Who to Listen To

by Rev. Eric Folkerth

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.”

This passage from Sunday’s scripture has always made me vaguely uncomfortable. I think perhaps because when I hear preachers cite it, they’re often making some bold proclamation on how *they* know the full truth about God, and how we’d all be better off we if all just listened to them.

But today I’ve been thinking about the past few years in our world and the clear struggle our society is having with “the truth.” As we’ve said here before, one of the insidious parts of today’s world is how every “truth” can be debated, rationalized and shouted down on social media.

Things that are scientifically, rationally, verifiable are dismissed by wide swaths of the populace. We are certainly learning quite a bit (more than we ever wanted to know) about the ability of journalists to believe one thing in their hearts and say quite another on the air.

So, who DO we trust? Which voices should we follow?

Suddenly, this passage from Jesus doesn’t seem quite so strange. Suddenly, it seems like he might well be speaking to us. Because, our world is full of truth-bandits. It’s full of charlatans, trying to sell the public on the latest spiritual fad. It’s filled with folks peddling “alternative facts.”

And so, I find new, strange comfort in Jesus’ words. It’s strangely comforting to imagine that Jesus’ time might have also been filled with various and sundry “truth bandits.”

So…follow Jesus then, not we all-too-human preacher folks. Listen for the truth, but also never blindly follow anyone except God. Yes, that even includes me and any words you hear me say…

Gandhi once told Christians that he really liked “you Christ,” but wasn’t too sure about “your Christians.”

He was probably on to something. In an age of truth bandits, even those who twist the truth about Jesus, keep listening for Jesus’ still small voice and trust that you’ll be able to hear it over all the noise and chatter.

See you Sunday,

Eric Folkerth