Sermon Lent 3A: “Truth or Lies?”

Are you as interested in this spy satellite as I am.  Wednesday, the Navy launched an antibalistic missal at this dead spy satellite that was falling to the earth, scoring a direct hit—so they say..  Their aim was to vent off some of the rocket fuel that was in the satellite.  They were afraid that the rocket fuel would land in a populated area if the satellite had been allowed to fall into the planet and possibly hurt some human life.  But that explanation has caused a lot of people to be skeptical.  Lots of people wonder what the Navy was really after here.  There have been conspiracy theories like you wouldn’t believe.  People wonder if the navy just wanted to test the antiballistic capabilities of the missile program just to show that we can shoot things in the sky.  They wonder whether there is some sort of secret technology onboard the satellite that they wanted to keep out of the hands of someone who finds it when it falls into the planet.  People don’t know.  Truth or lies?  Churchill once said, a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

 

Today’s Gospel is about truth and lies.  The Gospel says there is a rumor going around that Jesus is baptizing more disciples than John the Baptist, but this is only a lie. John explains that Jesus didn’t baptize anyone.  Jesus tells the woman from Samaria that he has life giving water, and those who drink this water will not thirst again.  Now that’s a truth, but honestly the Samaritan woman can’t wrap her mind around it.  To her, this man is one bucket short of a cool sip.

 

Truth or lies?  “I have no husband,” the Samaritan woman admits, and with that first step toward the truth, the truth has her and won’t let go.  Jesus tells her the rest of the truth about herself.   The truth when it is about us, it is not always comfortable and so much reality is too much for her.  So she changes the subject to something more abstract, to religion, trying to draw Jesus back into an argument about Jews versus Samaritans.  You can hardly blame her.  If he knows all about all her husbands, She wants to back up, back off, hide somewhere.  But notice John tells us that it is noon day.  You can’t hide from the sun at noon.  And you can’t hide from the truth when you are with Jesus.     She tries a different tactic; she runs a little interference so that the man with X-ray vision won’t see too much. She needs a little time to step back from him and cover herself up again.

 

Truth or lies?  She steps back, but he steps towards her.  Hide and seek.  When she steps out of the light, he steps into it.  He will not let her retreat or hide.  If she is determined to hide the truth, then he will show her more of himself.  “I know that the Messiah is coming,” she says and he replies, “I am he.”

 

This is a moment of truth, This is noon when the light is its brightest.   This is the first time Jesus has told this truth, the truth that he is the Messiah to any woman or man, to any human being.  It is moment full of truth, full of grace in which the sinful woman stands face to face with the Messiah of God and although her life is a tissue of lies, truth accepts her.  She is like one of us. She can’t stand too much reality, too much scrutiny, too much light.  She is like us when we see ourselves in a mirror and we become conscious of the lines, the wrinkles: the good, the bad, the ugly, the all of it. But truth has got her, just as it has us.

 

Truth or lies.  Whether or not she chooses truth, Truth embraces her. Won’t let her go or hide.  The more she tries to hide, the more in her face Jesus gets.  I am the Messiah he tells her and he tells her this at noon when there no shadows to hide under.  In the end, she and all the people she brings to Jesus say, He is the savior of the world.  They worship the truth.

 

We worship Jesus as the Truth.  For such a long time, I have tried to worship the truth.   I have not yet found him yet…but I am seeking after Him.  I am prepared to sacrifice “things”, material possessions, ambitions, and satisfactions in pursuit of this quest.  Even if the sacrifice demanded my own life, I hope I will be prepared to give it.

 

At this Eucharist, will you seek the truth with me?  Will you bow your heads and say, Holy, Holy,  Holy.  Will you seek the Lord in the breaking of the bread?  Will you let go of your embarrassment, your fears? Fear is not in the habit of speaking the truth.  Will you let go of your fears? Will you come with freedom and not fear to find the truth in the breaking of the bread?  Truth has found us, and now it won’t let us go. Will you kneel with me and worship?  Worship the truth in the full light of day?

 

Amen