Sermon Seeds: Of Truth

Sunday, June 15, 2025
Trinity Sunday| Year C
(Liturgical Color: White)

Lectionary Citations
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 and Psalm 8 • Romans 5:1-5 • John 16:12-15
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=384&z=p&d=52

Focus Scripture: John 16:12-15
Focus Theme: Of Truth
Series: Raise Her Voice: Into the Deep (Click here for the series overview.)

Reflection
By Cheryl A. Lindsay

What is truth? The dictionary relates truth to fact and reality. Yet, disputes over facts and attempts to hide or dismiss reality may challenge our understanding of truth. Individuals speak of their truth as if it were a choice or varied based on perspective, experience, and acceptance. Is there such a thing as a shared reality when so much of human life is highly segmented and fractured?

The final episode of MASH, the long running television series that spanned eleven seasons, aired in 1983 and drew an audience of over 120 million viewers. Only the National Football League’s Superbowls have eclipsed that viewership and still retains that level of widespread engagement making it into an unofficial national holiday. Part of the fleeting phenomena of MASH as well as other televised events such as ROOTS, was that they were experienced collectively in real time. Today’s series, with streaming capability, may have much higher views, but a significant portion of that are multiple views by the same persons or households.

Common experiences help form community, which may partially explain why Jesus invited the disciples to follow rather than to believe. Jesus offered them belonging, tutelage, and experiences rather than doctrine, tenets, and regulations. Their commitment was to Jesus and, by extension, the way of life they entered with him. Revelation came later. Understanding came later. Responsibility came later. First, Jesus built a relationship of trust with his closest followers and avoided the easy acceptance of the amazed crowds for the deeper ties that true community and communion offer.

Trust functions in mutuality so while Jesus invited the disciples to trust in him; he also indicated his trust in them. Trust does not demand perfection but it does bloom with demonstrated commitment. By the time of the gospel reading, Jesus was preparing for the passion, which primarily entailed sharing more details with his disciples. This passage is situated in the Farewell Discourses of the Book of Glory in the Johannine account. Jesus was beginning his goodbye and providing enough information for the disciples to continue the ministry and mission even while knowing they would not fully comprehend the totality of his purpose or their part. This passage acknowledges that.

It also presents a promise steeped in community—the community that Jesus comes from and will return to—of the Triune God. Jesus, the One who was sent assures the disciples of the sending of another One, Spirit:

Those who are addressed by the love commandment, in turn, will receive another “Advocate” (or Paraclete: Gk. paraklētos), who will remain with the disciples forever. The Advocate is the Holy Spirit; he will be sent by the Father, and he will teach the disciples, and remind them of what Jesus said to them in his life. He will testify on Jesus’ behalf, and prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment (16:8). For this reason, Jesus’ departure is not only necessary but also beneficial; otherwise, the Advocate will not come (16:7). It is unclear whether the Paraclete will work through the community’s leadership, through prophecy, or through other “spiritual gifts” as discussed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12–14. Nevertheless, the promise of the Paraclete implies the existence of a community that already believes it possesses additional knowledge and authority that has come to them through and after Jesus’ death and ascension to God.
Adele Reinhartz

The Spirit of Truth will come as Advocate and Guide, not as a substitute but as a successor. There will be continuity in message if not in presence. The nature of the relationship will fundamentally change, but the disciples should not be concerned for the Spirit will provide what they will need as they need it and can receive it.

Pausing for a moment before continuing to describe the Advocate’s ministry, Jesus tells the disciples, “I have still much more to say to you, but you are unable to bear it now” (v. 12). While this might appear to contradict 14:30, “I will no longer speak with you very much,” in actuality it does not, for Jesus is simply explaining why he will not have much more to say. Not because there is nothing left to say, nor even because he is about to leave, but because the disciples are “unable to bear it now.” The verb “to bear,” or endure, is appropriate in view of Jesus’ grim warnings of hatred and persecution (15:18–16:3). He implies that he could have spoken of these at greater length and in more detail, but did not do so because the Father did not tell him to. There is much that the disciples will face in the course of their mission for which they are not prepared, and for which it would be premature to try to prepare them. Above all, their mission will reach beyond the “world” of Judaism to that of the Gentiles. Jesus in this Gospel has confined his warnings mainly to the former, with little explicit attention to the fate awaiting them in the Graeco-Roman cities, and at the hands of the Roman authorities.
J. Ramsey Michaels

The insertion of the qualifier “now” indicates that whatever that Jesus wants them to know will be revealed in its appropriate time. The collective discernment and revelation of God in One will not abandon them in ignorance or isolation. Further, they may be encouraged in the foreknowledge that the revelation they receive will be rooted in truth just as Jesus has been with them.

Theologian and Missiologist Leslie Newbigin claimed, in his book The Gospel as Public Truth:

The Gospel is an account of things that have happened. It is not a proposition in metaphysics or a program for ethics and politics, though it has implications in both these spheres. It is narrated history, and (like all narrated history) it is told with a belief about its meaning. This belief is that the story tells what God has done for the redemption of all creation and its reconciliation to the source of all being. The story is made available to us through the living memory of the Church, the community which from its beginning has been enabled by the work of the Holy Spirit to recognize in Jesus the one sent by the Father for the salvation of the world.

The gospel according to John was written well after the “now” of the time that Jesus imparted these words. For practically all of the primary witnesses, they had experienced and continued to live the “more than they could bear” Jesus predicted in this word of hope and caution.

In turbulent times with unbearable realities, the gospel invites us to anchor ourselves in the assurances of the Word, to remind ourselves of the abiding presence of Source, and to listen to the wisdom of Spirit. In turn, we become strengthened, empowered, and encouraged to raise our voice to minister, to respond, and to be faithful in a world in need…of truth.

May it be so.

Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent
The 33rd General Synod adopted a Resolution to Recognize the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024). As part of its implementation, Sermon and Weekly Seeds offers Reflection from Voices of People of African Descent related to the season or overall theme for additional consideration in sermon preparation and for individual and congregational study.
“Let’s tell the truth to people. When people ask, ‘How are you?’ have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know, however, that people will start avoiding you because, they, too, have knees that pain them and heads that hurt and they don’t want to know about yours. But think of it this way: If people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you.”
― Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

For Further Reflection
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” ― Mark Twain

Works Cited
Michaels, J. Ramsey. The Gospel of John. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010.
Reinhartz, Adele. “John.” Gale A. Yee, Ed. Fortress Commentary on the Bible: Two Volume Set. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.

Suggested Congregational Response to the Reflection
During this series, Raise Her Voice: Into the Deep, in the season after Pentecost, we invite the local church to listen to Spirit speaking among us by developing the practices of testimony and exhortation. In testimony, one recounts how the Holy One has been present, moved, and guided in the past. In exhortation, one shares discernment based on what Spirit is still speaking to the church today. This may be done during worship as an immediate response to proclamation or in another format (i.e. blog posts, short videos on social media).

Worship Ways Liturgical Resources
https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/trinity-sunday-c-june-15/

The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay, Minister for Worship and Theology (lindsayc@ucc.org), also serves a local church pastor, public theologian, and worship scholar-practitioner with a particular interest in the proclamation of the word in gathered communities. You’re invited to share your reflections on this text in the comments on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SermonSeeds.

A Bible study version of this reflection is at Weekly Seeds.