Reading: John 18: 33-37
The other day, when I was browsing in a bookshop while waiting for Paddy to finish with an appointment, I came across a very interesting book, and as is my nature I bought it. The book is entitled `Immortal words, histories most notable quotes and the stories behind them`. As I read through the book, I recognised many of the people presented in it, and many of the quotes. And I was reminded that many of them were famous because they bucked the system they were in or the conventional wisdom of the time. They announced by their actions that the system was wrong, or corrupt or blind and that there was a different truth to be followed, a different usually very costly path to take. Scientists like Darwin, Newton and Einstein, and social and political dissenters like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and more recently Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the face of non violent protest in Burma, all appear in the book.

However I would like to look at just one person more closely, and that is William Wilberforce.

Wilberforce was a deeply religious MP and social reformer in the 19th century who fought for the abolition of the slave trade, and eventually slavery itself across the British Empire, which was culturally and socially acceptable at the time. For 18 years, Wilberforce regularly introduced antislavery motions in Parliament, until eventually in 1807 the slave trade was abolished, although this did not free those who were already slaves. Finally in 1833 an act was passed giving freedom to all slaves in the British Empire. Shortly after this, Wilberforce died, his mission finally accomplished, but this does not really truly depict the heartache and sheer tenacity he showed for so long to reach his goal. Let us hear a quote from him:

They charge with me with fanaticism. If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.

Listening to Wilberforce`s fight for justice causes us to think about what is truth. Because he clearly went beyond what most people of his day thought was the truth about the slavery situation. It raises lots of questions for us. How do we judge whether the truth of a situation is correct, discerning fact from fiction, and how do we respond once we know the truth, but disagree with what is happening. And what do we use as our basis for disagreement?

Particularly in our age truth is rather an arbitrary thing, influenced by interest groups and governments, with what is portrayed on the television or in newspapers or on the internet regarded as fact, although the true situation is often distorted because for many it is easy to say that what is socially acceptable, or the norm, must therefore be the truth. Wilberforce also faced this problem. In 19th century England black Africans were seen as inferior, less than human and therefore could be used as objects. Many thought, `How could the slave trade be morally corrupt when we are not talking about people like us?` Wilberforce rebuked them when he said,

Never, never will we desist till we…..extinguish every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times will scarce believe that it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonour to this country.

It takes courage and inner fortitude to go against the tide. To have the will and desire and bravery to question some of the truths passed down to us, because often it is very costly. This inner framework around which Wilberforce`s strength and endurance arose was his belief in the sheer evil of the slave trade and how it operated. But behind that was something even deeper, the call from his God to do something about it. For many who question the rights of the powerful to marginalize the poor and those deemed different because of colour, this is also the case.

Wilberforce`s strength and framework is also ours. For as Christians Jesus is the ultimate bucker of the system, theologically, politically and socially. Everything Jesus stood for, and stands for reflects a total reworking of the system in which he lived. To follow Jesus in our day is to see the world totally different, with different eyes. His truth was God`s truth and should be our truth. No wonder Pontius asked, `What is truth?`, for he was totally confused. Yet Jesus had already said, `Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice`, or as the Jerusalem bible translates it, `All who are on the side of truth listen to my voice`. As Bill Loader concluded, `Jesus embodies truth. Jesus embodies kingship. Jesus embodies God`.

So what is his `truth`?

In the reading we hear Jesus being asked if he is king of the Jews. His answer is yes, but what sort of king is he talking about? As Bill Loader again suggests, what we have is `A mad king, weak, crucified, crowned with thorns, pathetic, defeated.` As Jesus` life is subversive, so also is his death. It depicts in deed what Jesus taught in life, greatness in lowliness and compassion, the last is first, loving matters most. This is why when Jesus says his kingship is not of this world. He is right, but it is not that it is in some other world, it is because both his world and ours have very different priorities. His kingship is certainly for the here and now, but it is based on a different reality to the one that we wake up to every morning.

So moral and ethical behaviour needs a base, which we believe is God`s revelation in the life of Christ. But it is much more than using Jesus as a model of right behavior, it is the systematic overturning of everything that is expected for the unexpected. A complete transformation. To preach nonviolence, love, compassion for others, and a denial of possessions, money power and status is very radical stuff. It transcends everything we know and are comfortable with. Therefore a life in Christ should lead to faithful action and social justice and as Wilberforce and many others have found, it becomes a way of life.

But where do we start? What I am suggesting with all this talk of truth is that we are to start by announcing the truth as it is revealed in Jesus in situations around us. And to use that truth when examining what our society and government do on our behalf and what we do by living here, in a comfortable western life. Let us try to discern what the facts are for many of the situations occurring now in people and places around us, and by not relying only on the media or the government as our only source of information because we know that the truth sometimes is made flexible and loose when convenient to those in power. Instead let us look for independent people and organizations that may be able to clarify events or findings, or reports, and then compare them with what we deem to be our moral and spiritual obligations to each other and the wider world. A good example of this is the ongoing refugee and boat people crisis both the media and government contend we are having. Is it a crisis? Number wise it isn`t, and what about our moral and ethical responsibilities to be compassionate towards people who have suffered so much, regardless of whether they come from a refugee camp in Indonesia or in Africa? Other areas where we need to uncover the real facts as much as we can include the ongoing wars in which we and much of the western world are involved, the economic system we are part of but which in the end delivers a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and issues around our environment, which also become issues of justice and equity.

Of course once we find out what is really going on, there is a need to get involved, to act to change things in whatever way we can. We may not become a Wilberforce or a Jesus, but we can and must contribute because this an essential part of the journey of faith, and the Christian life.

One way for us to act is in the way we define community. As individuals and as church communities we can become counter cultural, to invite people who are deemed less worthy or scary because of a mental illness, or `not like us` because they come from another place, to enter and be embraced. To dispel myths and misinformation which makes it easy for people to discriminate, and therefore dismiss the needs of others. I am thankful that in this church we welcome all those who come to our door, and that we continue to be a light in our community against prejudice. A small step but a step none the less.

As John Spong says –

Although being different is difficult, there is no turning back. Jesus calls us forward towards him, into a different space. We must not allow ourselves to drag him back towards us, watering down the message of transformation because it is not popular and comfortable. For our truth and our hope lies in Jesus. And this keeps us going in a society that rarely acknowledges it.