COP30 - 19 November 2025
Seek truth to speak truth

Reflection

Our reading from Hebrews starts in the middle of a discourse, leaving us wondering what the ‘this’ is that the letter’s author is referring to. He or she (we were delighted to see a respected commentary mention Priscilla as one of the possible authors), has been addressing Jesus' role as High Priest, in significant detail. But then more than a hint of exasperation creeps in.

There is a lot more that the author wants to explore, but this isn't possible because the letter's readers are dull in their understanding. Dull in understanding?! We guess that caused something of a stir when the letter was read out to its recipients. They're not being accused of intellectual slowness - there would have been no problem with that - they are being accused of laziness. 

In some respects, Christian faith is no different to other areas of life development. We start with a basic understanding, and if we want that understanding to grow and to deepen, we must put in effort. We must work to increase our understanding by learning from others, grappling with things we don't understand, and by putting things into practice (and learning from our mistakes). And as with other areas, if we fail to put in the effort, we don't just stand still, we move backwards. 

Because the author of Hebrews has prefaced today's passage with a discourse on Jesus as our High Priest, it's tempting to think that growing in our faith is purely a matter of grappling with theology and doctrine. But the passage, and even a cursory reading of the Bible, discredits that idea. We are called to righteousness and (in the VOICE amplification) to pursue justice. In other words, we cannot separate our faith from the rest of life. Yes, some of that maturing will come from a greater intellectual understanding of God's word, but it can't happen without applying that word in our lives. We have to learn how to distinguish good from evil, and truth from lies. We ask ourselves whether it's possible to have a righteous heart without getting our hands dirty?

We included the two verses from Zechariah 8 as part of today's reading because they call us to speak out truth and to live out truth. We can do neither until we have first learned how to seek out truth.

Response

Evil being presented as good, or lies as truth, is not novel to our times - throughout history people have had to grapple with these challenges. However, the abundance of media and the ease with which it is communicated, along with the ability to fine tune it to the individual reader, is new to our times and these introduce many additional challenges to our efforts to discern truth and to recognise good.

If we are to seek truth we must be wise about the media we consume. Questions you may like to reflect on include:

1. Have you made a conscious choice about the sources for the news you read?

2. Do you understand the political bias of the news you are reading and what the implications could be?

3. Do you ever read news from sources with a different political bias?

4. Do you consume news from social media channels?

5. Do you recognise algorithms at work on social media determining the content you are served?

6. If you are a re-poster of articles, do you carry out basic fact checks before re-posting?

Here is a list of sources of information that we have found to be reliable about climate-related issues.