A Message from Reverend Andrew M Emison

What is Truth?

We live in a turbulent time in our politics. We feel disorientated as the boundary lines of conviction which separate have rotated. The boundaries are now within our political traditions and tribes rather than between them.

No wonder then that debate offered across the despatch boxes of the House of Commons fails to reach consensus.

I shared some time recently with a man who lamented that the output from one of our national broadcasters was biased. He felt that his choice of news was far more reliable and impartial. I asked him what measure or reference he had chosen to help him reach his conclusion. His answer was that the source of news he trusted was the one that matched how he thinks. He had no other resources that he could refer to beyond his own cognition. Does this mean that there was nothing else in the world in which he could place his trust? Was he right?

For me, in this time of widespread cynicism and mistrust, this raises an interesting question. How do we determine in what or in whom we place our trust and allegiance?

At the trial of Jesus before Pilate in John chapter 18 Jesus says:
“…For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth”. (John 18:38)
Perhaps Pilate articulates our contemporary cynicism in our politics when he replies: “and what is truth?”

For Christians, the answer of course stood before him. For in the beaten, wounded Jesus stood God’s answer to the reality of our life together and of God’s love for us. In Jesus' resurrection, we are invited to recognise that a brand new way of living is possible. Jesus’ new life is as Paul says, the first-fruits of the revolution begun in Jesus’ life and death. Christians are invited to confess a source of authority and reference point which sometimes affirms and sometimes challenges all of our preconceptions including our political ones.
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Looking forward to the coming of the Holy Spirit Jesus said: “When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth…” (John 16:13a). That might not seem to take us very much further forward until we realise that the “you” is plural. For Christians, the truth is not given to individuals but to communities.

I’m never going to tell anyone how to vote, least of all from the pulpit. Being accountable to God for my own vote is enough! I would like to suggest however that we have a choice.
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We can say: “{insert preferred news outlet here} is Lord” or we can say: “Jesus is Lord”.

If we choose the latter, then we need to get together to discern how together the Spirit is lifting us from a posture of cynicism and self-referential belief and guiding us to a confident vision of God’s future, God’s will and God’s truth.

Grace and peace.

Andrew

​Andrew M. Emison
​Minister