Say Shibboleth

 ^“The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, "Let me go over," the men of Gilead said to him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" When he said, "No,” they said to him, "Then say Shibboleth," and he said, "Sibboleth," for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell.” (Judges 12:5-6).   

Big issues can hang on small errors, and sometimes it is the small errors that reveal the true state of things.  Rather than glossing over small errors it is prudent to ask, “If I follow this to its logical end where will the small error lead?”  Any Ephraimite who listened carefully and had some talent for mimicry may have been able to avoid his fate.  Then again, I don’t know that any of them did.  I know some excellent mimics, and some of them are in the organized church and a whole lot of them everywhere else.  It is hard for humankind to live with authenticity in a culture that is already showing serious signs of disintegration.  But remember that there is nothing new under the sun.  All this stuff has been suffered before.

If we wish to avoid causing other people pain we should consider where that natural and good desire will lead if pain is taken out its larger context.  Pain is not always bad, even though normal people don’t really enjoy it.  Fairness and mercy are virtues, but only in their proper context.  If we push fairness to the extreme we end up with an exaggerated socialism, and any “ism” has its dangers.  If we push mercy for one person or for a select group of people to the extent that others are harmed, we have also failed to show mercy.  No lesser virtue can stand unless it stands in the presence of Truth, what C. S. Lewis called the Tao in “The Abolition of Man”.

The Tao is that Truth that is common to many religions.  Jesus has said, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it,’ and “For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest” (Luke 9:24). The Tao te Ching tells us much the same thing; “If you want to become full, let yourself be empty… If you want to be reborn, let yourself die… If you want to be given everything, give everything up” Chapters 22, 27). 

There is an objective Truth.  There are standards that are not subjective but actually written into the way things work from beginning of creation.  Second, all of creation communicates that Truth to all who would listen regardless of religion.  Third, Jesus Christ himself is the incarnation of that truth and the closer one draws to him the closer one draws to the Tao.  If you follow the opposing view to its logical end, there are no objective values, there is no truth for creation to communicate (not even that of a beautiful sunset), and if there is no Truth, there is no need for an Incarnation of truth. 

If that is the case we cannot even say that we are lost or bewildered, because those statements imply that there is an objective meaning to ‘being found’ and of, ‘not being at peace.’  If there is no objective peace, talking about peace is nonsense.  If there is an objective peace, then we are already admitting that there is a Tao that communicates standards.  For this reason it takes a lot of naïve faith to hold that there is no Tao and the man is the measure of all things.