For some it is ancient history. For others it is as fresh as yesterday. I speak of 1972 when the word "cover-up" came into our consciousness in a big way -- the cover-up by then President Richard Nixon regarding the Watergate scandal. Assured of a landslide victory in his election for a second term, Richard Nixon, overborne with anxiety, apparently felt that was not enough. So he authorized the so-called "Watergate Plumbers," headed by G. Gordon Liddy, to break into the Democratic Headquarters in the posh Watergate apartment complex. Bungling the third-rate burglary job, the "Plumbers" were found to be connected to Republican officials higher and higher up in the administration, until the press was pointing its powerful fingers at President Nixon himself. Was he involved in authorizing the Watergate burglary? "Not so," said the President. Then it became known that the Oval Office had an elaborate tape recording system where all conversations were recorded. Was there evidence, asked the special prosecutor, was there evidence on the tapes that Nixon authorized the break-in? Eventually, through court order the tapes (now published as the Presidential transcripts) were turned over but with 18 crucial minutes of recorded voices missing. The pressure mounted on President Nixon. More and more people, especially the press, believed he was involved and was implicated in the crime and that he was doing his best to "stone wall" and cover-up his authorization of law breaking. Thus the one sworn to uphold the Constitution was believed to have violated his oath. Under threat of impeachment, President Nixon resigned his office in 1973, turning over the presidency to Gerald Ford, Congressman from Grand Rapids, Michigan. The cover-up had been uncovered.
Since that time, we have had no shortage of the exposure of cover-ups and as a result, the image of some of our dearest heroes has been tarnished. For example, my father and his generation were great admirers of J. Edgar Hoover, head of the F.B.I. But recent books and articles have uncovered a variety of behaviors and improprieties which would have greatly offended my dad. John F. Kennedy lauded Thomas Jefferson when, at an assemblage of artists, actors, authors and musicians in the East Room of the White House, he remarked that there probably had never been such a gathering of talent in the East Room, except possibly when Thomas Jefferson dined alone. Yet recent books have suggested improprieties in Jefferson's behavior, such as allegedly retaining a black slave woman as mistress. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., led a civil rights revolution in this country in the '60s. He had a dream of the day when prejudice and discrimination would end and we would dwell together as one people. He was a non-violent advocate of morality, integrity, virtue, truthfulness and justice. Yet recent books have claimed he was a womanizer and that he plagiarized a significant part of his doctoral thesis.
The cover-up was uncovered. Is it any wonder this is happening? It is precisely what Jesus predicted and promised to his disciples. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, will come and will expose the deeds of people, making known the thoughts and intents of the heart. This Divine Spirit which he would send from the Father, would convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. The Spirit will uncover what is covered up.
Consider first the matter of sin. Some years ago when Senator Estes Kefauver was heading up his famous Senate Committee investigating mobs and racketeering, he exposed many scandals, rackets and corrupt politicians and business people. One day during the hearings, one mobster testifying said, "Everybody's doing what we're doing. Why don't you just stop all this nonsense and call everything legal?" Why not indeed! The mobster was not too far off from the popular mood which denies any ultimate sense of right and wrong.
For many people there are no moral absolutes, no divine commandments to be obeyed, no universal, timeless principles to which they feel obligated. Many people are governed by whatever gives them pleasure or satisfies their lust or ambition or craving for power and notoriety. "Do your own thing so long as it doesn't hurt anybody" is the popular slogan. If it gives you pleasure or makes you happy, it's okay.
Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship and recipient of the coveted 1993 Templeton Prize in Religion, will be remembered by many as President Nixon's rough and tough "hatchet man." Now a remarkable born-again Christian and tireless worker for prison reformation, Colson says that our culture has "spent the last 30 years determined to secularize our society." We live, says Colson, "in a Donahue-ized culture in which we sit and watch hour by hour, the banality that passes for knowledge on television, and we rarely think about issues in terms of the Judeo-Christian truth."1 Colson asks in his speech given at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, "Can we be good without God?" His resounding answer is "no." Any society, especially a free society, says Colson, "depends on a moral consensus and on shared assumptions .... These common values are the glue that hold society together." But we have had an erosion of these values and shared assumptions, says Colson.
We are reminded of ancient Israel in a time without king or law when everyone did what was right in his own eyes with ensuing corruption and chaos. But take heart, says Jesus in our text. The Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Divine Advocate, will be with you to convict the world of sin, of right and wrong. The Spirit of Truth will manifest itself through my witnesses to call right right and wrong wrong. And that is precisely what is happening through courageous, committed spokesmen like Charles Colson. And that is precisely what is happening in thousands of religious communities all across this land and the world. We remain convinced there is a right in the world and a wrong. Everything is not dissolved into amoral relativism.
If the Divine Spirit convicts the world of sin, it also convicts of righteousness or justice. The pastoral letters of the New Testament urge church people not to become weary in well-doing. But over the long haul, in battle against injustice and unrighteousness, we wonder, in the words of Shakespeare, if love's labor is lost. Will darkness overcome light? Will evil win over goodness? Will the weeds win over the beautiful blossoms and nutrient plants?
That question has grown to monumental proportions in our society today with the breakdown of families, the high incidence of physical and sexual abuse, the abuse of alcohol and drugs. It has been reported to me that some local parents actually encourage the keg parties for their teenagers, and that others even rent hotel suites in Manhattan and stock them with liquor for their teenagers and their parties. Perhaps even more alarming is the sharp rise in teenage crime and violence. For example, Chuck Colson points out that in Washington, D.C., "46 percent of the inner city black population between the ages of 18 and 31 is either in prison, on parole, or on probation." Let's say that again -- that's nearly half the inner city blacks in our nation's capital. Colson says we have the highest per capita rate of incarceration in the world. Our prisons are bursting their seams. In the last seven years murders committed by those between the ages of 18 and 20 have increased 120 percent. He quotes some sources which claim that 20 percent of all school children carry a gun. Time magazine recently had a cover story titled, "A Boy And His Gun." Youngsters today are buying and using guns at an alarming rate, says the article. Even in Omaha, Nebraska, in the heartland where it might be thought family values and morals would prevail -- even in Omaha gun possession and use are widespread. One of the boys interviewed had in four months done nine drive-by shootings aiming mostly at houses and cars. He killed a dog for no reason at all and his brother missed a baby's head by a quarter of an inch. Is it any wonder that 4,200 teenagers were killed by guns in 1991, accounting for 1 out of every 4 deaths among American teenagers? Many of the gun-toting youngsters interviewed came from families that were messed up in some way or other. Many seem to shoot and kill with no remorse or guilt. A terrible amorality seems to prevail. The gun seems to represent protection and macho power. It also, says the Time reporter, represents a "defense against the inexplicable despair that torments so many American teenagers." "Today's miscreants know that a pistol says much more than long hair or a pierced nose ever could. Not just louder but forever. With a $25 investment, all the teasing from classmates stops cold. Suddenly, the shortest, ugliest and weakest kid becomes a player.Consequently, kids, like nations, come to believe with Chairman Mao that morality begins at the muzzle of a gun."2
And yet, and yet, the Holy Spirit of God is uncovering this cover-up of his eternal truth. A group of parents has organized to counteract the violence. They meet each night to pray, and then to patrol the streets to ward off violence. A group called MAD DADS, which stands for Men Against Destruction -- Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder, hit the street every Friday night to patrol and keep kids from shooting one another. So long as there are groups like that, so long as there are churches and religious people standing up for non-violence and decency, so long as there are people working for gun control and social responsibility -- so long as these and many other things take place, the Holy Spirit is convicting the world for righteousness' sake and love's labor is not lost. Let no one cover up that.
Lastly, Jesus says his Holy Spirit of Truth will convict the world of judgment. At first hearing, most all of us don't like that word "judgment." We immediately think of self-righteous people being uppity and censorious. We have images of more-holier-than-thou types who look down on us with disdain, or of social snobs who have kept us out of their clubs or social circles. Convinced that most everyone has a character flaw covered up somewhere, we resent the thought of anyone judging us for anything. We quickly justify our feeling quoting Jesus' famous saying in the Sermon on the Mount, "Judge not lest you be judged." And again we quote his saying that we ought first to cast out the wooden beam in our own eye before we try to remove the sawdust from our brother's or sister's eye. But the judgment referred to here is the divine judgment: the divine judgment which is absolutely fair and impartial, the divine judgment which cannot be seduced or bribed, the divine judgment which finally and forever makes full disclosure of the truth.
The scripture says, "Let God be found true and every man a liar." When the truth is known, we all realize the cover-ups in our lives. Many of us fear the truth. We do not want to be exposed to the light because our deeds are evil. Most all of us have something about our lives we do not want exposed to anyone. If the truth be known, could we bear to live with one another? But let's ask the question differently. If the truth can never be known, or if there is no truth, no truth at all, does anything make any difference at all? Isn't life then a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? It is precisely this futility, this relativism, this aimlessness and despair that the Divine Spirit promises to overcome.
The Holy Spirit's witness in the world through the church is testimony to the fact that things do make a difference, life is going somewhere, our lives do have meaning and sacred value. The fact that there is a judgment, an accounting, means that there is a goal line, a degree to be granted at the end of the course, a reward to be received, a meaningful culmination of all our labors. If parents exercise no judgment, their children rightly perceive they are indifferent and have no guiding values. If God exercises no judgment, we might rightly perceive him to be indifferent or even non-existent. But this is a text of hopefulness. There is judgment because God cares. He uncovers the cover-ups, not to destroy us, but to bring us to the light so that we might be healthy and flourish. The sin and evil of the world attempt to squelch truth and justice and purpose. But take heart says Jesus, because the Divine Spirit will be with you always to uncover the cover-ups so that you might be healthy and whole.
1. Colson, Charles. Imprimis, "Can We Be Good Without God?", Hillsdale College Newsletter, "April 1993.
2. Hull, John D. "A Boy And His Gun," Time, Vol. 142, August 2, 1993, p. 23.