You can also enjoy a Zoom version of this service at 11am on Sunday 14th June. If you wish to access the serivce the code is as follows: Meeting ID: 841 9082 8195
This is a recurring meeting so it will be the same code each week and for all future
“Truth: The Beauty of Being Right Enough to Be Wrong”
Invocation
We are here to worship…I ask that we still ourselves in silence and invite a loving presence to be here amongst us and to awaken within us...
Chalice Lighting
Welcome, know that you are welcome...
Welcome in the spirit of love, in the spirit of openness, in the sprit of reverence...
In this time and space may we revere God, revere life, revere one another...
In this time and space may we find peace, rest, comfort and challenge...
In this time and place may we find community and meaning...
May we know we are loved, accepted and encouraged to be all that we were born to be...
Know that you are welcome in this time and space, no matter who you are and where ever you have been...
Welcome in the spirit of love...
Amen.
Hymn HL Green 127 “Gather us in” (Woodlands) 10.10. 10.10.
Gather us in, thou Love that fillest all:
Gather the rival faiths within thy fold;
Throughout the nations, sound the clarion call:
Beneath Love´s banner all shall be enrolled!
Gather us in, we worship only thee;
In varied names we stretch a common hand;
In diverse forms a common soul we see;
In many ships we seek one promised land.
Thine is the mystic life great India craves:
Thine is the Parsee´s sin-destroying beam;
Thine is the Buddhist´s rest from tossing waves;
Thine is the empire of vast China´s dream.
Thine is the Roman´s strength without the pride;
Thine is the Greek´s glad world without its graves;
Thine is the Law that is the Jew´s life-guide;
Thine is the Christian´s faith, the grace that saves.
Gather us in, thou Love that fillest all;
Gather thy rival faiths within thy fold;
Throughout the nations, sound the clarion call:
Beneath Love´s banner all shall be enrolled!
[after George Matheson]
Prayer
I invite us to join together in a time of prayer...
Let us pray...
Loving God we come together as seekers…
Seekers of love and seekers of truth and seekers of meaning…
We join together seeking light in the darkness, seeking love in our fearfulness and meaning in a world that we keep on being told is devoid of meaning.
Help us to recognise the divinity in all life. Help us to see in ourselves and one another that same flesh and that same spirit. Help us to know that we are children of love and that it is our task to express this in this our shared world.
Help us to not only recognise the light, but to be bearers of it, help us to bring sunlight into one another’s sometimes flagging spirits. Help us to know that when we do so we become one with the universal spirit, the one light.
Loving God lift up our spirits, life up our hearts so that we can know the truth and that the truth may set us free…
Amen
Lord’s Prayer
Story
From “Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation” by Lama Surya Das
A teaching story on the difficulty to accept the divinity within us.
"It seems there was a young spiritual student who became impatient with the teachings he was receiving from the master in his own village. He wanted to know everything, and he wanted that information immediately. He went to his village master and demanded to be told the final truth about God.
"The teacher responded by saying that the truth that he was seeking was simply that he, the student, was God. God, truth, and meaning were to be found within.
"At this the young man became outraged and indignant. He felt that the master's answer was preposterous. But the master was unwavering in what he had to say, and so the student left the village in search of a different teaching. The student sought out gurus and masters far and wide, but no matter how renowned or wise these teachers were said to be, all of them in the end gave the student the same answer about life-that he was God. This wasn't what he wanted to hear; in fact, he saw this answer as an indication of the teachers' incompetence.
"Finally, he came upon a new teacher to whom he vehemently complained about his previous gurus and related his concerns. This wise teacher was very understanding and reassuring. He told the student that the truth about God would be revealed to him, but not immediately. He said that it would take some years, under the teacher's guidance, for the student's realization to come forth. Because the student was too poor to remain with the teacher for instruction, he arranged a work-study exchange. The only job available was shoveling manure all day in the field. The student gladly accepted this job and persisted steadily for seven years in this endeavor. Finally, at the end of the seventh year, the student came to the teacher and demanded some satisfaction.
" 'All right,' the teacher said. 'You have toiled long and hard and you deserve to hear the truth. Know then that the truth you seek is just this: You are God.'
"The student became enraged and said, 'How could this be? How could it be that you are just the same as all the other fools who told me this. And if this is the case, why have I toiled in your fields for these many years?'
" Because, my diligent student,' the master said, 'although you are indeed God, you are simply not very bright.' "
Reading
"All the True Vows" by David Whyte
All the true vows
are secret vows
the ones we speak out loud
are the ones we break.
There is only one life
you can call your own
and a thousand others
you can call by any name you want.
Hold to the truth you make
every day with your own body,
don't turn your face away.
Hold to your own truth
at the center of the image
you were born with.
Those who do not understand
their destiny will never understand
the friends they have made
nor the work they have chosen
nor the one life that waits
beyond all the others.
By the lake in the wood
in the shadows
you can
whisper that truth
to the quiet reflection
you see in the water.
Whatever you hear from
the water, remember,
it wants you to carry
the sound of its truth on your lips.
Remember,
in this place
no one can hear you
and out of the silence
you can make a promise
it will kill you to break,
that way you'll find
what is real and what is not.
I know what I am saying.
Time almost forsook me
and I looked again.
Seeing my reflection
I broke a promise
and spoke
for the first time
after all these years
in my own voice,
before it was too late
to turn my face again.
"All the True Vows" from The House of Belonging by David Whyte.
Hymn Green HL 151 “Be thou my vision” 10.10. 10.10. (Slane)
Be thou my vision, O God of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art;
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
Be thou my wisdom and thou my true word,
I ever with thee and thou with me, God;
Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tower,
Raise thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor world's empty praise,
Thou my inheritance, thou and always;
thou and thou only, first in my heart,
Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.
Sovereign of heaven, my victory won;
May I reach heaven's joys O bright heaven's Sun.
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
[Selected by Eleanor Henrietta Hull from a Gaelic source]
Readings
James 1 vv 16-27
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved.
17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;
20 for your anger does not produce God's righteousness.
21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.
23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror;
24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.
25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.
27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
From “1984” by George Orwell
“Doublethink lies at the very heart of (the state), since the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary.”
Meditation
Let us now enter together a time of quiet reflection, meditation and contemplation…a personal time, but a time we share in communion woth one another…
Let us still our minds, connect to our bodies, to our breathing, let us pray in silence together…
Silence (Approx 5 minutes)
“Doublethink lies at the very heart of (the state), since the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary.”
Meditation
Let us now enter together a time of quiet reflection, meditation and contemplation…a personal time, but a time we share in communion woth one another…
Let us still our minds, connect to our bodies, to our breathing, let us pray in silence together…
Silence (Approx 5 minutes)
Amen
Music for meditation (Choose something that suits your taste)
Hymn Purple 21 “Come and find a quiet centre” Shirley Erena Murray (Lewis Folk Carol) 87.87.D.
Come and find the quiet centre
In the crowded life we lead,
Find the room for hope to enter,
Find the space where we are freed:
Clear the chaos and the clutter,
Clear our eyes, that we can see
All the things that really matter,
Be at peace and simply be.
Silence is a friend who claims us,
Cools the heat and slows the pace;
God it is who speaks and names us,
Knows our being, touches base,
Making space within our thinking,
Lifting shades to show the sun,
Raising courage when we're shrinking,
Finding scope for faith begun.
In the Spirit let us travel,
Open to each other's pain;
Let our lives and fears unravel,
Celebrate the space we gain:
There's a place for deepest dreaming,
There's a time for heart to care;
In the Spirit's lively scheming
There is always room to spare.
[Shirley Erena Murray]
Address
I recently read a wonderful book “Human Kind: A Hopeful History” by Rutger Bregman. The book does a great job of questioning a great deal of what is considered to be the “truth” about the human condition. The book ends with the following four paragraphs
"If there's one thing I've sought to do with this book, it's to change the meaning of the word 'realism' - Isn't it telling that in modern usage the realist has become synonymous with the cynic-for someone with a pessimist outlook?
In truth, it's the cynic- who's out of touch. In truth we're living on planet A, where people are deeply inclined to be good to one another.
So be realistic. Be courageous. Be true to your nature and offer your trust. Do good in broad daylight, and don't be ashamed of your generosity. You may be dismissed as gullible and naive at first. But remember, what's naive may be common sense tomorrow.
It's time for a new realism. It's time for a new view of humankind.”
It is a wonderful book; I highly recommend it. Read it but do so critically. It’s strength is in questioning so many things considered to be true. I particularly liked the way it questioned many findings, from psychological studies, that took place during the 20th century. It seems that the findings and methodology adopted was not as honest as it was claimed to be at the time. In fact, it would appear it was a lot dishonesty in attempts to promote a particular point of view.
It got me thinking about the nature of truth, the truths we believe about ourselves, one another, and life in general. There are many things that we hold true, without really questioning. Why do we? It also got me thinking about who we trust for our truth, what are the sources. This seems particularly critical in the time we find ourselves in. Who do we trust at this time of crisis, what should we do? Who should we believe? Do we trust ourselves. I suspect that the view we have of others will impact of the view that we have of ourselves and all life. Not that I’m blaming the sources of truth entirely, because if I have learnt anything in life I have learnt that the news that we absorb is usually taken in not to inform us, but to prove our preconceived points of view. Interesting Bregman suggest that we ought to give up on the news. Not on good journalism, but the daily and constant intake of news.
Jesus said in John’s Gospel “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Do we want to be free though, do we want to be responsible for our own truth? Isn’t it easier to simply blame someone else when things go wrong. Do we really want the freedom of responsibility that comes with seeking our own truth, with getting things wrong? For one to truly be a seeker of the truth perhaps the most important thing to possess is the capacity to see, admit and rectify when we are wrong. We are all wrong at times. I think the greatest gift that life can give is the sense that you are right enough with ourselves to admit when we are wrong.
As I like to often repeat “I have learnt so much from my mistakes that I think I am going to make some more.”
How many of us feel secure enough in our humanity to admit we have been wrong about deeply held beliefs? Again, this is wonderfully exemplified in Bregman’s “Humankind”. He admits himself that he has lived with many of the assumptions about human history that most of us believe, seemingly without question. Cudos to him though, he is obviously right enough to be wrong.
Truth and trust seems pretty critical at this time as we begin to return to some kind of normality as the “shut down” measures begin to ease. Do we trust what we are being told? What should we do ourselves about opening our worships spaces safely? Do we trust the advice being offered? Well it seems that over the last few weeks there has been a growing divide in trust. Recent analysis by New King’s College London has found that public opinion has been divided primarily into three distinct groups, “The trusting” about 38% of the population, the “dissenting” also about 38% and the “frustrated” about 24%. It found that while worried about the health impact of the Corona crisis the “trusting” are generally supportive of the governments approach to opening up the economy. Meanwhile the “dissenting” worry more about the health impact and believe that the government want to open too quickly. “The frustrated” want the crisis over as quickly as possible and are less worried about the health impact and more concerned about the economic implications.
Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said of the findings:
“We went into the lockdown incredibly unified, with nine in 10 of the public supporting the measures – but we’re becoming much more divided on the way out. In particular, our views are now aligning much more clearly with our underlying political identities.
“The Trusting group, for example, have just as high fears about the direct health risks as the Dissenting group, but they have utterly different views of the government’s response. The Trusting are putting their faith in the government, the Dissenting very clearly are not, with only 4% thinking the government has done a good job.
“But these two groups are not entirely aligned to party support – nearly one in five of the Dissenting group are Conservative voters, showing how important perceptions of the virus response are likely to be in ongoing political support.
“The Frustrated are quite different, with a much clearer view that we’re relaxing the restrictions too slowly. This seems to be driven by a much greater focus on the economic impacts, and in turn, a high number of this group are already suffering from financial and other impacts from the lockdown.”
Of course, there are those who claim that the whole crisis is a hoax, they don’t believe in any of this, they claim other sources of truth and are unwavering in their criticism. They are not frustrated; they completely deny that Covid exists at all and the crisis is some plot against humanity.
So, who do we believe, who do we trust? What is true? Where do we get our truth from? And having found the truth how do we act? Has your view changed over time. As I look back I can see that mine has. I now feel that we did not act early and decisively enough, facts and figures do seem to show that, especially in comparison to our near neighbours.
What about truth in general? “Truth” itself is an interesting word. It comes from a Germanic root which also gives rise to another word “troth” as the vow of old "I pledge thee my troth." A word used as people enter a covenant with one another, as Parker J Palmer put it “a pledge to engage in mutually accountable and transforming relationship...to know in truth is to become betrothed, to engage the known with one's whole self...to know in truth is to be known as well.”
Truth is a pledge made between people, it is relational in nature, a covenant of trust. So, who do we trust, who do we covenant with? What is the “truth”?
At the end of 2016 “The Oxford Dictionaries” announced that they had chosen “post-truth” as the word of the year, offering as a definition: “circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Oxford Dictionaries' Casper Grathwohl said post-truth could become "one of the defining words of our time".This was in response to a particularly tumultuous time politically, both in the UK and USA, I suspect that things have become more so ever since. Partisanship has grown, with all sides claiming that the others are engaging in Orwellian doublethink and that the organism of the state is working against them. This seems to be even worse when it comes to social media when all you need is a camera, a computer and YouTube channel and suddenly you can become an expert on what the “real truth” is. I have a Youtube channel but I would not listen to me unquestioningly. I constantly get things wrong, but at least I can admit when I am wrong. I find it hard to trust a person who can never admit to being wrong about anything and would lie just to protect themselves and their position and of course blame others.
Now truth of course is subjective Mohandas Ghandi said that “What may appear as truth to one person will often appear as untruth to another person, but that need not worry the seeker, where there is honest effort, it will be realized that what appear to be different truths are like the countless and apparently different leaves of the same tree. Different parts of the same elephant; different leaves on the same tree; different paths up the same mountain; different windows open to the same light; one truth, many manifestations.”
So we may see the same thing and yet still come to a completely different conclusion about this. This maybe because we are approaching the truth differently. We bring our own needs and our own biases, it is vital to recognise this, this though does not mean that the one drawing a different conclusion has bad intent, quite the opposite actually. This is true of people and all life for that matter.
To quote the philosopher of science Karl Popper
“All things living are in search of a better world. Men, animals, plants, even unicellular organisms are constantly active. They are trying to improve their situation, or at least to avoid its deterioration.”
Popper argued that because the identification of error is so central to the problem solving process, therefore its corrective, the truth, is a core component of our quest for betterment. Mistakes are constantly made; all life makes mistakes. No one has absolute foresight, can see what is coming. This is particularly true in our unprecedented times. That said to maintain trust it is vital to admit when one is wrong and to rectify the error. It was reassuring to hear that those leading Sweden’s approach to the crisis were enlightened enough to admit that they had made mistakes in their approach to the current crisis. That too many people had died, especially in their care homes. This, I suspect is vital, as they move forward, to maintain their covenant of trust. To trust is to accept that we are vulnerable and that we are trying to find a way through this, we need to maintain trust in each other and in ourselves, therefore it is vital that we are able to admit when we make mistakes. We need to be right enough in ourselves to admit when we are wrong.
So often we see our piece of truth as a rock that we must cling to, that is absolute and must not be questioned. This often leads to disputes as people find that in order to hold onto their truth. Such reasoning lacks humility, because the truth is that whatever we believe or disbelieve about truth we never see the whole truth completely, instead we merely glimpse at the truth, or a piece of the truth. Who can honestly say that they know the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I suppose some do, they claim to know the whole truth about everything, an expert at everything. I would be very wary of trusting such folk. Just because someone says it is so, tt does not make it true.
This brings to mind this little snippet from Anthony DeMello’s “One Minute Wisdom”
"To a visitor who described himself as a seeker after Truth, the teacher said: “If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.” “I know,” answered the student, “an overwhelming passion for it.” “No,” said the teacher, “an unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.”
To seek the truth, one needs humility and openness and enough self-esteem to see that we are wrong sometimes and of course the capacity to admit to this. If we cannot, we will not be able to see the truth, even when it is right in front of us. It is so easy to become blinded by what we think we know. We need the openness that comes with true humility, it is a truth that will set us free.
In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus says, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
Whilst Lao Tzu wrote in the “Tao Te Ching” “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”
You will never bring forth what is within you while ever you are afraid of what is within you. There have been times when I have been afraid to bring forth what is within me and I have witnessed the same fear in others too. After all is not a little less scary to receive our truth from elsewhere rather than to let it come forth from within ourselves.
It can appear safer to accept the truth offered to us, rather than to seek it out ourselves. So often in life we want certainty, absolutes black and white and not a thousand shades of grey. So often we seek the illusion of certainty. This though just closes us in, builds those walls and keeps us closed.
The key to truth seeking is openness, born from uncertainty and humility. Openness is a way that enables us to experience new previously unseen truth; a truth that will set us free. It will allow us to bring forth what is within us and by doing so we might just uncover what will save us from the delusion of what we think we know about ourselves, one another and life itself.
Do we trust ourselves enough to seek out the truth and therefore to bring forth what is within us or would we just rather stick with the safety of what we think we already know of what someone has taught us or told us is the truth.
We can trust what we unearth if we learn how to truly live in the questions of ours and others truth claims. Trust is vital. We have to learn to trust what we discover, what we unearth, whilst not putting a fence around what we see as the truth today; the key is an open attitude whether that’s in finding your own truth or in offering truth to another. Now the challenge of course comes in dwelling in the ambiguity of truth without becoming overwhelmed or paralysed by it; the challenge comes in maintaining a deep commitment to the openness that truth seeking requires and not allowing ourselves to become closed down.
This is not for the faint hearted. This takes courage. This is not the easier path, but it is definitely the one worth taking, for it is the one that will set us up to live in and through truth.
You know its ok to get it wrong to make mistakes. It’s ok to feel lost and confused about life at times. That is so human. There is something both glorious and beautiful in this.
If we want to be a seeker of truth, then above everything else what we need is an unremitting readiness to admit that we may be wrong. Wrong about how we view ourselves, wrong about how we view life, wrong about how we view other people.
The truth is of course is that once we can see we are wrong about something, admit we are wrong about something, do whatever we can to put right what was once wrong, then we are no longer wrong, we are right. The key is to feel right enough in our humanness to be able to admit that we can only ever vision the partial truth and to be open to the truth of others…
The key is in being right enough to be wrong, for that is the essence of the truth…
Hymn Green 126 “The Larger View” John Andrew Storey Stenka Razin 87. 87. D
In their ancient isolation
Races framed their moral codes,
And the peoples of each nation
Trod their solitary roads.
Now the distances are shrinking;
Travel, and the printed page,
All earth´s many lands are linking,
Spreading knowledge of each sage.
Now new times demand new measures,
And new ways we must explore;
Let each faith bring its own treasures
To enrich the common store.
Then no more will creeds divide us-
Though we love our own the best-
For the larger view will guide us
As we join in common quest.
Blessing
As we leave this time and space, as we return to our lives may we do so in the spirit of love…
May we return with open hearts, open minds and open souls…
May we live in the truth that will set us free…but not become slaves to this truth…
May we learn to seek the truth and become right enough to admit when are wrong
May we recognise the sacredness of ourselves, of one another and of all life…
And may the love of God go with us in all that we feel, all that we think, all that we say and all that we do...
Amen
Music for meditation (Choose something that suits your taste)
Hymn Purple 21 “Come and find a quiet centre” Shirley Erena Murray (Lewis Folk Carol) 87.87.D.
Come and find the quiet centre
In the crowded life we lead,
Find the room for hope to enter,
Find the space where we are freed:
Clear the chaos and the clutter,
Clear our eyes, that we can see
All the things that really matter,
Be at peace and simply be.
Silence is a friend who claims us,
Cools the heat and slows the pace;
God it is who speaks and names us,
Knows our being, touches base,
Making space within our thinking,
Lifting shades to show the sun,
Raising courage when we're shrinking,
Finding scope for faith begun.
In the Spirit let us travel,
Open to each other's pain;
Let our lives and fears unravel,
Celebrate the space we gain:
There's a place for deepest dreaming,
There's a time for heart to care;
In the Spirit's lively scheming
There is always room to spare.
[Shirley Erena Murray]
Address
I recently read a wonderful book “Human Kind: A Hopeful History” by Rutger Bregman. The book does a great job of questioning a great deal of what is considered to be the “truth” about the human condition. The book ends with the following four paragraphs
"If there's one thing I've sought to do with this book, it's to change the meaning of the word 'realism' - Isn't it telling that in modern usage the realist has become synonymous with the cynic-for someone with a pessimist outlook?
In truth, it's the cynic- who's out of touch. In truth we're living on planet A, where people are deeply inclined to be good to one another.
So be realistic. Be courageous. Be true to your nature and offer your trust. Do good in broad daylight, and don't be ashamed of your generosity. You may be dismissed as gullible and naive at first. But remember, what's naive may be common sense tomorrow.
It's time for a new realism. It's time for a new view of humankind.”
It is a wonderful book; I highly recommend it. Read it but do so critically. It’s strength is in questioning so many things considered to be true. I particularly liked the way it questioned many findings, from psychological studies, that took place during the 20th century. It seems that the findings and methodology adopted was not as honest as it was claimed to be at the time. In fact, it would appear it was a lot dishonesty in attempts to promote a particular point of view.
It got me thinking about the nature of truth, the truths we believe about ourselves, one another, and life in general. There are many things that we hold true, without really questioning. Why do we? It also got me thinking about who we trust for our truth, what are the sources. This seems particularly critical in the time we find ourselves in. Who do we trust at this time of crisis, what should we do? Who should we believe? Do we trust ourselves. I suspect that the view we have of others will impact of the view that we have of ourselves and all life. Not that I’m blaming the sources of truth entirely, because if I have learnt anything in life I have learnt that the news that we absorb is usually taken in not to inform us, but to prove our preconceived points of view. Interesting Bregman suggest that we ought to give up on the news. Not on good journalism, but the daily and constant intake of news.
Jesus said in John’s Gospel “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Do we want to be free though, do we want to be responsible for our own truth? Isn’t it easier to simply blame someone else when things go wrong. Do we really want the freedom of responsibility that comes with seeking our own truth, with getting things wrong? For one to truly be a seeker of the truth perhaps the most important thing to possess is the capacity to see, admit and rectify when we are wrong. We are all wrong at times. I think the greatest gift that life can give is the sense that you are right enough with ourselves to admit when we are wrong.
As I like to often repeat “I have learnt so much from my mistakes that I think I am going to make some more.”
How many of us feel secure enough in our humanity to admit we have been wrong about deeply held beliefs? Again, this is wonderfully exemplified in Bregman’s “Humankind”. He admits himself that he has lived with many of the assumptions about human history that most of us believe, seemingly without question. Cudos to him though, he is obviously right enough to be wrong.
Truth and trust seems pretty critical at this time as we begin to return to some kind of normality as the “shut down” measures begin to ease. Do we trust what we are being told? What should we do ourselves about opening our worships spaces safely? Do we trust the advice being offered? Well it seems that over the last few weeks there has been a growing divide in trust. Recent analysis by New King’s College London has found that public opinion has been divided primarily into three distinct groups, “The trusting” about 38% of the population, the “dissenting” also about 38% and the “frustrated” about 24%. It found that while worried about the health impact of the Corona crisis the “trusting” are generally supportive of the governments approach to opening up the economy. Meanwhile the “dissenting” worry more about the health impact and believe that the government want to open too quickly. “The frustrated” want the crisis over as quickly as possible and are less worried about the health impact and more concerned about the economic implications.
Professor Bobby Duffy, Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, said of the findings:
“We went into the lockdown incredibly unified, with nine in 10 of the public supporting the measures – but we’re becoming much more divided on the way out. In particular, our views are now aligning much more clearly with our underlying political identities.
“The Trusting group, for example, have just as high fears about the direct health risks as the Dissenting group, but they have utterly different views of the government’s response. The Trusting are putting their faith in the government, the Dissenting very clearly are not, with only 4% thinking the government has done a good job.
“But these two groups are not entirely aligned to party support – nearly one in five of the Dissenting group are Conservative voters, showing how important perceptions of the virus response are likely to be in ongoing political support.
“The Frustrated are quite different, with a much clearer view that we’re relaxing the restrictions too slowly. This seems to be driven by a much greater focus on the economic impacts, and in turn, a high number of this group are already suffering from financial and other impacts from the lockdown.”
Of course, there are those who claim that the whole crisis is a hoax, they don’t believe in any of this, they claim other sources of truth and are unwavering in their criticism. They are not frustrated; they completely deny that Covid exists at all and the crisis is some plot against humanity.
So, who do we believe, who do we trust? What is true? Where do we get our truth from? And having found the truth how do we act? Has your view changed over time. As I look back I can see that mine has. I now feel that we did not act early and decisively enough, facts and figures do seem to show that, especially in comparison to our near neighbours.
What about truth in general? “Truth” itself is an interesting word. It comes from a Germanic root which also gives rise to another word “troth” as the vow of old "I pledge thee my troth." A word used as people enter a covenant with one another, as Parker J Palmer put it “a pledge to engage in mutually accountable and transforming relationship...to know in truth is to become betrothed, to engage the known with one's whole self...to know in truth is to be known as well.”
Truth is a pledge made between people, it is relational in nature, a covenant of trust. So, who do we trust, who do we covenant with? What is the “truth”?
At the end of 2016 “The Oxford Dictionaries” announced that they had chosen “post-truth” as the word of the year, offering as a definition: “circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Oxford Dictionaries' Casper Grathwohl said post-truth could become "one of the defining words of our time".This was in response to a particularly tumultuous time politically, both in the UK and USA, I suspect that things have become more so ever since. Partisanship has grown, with all sides claiming that the others are engaging in Orwellian doublethink and that the organism of the state is working against them. This seems to be even worse when it comes to social media when all you need is a camera, a computer and YouTube channel and suddenly you can become an expert on what the “real truth” is. I have a Youtube channel but I would not listen to me unquestioningly. I constantly get things wrong, but at least I can admit when I am wrong. I find it hard to trust a person who can never admit to being wrong about anything and would lie just to protect themselves and their position and of course blame others.
Now truth of course is subjective Mohandas Ghandi said that “What may appear as truth to one person will often appear as untruth to another person, but that need not worry the seeker, where there is honest effort, it will be realized that what appear to be different truths are like the countless and apparently different leaves of the same tree. Different parts of the same elephant; different leaves on the same tree; different paths up the same mountain; different windows open to the same light; one truth, many manifestations.”
So we may see the same thing and yet still come to a completely different conclusion about this. This maybe because we are approaching the truth differently. We bring our own needs and our own biases, it is vital to recognise this, this though does not mean that the one drawing a different conclusion has bad intent, quite the opposite actually. This is true of people and all life for that matter.
To quote the philosopher of science Karl Popper
“All things living are in search of a better world. Men, animals, plants, even unicellular organisms are constantly active. They are trying to improve their situation, or at least to avoid its deterioration.”
Popper argued that because the identification of error is so central to the problem solving process, therefore its corrective, the truth, is a core component of our quest for betterment. Mistakes are constantly made; all life makes mistakes. No one has absolute foresight, can see what is coming. This is particularly true in our unprecedented times. That said to maintain trust it is vital to admit when one is wrong and to rectify the error. It was reassuring to hear that those leading Sweden’s approach to the crisis were enlightened enough to admit that they had made mistakes in their approach to the current crisis. That too many people had died, especially in their care homes. This, I suspect is vital, as they move forward, to maintain their covenant of trust. To trust is to accept that we are vulnerable and that we are trying to find a way through this, we need to maintain trust in each other and in ourselves, therefore it is vital that we are able to admit when we make mistakes. We need to be right enough in ourselves to admit when we are wrong.
So often we see our piece of truth as a rock that we must cling to, that is absolute and must not be questioned. This often leads to disputes as people find that in order to hold onto their truth. Such reasoning lacks humility, because the truth is that whatever we believe or disbelieve about truth we never see the whole truth completely, instead we merely glimpse at the truth, or a piece of the truth. Who can honestly say that they know the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I suppose some do, they claim to know the whole truth about everything, an expert at everything. I would be very wary of trusting such folk. Just because someone says it is so, tt does not make it true.
This brings to mind this little snippet from Anthony DeMello’s “One Minute Wisdom”
"To a visitor who described himself as a seeker after Truth, the teacher said: “If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.” “I know,” answered the student, “an overwhelming passion for it.” “No,” said the teacher, “an unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.”
To seek the truth, one needs humility and openness and enough self-esteem to see that we are wrong sometimes and of course the capacity to admit to this. If we cannot, we will not be able to see the truth, even when it is right in front of us. It is so easy to become blinded by what we think we know. We need the openness that comes with true humility, it is a truth that will set us free.
In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus says, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
Whilst Lao Tzu wrote in the “Tao Te Ching” “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”
You will never bring forth what is within you while ever you are afraid of what is within you. There have been times when I have been afraid to bring forth what is within me and I have witnessed the same fear in others too. After all is not a little less scary to receive our truth from elsewhere rather than to let it come forth from within ourselves.
It can appear safer to accept the truth offered to us, rather than to seek it out ourselves. So often in life we want certainty, absolutes black and white and not a thousand shades of grey. So often we seek the illusion of certainty. This though just closes us in, builds those walls and keeps us closed.
The key to truth seeking is openness, born from uncertainty and humility. Openness is a way that enables us to experience new previously unseen truth; a truth that will set us free. It will allow us to bring forth what is within us and by doing so we might just uncover what will save us from the delusion of what we think we know about ourselves, one another and life itself.
Do we trust ourselves enough to seek out the truth and therefore to bring forth what is within us or would we just rather stick with the safety of what we think we already know of what someone has taught us or told us is the truth.
We can trust what we unearth if we learn how to truly live in the questions of ours and others truth claims. Trust is vital. We have to learn to trust what we discover, what we unearth, whilst not putting a fence around what we see as the truth today; the key is an open attitude whether that’s in finding your own truth or in offering truth to another. Now the challenge of course comes in dwelling in the ambiguity of truth without becoming overwhelmed or paralysed by it; the challenge comes in maintaining a deep commitment to the openness that truth seeking requires and not allowing ourselves to become closed down.
This is not for the faint hearted. This takes courage. This is not the easier path, but it is definitely the one worth taking, for it is the one that will set us up to live in and through truth.
You know its ok to get it wrong to make mistakes. It’s ok to feel lost and confused about life at times. That is so human. There is something both glorious and beautiful in this.
If we want to be a seeker of truth, then above everything else what we need is an unremitting readiness to admit that we may be wrong. Wrong about how we view ourselves, wrong about how we view life, wrong about how we view other people.
The truth is of course is that once we can see we are wrong about something, admit we are wrong about something, do whatever we can to put right what was once wrong, then we are no longer wrong, we are right. The key is to feel right enough in our humanness to be able to admit that we can only ever vision the partial truth and to be open to the truth of others…
The key is in being right enough to be wrong, for that is the essence of the truth…
Hymn Green 126 “The Larger View” John Andrew Storey Stenka Razin 87. 87. D
In their ancient isolation
Races framed their moral codes,
And the peoples of each nation
Trod their solitary roads.
Now the distances are shrinking;
Travel, and the printed page,
All earth´s many lands are linking,
Spreading knowledge of each sage.
Now new times demand new measures,
And new ways we must explore;
Let each faith bring its own treasures
To enrich the common store.
Then no more will creeds divide us-
Though we love our own the best-
For the larger view will guide us
As we join in common quest.
Blessing
As we leave this time and space, as we return to our lives may we do so in the spirit of love…
May we return with open hearts, open minds and open souls…
May we live in the truth that will set us free…but not become slaves to this truth…
May we learn to seek the truth and become right enough to admit when are wrong
May we recognise the sacredness of ourselves, of one another and of all life…
And may the love of God go with us in all that we feel, all that we think, all that we say and all that we do...
Amen
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