Truth, not Facts

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday January 6, 2013, Epiphany Sunday.

Isaiah 60:1-6

Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14

Ephesians 3:1-12

Matthew 2:1-12

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

Fables are short, self-contained, fictional stories. They can be written either in verse like a poem or in prose like a narrative tale. One of the hallmarks of the fable is that they feature animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or even forces of nature that are given human qualities like verbal communication skills. The other hallmark is that fables illustrate a lesson, morals which are often added to the end of the story in a pithy maxim.

The most famous fables in the West are Aesop’s Fables. We’re all familiar with his fable of “The Tortoise and the Hare.” I could say more, but all I have to say is “Slow and steady wins the race” and we’d know all we need to know to recognize the fable and its moral.

There’s something special about fables as a literary form that’s important for us today, it’s that fables are a fictional literary genre. When you read the story of the tortoise that plods along slowly but surely to the race’s finish line, defeating the swifter but less goal focused hare who napped along the way; we must come to know that no matter how much “truth” this story contains, it is completely devoid of facts. Starting with talking animals there is not a fact in the whole story.

This story is so truthful that looking at it a little differently, we could rephrase the moral to say “the race is not to the swift.” If that sounds familiar it’s because this version of the moral of this story is biblical. It’s found at Ecclesiastes 9:11.

This sounds counter-intuitive, how can we have truth without facts? Aren’t good facts found at the root of truth? I can’t deny this really. I like facts. I spent way too much time in school to not appreciate things like the Pythagorean Theorem and E=mc². I even love “I before E except after C or when it sounds like a long A as in neighbor and weigh or some weird words like weird.” Sometimes though, stories like fables contain greater truth than all of the facts in the world.

So let me say this again, the truth is not always laden with facts. The best example of truth without facts is here to your left in the chancel, our crèche, our nativity scene.

Let’s begin with the rustic barnyard setting. It was highly unlikely that the place where they stayed was a stand-alone structure. Bible scholars say that the place where the animals stayed was more likely a cave than a barn. So this lovely shingled feature was not where Jesus our Lord was born.

Usually in most nativity scenes you will see the whole thing set up from the first Sunday in Advent. Advent means coming, but everyone has already arrived. Just to add one more historical inaccuracy our nativity scene has had the magi, the wise men, present from the beginning. Epiphany is the day in the church calendar when we celebrate the coming of the wise men after the birth of the Christ child, so their early arrival points to other issues.

The first issue is the time of the arrival of the magi. They didn’t show up on the heels of the shepherds like every Christmas pageant would have us believe. They arrived sometime later. When did they arrive? Scripture gives us a clue about that.

The language gives us an indication. Scripture says that the magi came looking for the child. Verses nine and eleven say very specifically they came to the place where the child was. Scripture didn’t say infant, it said child. This had to be intentional. If Jesus had been an infant they would have come to see an infant, not a child. The word scripture uses depicts a child who had yet to reach puberty. So Jesus must have been between the ages of two and twelve.

Here’s another wonderful not-fact, we just sang “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” It’s a great hymn, I love it. I’ve loved it since I learned it in grade school. Now ask yourself this, why do we say there are three kings? That’s not in scripture. A biblical scholar from the late 600’s and early 700’s named Bede established the number of magi at three. Don’t get me wrong, Bede, also called the Venerable Bede, was a saint of the ancient church. He has status in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran Churches. In computer speak we would say he works across platforms. But as for establishing the number, he probably chose it based on the number of gifts, one King for each gift. So it’s a logical choice, it’s just not supported in scripture.

Historians would be want to remind us that no matter how many kings there were, they would not have come alone. They would have come with an entourage for protection if nothing else. These were dangerous roads. Further, it could have been a good many kings or just two. The only hint we have from scripture is the plural word magi. We know there were at least two.

Here’s another obsession, were these magi “wise men” or “sorcerers,” or “magicians?” In fact, the only word that isn’t used in scripture to refer to magi is “king.” (That kind of ruins the whole “we three kings” thing, doesn’t it?) In our language it matters, there’s a tremendous difference between what we would call a “wise man” and a “sorcerer.” But when these words were written, when these were originally read, the difference didn’t cause a scandal. They do today; if they didn’t then we wouldn’t have any trouble calling these three “wise men” “sorcerers.”

So let me apologize if I burst your bubble. The way that we celebrate Epiphany just doesn’t add up to the facts of the situation. It’s a great story, a wonderful tale, it’s just not factual. So here’s our duty, if it’s not factual, what’s the truth in the story.

So here’s an important question, “Are the facts, at least the way we often read them, important to the truth?” I say no. I say that sometimes we get obsessed by facts or missing facts that in the end don’t end up meaning a hill of beans.

Were there three kings or not? It doesn’t really matter, does it?

Did they show up on the heels of the shepherds like in a Christmas pageant or not? It doesn’t really matter, does it?

Were they kings or sorcerers? It didn’t matter to the folks who heard this story in its original language. To them it didn’t really matter, did it?

One important truth we can take from this reading is that everybody is seeking something more important. Everybody is seeking something more significant than the lonely unexplored life that people who don’t know Christ live. These travelers sought Christ; this is probably the most important truth we can learn. Just like all of us everyday, they came looking for Christ.

So how did the magi know to come to seek Jesus? They saw a star and they followed it. Somehow, someway, they received the word of the Lord saying, “Come, follow me.” Was it by a voice the way you are hearing mine right now? Maybe, maybe not, we’ll never know. Did they get the same news the shepherds got? Again, scripture doesn’t say so we don’t know. None of this diminishes the truth that God called to them and they answered.

The last lesson we need to take came from our Ephesians reading, “[Christ’s] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Christ came to us and he intended the church to take the Word of God to the world, the Word of God that is accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Today, this congregation fulfills this purpose; this congregation celebrates Epiphany with the ordination and installation of new Elders to the Session. Two members of this congregation step out in faith of being selected by the Lord, elected by this congregation, and ordained into leadership in this part of the body of Christ.

They come faithfully in the name of the Lord to use their gifts for good of this congregation and the church universal. And we come in faith and trust that through our acts and our words their ministry will be blessed by the glory that arrived in Bethlehem, was crucified at the place called the Skull, and arose from the tomb.

This is truth. Facts help paint the picture, but facts can paint a multitude of pictures. Scholars say that Aesop’s fable of the Tortoise and the Hare has several different morals. I mentioned two of them myself. People interpret and reinterpret the words of scripture to shade all sorts of opinions. The same facts have been used to create many different religions.

We need to go beyond facts to find the truth. The moral of today’s scripture, just as we heard in today’s children’s sermon is this, “Wise men seek him still.” Pithy and found at the end, it has the hallmarks of a good moral. Truthfully, we are all seekers and when we find the Lord our God we must worship, just like those wise men so long ago.