Good morning, Friends! Thank you all for coming today. I hope you all had a good week!
Last week I said that we’re starting a series about what Quakers believe. We started off by talking about light, because Light is one of the ways we experience the presence of God.
You remember, God created light. Jesus said that he is the light of the world. The Scripture we read last Sunday said, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. . .”
We talked about how Quakers believe there is a spark of God’s light in every human being, and how that affects the way we treat people.
Today we’re going to do the same thing again, but this time we’re going to look at something else Quakers believe in. And to get us started, here’s a reading from the gospel of Matthew.
You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’
But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.
And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Matthew 5:33-37
Quakers believe in truth. Quakers believe that Truth, with a capital T, is almost like another name for God.
From our very earliest days, Quakers have believed that knowing the truth, telling the truth, and living the truth, are absolutely essential to being a Christian.
Truth is not optional. It’s at the very heart of what we believe and who we try to be.
There must be hundreds of stories about how Quakers tell the truth. There’s an old joke about a Quaker farmer. Somebody asked if a bunch of cows grazing up on a hill were brown. The Quaker said, “Yes, they are – at least, on this side.”
Many of you know the story about Allen Jay, when he was a boy of 13. His family were active with the Underground Railroad.
Allen Jay said that he and his father were outside working one day, when their neighbor, a doctor, who was an Abolitionist, came riding up to the front of the house.
The doctor said that an escaped slave was nearby, and that a group of slave catchers were looking for him. The doctor rode away, and Allen Jay’s father said, “Allen, I’m going out back of the house. If anyone comes to the gate, you can hide them down in the corn field under the big walnut tree. But don’t tell me or anyone else.”
By and by the escaped slave came along, and Allen Jay hid him down in the cornfield. Back at the house, Allen Jay’s mother was fixing up some dinner in a basket. She said, “Allen, if thee knows anybody who thee things is hungry, thee might take this basket to him.”
That afternoon, the slave catchers came riding up, and Allen Jay’s father went out to meet them. The slave catchers asked if he’d seen an escaping slave, and Allen Jay’s father truthfully said he hadn’t. Allen said, “I kept out of sight.”
That’s a funny story, but telling the truth had it’s serious side as well. In the early days, it was illegal to be a Quaker. In one place, the local jail was filled to overflowing with Quakers who’d been arrested, and the sheriff had to transfer the prisoners to another town.
The sheriff didn’t have enough spare men to guard the prisoners, but they said they would all walk to the next town together, without a guard. Their word was their bond.
Quakers were always getting in trouble, because we refused to swear in court. The Scripture we read this morning – “do not swear an oath at all” – was what Jesus said.
“Let your ‘Yes’ be yes, and your no be ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
See, swearing sets up a double standard of truth. If you have to take an oath, does that mean that without the oath, people assume you’d lie?
Christians are supposed to be truthful, without swearing or taking an oath. We’re supposed to tell the truth, because God IS the truth. God is the truth at all times, and we depend on God’s truth. So, Quakers believe in a single standard – just tell the truth all the time. Not swearing or using oaths is part of our Christian witness.
If people know that we tell the truth all the time, about ordinary things, then maybe they can believe us, when we talk about heavenly things. But if they catch us in a lie about some everyday matter, why should they believe us about anything else?
In today’s Scripture, Jesus wasn’t making up something new. He was going all the way back to one of the Ten Commandments – the one where God says, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)
And there are lots of other places in the Jewish scriptures, where people are forbidden to swear falsely.
But in today’s Scripture, Jesus is calling us to a higher standard. Not just, “don’t swear falsely,” but don’t swear at all. And Quakers take what Jesus says here literally.
In another place, Jesus says, “The hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. . .” (John 4:23-24)
A little later on, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. . .” (John 14:6)
When Jesus was on trial for his life, the Roman governor, Pilate, asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus said, “Are you asking this on your own, or did someone put you up to it?”
Pilate said again, “Are you a king?”
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. . .For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth, listens to my voice.”
And Pilate said, “What is truth?” and crucified him. (see John 18:33-38)
We may not be crucified the way Jesus was, but you see how important truth was to Jesus. He could have lied or fudged his way out of it, to save his life, but he didn’t. He told the truth, and we all know what it cost him.
We wonder sometimes what it means, to bear the cross every day. Quakers have often said, one way to bear the cross is simply to tell the truth, all the time.
In the early days, this meant that Quakers refused to cheat people in the market place. You’ve all probably heard the old saying, “Caveat emptor – Let the buyer beware!”
There were no state inspectors of weights and measures back then, and sellers would short you any way they could, if they thought they could get away with it.
A yard of cloth would be an inch or two short. The butcher would put his thumb on the scales when you weren’t looking. In the pub, only half the glass would be beer – the rest would be froth. Cheating was everyplace.
Quakers insisted on being honest. Fair weights and honest measures. No bargaining – the price was the same, for everyone. If a Quaker bought something on credit, they paid up, in full, on time.
The quality of goods Quakers that sold was consistent. Quakers paid their workers and servants a fair wage, and didn’t cheat them come payday.
At first, other people were amazed, and thought the Quakers were crazy. But soon, they flocked to Quaker merchants, because they knew they wouldn’t be cheated. A lot of Quaker farmers and business people wound up doing very well, because of our high standard of truth.
In fact, many other business people stole our name and put it on their products. Quaker Oats is not owned by Quakers. Neither is Quaker State Motor Oil, or a whole bunch of other products with our name on them.
In this morning’s Scripture, Jesus says, “Don’t swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; not by the earth, for it is God’s footstool; not by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you can’t make even one hair white or black.”
Some of those oaths Jesus mentions seem pretty old-fashioned to us. But even today you still hear people saying, “I swear on a stack of Bibles,” or “Cross my heart and hope to die,” or “God strike me dead”.
That’s actually what most courtroom oaths really mean. When you stand up in court and say, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God,” that’s really saying, “God’s going to punish me, if I’m not telling the truth here.”
I looked through the North Carolina statutes this week, and there are dozens of occasions when the state requires oaths. Not just in court, but there are oaths for every public official who takes office, every representative or senator.
Every notary public, every executor of an estate, every attorney and jury member, every auditor and surveyor has to take an oath – the list goes on and on.
You’d think that there was a web of total dishonesty, everywhere in the country. People must be going around with their pants on fire!
Fortunately, there’s an exception in the law, for Quakers. Back in 1777, when North Carolina declared its independence from the king of England, the legislature passed a statute, allowing Quakers simply to affirm the truth, without swearing.
Later on, the law was extended to cover Moravians, Mennonites, Dunkers and other religious groups which share our beliefs. The same is true in all 50 states in the U.S. You don’t have to swear, if it’s against your conscience.
And because we have that legal right, we need to take all truth seriously. We need to be looking to that higher standard that Jesus talked about. We need to live up to what we say we believe.
There are so many places where telling the truth is important, and where the promises we make are ones we need to keep.
My wife and I still remember the promises we made when we married each other. We still mean them, and all these years later, we can still repeat those promises, word for word. And it brings us so much joy, to remember them.
There’s another promise that’s important, too. Most of us here in this room, at some time in our lives, made a promise to Jesus. We’re all different, and we all probably made that promise using different words.
But most of us promised our hearts and minds to Jesus, our hands and our lives. That may be the most important promise we ever make.
Do we keep it? Do we live the way we hoped to live? Do we still mean the promise we made? Is that promise alive every day? Do we tell the truth to Jesus, admitting when we make mistakes, and ask Jesus to help us?
My point is, telling the truth and keeping promises is important. So many people lie to themselves, or lie to their loved ones. Lying is a way of death.
Whether it’s in counseling, or in a 12-step group, people realize that their lies aren’t working any more. The way back to life always starts with admitting the truth, both to ourselves and to other people.
It may be uncomfortable. It may be really painful. But telling the truth is the first step on the way back home.
I’ve given you a lot of Scripture verses about telling the truth. I want to give you one more.
In the epistle of James, along with a lot of other good spiritual advice, the writer of James says: “Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear – not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” (James 5:12)
It’s an echo of what Jesus said to us earlier. But James says it even more strongly. He says, “Above all, do not swear. . .” Truth always has to be at the top of our list.
Have you ever noticed, when somebody tells a lie, they almost always have to cover it up with another lie? It’s a really common thing. Pretty soon, they tell so many lies, they can’t keep their story straight.
It’s like they get so tangled up, they don’t even recognize the truth any more. They don’t know how to stop.
That’s why Jesus says that “the devil is the Father of lies” (John 8:44). God is truth. Anything that isn’t the truth – well, that comes from somewhere else.
Truth isn’t afraid of light. Truth isn’t afraid of questions. The more we understand about what’s true, the more we grow. Because truth has no end. No limits.
Paul says that every day, we should put on the armor of God. He says to carry the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and to be strong in the power of God. And with everything else, Paul says, to wrap the truth around you. Truth will protect you. It makes you strong. (see Ephesians 6:10-17)
In one of his most beautiful letters, Paul wrote to his friends: “Beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is worth admiring, if there if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9)