The truth shall set you free

Homily for Peace and Justice (MLK) 2015

R1 = Lect. 887 #2 (Is. 32:15-18), Resp = 889 #2 (Ps. 85), Gosp = 890 #3 (Jn. 14:23-29)

Introduction

“The truth will set you free,” says Jesus.  These words of Jesus are echoed in the life and work of Martin Luther King whose life and legacy we celebrate today.  He worked to free others from racial hatred and injustice.

Scripture and Theology

Peace and justice pervade the Scriptures, portions of which we have heard today.  Prophesying about the Messianic age, Isaiah says that at that time justice and peace will prevail.  And the source of this justice, like all other good things, will be the indwelling of the Spirit upon the people.  The Psalmist also harbours the same positive hope for the Messianic era, an era that will be marked by justice and peace, but by kindness and truth as well.

These prophecies are confirmed by the Messiah himself who declares: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”  But Jesus qualifies his gift.  His peace is not like that which the world gives.  His peace is the fruit of a higher power, the work of the Spirit, who “will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”  The peace of Jesus is not simply a man-made peace, but a peace in which God is front and centre, albeit using men to bring about this peace.

We live in that messianic age, hoped for by Isaiah and the Psalmist, and inaugurated by Jesus.  Have their hopes for a just and peaceful world come to fruition in our world today?

Christian Life

The evidence of the last few months here and abroad suggests that we have still have work to do.  This is partly because we have forgotten the recipe for justice and peace provided by the Master who says: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Justice is giving each person his due, the guilty punishment, the innocent freedom.  But such justice can only be the fruit of truth.  Even in secular courts, justice is done and seen to be done only when the evidence upon which a verdict is made, is “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”

Peace is living in harmony with one another.  This is the result of justice, but also truth.  At the micro level of families and small communities and the macro level of nations, peace exists only if relationships are guided by truth, that is by data and evidence consistent with reality.  Unsubstantiated judgements, unfounded conjecture and idle speculation, which are the essence of prejudice and the enemy of truth, cannot produce peaceful co-existence.

Such untruths, half-truths and unfair truths are often the result of uncritical loyalty to ideology and party.  But if we base our relationships and judgements on truth, facts and evidence, then we shall fight hatred and injustice wherever we find it, regardless of our loyalties, letting the chips fall where they may.

·        With truth behind us, we shall with Pope Francis condemn both the terrorist murders of the French journalists and the blasphemous work of these same journalists, and we shall not attribute the work of some Muslims to the whole Islamic religion and its adherents.

·        With truth as our master, we shall with Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis condemn brutality and racism on all sides, that of some law enforcement officers and that of looting rioters.

·        With truth on our side, we shall with Martin Luther King’s fights for the civil rights of the oppressed while at the same time warn them against hatred and violence.

St. Francis of Assisi, to whom the prayer for peace is often wrongly attributed, nevertheless sought peace based on truth.  Francis attempted to make several missionary trips, one of them to the Sultan of Egypt.  Perhaps naively he thought that he might convert him to Christianity or die as martyr in the process.  Neither of these things happened; but after his visit Francis was converted in his attitude towards Muslims, an attitude based on the evidence before his eyes.

Conclusion

Martin Luther King ended his famous “I have a Dream” speech harbouring the hopes of freedom for all, using the words of an old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

·        Like him, we must, as disciples of Jesus, continue to harbour and work for the same hope.

·        Like him, we must do so by observing the injunction of our Saviour who asks us to remain in his word, and thus to know the truth, so that the truth will set all of us free.

Freed from oppression and prejudice, our society will experience God’s peace and justice, both in this present messianic age and in the world to come.