Pants on Fire

April 28, 2009
 
Dear St. Paul’s Family,
 
The classic game show To Tell the Truth was a little before my time, but I’ve enjoyed watching the reruns.  You’ll remember that the basic premise of the show was that a panel of three guests claimed to be the same person, and had to convince a panel of celebrity questioners that they were telling the truth.  At the end of the interrogation, the celebrities would decide which of the three they believed was telling the truth.  And then the host Bud Collyer would say, “Will the real person please stand up?”
 
The show later spawned imitation programs such as What’s My Line?, I’ve Got a Secret, and, more recently, The Moment of Truth.  For some reason, the American public has always found the fine art of fabrication to be strangely fascinating.
 
And, to tell you the truth, so does the first epistle of John, the subject of our sermon series through May.  John has a fibbing fixation.  The word liar is one of his favorite words, using it as many times in his five brief chapters as all the other New Testament books combined.  His letter reads like one long polygraph exam, rendering the following verdicts:
 
·     You know you are a liar if say you believe in God but refuse to keep God’s commandments (2:4).
·     You know you are a liar if you deny that Jesus is the Messiah (2:22).
·     You know you are a liar if you say you love God but hate another person (4:20).
·     You know you are a liar if you say you believe in God but not believe that Jesus is whom the church says he is (5:10).

Harsh words!  At the end you almost expect him to say that your pants on fire!  No other book in the Bible puts one’s convictions and one’s ethics under such scorching scrutiny.
 
But there’s more.  Before John gets to any of these indictments, he levies this one, the most brutally direct of them all:
 
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and his word is not in us.  (I John 1:8-10)
 
It’s quite enough to see the self-induced consequences of our own incriminating actions.  But claiming that we are better than we actually are, or denying the severity and significance of our sins not only affects us.  It brands God as a liar.  
 
The logic is as follows:  If we claim to be sinless, then we undermine the very reason that God became human in Jesus to restore us and save us.  And if God did all of this under false pretenses, then we basically make God out to be a liar.
 
How does that set on your conscience?
 
The only real solution is to come clean about the sin in our lives, receive the forgiveness and grace of God, and determine to live a new life through God’s strength.  In short, it’s to stop living a lie, and start living in the light and love the resurrection.  As people called Methodists called to be perfected in love, these words ought to ring familiar:
 
But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him.  (I John 2:5)
 
Join us this Sunday as we continue our sermon series called “Bright New Day:  Living in the Light of the Resurrection” based on the book of 1 John.  We’ll focus on the second chapter, which calls us to live lives of honesty, purity, and love.
 
Now, will the real follower of Christ please stand up?
 
Magrey