Museums of lie and truth: Speaking toward truth in our sermons

Abstract

The search for truth becomes a challenging theological task in a world of lies and propaganda, being exhibited more and more openly. Inspired by two “Museums of Lies,” this paper aims to show how lies can be used to uncover a more profound truth by exposing them through a truth-seeking lens. While the homiletical task of “preaching the truth” is more complicated than it would seem at first glance, it is accompanied by the anthropological question, ‘Whether it is true’ (Karl Barth), and the theological question: ‘What is truth?’. The argument is that by observing what Martin Luther called “theologia crucis,” the task of preaching truth becomes dependent on the means and ways in which the Bible itself uncovers truth within our world of lies and by acknowledging that the discovery of truth can only be described as a process, at the beginning and end of which Jesus’ answer to Pilate may provide reassurance.