In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Coming as it does today and at this particular time, when there seems to be a considerable amount of confusion in better places, and among the faithful as we say. This little excerpt from our Lord's life has I think a special meaning. The meaning it has is not one that is very welcomed today.
In high places and in low places, there is a general attitude in regard to the pursuit of truth as we call it, that our mind should wander freely. A man should have liberty to think what he wants. And actually, we define sincerity in those terms. He says what he thinks. Is a man of character?
His sincere. Of course, none of this has a thing to do with truth. It has a lot to do with integrity, but very little to do with truth. Unless, see, unless you have a concept of truth which makes it extremely subjective. In other words, thinking makes it true.
And if you have enough of people thinking the same thing, then you get a an accumulative effect of truth. Today, for various reasons, and they're not very difficult, at least some of them are not at all difficult to understand. Today we have in this country and perhaps other countries as well, but certainly in The USA 1980, we have an overweening idea that truth is something totally free. And that all we have to do to get at it is to want it. And that in order to want it and then to get it, we must come together and each one gives his own or her opinion freely, sincerely, and honestly, and then in some way or other truth will come out of it.
Now sometimes this happens, And in many instances of life, this is a perfectly valid procedure. The difficulty, the great hazard comes into the picture when you're dealing with ultimates. And some of these rightfully basic questions about life, what is the meaning of suffering? Why should I be clobbered with this illness? Why should I happen to be the one that faces this crisis?
Why does it always happen to me? Why is there death? Why is there pain in the world? Why is there such an evidence of irrationality in the world? And yet you say, you believe in an omnipotent, benevolent, all loving God.
How do you put these things together? Tell me. What is right to do under these conditions? Notice we are today overwhelmed, not so much with the pursuit of abstract truth as dealing with what we call moral right and wrong. So these basic and ultimate questions, is there an ultimate and absolute answer to some of them?
And that's the that's the number of the question. Is there or isn't there? Because if there is, just on the supposition, if there is an ultimate, then it's my obligation, not merely to be free in my thinking. My only freedom will be to think as that absolute controls my thinking. Can't escape the logic of that unless you reject logic.
And that, of course, is commonplace today. So here today in this beginning of our Lord's life as it's recorded in these texts. Here we have this son of a carpenter, Nazareth is not too far away from Capernaum. It's inland. Capernaum's on the lake.
And here's this man gets up and speaks with authority. He doesn't prove. He doesn't debate. He doesn't go into a dialogue. They don't sit around and all offer their opinions, and then someone bring draws up a brief, then they vote on it.
No. Christ spoke with authority. Now, as I have said, these other ways of pursuing truth or as we call it in a given pragmatic manner, there's nothing wrong with that. That's perfectly alright. But when someone stands up in this world and says, this is an absolute, this is something beyond debate, this is beyond argumentation, I'm not even going to try to prove it because I don't have to prove it.
I'm God. Now what do you do about that? As Lewis says, we were born not to be free, but to obey. Now that's the world today doesn't like that kind of talk. And yet, if we are creatures of God Almighty, if all of nature sings his praise, because of what we call a natural physical law.
I know this is rejected by many people, but a lot of people don't reject it. And down the centuries it hasn't been rejected even before Christ. Why should we? And if there is an absolute in the world, then it's my obligation to try to hitch my wagon to it, to be controlled by it, to use all that I have and what is given to me. Not to open up what's inside of me, but to discover what is on the outside of me.
As we say, to to capture truth, to be enlightened. That's what I should be trying to do, to discover truth. So Christ never meant words. As I said, he's either God or he's a charlatan. There's you have no choice there.
And a person who then fights his truth to Christ as a Christian, his only position should be what does Christ teach? And does he teach? Is there a living voice today that speaks with the Christ's authority? Is there? And if there is, my obligation is clear.
And if there isn't, then I have a whole new ballgame. But this is a pretty important question. And above all, having discovered the answer, we should be a we bit consistent in the answer. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.