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I was curious. The search engine iask.ai had led someone to my blog. I wondered just what iask.ai knew about me. Which was quite a surprise, when I put the question to it.  I learned of my law degree from a prestigious university. I was surprised by the depth of my civil rights activities, when I thought I was a stay-at-home mom swamped with a young family. Today, iask.ai tells me that I was part of the British diplomatic service and had a significant impact on the development of the European Union. (Apparently, not good enough to hold it together though.)

I’m impressed with all that I appear to have done. That none of it happens to be true about me is, well, disappointing. So maybe iask.ai was searching the wrong continent, yet managed to find pictures of me to put with the content.

Truth has been elusive in the past years. Alternative facts presented as reality, conspiracy theories, and intentional misinformation have led to confusion, about what is true. To know the truth, Jesus said, would set us free.    But how do we find truth, in our world when some national news media have shown little concern about the truth . . . Spinning opinion into facts.

Reading the Gospel of John this Christmas season, I was struck by the number of times John refers to Jesus as the truth. The word true appears 19 times in the Gospel of John and truth 21 times.

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” John 1:9
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24
“You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” John 8:40
“When the Spirit of truth comes, the Spirit will guide you into all the truth.” John 16:13
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” John 17:17
Jesus praises Nathanael, with the words, “There’s nothing false in him.” John 1:47

Clearly the truth and true are important to God.

With our different news sources and echo chambers affirming our opinions, it can be very difficult to find the truth. I sometimes wish for the days of Walter Cronkite, who anchored the CBS evening news from 1962-1981. He Ended every newscast with “And that’s the way it is,” giving us a source of  shared facts.

The common truth is the truth of Jesus, who came into the world to lead us to a better way of life. He came not to destroy but to save. The truth of Jesus is one of God’s love for all people, even those we most vehemently disagree with. John made the point in his gospel to say the savior of the world, made flesh in Jesus, came, “ Not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:17

May it be that all  followers of Jesus, truly listen to his words of truth and be guided by them.  May we compare  the words of Jesus to the words of our politicians.    May our eyes and ears be opened to God’s truth . . . Revealed in Jesus, that we can begin to work together for the good of all people.