculate on how many days his or her office will continue to issue denials -- but the fact that they lied at all is hardly questioned. Political virtue today seems to reside not in whether you tell the truth, but when you do. Truth-telling is a matter of timing, nothing more.

***

Problems of truth in political leadership are nothing new. As Isaiah laments, concerning the situation in his own day:

"No one brings suit justly,
no one goes to law honestly;
they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
conceiving mischief and begetting iniquity....
Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands at a distance;
for truth stumbles in the public square,
and uprightness cannot enter." (Isaiah 59:4, 14)

***

The problem with lying is that it gives to liars an illusion of protection, of invulnerability. Faced with an embarrassing situation, liars imagine that the false story they construct is a stout suit of armor that will shield them from any assault -- when, in reality, their armor is made not of steel, but of crystal. No sooner is the lie exposed to the light of truth than the armor that once promised to hide every part of its owner proves transparent. What's more, while its surface may feel hard and unyielding, even the most glancing blow of an opponent's sword will smash it into fragments.

The Bible recommends that Christians put on a different sort of armor:

"Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." (Ephesians 6:11-18)

Notice that truth is the stout belt around the warrior's waist and righteousness is his breastplate. Far from being a liability, truth will actually protect us Christians as we go out to wage war against evil. For Satan, the Evil One, is known as "the father of lies"; his legions are decked in armor that may appear menacing, but is constructed from the most fragile of materials.

***

In a perceptive column in the Feb. 10 issue of Entertainment Weekly (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0,6115,1155752_5_0_,00.html), Stephen King discusses the lies in James Frey's A Million Little Pieces (and Oprah Winfrey's about-face regarding the book's veracity). King writes that "substance abusers lie about everything, and usually do an awesome job of it." As a result, King says, "the amazing thing is that anyone -- including Oprah -- believed any of Frey's stories once they realized he was trying to manage good sobriety without much help, because this is a trick very few druggies and alcoholics can manage."

King concludes: "Surely there are more important lessons to be learned here. They have to do with drugs and alcohol as well as truth. Addiction is a plague on American society. The cruelly ignorant assumption that addicts bring it on themselves (and thus can take care of the problem themselves) only exacerbates the problem.... [N]o addict struggling to get clean before the spike or pipe can do him in deserves to be told, 'Just pull yourself together and clean up your act like James Frey did.' Because, dig: James Frey isn't the way you sober up..."

***

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, the minister Arthur Dinsdale suffers continually from his lack of moral courage and honesty in not coming forward to admit he is the father of Hester Prynne's daughter Pearl. While Hester lives with the public shame and scorn heaped upon her by a self-righteous and unforgiving religious community, Dinsdale suffers acutely in silence. In death, the man who committed adultery with Prynne is discovered to have a self-inflicted scarlet "A" on his chest. His dishonesty, hypocrisy, and personal agony suggest that his and Hester's lives would have been better served had he come forward and confessed at the outset.

Guilt can be an intolerable load to someone who has been taught the difference between truth and lies, right and wrong. No one ever asked Dinsdale if he was Hester Prynne's lover, yet his silence is immoral because it exposes her alone to punishment and persecution. Hawthorne did not write The Scarlet Letter as a cautionary tale for Christians; he wrote it to serve as an indictment of religious legalism and cruelty, and the harsh environment that led to tragedy all around.

Unlike James Frey, or the head honchos of Enron who lied spectacularly to their employees, stockholders, etc., Arthur Dinsdale suffered deeply because of the lie he was living. The difference today seems to be that if it will sell more books or keep one from going to prison, then lying is a pragmatic action -- not an immoral one.

***

Truth and Rhetoric
While the ancient art of rhetoric was much valued and admired by luminaries and rhetoricians like Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine, in 2005 the term "rhetoric" is almost always used in a derogatory way. "Just political rhetoric" implies expedient lying -- underlining the expectation that politicians will say or promise whatever it is they think voters want to hear. But it is not the discipline of rhetoric that is at fault, nor is it language itself. It is those who use and abuse language for their own advantage who deserve criticism and discrediting:

"I'll still respect you in the morning."
"The check is in the mail."
"I love you" from a smiley-faced Christian who doesn't even know your last name.

Language is cheapened by people, and NOT the other way around.


WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman

Call To Worship
Leader: We gather as the faithful of God,
we come to listen to what God has to say to us.
People: God has invited us to this place:
may our faces reflect our hopes and our hearts.
Leader: We gather as the faithful of God,
people of the new covenant of hope and promise.
People: We boldly enter into the presence of God,
hoping to be transformed into new people.
Leader: We gather as the faithful of God,
our fears melting away in the heart of God.
People: We come to share in the freedom of the Spirit,
we come to praise God's holy name.

Prayer Of The Day
Majestic Glory, Heart of God:
on mountaintops crowned with mist
and in museums filled with wonder;
in tents pitched by singing brooks
and in theaters filled with laughing children;
in this sacred space
and in all the ordinary neighborhoods where we live,
you are with us,
hearing us,
answering us.
And we do not lose heart.

Holy Beloved, Face of God:
we glance at you out of the corners of our souls,
and see grace surrounding us;
we look at you conversing with the poor and rejected,
and see our family;
we watch you as you come to us,
to touch us, to heal us, and to give us back to God.
And we do not lose heart.

Holy Spirit, Ear of God:
when our lips cannot shape words,
you speak them for us;
when we can only sigh our deepest needs,
you gather them up and offer them to God;
when our hopes are dashed to the ground,
you pick them up and give them back to us.
And we do not lose heart.

God in Community, Holy in One,
we lift our voices and hearts to you,
praying as Jesus taught us, saying,
Our Father . . .

Call To Reconciliation
Sometimes we wait for God to astound us with whirlwinds of wonders, while God silently offers us grace. God waits to forgive us, so let us hold nothing back, but trust in the One who listens to our prayers and answers us with mercy.

(Unison) Prayer Of Reconciliation
God of mountaintops, the din of the world can harden our hearts to your Word.
We watch news, reality TV, silly shows --
yet have trouble bearing witness to your presence in our lives.
Our faith is placed in those who fail us,
our trust is given to those who misplace it.

Forgive us, Revealer of Mystery.
You offer mercy to us, so we might hear your call to discipleship.
You whisper our names, so we might know how loved we are.
Caught by the surprise of your never-ending joy in us,
how can we not follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
onto the mountaintops of worship and into the valleys of sacrifice and service!

(silent prayers may be offered)

Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: On mountaintops and in valleys, in our homes and in our hearts,
God knows us better than we know ourselves,
and God forgives us when we cannot forgive ourselves.
People: By God's mercy, we are forgiven;
by God's mercy, we are made whole;
by God's mercy, we are equipped to serve others.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

Great Prayer Of Thanksgiving
Leader: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Leader: People of God, lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them to the Lord our God.
Leader: People of God, give thanks to the One
who meets us on the mountaintops of glory and in the valleys of service.
People: It is good and right to give praise to the One
who is with us in every moment.

Shaper of mountains and Carver of rivers:
it is our greatest joy to offer you our praise and thanksgiving in these moments.
All things in every place were created by you to rejoice in your radiant splendor.
Created by you to live in your garden of hope and joy,
we believed in the shrewd schemes of the world,
and wandered into the valleys of sin and death.
But you did not forsake us,
but became one of us so we might be transformed into new life.

You gave us the Breath of life and the Word of grace
so all the living could find voice to sing your glory.
Therefore, we join with those of every time and place,
singing the ancient hymn of praise and glory:

Sanctus
Mighty God, lover of justice,
you are seated upon the praise of your people.
On the mountain of holiness you proclaimed Jesus Christ as your Beloved,
the hope of all your children.
He descended Glory's mountain to climb up on a garbage dump called Calvary.
When he could have stayed with Moses and Elijah,
he chose to be crucified between two thieves.
When he could have taken shelter within your hope and love,
he endured the cross of pain and suffering.
And so, we proclaim our faith as we come to your Table:

Memorial Acclamation
Descend upon us, Holy Spirit, and on these gifts of the Bread and the Cup.
As we share them with one another, may we be restored to wholeness.
May Christ's return in faith find us in service to others;
may Christ's return in hope find us praying for others;
may Christ's return in love find us reconciled with one another.

And when Christ comes again in glory,
all people will be set free,
all brokenness will be made whole,
and all creation will sing:
through Christ, with Christ, in Christ,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.


ASH WEDNESDAY COMMUNION LITURGY
by Thom M. Shuman

(This service uses Taizé songs, but other songs can be substituted if desired.)

(Silent) Prayer In Preparation Of Worship
As you begin this service, take a few moments to bring yourself before the Lord -- your present state of mind and preoccupations, as well as your desire to meet God during this time.

Call To Worship
Leader: God's people have been called to gather.
People: From breast-feeding infants to aged grandparents, all are welcome.
Leader: God's people have been called to repent.
People: From those who wear their faults on their sleeves to those whose secret hearts are broken, all are welcome.
Leader: God's people have been called to be reconciled to our God.
People: From those who have turned away to those whose pain whispers in the night, all are welcome.

Taizé Song
"Wait For The Lord"

Prayer of the Day
God of holiness:
your day comes near, and we tremble,
not out of fear, but from awe and gratitude;
for on your day,
we are fully known, completely restored, reconciled to you forever.

Jesus Christ, Grace-Bearer:
as we come to your fast,
may we be filled with your hope;
as we receive your gifts,
may our hearts be opened to others;
as we begin our journey with you,
may we put no roadblocks in the path to Jerusalem.

Holy Spirit, Creator of clean hearts:
as water rushes into an empty hole,
may your sacramental silence fill the emptiness of our souls.

God in Community, Holy in One,
our Treasure, our Hope, our Joy,
hear us as we pray as Jesus taught us, saying,
Our Father . . .

Taizé Song
"In the Lord I'll Be Ever Thankful"

Scripture
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17

Taizé Song
"Our Darkness"

Scripture
Psalm 51 (read in unison)

Taizé Song
"In God Alone My Soul"

Scripture
2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10

Taizé Song
"Our Eyes"

Scripture
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

(Observe silence for 10 minutes)

Invitation To Lenten Disciplines
Beloved in Christ, at the time of the Christian Passover we celebrate our deliverance from sin and death through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lent is the season of preparation for this great celebration, the means by which we renew our life in the paschal mystery.

We begin our Lenten journey by acknowledging our need for repentance, for in penitence we name those things that damage us and others for what they really are, and we open ourselves to the One whose love knows no boundaries and whose mercy is demonstrated to us in the life of Jesus Christ.

By taking an honest look at our lives, and repenting of our humanness;
by praying quietly but with full hearts;
by letting go of those things that harm us and by taking on works of love for others;
by reading and feasting on God's Word,
we observe a holy Lent,
and prepare ourselves for the passion of Holy Week and the joy of Easter.

Let us prepare ourselves to come to our God.

Taizé Song
"O Lord, Hear My Prayer"

Call To Reconciliation
God begs us to turn from those words, those acts, those obstacles which keep us from being God's people. As we begin our Lenten journey, I invite you to join with me, with words and in silence, as we bring our brokenness to God, who desires to make us whole.

(Unison) Prayer Of Confession
Too long have we traveled our own ways approaching God,
too long have we sought to satisfy our hidden desires.
We have trusted the falsehoods of the world,
and relied on the powers that would consume our souls.
We have sought healing from impostors,
and rejected the One who was broken for our wholeness.

Have mercy on us, God whose love overflows our deepest hopes.
Let our hearts be a sanctuary for your Spirit;
let our lives abound in service to others;
let our spirits reflect the One we call our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

(Observe silence)

Assurance Of Pardon
Leader: God lets go of the punishment we deserve and gives us mercy in its place.
Willingly, God puts a new spirit into us, the spirit of hope and joy.
People: We will sing to the One who has delivered us from our sins.
We will praise God with cleansed hearts.
Thanks be to God. Amen.

Imposition Of The Ashes
Our ancestors in the faith used ashes as a sign of our repentance,
a symbol of the uncertainty and fragility of human life.
Like them, we have tasted the ashes of hopelessness;
we have walked through the ashes of our loss and pain;
we have stood knee-deep in the ashes of our brokenness.

God of our lives, out of the dust of creation you have formed us and given us life.
May these ashes not only be a sign of our repentance and death,
but reminders that by your gift of grace in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer,
we are granted life forever with you. Amen.

(A period of silence follows. Those who wish may come forward to have the sign of the cross placed on their foreheads or hands. The ashes are from palm branches used at previous Palm Sunday services, mixed with oil.)

Invitation To The Table (from Isaiah 58)

Great Prayer Of Thanksgiving
Leader: People of God, the Lord be with you,
People: and also with you.
Leader: People of dust, lift up your hearts to God.
People: We lift them up to the One who created us.
Leader: People of ashes, give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: Praise and thanks are offered to the One who restores us to life.

Now is the right time to praise you;
now is the moment to sing your praises, Holy God of Creation.
You formed us to live in joy and peace with you,
but we tore your heart when we chose our desires over your dreams for us.
We prefer to swim in the cesspool of the world than to be cleansed in your living waters.
We hunger more for the adulation of others than for the quiet intimacy of your grace.
Yet you did not turn away from us but remained true to your covenant:
calling us to return in the words trumpeted by the prophets;
inviting us to gather in your kingdom;
entreating us to accept your overflowing love.

Therefore we glorify you,
joining our voices with those who had wandered far from you,
but who were brought home,
and with those who seek you now in this time and in every place:

Taizé Song
"Bless The Lord"

Sanctus
Holy are you, Steadfast Love,
and blessed is Jesus Christ, Bread of life.
Considered a pretender to David's throne,
he is your heart's true Son.
Taking on the poverty of the human spirit,
he shared the abundance of your heart.
Weeping over our broken relationships,
he reconciles us with your saving joy.
Having nothing he could call his own,
he gives us more than we ever need.
Dying like a common criminal,
he gives us life, releasing us from the grip of sin and death.

Preparing to journey with him once again,
we remember the mystery of his faithful obedience to your heart:

Taizé Song
"Jesus Christ, Bread Of Life"

Memorial Acclamation
Holy Spirit, Heart of Compassion:
as the ashes of our humanity are placed upon your baptismal seal,
so the brokenness of our lives is placed on the Table of grace,
that the bread might make us whole, and the cup might fill us with hope.
Then, in your wisdom, may we turn to serve others;
in your joy, may we bear the burdens of others;
in your grace, may our love overflow to others.

Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the community of the Holy Spirit,
all honor and glory are yours, God of holiness,
now and forever. Amen.

The Breaking Of The Bread And The Sharing Of The Cup
(while receiving communion, sing the Taizé song "Eat This Bread")

Prayers Of Petition

Taizé Song
"Jesus, Remember Me"

(Worshipers may depart from the sanctuary in silence when ready)


CHILDREN'S SERMON

Hiding from the truth

Object: a black veil from a woman's hat or a bridal veil

Based on 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you wear glasses? (let them answer) What happens when you take your glasses off and do not wear them? (let them answer) It is hard to see without your glasses, right? (let them answer) Glasses help your eyes when you are looking at things. But what do you wear when you do not want people to see your face clearly? (let them answer)

I brought something with me that women wear on special occasions. This is called a veil. The person wearing it can see out pretty well, but it is hard for others to see exactly what she looks like. When a woman is a bride, she wears a veil so that the man who is going to be her husband cannot see her face clearly until just the right moment. Women wear veils to funerals so that their tears are hidden.

When Paul was trying to teach people about the love of God that came as Jesus, he found that some people had a hard time understanding him. They would complain that Paul was hiding some truth or wasn't being honest with them about how God had chosen them to talk to others about God's gifts. They said that Paul was putting a veil over Jesus' good news.

Paul knew better. He wasn't hiding anything. They just did not want to hear about their sins and their own pride. They did not want to be humble. They wanted a religion that made them the most important people. Paul said their eyes were covered by veils. They could not see out clearly, so they called Paul a false preacher.

Sometimes, we wear veils. We don't like to hear the truth. We become ugly with our friends and family. No matter what they tell us, we don't listen. We want our ugly behaviors to be right, even when we know they are wrong. We want people to believe our lies. We are trying to hide behind veils and pretend that everyone else is wrong except us. When that happens, the veils are not helping us see better, but worse.

The next time you see someone wearing a veil, I want you to think about the day that Paul told the truth about the teachings of Jesus. Even though people were trying to hide from the truth, it was still there and they had to discover it. The same thing is true for us. If we are hiding the truth, we will never be close to Jesus, but if we believe in the truth and follow it, we will find Jesus and his kingdom. Amen.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, February 26, 2006, issue.

Copyright 2006 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.

All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 S. Main St., Lima, Ohio 45804.