Here we are, at the Eighth Commandment. (And if you’re wondering if you missed a Sunday because the last sermon from me that you remember was the Sixth Commandment, on not committing adultery, no, you didn’t miss anything. I skipped over the Seventh, do not steal, in order to talk about it next week with the Ninth and Tenth Commandments on do not covet. You’re remembering right.) Okay, the Eight Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. And Luther’s explanation in the Small Catechism as to what this means: “We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbours, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead, we are to come to their defense, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.”
So, at first glance, this Commandment seems pretty straightforward and easy to understand. Don’t tell lies about people or spread rumours or say anything that makes them look bad. And the But Instead part that Luther adds has always been something I strive to do, “interpret everything people do in the best possible light.” In other words, talk about people with compassion and understanding, know that even when people do something mean or awful, they are struggling with demons that we know nothing about. Assume that everyone is doing the best they possible can, given their own personal circumstances. Someone cuts me off on Crowchild, my first reaction is, “Ugh, what a ____.” My second reaction is, “Maybe they really need to get to a bathroom.” Or “maybe they need to get to the hospital.” One day, I hope that my second reaction will really truly be my first reaction. The world needs more compassion and understanding.
It always has, actually. You see, Luther understood what it meant to be falsely accused of something. The whole Reformation started because he was trying to do his best to get the Catholic church back on track and instead he was accused of heresy, excommunicated from the church, and was a fugitive who would be executed if he was caught. He knew what it was to be falsely accused of something and have his reputation destroyed, to be betrayed by those he trusted, and slandered by those who called themselves men of God. He knew how untrue the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is. Words do hurt. Words can kill us.
Because words are powerful. And words spoken by those appointed by God are even more so. “Now I have put my words in your mouth,” God says to the prophet Jeremiah, from our first reading, “over nations and over kingdoms ... to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Words have power. Our reading from Ephesians says that only words useful for building should be spoken, and in our Gospel, Jesus rebukes the Judeans for complaining “among themselves.” We call Jesus the Word of God, and we also call him the Bread of life. Words feed us. The words we read, the words we hear, the words we speak––they all feed us and shape us and create the world around us. In the end, they are meant to give us life. That’s what’s meant by “Do not bear false witness against your neighbour.” Do not speak words that bring death to your neighbour.
And so, in the church especially, we keep quiet. We don’t repeat rumours, we don’t talk about people behind their backs, we quash accusations for which there is no evidence, or we play down the things we do see. We stay silent. “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” We don’t want our words to bring death.
But silence also brings death. Keeping secrets can make us physically ill. As much as I agree with Luther’s explanation to this Commandment, there is a dark side to it. And we plunge into that darkness when we use this Commandment to silence the truth.
You might know about the mega-church, Willow Creek, in Chicago. It rose to fame in the 80s under its superstar pastor, Bill Hybels, because it has over 75,000 people attending its three church services every weekend, and has expanded to seven other sites. Pastor Hybels has given seminars and speeches on church growth and evangelism, and leaders from other congregations have visited Willow Creek to see what makes it work and to see if they can replicate its success at home. I don’t know about Advent, but I do know that other council members at other Lutheran churches here in Calgary have taken trips to Willow Creek to see how they do it.
This past week, both of Willow Creek’s current pastors along with the entire church elder board resigned. It turns out that Pastor Bill Hybels is a sexual predator. Several years ago, a number of women who worked for him came forward and accused of him of unwanted sexual advances and sexual contact that had been occurring since the 80s. But guess what? They were told to be silent. They had no proof, and so they were told that it would be bad for the church if they spoke up, so they should be quiet. In other words, Do not destroy the reputation of the church or the pastor. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. The then-pastors and elders of the church came to Bill Hybel’s defense, spoke well of him, and interpreted his actions in the best possible light. And so these women, who were the victims of egregious sexual and spiritual violations, stayed silent because their pastors and their elders told them to. They did their best to follow the Eighth Commandment.
Until last Sunday, when the New York Times told the story of one of the women, in a #metoo article about the evangelical church. The journalist who wrote the article did what the pastors and the elders should have done. She spoke the truth, and the silence was broken, and light shone on the darkness. And there was public repentance and acknowledgement of wrong-doing by the current pastors and the board of elders, and they announced their resignation.
The Commandment is “Do not bear false witness.” The key word here is false. It does not say, “Do not bear witness.” In fact, Luther himself, after condemning lies about people, goes on to say in his Large Catechism that we are required to speak the truth. Christians are required to report wrong-doing and abuse to the authorities in order to “reprove evil.” And those in authority–-by which he means judges, and pastors, and parents (remember our Fourth Commandment on honour your parents?)––are “commanded” to publicly judge. He actually uses the word “commanded.” And, he goes on to say that when pastors and judges and those in authority and positions of leadership do not publicly speak out on what they see, when they stay silent, when they can’t say anything nice and so they don’t say anything at all, then they are breaking the Eighth Commandment.
Wow. On the one hand, Luther is passionate that no one be falsely accused. On the other hand, he is equally passionate that evil does not run amok under the cover of silence. The flip side of “do not bear false witness” is not stay silent. The flip side of “do not bear false witness” is “bear witness.” “Speak the truth,” Ephesians says. (It also says, “Be angry.”) God tells Jeremiah, “You shall go to all whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them.” Jeremiah was sent to criticize the religious leadership of his time. His words, given to him by God, spoke to the destruction of that leadership. And then God gave him words of rebuilding.
If you have ever tried to tell the truth about something or someone, and someone in the church has told you to be silent, I am sorry. On behalf of all of us who call ourselves pastors and leaders in the church, I confess that we often use this Commandment to protect ourselves and our reputations, at the cost of the truth and at the cost of the truth-sayers’ well-being. From pulpits around the world, including in this congregation, this Commandment has been weaponized and used to silence those who have tried to speak the truth. This abuse of this Commandment was not, and never will be, what God wants.
The Eighth Commandment is about speaking words that nourish and build up God’s children who are hurting most. What God wants is for you to be fed and nourished by the Word. God wants the truth to be freedom for you, God wants words to give you life. God wants words to be spoken that will give life to all. And God wants you to feed and nourish others with the Word, with words of truth that give freedom and life. “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy,’” or “only a girl” or “only a congregation member.” God has chosen you and given you God’s words to speak. Do not fear others and what they might say or do, fear and love only God. Do not bear false witness, but do bear witness when you see or experience injustice and abuse of power. Because it is Christ within you who bears witness, Christ within you who gives you the words to speak out the truth, Christ within you who feeds you so that you are built up to share that food with others. Christ did not come to silence us, but to be our Word, our truth, and our life. Thanks be to God. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment