The Truest Thing in the World
The Truest Thing in the World by Rev. L. John Gable
December 26, 2021
When the Gospel writer Luke sat down to write his “good news” about Jesus he made it clear what his intention was: he wanted us to know the truth. Perhaps he knew that there were many untruths or half-truths already floating around as to who Jesus really was, so Luke set out to set the record straight.
He writes in the opening verses: “I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus (which could either be a particular individual or that name in Greek also means “lover of God”) so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed” (1:4). That phrase, “so that you may know the truth” jumped out at me and reminded me of a devotional piece which came from an unusual source: Harry Reasoner, the journalist and television commentator with CBS and ABC, who was best known by many as a co-host on 60 Minutes. He broadcast this unusual commentary on Christmas Eve, 1973, in an era marked by the controversies of the Watergate scandal, a troubled economy, conflicts in the Middle East and uncertainty in the relations between the US and Russia. In that time of turmoil and uncertainty he wrote a commentary titled “The Truest Thing in the World.”
I quote him with only minor modifications: “So far as I know, all Christian denominations expect their members to go to church (at) Christmas. It may be the only time, or practically the only time, that some people do go to church – the Christmas and Easter Christians. I think sometimes the professional people in the church – the priests and ministers and those who arrange the extra seating – dislike this, and may in a way resent Christmas and the sentimentality that moves people on this day but not the rest of the year. It is this great sweep of emotion and the commercialism that goes with it, as a parasite bird with a blind rhinoceros, that leads some Christians to wish they would call Christmas something else, or maybe to wish it had never been invented.” (I do not agree with Mr. Reasoner on this point, so I’ll comment on that later).
He continues: “But it (meaning Christmas) was invented. And the basis for this tremendous annual burst of buying things and gift giving and parties and near hysteria is a quiet event that Christians believe actually happened a long time ago. You can say that in all societies there has been a mid-winter festival and that many of the trappings of our Christmas are almost violently pagan; but in the quietness of Christmas morning you come back to the central fact of the day – the birth of God on earth. It leaves you with only three ways of accepting Christmas.
“One is cynically – as a time to make money or endorse the making of it or to hope the economy does well.
“One is graciously – the appropriate attitude for non-Christians in a Christian society who wish their Christian fellow citizens all the joys to which their beliefs entitle them.
“And the third, of course, is reverently. If this is the anniversary of the appearance of the Lord of the Universe in the form of a helpless baby, it is a very important day.
“It is a startling idea, of course. My guess is that the whole story – that a Virgin was selected by God to bear His Son as a way of showing His love and concern for humanity- is not an idea that has been popular with theologians in spite of all the lip service they have given it. It is a somewhat illogical idea and theologians love logic almost as much as they love God. It is so revolutionary a thought that it probably could only come from a God who is beyond logic and beyond theology. It has magnificent appeal. Almost nobody has seen God and almost nobody has any real idea what He is like; and the truth is that the idea of seeing God suddenly and standing in the very bright light is not necessarily a completely comfortable and appealing idea.
“But everybody has seen babies, and most people like them. If God wanted to be loved as well as feared, He moved correctly here. If He wanted to know His people as well as rule them, He moved correctly here, for a baby growing up learns all about people. If God wanted to be intimately a part of humanity, He moved correctly here, for the experience of birth and familyhood is our most intimate and precious experience.
“So it comes beyond logic; it is what Bishop Karl Morgan Block used to call ‘a kind of divine insanity’. It is either all falsehood or it is the truest thing in the world.
“It is a story of the great innocence of God, the baby, God in human power, and it is such a dramatic shot toward the heart that if it is not true for Christians, nothing is true, because this story reaches Christians universally and with profound emotion.
“So if a (person) is touched only once a year, the touching is still worth it, and maybe on some given Christmas, some quiet morning, the touch will take. Because the one message of Christmas is the Christmas story. If it is false, we are all doomed. If it is true, as it must be, it makes everything else in the world all right.”
I am grateful for Mr. Reasoner’s reflections and am somewhat surprised that he was willing, or able, to share them in the way he did. I think his insights as to the reasons behind the various ways we celebrate Christmas as a society is keen, so we should welcome his encouragement to reflect on how and why we celebrate this birth. I tend to believe there is a little bit of the cynic, the grateful and the reverent in each of us, perhaps all at the same time. I am not, and never have been, one of those who in any way resents the so called “Christmas and Easter worshipers”. To the contrary, I welcome them believing that they too are still seeking that which, or better yet, the One Who we have already found or again better yet, the One Who has found us. It is my hope and prayer that they too will hear enough of the truth while they are here to encourage them to seek Him as well.
Each of us, in our own way, is seeking the truth and I commend the search, trusting that all truth is God’s truth which will eventually lead us to an encounter with the Holy One. Our faith must be grounded on something more than our repressed doubts, so with Luke I seek to know the truth and then live and proclaim the truth so that others may know it, receive it and believe it, as well.
This really is what we do each and every week as we come to worship, isn’t it? We come to hear again the Good News of the Gospel, to be reminded of its truth, so that we can reaffirm it for ourselves and incorporate it in to the way we live our lives. In this sense, faith is not a binary decision, on or off, a once and for all decision on our part. Rather it is something we need to revisit and reaffirm weekly, daily, or at least annually or bi-annually.
You see, what we believe about Christmas, not the secular aspects of it, but the Gospel message of it, is that in the birth of Jesus God has visited human-kind in the flesh. As we talked last Sunday, John tells us, “And the Word, which was from the beginning, which was God, became flesh and lived or tabernacled among us.” In the birth of Jesus God moved in to our neighborhood and “pitched His tent with ours.”
If we believe that about the Christmas story, which we do, then it means we believe Jesus is who He says He is God Himself, God incarnate, God in human flesh. That is the central affirmation of our faith, from which flows every other thought and confession we can ever make about Him. We may discuss and debate aspects of the how and when and where of Christmas, but not the WHO.
One day a tourist was visiting one of the great museums of Europe and as he stood viewing a work of one of the great masters he commented to his friend, “I don’t think much of it.” Overhearing their conversation, the museum docent stepped forward and whispered, “Sir, this work of art is no longer on trial, but those who view it are.”
That is really how we must approach the Christmas story, for what we believe about Christmas is a reflection of what we believe about Jesus, who He Is and what He has done for us and for our salvation.
C.S. Lewis famously wrote about Him in this way: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He’d either be a lunatic on the level with a man who says he’s a poached egg or else he’d be a devil of hell. Either this man was and is the Son of God or else a mad man or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him for a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
So why is it that we are here this morning? Why is it that we return week after week and year after year? Because here we are reminded of and affirm together “the truest thing in the world.”
Thanks be to God.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN