Truth To Tell

Bread and Wine Reading: "Truth To Tell", Barbara Brown Taylor

Scripture Reading: John 1: 5-11
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

Our story of Good Friday has taken on many versions over the last 2,000 years and the blame for what happened has of course settled onto a variety of characters in a variety of ways. For years, the Jews around Jesus were blamed, lumping “Jews” into a large class of “non-believers”, as if forgetting that all of Jesus’ inner-circle and Jesus himself were actually Jewish and that at that point “Christianity” was non-existent! It is easy, too, to blame the Romans, the “powers that be”, speculating that they were threatened by Jesus’ rule. And then there are the theories that in effect “blame” God, citing that God sent Jesus with the specific purpose of dying. In “Truth to Tell”, Barbara Brown Taylor contends that “one of the many things this story tells us is that Jesus was not brought down by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion, which is always a deadly mix…Beware those who cannot tell God’s will from their own.”

Taylor proposes that perhaps all of these “blame games” are nothing more than our attempt to avoid seeing our own reflection in the mirror, to see that we, too, are easily cast as the villain in this story. She says that “as long as [others] remain the villains, then we are off the hook—or so we think.” In other words, as long as we can remove ourselves from the story, what happened will never be our fault. And yet, as Taylor claims, “sons and daughters of God are killed in every generation. They have been killed in holy wars and inquisitions, concentration camps, and prison cells.” Anytime we kill in the “name of God", anytime we commit violence in the “name of God”, we are guilty of crucifying Christ. Anytime we exclude someone “in the name of God” or even neglect standing up for justice “in the name of God”, we are guilty. And anytime that we are so sure that we are right, so sure that we know God’s will that we cannot see God’s will in others, we are guilty.

The reason this story is so hard for us is that it does call us to look at our own reflection. In the Light of Christ, the Crucifixion, unable to remain in darkness because of the light, becomes a mirror. And all those who have been “crucified”—killed, hurt, excluded, shunned--in the name of God or in the name of justice or in the name of our attempt to preserve the way things are also become mirrors. And, as uncomfortable as it may be, they do have a truth to tell as they show us who we are in the Light of Christ. Taylor said that “[Jesus] was the truth, a perfect mirror in which people saw themselves in God’s own light.” She recounts a story of a group being asked who represented Christ in their lives. One woman stood up and said, “I had to think hard about that one. I kept thinking, ‘Who is it who told me the truth about myself so clearly that I wanted to kill him for it?’”

Discussion Questions:
1.) What image of the reason for Jesus’ Crucifixion is the most comfortable for you? What image is the least comfortable for you?
2.) What are some ways in our 21st century modern society that we “crucify” Christ anew?
3.) Who is it that shows you the truth about yourself so clearly that you want to kill him or her for it, or, at the very least, simply walk away and pretend that they do not exist?

So go forth into the mirror and let the truth be reflected for you and in you!

Grace and Peace,

Shelli