September 12, 2021: The Truth Project: Seeing Truth
Ephesians 6:10-20
Rev. Rhonda Blevins
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
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One day a man named Truth and a man named Lie stood by a river just outside of town. They were twin brothers. Lie challenged Truth to a race, claiming he could swim across the river faster than Truth. Lie laid out the rules to the challenge stating that they both must remove all their clothes and at the count of 3, dive into the freezing cold water, swim to the other side and back. Lie counted to 3, but when Truth jumped in, Lie did not. As Truth swam across the river, Lie put on Truth’s clothes and walked back into town dressed as Truth. He proudly paraded around town pretending to be Truth. Truth made it back to shore, but his clothes were gone and he was left naked with only Lie’s clothes to wear. Refusing to dress himself as Lie, Truth walked back to town naked. People stared and glared as naked Truth walked through town. He tried to explain what happened and that he was in fact Truth, but because he was naked and uncomfortable to look at, people mocked and shunned him; refusing to believe he was really Truth. The people in town chose to believe Lie because he was dressed appropriately and easier to look at. From that day until this, people prefer a lie over the naked truth.[1]
Recently I had to share the “naked truth” with my seven-year-old about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny. Without too many details (in the event that little ears are listening), let me just say, the jig was up—truth was revealed.
Now I was a little older when I started asking questions about Santa et al, but I was a grown, adult human when I found out the truth about one of my favorite superheroes. Did you know Batman isn’t really a superhero? He has no superpowers whatsoever. All Batman has is a belt. That’s it! Now, it’s an awesome belt that carries an assortment of batarangs, a grappling hook, tracers, smoke and gas pellets, a tranquilizer gun, freeze grenades, and so much more! With no intrinsic superpowers, it’s the belt that makes the (bat)man. Without the bat-belt, Batman would just be . . . man.
When Paul begins his discourse about the armor of God, it should come as no surprise to us that he begins with the belt—the “belt of truth” to be precise.
The worshippers at the church at Ephesus, upon hearing Paul’s letter read aloud, would immediately conjure up images of Roman soldiers with their armor. Their presence was ubiquitous throughout the Roman Empire. It may be more difficult for us to immediately call to mind what the belt of a Roman soldier would look like, so let me attempt to describe it.
The belt worn by a Roman soldier was a leather band with a buckle, with thin strips of leather hanging down in the front. The strips hanging down served little protective function, rather they were decorative. The belt would be adorned with silver or bronze fittings. The more bling, the higher the rank. The soldier was to wear his belt at all times, even when off duty, and only soldiers were allowed by law to wear the belt. Because the cloak and tunic worn by Roman soldiers was not so different than what normal civilians would wear, it was the belt that identified a man as a soldier.
Perhaps this is the reason that Paul mentions the belt first as he lists the pieces of spiritual armor for a person of faith. If a belt with bling was what identified a Roman soldier, it would be a belt of truth that identified a Christian.
Now Paul’s armor of God discourse was not entirely original. He likely got his inspiration from a beautiful passage in the Old Testament. See if anything from Isaiah 59 sounds familiar:
Truth is nowhere to be found,
and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.
The Lord looked and was displeased
that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no one,
he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm achieved salvation for him,
and his own righteousness sustained him.
He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
—Isaiah 59:15-17 NIV
So now you know where Paul got some of his language for this armor of God metaphor.
Why would Christians in Ephesus need armor? What is the occasion? Paul describes the occasion for wearing such armor as an age marked by darkness and spiritual forces of evil—rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers. For Isaiah, the occasion was an age in which “truth is nowhere to be found.” In both circumstances, we kind of get this image that we are living in the land of Oz and there’s someone or something behind the curtain pulling all the levers.
Luckily, there is now no more darkness and deceitfulness has been eradicated! (Ha!) OK, maybe not. It seems to me that like in Paul’s day, we also battle “enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Like in Isaiah’s day, “Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.”
If truth is nowhere to be found, what does it mean for us to put on the “belt of truth?” How can we learn to see the difference between truth and lies, reality from deepfakes?
Earlier this year, a short video of Tom Cruise went viral. This video, called “TikTok Tom,” shows the actor up close, with his million-dollar smile, his larger-than-life mannerisms, his unique voice. We see him don a hat and sunglasses and swing a golf club. It’s definitely Tom Cruise, except it isn’t Tom Cruise at all. It’s a deepfake. There’s nothing about it that looks like anything other than Tom Cruise. It fools software developed to discover fakes. “TikTok Tom” was so good that US intelligence and national security personnel became suddenly concerned—this technology has advanced so rapidly that the technology to detect it lags. This video was made by some guy at home on a desktop computer. “What if a nefarious actor or an enemy state wielded this technology in evil ways?” intelligence personnel wondered. “What if a deepfake video of a politician, even an American president, was used for malevolent ends?”
For those of us without national security jobs, this TikTok video raises the question, “How can we discern truth when our own eyes can be so easily deceived?”
Maybe that’s where faith comes in. In his letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul writes, “we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight.” (1 Corinthians 5:6-7)
Here, Paul is setting up, identifying two distinct ways to live in the world:
We can live by sight. We can put our trust in our fallible bodies with their imperfect five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell.
Or we can live by faith. We can trust the Lord with all our hearts, lean not upon our own understanding. In all our ways acknowledge Christ, and Christ will direct our paths. (Adapted from Matthew 6:33)
It seems that we are a generation that has lived by sight. And for a time that worked out ok. Do you remember back when there were three news channels: ABC, CBS and NBC? We shared a common trust in news anchors like Walter Cronkite or Peter Jennings or Tom Brokaw. We could, it seemed, believe what they said. We could trust them. We could believe what we saw with our own two eyes.
But those days are gone. The advent of 24-hour-news means that the more sensational the news, the better the ratings, and the better the ratings, the more money in the pockets of the media magnates who own the news organizations. News shows morphed from reporting to punditry. No longer were we given “just the facts, ma’am,” but some facts laden with interpretation—the more “outragey,” the better the ratings. This is why once upon a time I recommended reading news from a trusted news source. Perhaps I wasn’t too clear on this. I never recommended a particular newspaper, but the act of reading. My friend Mitch Randall, CEO of Good Faith Media, explained to me that reading news requires imagination. It requires us to engage our brains and critical thinking skills. In watching the news, we turn off the critical thinking part of our brains, allowing some talking head to do the work of interpretation for us.
So what does this have to do with our Christian faith? Everything!
This current news media landscape becomes a problem when people live by sight not by faith. But WE on the other hand, are urged to live by faith, not by sight. What do I mean by this?
It all boils down to worldview.
There are multiple worldviews, but for our purposes this morning I will oversimplify, and we’ll lean into two worldviews. Worldviews are formed over time, influenced by family, friends, community, education, culture, and life experiences. And over time, our worldview will usually fall into one of two categories:
The first is a secular worldview. This is a worldview formed largely outside the church.
The second is a sacred worldview. In the case of Christians, a “Christian” worldview.
A worldview is the fundamental cognitive orientation that encompasses one’s point of view. It’s how you see the world. What’s tricky is that a lot of American Christians think they have a Christian worldview, but it’s really a secular worldview masquerading as a Christian worldview (remember how “Lie” paraded around town as “Truth?”). In other words, the name “Jesus” may get thrown around a lot, while the spirit of Jesus is sorely missing. This is the trapping of America’s civil religion that has become less “civil” over the past couple of decades.
To live by faith and not by sight is to view the world, to the best of our abilities, through the lens of Christ. This way of life is no cakewalk—it’s not easy. One pastor lamented how hard it is to lead people in the way of Christ saying, “How can I lead people into a Christian worldview when I get them one hour per week and cable news gets them the other 167?”
How can we learn to discern truth from lies in such a confusing age? Here are three steps to help us “SEE” truth more clearly:
Switch off screens for part of every day. In fact, step away from all media. Be present in the moment—fully present in the experience of walking or driving or cooking or showering. Your attention is yours! Don’t give it away without carefully considering who or what you’re giving it to.
Engage with people in real life (IRL). Over these past few years, I’ve seen real-life relationships destroyed because of allegiances to people known only through screens or media. But think about it—the people you know IRL, the people in your home or in your neighborhood or in your church family—these relationships are real. The people we know only on screens or in print, these are not real relationships. Prioritize people you know IRL. Engage with real-life people.
Embody truth. People who live duplicitous lives, over time, grow less adept at discerning truth. But not us! With the belt of truth fastened around our waists, truth becomes our identifier. We are people of truth. We must not tolerate deception, in ourselves or others. Just like our savior, the way the truth and the life, we must be the embodiment of truth.
Did you catch the acronym there? Switch off screens. Engage with people. Embody truth. SEE!
Even though we live in an age like Isaiah, in which truth cannot be found, and in an age like Paul, in which we wrestle with the powers of darkness, we are people of truth: the belt of truth our calling card, the ability to SEE our superpower. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist!
Let me now finish the opening fable.
So one day “Lie” (wearing “Truth’s” garments) decided to go to church, and he made his way here, to Chapel by the Sea. He was welcomed warmly (we pride ourselves on inclusivity, right?) But then “naked Truth” showed up. An usher stopped him at the door, “No shoes, no shirt, no worship service.” But “naked Truth” explained what had happened . . .
The rest of the story is ours to write. It’s a cliffhanger! Will the church accept “naked Truth?” What will Chapel by the Sea do when presented with “naked Truth?” The story continues next week: same bat time, same bat channel.
[1] https://medium.com/@ParkerSimpson/the-story-of-truth-lie-1476bda2d45e