John 16:13 (CEB)

13 However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you in all truth. He won’t speak on his own, but will say whatever he hears and will proclaim to you what is to come.


Reflection

“Truth” is weird. There are times when it’s black and white and times when there’s much grey. My name is Rachel – this is true. I also respond to Rae – that’s also true. Can two people be at the same event and both give truthful yet different accounts of that event? Well, yes, our Gospels are an example of that. Our lenses affect truth, our memories affect truth, our emotional state also can affect truth. How do we seek “truth” yet allow room to be open and to grow? At one point “truth” was that the earth was flat or that the atom was the smallest thing. They were viewed as truths while being untrue at the same time.

Today’s text is a small part of a long speech Jesus gives before the crucifixion. To roughly sum up the speech, Jesus is making the point that God knows the full truth about everything, but it’s no use trying to lay out every detail to the followers because they couldn’t handle it. Hold onto the Truth (I’m purposely capitalizing here), that Jesus is the Son of God and it’ll all be okay. We don’t need to know the Truth about how every small nuance of how God’s created universe works. That’s not our job. The Spirit of Truth, which does know and understand all, which can decipher through all the muddy grey area’s of our world with a clarity we cannot see through, will guide us through it.

Can Jesus, be our one, unchangeable, capital “T” Truth, while the other things we read and hear and learn be lower case “t” truths: these truths being up for debate and be things that can be looked at through many lenses? Look to God’s Holy Spirit of Truth to be the guiding lighthouse through the fog of life, and it will all be okay.

By Rachel Callender


For Pondering & Prayer

How does “truth” play a role in your life? How to faith and truth coexist for you? In what places in your life, is it most difficult to relinquish absolute truth?

Prayer: God of Truth, you have gifted us with knowledge to grow in relationship with others and with you. Forgive us for the times we have narrowly tried to know your creation. May your Holy Spirit be our guide this day and always. Amen.