wfn.org | Worship Challenges PC(USA) to Find Truth

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

GA99030 
21-June-1999 
 
             Worship Challenges PC(USA) to Find Truth 
 
 
FORT WORTH-Surrounded by beautiful banners depicting the Six Great Ends of 
the Church, the 211th General Assembly was greeted in worship on Monday 
morning with the uplifting sounds of the Seminario Theol¢gico Presbiteriana 
de M‚xico choir.  With instruments and voice, feet were set to tapping and 
voices raised to praising  God with Latino rhythm and  hymns and anthems 
both new and traditional.  Grady Coyle, Director of Music/Organist of 
Northridge Presbyterian Church of Dallas, Texas, accompanied on the organ. 
Elder Diana Flores of Iglesia Emmanuel Presbyterian Church of Dallas and 
the Rev. Richard Ramsey of First Presbyterian Church of Tyler, Texas led 
the congregation in confession, prayers and the reading of the scriptures. 
     Preaching on the conversation between Pilate and Jesus found in John 
18, the Rev. Craig Barnes, pastor of National Presbyterian Church, 
Washington D.C. challenged commissioners and friends to live into the 
Fourth Great End of the Church, the Preservation of Truth.  
      Barnes reminded worshipers that Pilate was an outsider and as such, 
his home was "unclean."   Pilate represented the "gentile other" to the 
good Jews of Jesus' day.  By entering into conversation, and even into 
Pilate's house, Jesus showed his willingness to risk defilement in order to 
dialogue with the outcasts.   
     Barnes challenged Presbyterians gathered here to dialogue with those 
whom they consider to be "other" - those who hold differing viewpoints and 
the ones whom we might hold, in our own opinions, to be the ones defiling 
the church.  Jesus' concern, he said, was to make the church righteous. 
Jesus was willing to associate with the "others" of his time, not out of 
solidarity with their cause, but because he was willing to take on or 
become, sin, that we might become the righteous of God. 
     Pilate and Jesus talked about truth.  "What is truth?"  Pilate asked? 
That, said Barnes, is also the question for the postmodern church and 
society.  And the church  will only discover that truth as we look hard at 
Jesus Christ who is at work in all our defilement.  The truth, he added, is 
present whether we want to hear it or not and whether we like it or not.    
     The question "What is truth?" Barnes remarked,  is always followed by 
silence...silence as we try to discern what to say.  What will we say when 
we speak into that silence?  What will we say to a broken-hearted child who 
has lost his mother?  What will we say truth is to the Kosovar refugees or 
the dwellers of the inner city streets?    The ultimate truth, he said, is 
not arguments about whether our side is right or wrong.   
     The truth is that Jesus Christ is with us and we belong to him.   
     The silence of the assembled congregation as it realized that truth 
was indeed profound. 
Joanne Hines 

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