Church Called Tov - Nurture Truth w/Pastor Jenn Swift

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

Um, we've been talking about this book, A Church Called Tove.

We've also been talking about the Bible. Let me be clear, there's another book that we've been talking about.

Um, but this book has been the guide of our series, A Church Called Tove.

Um, are we in week five or six? Are we in week 71? I don't know. I haven't, I've been here. I just don't pay attention well.

Kidding, just joking. Um, but yes, we've been using this book as our guide throughout this series.

It's been, um, yeah, it's been a good starting point for us to reflect on scripture and how we let scripture and the Spirit of God guide our culture and our community here.

Because this is the community we are responsible for. We are not responsible for the church entirety, that is Jesus.

But, um, we are responsible for being guided by the Spirit here and with each other and locally.

And so this has been a good, a good series for us.

Um, tove, the biggest word on the front of this book, um, is the Hebrew word for good.

It is a word that is short and somewhat easy to remember.

Uh, and I've actually heard a few people, um, playfully using it, uh, in conversations like, but is it tove?

Are you, are you saying it's tove?

But that's actually a great sign, um, that it's kind of moving through our minds.

And, um, that God's goodness and the want for that goodness to be a part of our spaces and our actions and our interactions, motivations, um,

so that our communities are permeated with God's goodness.

Uh, it's a sign that it's in our minds and that is, well, it is good.

Um, on the flip side, what's tough about this series and the book, uh, that is, that it's spurred, um, from is that it has to be written at all.

That this book had to be, had to be written.

Um, a church called Tove was written because there have been so many churches, um, and faith communities that have not embodied God's goodness.

They have not been good.

That the goodness of God, as it was in the beginning, uh, on earth as it is in heaven, it's been preached, but it has not been practiced.

It has not been embodied. God's goodness has not been, um, embodied in these communities.

And listen, if you're jumping in on this series for the first time, please know that we are not going through this series because we think we are, in fact, the gleaming model of Tove.

We are going through it because we know the cultures that exist around churches, and some of you have been part of them.

Some of us have been part of them, and the damage that has been done by spiritual communities and the leadership at the helm has been problematic, to say the least, but in far too many instances, violently life-altering and damaging.

So we here at the house, as individuals, households, and the fellowship of believers associated here with, are working through this series because we hope to embody Tove and foster a culture of Tove.

And so we keep it in front of us so that we don't forget it.

And it is something we must do as a community, something that we are all in together, that it is an assignment that we all understand.

We will do best when we do this together.

And so we've spoken about a church of Tove, a church of goodness, as one that practices empathy.

We've talked about a church of Tove being grace-filled and people first.

And today we will talk about how a church that is Tove nurtures a community and a culture of truth and truth-telling.

So I'm going to read some scripture and at the house we take a posture of attentiveness that can look like standing, if that is something you are able to do and want to do.

Otherwise, posture your heart at full attention.

I welcome you to stand if you can for the reading of Ephesians 4, 21 through 25, chapter 5, 1 and 2.

And then I will read just a short verse from John 3.

So Ephesians 4, 21 through 25, it says,

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

You were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires,

to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

Chapter 5, verses 1 and 2.

Follow God's example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Sorry. And 8 through 11.

For you were once darkness, but now are light in the Lord.

Live as children of the light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.

And find out what pleases the Lord, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

John 321.

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light. Amen.

Let's pray.

God, would you guide us by the truth to come into the light?

Will you help us be people whose truth of you and truth and truth telling is always on our lips, that we would be known for being people of light?

And that as we seek to be a community that embodies your goodness, as we seek to be people that embody your goodness, God, we need your help.

Help us do that together.

Help us do that together, realizing that a community that the people of God are meant to be in unity and working together towards your goodness.

We're going to do that better if we're doing it together, not on our own.

So as we hear these words today, will you help us listen with a unified heart, a unified mind and feel empowered as a community to go forth from here, walking in your goodness and embodying it?

I pray this in your name. Amen.

So how do we become a truth telling culture?

How do we become a place that and a community where that is a value of ours that is unfaltering?

Truth is one of the New Testament writers' favorite words to describe Jesus.

It shows up an awful lot.

The gospel, salvation and the Christian ways of life are all identified by truth and being called true.

Jesus wasn't merely the Lord of truth.

He was the embodiment of truth.

He was truth itself.

The gospel wasn't considered news of the truth, but the truth itself.

Jesus said of himself, even in John 14 six, I am the way, the truth and the life.

And so because of those realities, those that became followers of Jesus walking as those in the way, as it was known that first century.

It was understood that they and now we are to walk in truth and anything that opposes the truth or undermines the truth is not of God and not part of truth telling.

It's not part of a tove culture to be a follower of Jesus because he is the embodiment of truth, being truth itself.

Those that profess to be Christians also understand that there is no room then in our lives and in our communities and in our churches for anything that is not true.

For lying, deceit, cover ups, suppression, gaslighting or spin.

All of these things are in fact toxic.

Telling the truth and even pursuing the truth, defending the truth is who we are as Christians. It's who we need to be and it's who we are meant to be.

When we don't tell the truth, we deny our identity and our calling.

Forming a culture centered on truth and being a people that seek to embody it is hard.

It is hard. We live in a world where the term alternative facts has popped up in the zeitgeist and it is not said tongue in cheek.

Instead, we've broadly taken on the attitude of somebody is lying.

In fact, we've seen it happening on national television or in the news or on social media.

We all know it. We all identified it and we're just moving on as though it's fine.

And that folks is an easy lesson in forming and fostering the culture we live in today, which to be clear is not a truth telling culture.

And so, yes, forming a truth telling culture is hard because we are forming it.

It is counter culture.

And so it takes it takes a lot to do something counter.

Everything around you is against it.

Forming a truth telling culture requires us to resist what is false and to fight anything that is less than truthful, both within and outside of ourselves.

And truthfully, that just feels overwhelming at best and impossible at worst.

It feels overwhelming in an era of myths and disinformation and alternative facts, false narratives and gaslighting.

I used to enjoy social media, didn't we all?

When all we were posting was our dinner plates with the food that we were eating and our pumpkin spice lattes on October 1st as though it was a national holiday.

I made my last post on the socials at the end of February 2020.

Shortly after that post, a deluge of information was coming out online about a highly transmissible virus moving around the world.

I was coming back from the work that I do in Europe every February and felt like if anybody remembers the movie The Neverending Story.

Maybe it didn't hold up well in terms of like you watch it and the animatronics in it are like, I know, but it's one.

Listen, it's wonderful.

I think you should also watch it.

But I am just putting a small disclaimer on it.

Anyway, if you remember that movie or you read the book, there was the nothing that was like at Atreyu's heels.

And like it was this cloud of darkness that was eating up all of the realm of imagination.

And so Atreyu was trying to stay ahead of it.

And this is it's a little dramatic, but this is a little bit how I felt because I was like moving westward from country to country to country to country.

And I felt like the nothing, this virus that nobody knew anything about was like on my heels as I kept going west.

And the weekend I was flying out of Madrid's airport, like the weekend two days after I flew out, they had a major sports event that people from all over the world came to.

And it turned into like like a recognizable super spreader event.

And so I was like, the nothing is after me.

That's what it felt like.

Anyway, my point is nothing ever any story.

Although you should watch it.

It's a great movie.

Anyway, with that being the case and COVID becoming this thing that we made a battleground information wise, it became a chaotic place.

And it was really difficult.

It was difficult period.

But being online, this is where I started to falter.

Everyone became a scientist after reading two articles and an anecdotal post from their off grid uncle in Alaska.

Listen, I love information.

I love information.

I love it.

I love facts.

I love stories and events and dates.

And I want all the information.

And for somebody who grew up experiencing life so based in their feelings that changed every minute, I realized that information and facts were stable and that we could all look at them and agree on them and be like, oh, that's grounding.

What a good feeling.

Except that that changed that felt like it very much changed 2020 was the most chaotic fever dream ever.

And online was rough.

And listen, please hear me.

I am not casually reducing the events of 2020 down to a fever dream and speaking slowly and solely rather on the flow of information.

I was losing my mind after event, after tragedy, after, after, and I was losing my mind because I'd see a post and I'd go and do the thing that you should do on social media.

Let's see what date that original post was published.

Let's see who funded that article.

I was critically thinking people when we're posting information, except people weren't doing that they were just posting and I felt like I needed to like police that and it was like driving me crazy.

Anybody else feel that way.

Anyway, my it all started to get real chaotic, and it was not good for my state of mind.

You can only do so much of that but the difficult thing about the spread or spread of miss or disinformation was the fact that the agent was there to spread it.

People who were willing to accept it and not find out the truth behind the things or weigh the truth or discern the truth or be measured as they looked at something.

There were just fields and fields of dried tinder for the flames to catch and spread.

And it was a lesson in how to not foster truth telling.

So when it comes to knowing the truth, which is how it's a it's a it's a part of the tripod of fostering a culture of truth telling.

How do we know the truth, I was speaking about information and managing it, but that's not where I want to go in terms of knowing the truth my point there is more about a people that value the truth, and we'll both take responsibility and be responsible

in seeking it as a practice in life.

So yes, that turns up in things like social media, or the narratives we choose to share, but it's a good gauge to see how we value the truth.

Do we foster truth as a practice ourselves so that we are by extension fostering a practice of discernment for what is true beyond us in the areas that we have influence and connection.

So, back to Tove here. A church, a people who want to become and foster a truth telling culture. We need to get as close to the person of truth as possible.

And to fill up in it to be a follower of Christ Christ should mean that we look to Christ as the center point of truth, and in Christ, the knowledge and understanding of truth, become something you, we desire and get intimately close to.

So from there, it then gives us ability and a framework to understand our world and discern what the truth really is outside of us.

Cindy helped me get into a practice quite a while ago of asking what is true. When I find myself spinning out and asking myself or asking the spirit to discern for me what is true, it's a good question or guide to have always at hand.

Comes from Philippians four eight. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

The first one is what is true. What is true.

When Jesus was in his last hours with his disciples, he told them about the coming of the Holy Spirit, who he identified as the spirit of truth who goes out from the Father who will guide you into all truth.

This is in John 15 and 16. Later on in the New Testament, it is affirmed in First John five six, it is the spirit who testifies because the spirit is truth.

Because the truth itself left the advocate, the spirit to guide us in discerning truth.

This gives me great comfort, because in a world where information has become increasingly chaotic because of the internet, and it's become weaponized though that's not new.

We've seen it just, we've just seen it more, I can feel overwhelmed. It gives me great peace to be reminded that I have help, not just sorting through the information but going deeper to understanding which things are important

and which things are not in that moment, what narrative is worth attending to, and what just ends up being more fuel for the fire.

And as I practice knowing truth, capital T, I am also able to quiet down the noise around something and hear the truth in it as truth reaches for truth.

Which is probably the key part. What is at the core of this ball of confusion, whatever that is, to you and the moment.

Because what may be getting the biggest attention may just be a red herring set to distract you.

When I seek to know truth and have a practice of listening to the spirit and discerning, the central truth of something is able to be made more clear.

So once I know and I understand and I discern the truth, what do I do with it?

We do the truth.

What I said earlier about how for me, a person who had built their life on feeling, facts felt safe.

But that is only one part of the thing. Facts live in the mind.

I can make logical sense of them, but the reality of Jesus being the truth is that it must go deeply into my heart.

If you want to know someone's mind, this is a quote, this isn't me saying it, but it is unattributed.

If you want to know someone's mind, listen to their words. If you want to know their heart, watch their actions.

Truth needs to live in our minds and our hearts so that truth is what comes out in our lives.

Our words and our actions. Truth is not just something we know, it is what we do.

First John 1, 5 through 6, this is the message we have heard from Jesus and declare to you, God is light.

In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and we do not live out the truth.

Becoming and fostering a truth telling culture is not just in what we say, however that is big and it is important.

The narrative we share, the facts we purvey, the spin we provide, or the way we frame something matters.

Truth is also approved and witnessed by what we do.

I can say that I really believe in sustainability, that I want to care for the earth,

but don't have actions to back it up by making real change in my life or my community, or I don't talk about it with others, seek to find solutions.

Do I really believe it? I can say that I really believe economic and political change is something I want to see,

but I don't vote in local elections, or know what's going on in my town or my region or my state,

and I don't get involved in the neighborhood or my community. Do I really believe it? Do I really want it?

I can say that I really believe in justice for all in a world that is painfully polarized and witnessing incomprehensible tragedy daily,

but I don't inform myself and find organizations to get involved with or speak up when I see injustices actively playing out in front of me.

Do I really believe it? And those statements can feel incriminating. I don't mean it to be.

I do not think that we can jump into every fight, but we can help speak truth to the narratives that are around us,

listen to the spirit, and know that as the spirit leads us in all truth, it will lead us into action.

And when it does, we need to be open-hearted and willing to do the next thing, to do the truth of what we believe.

My point here is that knowing and discerning the truth is only part of it.

I could throw in a little Martin Luther by way of James and add, Faith without works is dead.

We've probably heard that a lot if you've grown up in church.

The point of the doing of the truth, because truth is also a matter of the heart, along with the doing, it has to come from a heart of love.

So 1 Corinthians 13, 6, Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

I know that for some, that is edging a little close to the cliche, tell the truth in love,

which has gained some taint as a way of covering up a hurtful or terrible thing coated in sweetness.

It's the Southern, bless your heart.

For some, this has been manipulated to become a bit of an agent of control and permission to be awful to somebody,

except that the thing was delivered with a spoonful of sugar, so it's okay.

I want to re-examine that in this context.

I want to be clear that when we talk about truth and love going hand in hand, it's so much more different than that.

It's not what we say, it's what we do, right?

So Paul talking, speaking to the churches about unity and maturity in the body of Christ in Ephesians 4, 14-16 says,

then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves,

and blown here and there by every wind of teachings, by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming,

instead speaking the truth in love.

We will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is at the head, that is Christ.

From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament,

grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.

So as we do that work, as we do the truth, it has to be from a community that is growing up in love and pursuing that in partnership.

So God's call for us to live in the truth in its light is an exhortation to know the truth, make the truth a way of life,

open ourselves to the spirits revealing of truth and move forward in action,

and then be vulnerable to the truth so that we can live honestly before God, surrendering to the truth.

Sometimes this last thing is actually the hardest.

All of us believe that we are the good guys.

Generally speaking, people don't believe that the violence they wage,

the manipulation they orchestrate, or the narratives they spin are done out of purposeful deceit or evil.

They believe it's the right thing.

They are doing the right thing. They are setting things right.

Everyone else has lost their way and I need to set it right.

Becoming a follower of Christ, the truth, and getting close to the truth, knowing and discerning it,

and then opening yourself to actions that bear witness to the truth you profess may, well, will lead you down some tough paths.

You may find out that you are not the good guy.

You may find out that there is some darkness in your heart where you thought the light was on.

You may find out that your cultural biases, the region you grew up in, the people you spend time with, the things you listen to,

the scriptures you thought you knew that had been reframed, are actually different than the truth that Christ is growing in you.

You may find yourself confronted with some truth that does not fit nicely in the narrative you have aligned yourself with and you have some choices to make.

That can be really hard.

Surrendering to the truth has consequences.

For some, telling the truth can mean losing friends, a community, standing in that community,

because those around you would prefer the alternative facts, whatever they may be.

The ones that maintain the status quo.

When the MeToo movement started gaining shape, the people who came forward were ostracized and experienced despicable opposition.

Lives were threatened.

A lot was taken away.

When civil rights leaders throughout history spoke up about the truth of inequity and injustice,

they were met with violence to the extent that it cost many their lives over the course of history.

Telling the truth is hard.

Doing the truth is harder.

On another side, we can sometimes oppose the truth because it will actually end up dismantling something we benefit from.

A paradigm that's provided safety and comfort, a paradigm that has given you influence and status and power,

and so it's just much easier to continue with the lie.

A paradigm that made you out to be the good guy.

Those things are hard to lose.

No one likes losing something.

And in both scenarios, though, becoming and fostering truth-telling usually means we lose something because our world,

and regrettably, many of our churches, are not set up for truth.

They are systems set up to run on agreement.

The kingdom of God is not a system.

It is meant to be a home.

A truth-telling culture calls us to surrender to the truth,

to be humble and vulnerable and willing to submit ourselves to the truth even when it is most difficult.

Because this is how the light shines in the darkness.

This is how the kingdom becomes the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

And it sets us free.

In the heart of the circle of Tove, there is a saving, healing, restorative power unlike anything we can discover in any other way.

Truth is a person.

That person speaks truth to us and his spoken word heals us.

The Bible describes the wonderful work of God in many ways.

God saves, he rescues, God ransoms, God heals, God cures, God reconciles.

God is about all of those things.

But we have to align ourselves with his truth, with truth itself, in order to experience those things.

You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Living in the light sets us free to love the light and hate the darkness.

For once, you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Live as children of the light.

False narratives are not just spin or even brand protection, they are darkness.

Truth always leads to growth and freedom on the other side.

It is hard. It is hard.

But we are talking about the kingdom here and we are talking about light.

What we give for it, we gain in the kingdom.

Truth, like anything else, is a practice.

It is a practice and we will have really good days and we will not have really good days.

That is the reality of practice.

Kennan is one of my piano students.

So is Ruby. She's not in here.

So Kennan understands what practice looks like and that there are some weeks that practice went really well.

And some weeks it was harder. Sorry, I'm putting you on the spot right now.

But we talk a lot about the progress over time.

What is the progress over time? Are you moving forward or are you moving backwards?

We might have a day that didn't go great. We might have a week that didn't go great.

That is how practice works.

But over a stretch of time, do you find yourself becoming more a person of truth as you practice?

Have you stayed with this practice of truth telling?

So that over time you can see yourself fostering and becoming a person that celebrates truth telling.

I practice truth telling with myself. That's how it has to happen.

We have to practice truth telling with ourselves.

By being truthful and honest about the state of things within me.

I have to practice truth telling with God.

I have to practice truth telling with others.

It has to be a full, whole person experience.

I can't practice truth telling in one area and hope that I am in all fostering and becoming a truth telling culture around me.

Small caveat. Those things need to be done in balance.

And love needs to be essential to them.

I say this in terms of when I am honest with myself.

A lot of times we have difficulty being honest with ourselves because it leads us down this road of I'm so stupid.

I'm so terrible. It leads us down a road of condemnation.

A self condemnation.

But truth telling and love are meant to work together.

And as we are honest with ourselves and about the state of things with me.

I can also be honest about the fact that God loves me.

And as I am honest about the things within me. I am under the love of Christ.

And I need to speak that to myself.

As I am honest with God.

Some of us come from backgrounds where parent figures or even how we were taught about God meant condemnation.

Your sins mean God hates you.

And so when we practice truth telling with God.

We also need to come to terms with the fact that God loves us.

And that he does not.

When I bring my truth to him and I say these are the things that I need to be honest about.

God is not sitting there like well you're an idiot.

Figure it out. You're on your own. I'm over this.

That is not. That is not the posture of God.

He welcomes us in love and he speaks to us in love.

If you are hearing condemnation and you think it is coming from the voice of God.

I want to tell you that that is not true.

When we bring our truth to God when we bring ourselves to God when we bring our truth telling and our honesty to God.

He will respond to us in love.

He does not respond to us in hate.

And that is something we need to come to terms with as well.

Because that has made us very scared to come and be truth truthful with the Lord.

And lastly we need to be truth tellers with each other.

And this is what the core of the book is.

But I don't think we can really get to the core of what that is about truth telling among us.

If we are not practicing the truth telling in those other areas.

But we need to be a truth telling culture here as well as a community with each other.

Upholding each other to truth.

But also in love.

Recognizing that if I am going to be honest.

And we need to foster a culture of truth telling.

We also need to foster a culture of love around that.

So that truth moves us forward in a good direction.

And not one where we are all sitting here like.

If I open up I am going to get condemned.

I am going to get hated.

Somebody is going to shut me down.

Somebody is going to silence me.

Somebody is going to.

We need to know that if we are going to be truth tellers.

That we know that this is a safe place to do it.

But it takes a full 360 practice in our lives.

And so we need to have a healthy relationship with truth.

And the practice of truth.

To the point that we cannot speak a false narrative.

We have so practiced self-examination and true retelling of narratives.

That truth telling is something that becomes a part of our own personal culture.

And then the culture around us.

I know that in regards to what we talked about beginning and fostering.

Becoming rather and fostering a culture of truth telling.

It is far, you know, it can have momentary.

Or rather it is far beyond just issues of momentary discomfort.

I know that for some being an agent of light in our world is not.

It is not just an issue of being like I am just going to be uncomfortable for a minute.

Like it can be life altering.

And I understand that.

I don't want to make light of the fact that like just be truth tellers and you will be fine.

All things will work out well in the end.

As I said it is hard.

But if we want to continue to build not just local church that is practicing goodness.

But that we are building a church universal right now that is good.

It is incumbent upon us to really pursue that.

So I don't know where that leaves you today.

Some of you may have very specific things weighing on your heart that you are like okay.

I have to do something with this now and the thing is this.

It may be something that you have had in front of you for a while.

Or it may just be this may be new and there are things coming this week that you need to think about.

I don't know.

But I am going to as we close in prayer I am going to give us just a moment of quiet.

Quiet reflection.

For you to have a moment of truth telling with the Lord.

And then take some time to listen to the spirit as well.

And I will close us out in just a moment.

Let's have some quiet before God.

Jesus thank you for your love for us.

I am grateful that when we take a position of truth telling that is something you rejoice in.

And delight in.

It is a place of light and light is where you dwell.

And so we are joining you when we become a culture of truth tellers.

And I am grateful that you are joining us when I practice a truth telling culture in myself.

Whatever is on our minds and our hearts today in this moment.

Whether it is something that we have been kind of thinking through.

Or whether it is something you are going to bring to our attention this week God.

And God's openness and willingness to respond with action.

Whatever these things of truth may be help us first and foremost align ourselves with you as the source of truth.

And then help us grow in our knowledge and discernment of truth.

From there being able to move into action.

And God when you confront us with truth that we don't like or we are uncomfortable with.

I pray that you move us to surrendering to the truth.

And that in our lives that this cycle would just continually be moving.

That we would continue to be to move deeper into your spirit of truth.

Into your truth.

That we would continue to move more bold in our actions of truth.

And that we would continue to be more open and vulnerable to surrendering to truth in our lives.

With all these things we need your help.

We are not capable of doing them on our own.

So we trust you to guide us and to provide what we need as we move forward in these things.

I pray this in your name. Amen.