We live in chaotic times. As I write, the coronavirus is rampant and who knows what post-Brexit Britain will look like. Chaos is nothing new but how, in the midst of this, do we discern truth as preachers and help both our churches and communities discern the truth that brings wholeness in the midst of fracture and confusion?
This of course begs the famous question, what is truth? This is the question Pilate asked of Jesus1 when truth was quite literally staring him in the face. For followers of Jesus, truth is not primarily an abstract or philosophical construct but a person, Jesus, part of the divine community we know as the Trinity. Jesus who said, ‘I am the truth’.2 So for me, he is the start and the centre point of our quest to discern truth, to live truthfully and to help our chaotic disorientated world find a wholesome, truthful renewed way of being.
In recent years I have spent much time reflecting on the Christlike way of life of the early church in Acts 2:42-47. This is a way of life that the biblical commentator CK Barrett argues Luke presents ‘in order that we might imitate it’3 as the body of Christ today. This way of life guides my life as a disciple and the way I preach.
