Image: The Trinity by Andrei Rublev, early 15th century
In 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary chose post-truth as its Word of the Year. It’s defined as “denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”. In other words, truth claims are not necessarily dependent on pesky things like facts, logic, or evidence. Rather, if something feels true to us, then we tend to accept it as true. And while powerful people have sought to manipulate the truth to their own advantage since the beginning of civilization, something changed in our society after 9/11. 24-hour news and social media exploded. It wasn’t hard to find one’s preferred truth.
And things have only gotten worse. Very powerful people have a vested interest in keeping us siloed, propagandized, and divided. While some of you remember the political turbulence of the 1960s: the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK, Vietnam, and Watergate, people my age and younger do not. It’s a dangerous time. It’s a time where it seems like we only accept the truth if it fits our worldviews and prejudices.
But today, on this very special Holy Trinity Sunday, where we gather to welcome two children into the Lord’s family, the readings remind us that truth is not a mere commodity to be used and abused as we see fit. Rather, the truth of God stands firm, despite the lies that saturate our hearts and minds.
It’s fitting that we start with Lady Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. Wisdom is described as being present with God before there was a “before”. Wisdom is the joy and skill in creation. She is the animating force that infuses the entire cosmos. This description of Lady Wisdom deeply influenced how the early church understood Jesus, particularly in John’s Gospel. Jesus is the Word, present from eternity with God. And if we set aside some of the tricky language about how wisdom is “created” (which is not true of Jesus the Word), we can understand Jesus as the Wisdom and Truth of God.
Jesus reveals himself as the truth to his disciples just a couple chapters before our reading today, in John 14. As they try to wrap their heads around his impending arrest and crucifixion, Jesus reminds them that he is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way in a world filled with ideological back-alleys and wrong turns. He is the truth in a world filled with lies, such as “Caesar is god.” Or “Some people are better and worthier than other people.” And he is the life in a world where death always appears to have the last word.
So, when he tells his disciples again that he will send the Spirit of truth to guide them in the truth, they must have had difficulty believing this. They knew what happened to those who became enemies of the powerful. Shortly, Jesus will be arrested by the combined forces of organized religion, specifically the Temple establishment, and the Roman state. John makes clear why he is arrested back in chapter 11. After Jesus raises Lazarus, the Temple bureaucrats are fearful. “If we let him go on like this,” they say, “everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” To them, Jesus is an existential threat. They can only see annihilation when they look at him.
But Jesus crucified will give life. Jesus crucified begins the process of “gathering into one the dispersed children of God,” as we hear in John chapter 11. Jesus crucified reveals the very heart of God to the world; a God who reveals God truthfully to the world. When God reveals Godself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this is not just about how God functions in the world. God is not simply our Father one moment, Jesus the next, and the Holy Spirit the next. These aren’t simply masks. God is Father, Son, and Spirit in God’s very nature. God is community. God is relationality. And God is all those things that make genuine relationship possible: mercy, love, and especially truth.
So, when we baptize Bennett Lawrence and Maddi Marie in a few moments, they are baptized into the very truth of Godself. They become children of the God who is relationship and who desires relationship with the whole human family, so much so that God became human in the person of Jesus the Messiah, and suffered, died, and rose again for the life of the world. But this desire didn’t stop with Jesus’s earthly sojourn. It continues with the Spirit’s presence among us. That Spirit of truth that Jesus promised his disciples is present among us today. And that same Spirit will keep us in the truth and wisdom of God, along with Bennett and Maddi, until we are all fully united with our Lord.
So, whatever is going on in the world; whatever violence plagues our state, nation, or world; whatever lies are being pushed on us, we know that we belong not to a post-truth society, but a post-post-truth church. We are called to live in relationship and community with our triune God and each other. We’re called to see through the narrative that is pushed on us; a narrative that encourages hate and division, and to live God’s narrative of mercy, justice, peace, and especially love. Because we know that only God’s way leads to life. Only God’s way is the truth. God help us to live in that truth always. Amen.
© 2025, David M. Fleener. Permission granted to copy and adapt original material herein for non-commercial purposes with appropriate credit given.