Helen Barler
“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” (1) These words, attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John, are carved above the front entrance to the main building of the University of Texas at Austin, where Paul and I, both of my parents and both of my sisters, attended the University. This is the same tower from which in 1966 an ex-Eagle scout shot and killed 14 people, including an unborn child, and injured 31 other people in the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history up to that time.
This is a critical time for truth and for freedom in our nation and the world. We have been watching the committee reporting on the events of January 6, 2021, the search for the truth of what transpired, who was responsible for the violent acts which threatened and continue to threaten our country and our people, and whether the events were ignited by the spreading of information known to be false.
Juneteenth began as a celebration of the Texas slaves learning of their emancipation after the defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War and became a federal holiday last year. Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, but communication and implementation was slow and the slaves of Texas did not get official notification until June 19, 1865, over two years later. The freed slaves began celebrating this event on June 19 of the next year.
The Word tells us that freedom and truth are linked. Let’s think about that. What is truth, how does it relate to freedom, and what does it mean to us in our lives?
It’s always best to start with the Word. In the Old Testament, or Hebrew Scriptures, there is not much said about truth. One of the Ten Commandments tells us not to give false witness against our neighbor. The Psalms and the Prophets speak about truth and lies, and the prophet Zechariah said (8:16-17)
“These are the things that you shall do: speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the Lord.“
The concept of truth, and its importance to us, comes to the forefront in the Gospel of John. In the very first chapter, the Beloved Disciple tells us that “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Jesus said to the disciple Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Many Christians believe that this means that only their beliefs are true, and that only those who accept their understanding of Jesus will be “saved”, but as Swedenborgians we have a broader, more inclusive understanding of Jesus as the incarnation of Divine Love and Wisdom and we cherish and celebrate our freedom to enter into a search for greater understanding and connection with the Divine and with one another.
When the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well asked Jesus the question about whether God must be worshipped in Jerusalem or on the hilltops, he told her,
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.“
And he told his disciples,
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he bides with you, and he will be in you. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (John 14: 15-17)
And when Jesus was betrayed, condemned by the Jewish religious authorities, and sent to the Roman authorities for civil punishment on charges of treason and sedition:
Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”
If Jesus answered this question, it was not recorded by in the Gospel. Wikipedia tells us that “Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.” This is what is being sought in the current hearings, but it does not go far enough for us to understand what it means in relation to Spirit, the Divine, and our lives. For a possible answer, we will have to go to Emanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg reminds us that God, the ground of all being, is infinite Divine Love and Wisdom:
Love is all things that are good combined, and wisdom is all things that are true combined. Both sets of things are from God, who is love itself and therefore goodness itself, and wisdom itself and therefore truth itself.
“Everything derived from wisdom is called true. Wisdom, which consists of nothing but truths, casts its subject in a delightful light. When we perceive that light, something true is coming from something good. In us, love and goodness are expressed in our emotions, while wisdom and truth are expressed in our thoughts and minds. Lack or corruption of these are expressed as evil and falsity.“
–True Christianity §38 (2)
As we observe the acceptance and understanding of truth and falsity in our lives and in our world, we see people rejecting what they may even know is truth because it conflicts with their own special and self-centered agendas – the battle to gain (or avoid losing) money, power or influence. Or they are assailed by spirits of fear, anger, hatred or jealousy.
Over the centuries, from Jesus to the present day, people have spoken truth to power as a non-violent political tactic against the propaganda of oppressive or authoritarian governments. This includes Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Elie Weisel and Vaclav Havel. These courageous people risked losing their friends, their liberty, and their lives. On the other hand, Noam Chomsky has said that “power knows the truth already, and is busy concealing it” and that the oppressed are those who need to hear the truth, not the oppressors.
So how do we know what is true? Beyond “facts” and “forensic evidence”, we know that truth and good, divine love and wisdom, are intrinsically linked in a spiritual marriage. Truth does not exist without good, and wisdom does not exist without love. A tree is known by its fruits. The fruits of the Spirit, listed in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Galatia, are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
And the truth makes us free. The truth about the nature of the Divine includes our God-given free will to choose between good and evil, truth and falsity. The truth of knowing that we are all beloved children of God, and that Divine Providence works for the eventual good of all. The truth that this physical world is not all, and that we are destined for Heaven through a process of regeneration in which we are free to choose our own path, with God’s help in all things.
In Words of Life, Rev. Paul Sperry wrote that
“The Lord preserves every man’s freedom; he does not force goodness or truth on anyone, for what is not freely loved and chosen does not become part of the inner life and therefore lasting. The Lord drives no one. He leads those who are willing to follow.
No outward compulsion of any kind can put religion into a man’s heart. True religion depends upon freedom and rationality; without them no reformation, no love of virtue, no worship of the Lord, no true life of the soul is possible.” (3)
Truth is important in our process of regeneration. In the first phase, Repentance, we acknowledge the truth of our selfishness and choose to reject evil. As we progress in our process towards heaven, learning and accepting truths leads us to recognize good and to discern ways to be useful in love and wisdom.
The 12-step programs are a shining example of how this works, starting with self-examination acknowledging the truth of our slavery to addictions and our personal powerlessness. The 10th step continues this with a daily personal inventory – more truth. Attending meetings, staying sober, and working the steps brings serenity and becomes a natural lifestyle with freedom from the lonely struggle against the spirits of oppression that had been destroying the lives of the person and their loved ones.
Speaking of Truthfulness, Rev. Sperry wrote:
“Truthfulness in the soul and in the outer life brings peace, for it closes the way to the incoming disturbances of falsity; it brings power, for it permits the Lord to reign in us; it brings freedom by making life orderly and keeping it in harmony with the heavens. One who is truthful thereby strengthens his spiritual life, increases the welfare of the neighbor who can trust him, and he pleases the Lord who is Himself ‘the way, the truth and the life.’ Therefore truthfulness is essential to the life of true religion in the world and to growth and happiness in the world beyond.“
So let us pray for truth and wisdom – for us all to receive it, to know it, to understand it, and to do what we can to spread it to those who are oppressed and to ensure that it is not obscured in the interests of power and profit. That we use these truths for useful purposes in the spread of love, goodness and freedom.
We pray for those who are oppressed and fearful, in our country and across the globe, that they be surrounded and protected by angels, that they know the truth and that it will make them free.
We pray for those who are oppressors, that they too know the truth and do not obscure it and spread falsity in the pursuit (or retention) of power and profit. That they reject the spirits of selfishness, hatred and violence. That they too be surrounded by angels restraining the spirits of evil and falsity that enslave them.
And we give thanks for the truth and freedom granted to us through Divine Love and Wisdom.
(1) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
(2) Swedenborg, Emanuel. True Christianity. Translated by Jonathan S. Rose. West Chester: Swedenborg Foundation, 2010.
(3) Sperry, Paul. Words of Life: Practical Meditations on Sacred Subjects. Philadelphia: New-Church Press, 1923.
Helen Barler is a Licensed Pastor at the Swedenborgian community in the Puget Sound and Seattle, Washington area, and has a passion for engaged spirituality and social justice.