The Source of Truth.

Many people at one time or another in their lives have fallen under the influence of a particular teacher or a particular movement even within the church. We find something, which seems, at the time, to be what we have always been looking for. We believe that this particular movement is going to be the missing link that helps everything else about our life and faith to make sense. Alternatively, we think that the teaching and practice of a particular community in which we came to faith is definitive for all Christians. For some people the gifts of the Holy Spirit such as speaking in tongues come into this category. For others, movements such as Alpha, or Marriage Encounter, or Ignatian Spiritual Disciplines, or Cursillo, become the ‘big thing’ about their faith. 

Moreover, those teachers who seem to be pushing a radical line such as Matthew Fox or John Shelby Spong have a following as well. The ordination of women, the preservation of the 1662 prayer book, acceptance of Gay and Lesbian lifestyles in the church community, opposition to abortion and euthanasia, pacifism, social justice, and countless other causes and movements and gurus abound in the church. In addition, whilst most of us probably have strong opinions on some of those things, we do not necessarily have the same opinions. That is the point. In Mark 1:21-28 the people of the Capernaum synagogue find that they have run right smack into the truth. Their encounter with Jesus leaves them awestruck. In contrast to their usual teachers, he speaks and acts with an authority that is undeniable. 

What do these people learn from hearing Jesus? What difference does it make for them and how do his words and actions touch their hearts? Because of whom Jesus is and what he does, they realise, that truth is personal. Their teachers are always passing on to them the venerable opinions of past masters. They are accustomed to hearing what one great rabbi or another said about this issue or that, and they are accustomed to setting great store by these observations. Nevertheless, in this exchange they come into confrontation with the absolute truth of a loving God. This God is their God, Yahweh, and this is the God of their ancestors. 

However, they find that the truth is not an inheritance left over from the past. It is not something they must keep stored away, wrapped in tissue paper. Those who listened heard the truth as a "who," as a living, breathing person they can recognise. They realise they cannot control and know the absolute truth and realise in their desire to control they have stopped listening to God.  God calls us to commit ourselves to a far different existence, one characterised by interaction, an existence where the presence of each can be a blessing to all and a relationship with God who is absolute truth.

Truth is personal and it has ultimate significance. It is therefore wrong to treat any person as a thing. It is wrong to treat anyone as disposable, to see anyone only in terms of our plans and ambitions. The last hundred years have been filled with abuse in many places around the globe. Whether we are Christian or Communist, Muslim or Jew, when we hunger for truth, we hunger for Christ, we hunger for God. 

If then we are to educate the rising generation in a way that is worthy of them, we must help them to see that truth is personal, that truth cannot be controlled, that truth is a "who" rather than a "what." This is to be the Christian belief, but one need not be a Christian to accept it. The truth is personal but the truth is also communal. The truth never remains a private matter, something we keep to ourselves. Yes, each of us has a unique perspective on the truth, one that reflects our character and experience. By itself that perspective is not valid. Our different unique views of the truth find their validity when they are taken together.

Jesus encounters the people of Capernaum in their synagogue, a public place where study, discussion, and worship regularly occur. This is a place where people sense that they are a community and sense that they are accountable to one another. It is within this network of relationships with all its strains and tangles that the people encounter truth in Jesus in company with one another. Once they have got over being shocked out of their wits, they seek one another's help to make sense out of what has happened. They do not keep silent, but start to talk among themselves. They wrestle with it and wonder about it together.

If we are to provide the rising generation with the education they deserve, then we must help them to see that truth is communal. Children need to know what it means to belong to a community of learners, a community that extends far enough to include teachers and other adults. The classroom need not be a place where isolated individuals engage in senseless competition, but a place where all contribute and receive because each has a unique perspective and none holds a monopoly on truth. In this way, children will discover that truth is personal and not simply the acquisition of knowledge. Their universe will not be void of great plans and purposes. Instead, they will come to know that through Jesus Christ they come into relationship with the absolute truth that rests with God.