A reading of the holy gospel according to John. Jesus said to Nicodemus, course, this is following the narrative that we've been reading all this week. So this conversation between Nicodemus and our lord continues about being reborn. So, Jesus said to Nicodemus, the one who comes down from above is all. The one who is of earth is earthly and he speaks on an earthly plane.
The one who comes from heaven who is above all, testifies to what he has seen and heard. But no one accepts his testimony. Whoever does accept this testimony certifies that god is truthful. For the one whom god has sent speaks the words of god. He does not ration his gift of the spirit.
The father loves the son and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever disobeys the son will not see life but must endure the wrath of god. And this is the gospel of the lord. The name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen. I'd like to put together the first and the second readings this morning. Now the first reading has to do in with the with the presentation and the acceptance of truth. Who was Jesus Christ? And, of course, the apostles are presenting their side.
The Sanhedrin will have none of it, and all they can think of is to get rid of the evidence, to get rid of the witnesses to this man whom they had crucified. Now the second reading has to do with those who hear the son of god and obey him and what happens to them if they don't. You see, today, you hear so little about the consequences of disbelief, of disobeying god's law, of cutting yourself off from god, of not pursuing the truth. You don't hear anything about that. You we live today in our world.
I mean, the world around us, read your daily paper, whether the communications you get, that there truth, that's beyond us. You can't get a truth. What what we must learn to live together in peace. Peace at all costs. And by the and by peace, they mean the lack of struggle, the lack of of conflict.
That's what that's what they generally mean by peace, which of course is a negative. What good's a negative? But anyway, that's the that's the world we're living in, that there are no blacks and no whites. There's just a great intermediary of gray. So don't get all hot and bothered about whether this is true or that is false.
Let's just live together comfortably, happily, loving one another, above all, one another, whatever that means. Well, you see, if you read the New Testament, I mean the four gospels, you not only find a Christ who has come to bring us a message of good news, but he's brought us a message of what happens if you don't accept it. You go to hell. Oh, hell. Good heavens.
You must have mentioned that word today. That's in the same class as mortal sin. That's been declared nonexistent for the last thirty five years or more, but it it certainly is in the New Testament. Now you just take supposing the members of this sanity that said, look, this situation is pretty peculiar, very peculiar. We've had instances of of of people, demagogues.
Remember that the twentieth century didn't discover demagogues. And these remember, you're dealing here with intelligent men, and they weren't a they weren't a bunch of of criminals. So supposing they said, well, this is certainly a little unusual. Maybe we ought to look into it. Now just think what this would mean.
If if the members of that look what happened to Nicodemus when he decided to look into it. Supposing the members of the Senate, instead of taking this absolute view that these witnesses who were now testifying that they were a bunch of murderers, who likes to be called a murderer, supposing they said, well, let's look into this now and see if there's anything to it, Can you imagine how that would have changed their whole life? Whether or not they discovered anything or not. First thing, they'd have lost their job and their and their and their weekly paycheck. That's the first thing they have had.
They'd have been booted out because Nicodemus had to come to Christ at night so he wouldn't be discovered. And yet, in the second reading, Christ says, if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you're lost. Now, nobody on god's earth ever said that the pursuit of truth is easy. Nobody has said that you don't pay a price. There is nothing in this world that's worth anything for which you do not pay a price of some sort.
And the pursuit of truth is not fun and games. It is not living comfortably. The truth doesn't make you comfortable, the truth makes you uncomfortable. The truth makes you dissatisfied with the status quo, not satisfied. When we talk about the peace of Christ, let's remember what Christ said.
I have come not to bring you a peace, but to bring you a sword. You don't see that on many Christmas cards, but that's what Christ said. He said it. So this business of pursuing the truth is a pretty serious business. And our blessed lord has not only given us the the command to do it, but he has given us the penalty if we don't.
See, there are two sides to this coin. It's a very serious question. Very serious question. And how do we fit into this picture? We're living in a world where the great question is epistemological.
What can I know? What is truth? Pilate asked the question, but notice, he didn't wait for an answer. And today, not in theory because people don't theorize about these things anymore. They simply take a we are we are pragmatists.
We are the descendants of William James. We say don't ask whether a thing is true. What is its cash value? That's that's the tenor of the times. It's not the way Christ put it down.
It's not the way our blessed lord laid it on the line. And especially in Saint John's gospel, which is not the easiest of the four gospels, but Saint John certainly does stress this whole idea of the truth of God and our obligation to line up with it. That in this world there is such a thing as God's truth that in some to some extent it is attainable, that we do have an obligation of pursuing it to the extent that we can, and that if we don't, we're going to pay the penalty. This is not my opinion. This is part of the good news that comes out of the four gospels, and it's certainly as clear today as anything could possibly be.
And so, as I tried to say yesterday, this doesn't mean that every human being has to get in a professor's chair and spend his waking hours in a library. That's why we have a living church. A living church. But we have to have our eyes open and our ears open to get its message. And it's not a message of a book.
It's a message of a living organization speaking with the living Christ. The name of the father, the son, and holy spirit. Amen.