Westwood Presbyterian Church

November 8th, 2009

197 Browning  Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba  R3K 0L1

REV. PETER BUSH's SERMONS

9th Commandment - Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness

     “Talk is cheap” they say. “It’s only words” they say. “Sticks and stones my break my bones, but words will never hurt me” they say. And not for one minute do “they” believe what they are saying. Words matter. What is said matters. There was saying during the war “Loose lips sink ships.” Which is much closer to the truth. Words wound and words heal – words carry truth and words carry lies – words have power. And this command – “Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbour” is all about words.

 

     Before we go further it is worth noting a bit a parallel in the commandments. What we commonly call the 3^rd command – “Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God” – is about words, a specific collection of words, but words none the less. That command invites us to not use empty, meaningless, lying words about God – and here the 9^th command invites us to not use empty, meaningless, lying words about people.

     Together the two commands invite us to careful thought about the words we use – to use them carefully and wisely – to measure their impact. We will see that does not mean being terminally nice – it does not prevent us from saying hard things – it does mean that we are called to speak the truth.

 

     I don’t know about you – but when I hear the words “bear false witness” I immediately think about witnesses in court being sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In that context truth telling is important, in court it is obvious that there are enormous consequences if a witness does not tell the truth. But in our post-modern world where we believe there is no such thing as objectivity, where even what my eyes see is a subjective matter – it is hard to believe that there can be truth that is told in court. Because there is your version of the truth and there is my version of the truth – and who is right. And then cases get decided on not whether a witness is telling the truth – but rather whether they are credible or not. And to be honest credibility often boils down to how the person is dressed, their speech patterns, and their self-confidence – none of which speak to their truthfulness.   

     The Bible is aware of this problem, aware of the danger of a single witness bringing a matter to the court, aware of the risks of wrongful conviction. And so the people of Israel knew that a matter could come to court, and a person found guilty only on the basis of two or more witnesses. The courts were not to be used as a means of launching a personal vendetta against a neighbour who was a pain. The courts were not the place to solve the inter-personal challenges of two people not getting along. The courts were called to deal with situations where more than one person had witnessed the act.

     In such a context, where two witnesses were needed, the call to not bear false witness was an invitation to not join the band wagon seeking to convict someone just because they were disliked. Not bearing false witness in the context of needing multiple witnesses, meant having the courage to tell the truth in situations that did not directly involve the witness. There was little room to be the silent observer when you knew that it was possible that one or other side in a conflict would be asking you to bear witness to their version of the story.

     The call to not bear false witness was in fact a call to bear witness – silence, turning a blind eye, was not an option. It was not possible to say, “That is their private business I will not get involved” by simply being witness, the witness was involved. 

 

     But there is more to this command than being a witness in court. Because there other contexts in which we bear witness to things about our neighbour. When we use the word “neighbour” we understand that means anyone we come in contact with. Anyone we meet today, is in Jesus’ mind, our neighbour – that is the point of the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

     We bear witness to things about our neighbour when we talk about our neighbour’s good and bad qualities. And if we are honest with ourselves, it is most often the bad things that we talk about. We bear witness to things about our neighbour when after being asked “So would you recommend this person for a job?” we pause and say, “Well…sure.” Have we said anything specific, “No, we haven’t.” But our tone and pattern say more than 1,000 words could say. In many ways we hold our neighbour’s reputation in our hands – more precisely in our words – each and every day. Each and every day through our words we have the ability to be truthful or to bear false witness. The choice is ours.

     Often the words we speak about another person are well-intentioned – but since we have not carefully reflected on the impact of those words – they have a devastating impact. We tell ourselves, “It is only gossip – it is only words” as though that allows us to speak words which are destructive of others. And it is not hard to think of words that have been spoken by other people that have had extra-ordinarily negative impacts in our lives. Words that did not tell the truth – but which it has been almost impossible to undo. And we may also be able to think of times when we have said things about another person – things which were not completely true – words that exaggerated here, shaded there – and words which when quoted back to us we wish we had never said.

     When we tell other people about our neighbour we are in fact bearing witness to things about our neighbour.

     Now, telling the truth about our neighbour may include telling people difficult truths. Let’s take a simple example. If we begin to recognize that the elderly person who lives next door to us is starting to do unusual things, taking garbage out on the wrong day, leaving lights on late at night, and we hear the smoke detector frequently – it will be uncomfortable truth to tell to our neighbour’s children – but it is witness they need to know about.

     Bearing true witness about our neighbour brings blessing to our neighbour and to those who hear it – even though at times it may be difficult. Bearing true witness brings with it hope and the possibility of deeper community.

 

     A third way in which we bear false witness is through flattery. “Flattery can get you anywhere” they say. But as the Psalm we read clearly says flattery which may be as smooth as but and as soft as oil – carries with it discord and wounding. The problem with flattery and all other kinds of spin (for flattery is but a form of spin) is that it is partial truth. Partial truth hides as much as it tells – and therefore prevents the hearer from really understanding what is going on. The partial truth is told for manipulative purposes, to get something out of the person being told the story.  

     An example of that is the battle in the media going on between the TV Networks and the Cable companies – and I am not taking sides in the argument – other than to note that both sides are not telling the whole story – both are spinning their story so that we, the consumer, will get on board on their side. 

     Flattery and spin are so destructive because the one speaking acts as though they are a friend, as though they have our interests in mind, as though they care about us – but in fact, they don’t. We are but pawns, we are but people to be used. Spin and flattery are yet another way in which people bear false witness. For spin and flattery are not just things that the media and political types use – all of us are capable of doing that.

 

     To this point this sermon has been a strong moral call to truth telling, but there has been nothing to make it a Christian sermon, nothing to make this as being something unique to the Christian faith.

     We need to ground this moral truth in two realities. First, all of us have borne false witness against our neighbour in some way – we have all used our words to damage the reputation of those around us, to manipulate people, and to benefit ourselves. We cry out with Isaiah “Woe are we for we are people of unclean lips and we live among people of unclean lips.” We feel the weight of our sin – the weight of our wrong doing. We can see in our mind’s eye times when we have used words wrongly – and the guilt of that is deep and profound.

     We are invited to hear the powerful words of the angel with the live coal – “This has touched your lips – your sins are forgiven, your guilt is gone.” The guilt and shame of those things that we have said, but wished we had not; the internal anguish over the hurts our words of caused; the gnawing sense in our bones that we have not spoken the truth in love, and have not even spoken the truth period – all of that is washed away – or more accurately burned away. The experience of coming clean is not fun – it is disconcerting; discomforting; we wish it were different. But the results are worth it. To be clean is worth it. And that clean up is only possible by God’s actions – it is all of God and nothing of us. Our clean up is God’s work from beginning to end.  

 

     The second piece that is essential to grounding this sermon is understanding how we don’t get right back in the same mess all over again. It is pointless to get washed clean by God’s grace to simply get covered in muck – muck of our own producing – almost immediately. What tools do we have to stop falling in the same trap?

     Jesus said, “Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks.” In other words what is inside the heart will come out in what we say. The words we speak reveal where our hearts really are – what our attitudes really are. Now that is both a warning – and a promise of hope. In order to get control of our words – we need to begin not by learning better words to say – we need to begin by filling our hearts with things that are worth speaking about, worth using our words on, worth proclaiming. We need to do this so that when the words come from our hearts – they are bearing true witness to are neighbour.

     Paul writes to his readers – “Whatever is good, whatever is noble, whatever is true, whatever has beauty, whatever is of good report – thing about these things.” As we fill our hearts with good things we create an atmosphere that allows good words to be spoken. A transformation that takes place as we allow God’s pattern of heart surgery to be exercised in us. Heart surgery is not fun – we don’t like going under the knife – but God is in the business of doing radical surgery on our hearts – in the business of giving us hearts out which flow good words.

     Thanks be to God that He is skilled at heart surgery. Thanks be to God that He will give us hearts that overflow with good words, true words, words that bring hope and are signs of God’s grace.