view here: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/109067/a_few_good_men/ (*language*)
I get chills every time I watch this exchange. Why? There are several reasons. First of all, I love court room dramas. Why I work for the railroad and never went to law school I still don't know. Secondly, Jack Nicholson brings an intensity to the scene that earned him an Oscar nomination. Finally, there is something about that line, 'You can't handle the truth' that haunts me. I remember preaching a sermon using this scene. It was based on the book of Job and how at the end of the day Job couldn't handle 'the truth' he said he kept seeking. The truth of his life and of the universe almost broke him.
Once again I have been facing this question of 'Truth'. In reading George MacDonald, Donald Miller and CS Lewis I am beginning to form an opinion of what the Truth is that may not be popular in a mainstream church. This idea is not unique with me because, as I mentioned, it has evolved through the writings of the previously mentioned authors. I think the Church, though it does a ton of great things, has missed 'the truth' to some degree. I think that most Christians, including myself, have missed the entire point of Jesus and who He really is and what He really is.
The Bible is an amazing work of literature; it's historical, poetic, prophetic and emotionally heart wrenching and at times, humorous. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 starting at about verse 14 or so, (I will quote using Eugene Peterson's 'The Message') it says: "There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another--showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us."
The Bible is unmistakably important to our lives. Through the Bible we can find our way.... but our way to what? The Truth. But the question then becomes, 'what is the truth?'. Is it the Bible itself or the source of the Bible, God himself revealed in the person of Jesus? The mistake I think we have made is that instead of the Bible leading us to 'the truth', we have put all the value on the verses we read and not the source of those verses. The problem, I think with that is that I can give a verse to 4 different people and they will come up with 4 different answers as to what the verse may mean. Why do you think we have hundreds of denominations? Why do you think we have some that say water baptism is essential for salvation and others say it's not. Why do you think the Catholics so value communion and other faiths do not think it should be a weekly activity? How in the world could we have ever gotten the 'Health and Wealth' belief if not for splicing certain verses together that we convinced ourselves that to be 'rich' was to have health and money? I have grown so tired of arguing over scripture that I can't even begin to tell you my frustration over this matter. We search and search the words and never really decide on a direction to go. Or worse yet, we decide on taking a path that is so far from Christ we might as well worship purple monkeys. (I mean no offense to any purple monkeys that may read this blog) MacDonald says several things about the matter.
MacDonald says of the Bible, " But herein the Bible itself is greatly wronged. It nowhere lays claim to be regarded as the Word, the Way, the Truth. The Bible leads us to Jesus, the inexhaustible, the ever unfolding Revelation of God. It is Christ 'in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' not the Bible, save as leading to Him."
MacDonald is a big believer in, 'quit arguing about it and do something that reflects Jesus to others'. He says, "Instead of so knowing Christ that they have Him in them saving them, they lie wasting themselves in soul-sickening self examination as to whether they are believers (and what they believe), whether they are really trusting in the atonement, whether they are truly sorry for their sins--the way to madness of the brain, and despair of the heart. Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done ONE THING because He said, Do it, or once abstained because He said, do not do it. It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in Him, if you do not do anything He tells you."
Ouch. I truly believe that even in the church we have people spending all their time in self evaluation and self pity because they are sinners and need to understand all the creeds of the church before they can actually serve Christ. I know what a sinner I am, believe me. I have spent the majority of my christian walk trying to figure out why I do what I do and how I can fix me. Well, in the meantime a lot of things don't get done. I have also spent so much time trying to figure out who's right in all the theological arguments over abortion, gay rights, war, the death penalty, etc. that I do very little in actually ministering Jesus' love to others. I don't mean to sound like a thundering liberal (because I am a registered Republican) :-) but at some point we should quit arguing theology and actually feed the hungry, love the loveless, shelter the homeless and care for the sinners among us. It's about finding 'the truth'; Jesus and then deciding on whether or not we can handle what He has for us.
In his book, 'Blue Like Jazz' Donald Miller has some pointed things to say about 'true' belief. "Here is the trick, and here is my point. Satan, who I believe exists as much as I believe Jesus exists, wants us to believe meaningless things for meaningless reasons. Can you imagine if Christians actually believed that God was trying to rescue us from the pit of our own self-addiction? Can you imagine? Can you imagine what Americans would do if they understood over half the world was living in poverty? Do you think they would change the way they live, the products the purchase, and the politicians the elect? If we believed the right things, the 'true' things, there wouldn't be very many problems on earth. But the trouble with deep belief is that it costs something. And there is something inside me, some selfish beast of a subtle thing that doesn't like the truth at all because it carries responsibility, and if I actually believe these things I have to do something about them."
I think that going to Church for the wrong reasons gets us to start believing and doing meaningless things. Going to church for meaningless reasons is well, meaningless. If we go because we are supposed to, it's meaningless. If we go because we are on the worship team, it's meaningless. If we go because people will call and ask us why we weren't there, it's meaningless. But if we are going to seek the truth in our lives and want to share in this journey with others, then it's priceless. We (my family) skip church every now and then and you know what? It's great. We don't fight trying to get the kids ready. We don't wake up angry. We don't rush around trying to get lunch plans made. We spend time together as a family and it's awesome. I would suggest it to anyone that once in a while, take time for the wife and kids instead of going to the exact same service you went to last week. If you catch any grief simply shout, 'YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!'. It won't have any relevance to the conversation but it does shock people. :-)
Here's another thought from Miller. " A friend of mine, a young pastor who recently started a church, talks to me from time to time about the new face of church in America--about the postmodern church. He says the new church will be different from the old one, that we will be relevant to culture and the human struggle. I don't think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel. If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either. It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing."
The Church is a great thing. But one thing that's not great about it is how divided it is and how divided it has made us. We are so bogged down in 'discovery' via sermons and Bible studies that we don't actually minister to a living soul and we never get ministered to by the source of all Truth. And that is not a good thing. I'll end with a scene from MacDonald's book 'Thomas Wingfold: Curate". Wingfold, the local pastor, has been confronted by a wise old dwarf Palworth who knows that Thomas is stealing his sermons from others. He gives Thomas a long, wonderful speech about what he should be seeking instead of spending time in the Bible simply to come up with sermons. Thomas had always been a student of the Bible, but was still missing something; the truth. Palworth says: "Ah! Mr. Wingfold, what if, after all the discoveries are made, and all the theories are set up and pulled down--what if, after all this, the strongest weapon a man can wield is prayer to the one who made him!..... Before long there came to me also the two same questions you asked: How do I know there is a God at all? and How am I to know that such a man as Jesus ever lived? I could answer neither. But in the meantime I was reading the story--was drawn to the Man, and was trying to understand his being, and character, and the principles of his life and action. To sum it all up, not many months had passed before I had forgotten to seek an answer to either question: they were in fact no longer questions. I had seen the man Jesus Christ, and in him had known the Father of him and of me."
The truth is in Jesus. Seek Him and you'll find the truth for your lives. I don't know if it will last for me; I can only pray it does. But I know this: since taking this path to the truth, my life has a bit more peace in it. My marriage is better. My attitude is better. I know that I'm a sinner and that I don't have all the answers. But the source for those answers I do know. The question really is for me, 'will I be able to handle the Truth?'
To be continued......
