Tell The Truth Mr. Rodgers

I want to add to our scripture today an additional text that comes to us from an interview with Fred Rodgers

Reading from Mr. Rodgers himself

Asked why he thought the Neighborhood had stayed on the air so long, Fred attributed it to the fact that he was not actually concealing his secret self: “People love honesty,” he said. “They like to be in touch with those who are honest and real. Don’t you like to be with real people? People who aren’t afraid to make mistakes, and people who just know that life is a gift and relish it?”

Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood was not flashy or attractional…It was honest

The stories of Mr. Rodgers as a person all seem to indicate that he was the same in front of the camera as he was when he was off the camera.

His wife Joanne, often said “With Fred, what you see is what you get.”

Mr. Rodgers was on air at a time when truthfulness from the television was difficult to come by.

Mr. Rodger’s neighborhood aired from 1968 to 2001 at 33 year history that laid witness to several political scandals, the discovery of falsehood in advertising in particular from tobacco companies and adult beverage companies. The show aired at time when people in this country were being lied to and recruited to participate in experience that would have lasting affects on their health without their knowledge or consent.

Fred Rodgers did not have a flashy show, he had a show that told the simple truth in a world that was all too often complicated by falsehood.

Our World

Fred Rodger’s existed in a world that doesn’t feel much different than ours today.

A world where it is easier to put on falsehood than to bear the possibility of having a difficult conversation about difference.

A world where we are so surrounded by falsehood and disinformation that we have college level classes across the street on media literacy just to learn how to sort through what is true and what is false.

A world where we have forgotten that we belong to one another and that falsehood does not just hurt the other person it hurts us too in a profound way.

Scripture

It is into that world that our scripture today speaks:

Ephesians 4:25 NRSV

25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.

The scripture itself forms the three things that we ought to take away.

Put away falsehood

Word here is Pseydomai where we get:

Psuedonym and psuedoscience it means lies, falsehoods

Paul is talking here about theological falsehoods specifically he says earlier in the passage.

Tell the truth to the people that are around you

Paul is talking here about theological falsehoods specifically he says earlier in the passage

Ephesians 4:21 NRSV

21 For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus.

Paul is saying first and foremost to toss aside the things that we are unsure of, the things that we do not know fully to be true

The truth is the way to our neighborhood

What truth is it that we have to offer the world really?

The theological truth that Paul is talking about here is the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus

Never forget that you belong to one another

We loose something very critical in the Greek here the passage in English translates to we are members of one another, but the word used for members is actually limb we are limbs of one another

The passage goes on to list out several therefore:

About not acting out in anger towards our neighbors

To not steal

To not use words to hurt our neighbors

And most of all to remember that the Holy Spirit that we celebrated just a few weeks ago at Pentecost guides us in our relationship with our neighbors.

What would a world look like in which we belonged to each other

Prayer

You have commanded us to love you with all our being,

but we have consigned our love to the pigeonhole of religion.

You have commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves,

but we have been too preoccupied with ourselves to find them.

You have called us to be peacemakers,

yet we have encouraged the arms makers

with our fears and our fortunes.

You have summoned us to be wall breakers,

yet we have supported the wall makers

with our silence and our sympathy.

We have seen the light, but we have refused to walk in it.

Yet we long, O Lord, to keep your law and do your will.

We ask forgiveness for our rebellion,

not merely for the sake of the joy we have denied ourselves,

but also for the joy we have denied others.

Keep ever before us the needs of the world into which you sent Jesus

and for whose sake he gave himself to the uttermost.

Let us feel its pain as our own,

seek its good as our own,

and work for its transformation

in the name and spirit of him who came into the world

not to condemn but to redeem it.

When our convictions are questioned,

we feel ashamed.

Guide us into right paths, O God.

Guide our feet into the way of peace;

guide our hands to care for others;

guide our hearts to love our neighbors.

Call us back to You, O Christ, and renew our faith.

When the ground is unsteady,

loving God, put us back on right paths

by doing justice, loving kindness,

and walking humbly with You. Amen.