wfn.org | Themes of Truth Again Explored in Opening Worship Tuesday

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

GA99051 
22-June-1999 
 
                  Themes of Truth Again Explored 
                in Opening Worship Tuesday, June 22 
 
 
FORT WORTH-Pilate's piercing inquiry, "What is truth," was again the 
central theme of morning worship, as the Rev. Sheila Gustafson, pastor of 
First Presbyterian Church, Santa, Fe, N.M., preached a compelling sermon 
based on chapters 14 and 18 of the Gospel of John.   
     It was at the request of former moderator, Douglas Oldenburg, that two 
of the Assembly preachers address the fourth Great End of the Church, "the 
preservation of the truth," thereby gaining two perspectives and two unique 
approaches.  Like the sermon by the Rev. Craig Barnes on Monday, June 21, 
Gustafson's message was also entitled, "What Is Truth?" 
     Her message was set in the context of a well-crafted  liturgy, 
powerfully reinforcing the themes of the day.  Cameron O'Bannon, a 
confident, fresh-faced boy of 11, from the First Presbyterian Church, 
Dallas, called the congregation to worship with Jesus' own words, "If you 
continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the 
truth, and the truth will make you free."   
     The morning anthem, "Blessed Assurance," accompanied by Hye-Jean Choi, 
organist of Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton, Texas, was 
sensitively and passionately rendered by the Binnerri Presbyterian Church 
Choir, Richardson, Texas, utilizing both English and Korean texts.  The 
Rev. James Kim, associate pastor of the Binnerri Church, also assisted with 
the morning liturgy. 
     Beginning with the observation that "truth" has become a slippery 
concept in our day and age, Gustafson compared scientific truth with 
religious truth, asking whether they were subject to the same criteria of 
objective inquiry.  "If truth and faith are in the same sentence," she 
asked, "do we create a non-sequitur?" 
     As noted by Gustafson, truth is a central theme throughout the 
entirety of John's Gospel.  By truth, however, the Gospel writer means 
precisely God, as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, who declares, "I 
am the way, and the truth, and the life."  "It is this specialized use of 
the word truth," she said, "which the church is called by the fourth Great 
End of the Church to preserve." 
     Her interpretation of chapter 14 continued with the an emphasis of the 
reality that Jesus, by living as he does, by being what he is, "is like a 
window through which God shines."  He was also one who spoke to the 
religious establishment of his own time, and "challenged his listeners to 
examine their lives, their behaviors, their actions, and to declare their 
own judgments upon themselves in the light of God's healing and reconciling 
love." 
     The Bible is a collection of diverse writings and documents, which, 
according to Gustafson, "individually or together, [do] not answer all of 
our specific questions."  "What they do is answer aspects of the life, 
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ," she said.  "What they do is tell 
of the power of that life."  And through that life, human beings can 
glimpse what an authentic life lived in Christ truly looks like. 
     Human beings who desire clear rules, boundaries and limits are 
consistently challenged by Jesus' life and teachings.  In answer to our 
quest for the truth, we are given a person.  And in that person, "life will 
never be," according to a poem by Delmore Schwartz, "as once it was." 
                                  
Emily Enders Odom 

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