Be Truthful, Gentle and Fearless

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Proper 13B-24

Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago

I don’t know where it came from.  There among all the stickers, beach passes, photos, and reminders on my refrigerator door is a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. It says, “Be truthful, gentle, and fearless.”  More than 80 times in the gospels, Jesus precedes a teaching with the words “I tell you the truth.” He says here in the gospel of John that he is “the truth” and the “the true bread from heaven.” True to Jesus’ words, Paul teaches in Ephesians that to love a person, a people, or a nation you must tell them the truth.

Our reading from Second Samuel offers good advice about how to tell the truth to others and ourselves, and about how to receive the truth from others. Bathsheba is one of five women Matthew lists in the genealogy of Jesus, along with Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, and Mary. Each of these women have their own #MeToo stories, and each of these texts of the abuse of patriarchy, is an essential part of Jesus’ story.

The prophet Nathan is a good example of how to speak truth to power. Nathan is truthful, gentle, and fearless. With the delicacy and craft of a bullfighter, Nathan kindles King David’s anger toward a certain a rich man who had stolen, killed, and eaten the beloved lamb of a poor man. Nathan deftly turns that wrath back upon David. When David insists on hearing who the evil man is so that he may have him punished, Nathan declares, “You are that man!” (2 Samuel 12:7).

Speak the truth. Be gentle and fearless. No one is above the law. One amazing thing about our bible is that it does not hesitate to say that all our heroes are flawed. King David proves his worth, in part, because he doesn’t try to deflect, deny, or defend himself when confronted with his guilt. King David realizes his wickedness and repents. By tradition, psalm 51 is the by-product of David’s grief and regret. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me” (Psalm 51:10-11). David’s example of personal integrity resonates through the ages.

To love Jesus is to serve the truth with gentleness and fearlessness. Paul encourages us to speak the truth in love so we may grow and become the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ (Ephesians 4:15). Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”  To believe in him is to dedicate ourselves in the service of love and truth. We are made strong enough to do this when we partake of the bread and wine at communion. Jesus is the true bread of heaven.  Here, in John 6, just as clearly as in the Lenten readings about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, Christ teaches us that bread is more than just what we eat. Bread is the great sign and metaphor of the kingdom.

It’s interesting. “Jesus didn’t talk much about the church, but he talked a lot about the kingdom…. In contrast to every other kingdom that has been and ever will be, this kingdom belongs to the poor, Jesus said, and to the peacemakers, the merciful, and those who hunger and thirst for God. In this kingdom, the people from the margins and the bottom rungs will be lifted up to places of honor, seated at the best spots at the table. This kingdom knows no geographic boundaries, no political parties, no single language or culture. It advances not through power and might, but through acts of love and joy and peace, missions of mercy and kindness and humility. This kingdom has arrived, not with a trumpet’s sound but with a baby’s cries, not with the vanquishing of enemies but with the forgiving of them, not on the back of a warhorse but on the back of a donkey, not with triumph and a conquest but with a death and a resurrection….

When we consider all the messes the church has made throughout history, all the havoc she has wreaked and the things she has destroyed, when we face up to just how different the church looks from the kingdom most of the time, it’s easy to think maybe Jesus left us with a raw deal. Maybe he pulled a bait and switch, selling us on the kingdom and then slipping us the church. (Rachel Held Evans, as quoted in Daily Meditations, “A Glimpse of Love, Joy, and Peace,” Richard Rohr, 8/2/24).

Perhaps we would prefer that God would ensure that not all our leaders would be flawed. At least some of our institutions, governments, and congregations would always be worthy of our trust.  But alas, we are human.  Despite this, God made a choice long ago, to work with us, to dwell within us, to go before us, to renew, uplift and create in us a clean heart again and again after we transgress. We express this truth here, in our name, Immanuel. It means ‘God with us.’ God leads us flawed human beings on the right path as we strive to be truthful, gentle, and fearless.

The biblical word for ‘church’ is ekklesia. The ‘called out.’ The people of God is, essentially, “a gathering of kingdom citizens, called out—from their individuality, from their sins, from their old ways of doing things, from the world’s way of doing things—into participation in this new kingdom and community with one another….The purpose of the church, and of the sacraments, is to give the world a glimpse of the kingdom, [and] to point in its direction….” (Rachel Held Evans).

“For many people today, kingdom language evokes patriarchy, chauvinism, imperialism, domination, and a regime without freedom—the very opposite of the liberating, barrier-breaking, domination-shattering, reconciling movement the kingdom of God was intended to be!” (Brian McLaren)

 “The kingdom remains a mystery just beyond our grasp. All we have are almosts and not quites and wayside shrines. All we have are imperfect people in an imperfect world doing their best to produce outward signs of inward grace and stumbling all along the way.”  (Rachel Held Evans)

Be truthful, gentle, and fearless. This is our daily bread. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).This bread provides the proper nutrition to enables us to love and to receive love, to be called out of our small self, and drawn into the One Life we share in the kingdom of God that is both already and not yet.