Of First Importance

Pentecost Last, Proper 29 – Christ the King

Fr. Tim Nunez

Today’s Gospel is one of my favorite scenes in scripture, but I think we need to go just one more verse. The very next verse frames the conversation between Pilate and Jesus. Please turn in your Bibles to John 18:38. “Pilate answered him, ‘What is truth?’”

What is truth? There seems to be a growing assumption that the only real truth is fact, that only whatever we can prove by math or scientific experiment is real. The rest is superstition or something. Our world has been improved immeasurably in many ways by scientific and technological advancement, but facts don’t define truth and they don’t define reality.

Most of us have a smart phone. That is a great tool with a ton of brilliant science, engineering and design that went into it. It’s a phone, a camera, a video recorder, and on and on. It’s a computer more powerful than the computers they used to go to the moon. We can find out news from anywhere in the whole world, translate any language, read almost any book and listen to almost any song.

And we can use it to break the Sabbath, steal, covet, bear false witness, commit adultery, and on and on. It’s a great tool that has very sharp edges and we better know how to use it for good and not evil. Good and evil are not scientific terms. They are part of a much larger universe of meaning and purpose.

So what ought we to do or not do? How do we know the difference? What is good? Good – even the word good – comes from God. Who is God? And that is just dealing with objects. Relationships to living beings are far more important than objects, certainly with people and even with pets. That’s reality. Life is much more than biological processes. Science tells us what we are made of, not who we are.

Which brings us back to Pilate’s question: What is truth?

Our answer to that question – or refusal to acknowledge that there is any such thing as absolute truth – leads our lives. Even when people don’t give it much thought, when they just don’t care about it and are only focused on the day to day tasks of life; culture is shaping them in ways they don’t notice, for better or worse. We don’t think about a lot of things, plumbing, electricity, etc. until there is a leak or an outage. I suppose that is in large part why I’m here, to remind and bring attention to the ways we need to maintain and improve our embrace of truth, God’s truth, God’s Word, which is also God’s love; Christ himself.

This is one of my favorite passages and a most fascinating and telling moment. In his earthly ministry, aside from an important handful of conversations with Gentiles, Jesus is preaching and teaching in the context of Judaism.  When Jesus faces the chief priests and other Jewish authorities, the issues and arguments all swirl within the faith. As big as their disagreements are and as critical as the moment is, it has to do with whether Jesus is violating in the worst possible way all that they hold dear or fulfilling every promise God has made. They are looking for a premise based in scripture to convict him and Jesus, to the extent he does answer them, answers out of that same scripture.

Pilate is entirely outside of their faith. He has no grounding in Jewish law or tradition. “I am not a Jew, am I?” he said. There Pilate stands, representing the very human machinations of the world. He represents the dominant empire of their time, the locus of military and economic power. That empire is filled with gods and goddesses that people choose to follow for whatever reason. The only real consideration for Roman officials is power and position.

There Jesus stands, the embodiment of truth, the embodiment of God’s Word, of God’s creative and redemptive Word. In person. In real time. And Pilate cannot see Truth staring him in the face, cannot hear truth spoken directly to him.

Jesus said, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” What does that look like?

Last year we lost one of the great pillars of this church, Chip Thullbery. We had his funeral under pandemic restrictions, with only his family and a very few others able to attend. We all knew that this church should have been full and there was some discussion about having a larger celebration at a later date. Well, pandemics don’t work that way. A few months ago someone asked if we could do something now that we are open and most people have come back to regular attendance. We chose today, Christ the King Sunday, because Chip faithfully pursued Jesus and tried his best to listen to his voice.

I touched on that at his funeral, comparing Chip to Paul’s exposition on Love in 1st Corinthians chapter 13. That fits today because God is truth and God is love. Truth and love are one and the same, ultimately perfected in God.

In all of that, we find that Chip is one of those people that shine forth the hope of the Gospel. You can plug his name right in to chapter 13 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Chip is patient, Chip is kind. He does not envy or boast. He is not arrogant or rude. Chip does not insist on his own way. He is not irritable or resentful. He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Chip bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

I said this for a very important reason. Chip never ends. He is at peace. He is at rest. He has joined Our Lord in paradise to await the resurrection of the dead. May that hope comfort our broken hearts. And may his kind, gentle counsel stay with us while we draw breath, for when we struggle, if we can calm ourselves and ask, “What would Chip say?” we’ll very likely get a bit closer to “What would Jesus do?”

I spent a lot of time with Chip in the relatively short time I knew him. He was not, of course, perfect. He was very particular. He didn’t like to use disposable plates or utensils. He wanted the nice china. But he was gentle in correction. When asked to review a place setting, he told Melody McKenna, “Well, I suppose you could do it that way if you wanted. But you might try turning the fold of the napkin to the inside, toward the plate.”

And he worked at it. He gave a great deal of reflection at the end of each day to the ways he fell short, be it something he said or a call he failed to make, a courtesy he had overlooked. His life was in continuous growth toward Jesus. He listened for Christ’s voice.

And so must we all. Call him King. Call him Lord. Listen for him. Seek him. Remember he comes first.

AMEN