Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world.
1 John 4:1
As I took a few minutes to read over the daily news for "techies," I discovered this article on CNet. Entitled "Wikipedia shutters 250 accounts in probe of paid edits," the article explains that Wikipedia has banned over 250 people from the use of the editing function on their site. To understand why this is significant, it is important to have an appreciation of how dramatically information gathering has changed in recent years.
A long, long, long time ago, when I was in seminary (and walking there over a mile, uphill - both ways, in the snow), I used to do research for papers. I would block off an afternoon to get started as I found my way to a boxy-looking piece of furniture called a card catalog. This was an organization of index cards that could help you determine the physical location of books within the school library. After finding a book or two that was pertinent to my subject, I would go into the stacks (lots and lots of books on shelves) and retrieve my recently discovered troves of information. While there, I would browse the surrounding books to see if, perhaps, another one would also bring light to the topic at hand. I was always cautioned to check and double-check my sources, but I could feel confident that the librarians at Duke University had taken care to ensure that books of fiction and satire were not mistakenly placed in the science section nor would books trying to sell you a product be in the section for technology.
As we fast forward to 2013, research begins most often with the typing of a few words in a Google search. A list of possible answers appears, and Wikipedia is often near the top of the list. Its name sound a lot like encyclopedia, but the source of its information is quite different. Wikipedia depends on volunteers to share their knowledge and uses a host of editors who verify, cite, and clarify sources. Information can appear almost instantly in Wikipedia from anywhere in the world -- and that is both its greatest strength and weakness.
I have always taught my children that you cannot trust what you read on the internet unless you have multiple sources that you know and trust. Wikipedia can point you in a direction, but do not rely on it as your only source. Today's news reflects the reason for my caution: 250 people were changing or releasing information in ways to promote and sell products, not because the information was true.
Trust, but verify.
Nowhere is this more true than when it comes to issues of faith. Countless people have questions and are seeking sound advice to guide them with a struggle or a dilemma. In years past, they might go to a pastor, a priest, or a trusted friend. Today, we google it. This is exactly the type of hapless wandering that 1 John warns against. There are so many voices that are crying out today. Many of them (dare I say most), do not speak clearly and truly about God. They bear little or no reflection of the One so clearly described later in the same letter as Love.
If you are a member of my congregation, never hesitate to call, email, text, or speak to me about any question you may have. If you do not come to me, I encourage you to speak to people who are solid in their faith. Spend time, not just trusting what others say, in reading the Scriptures for yourself.
Trust where people have been in their faith journey and how God has spoken to them, but verify their traditions by the touchstone of God's Word.
Trust the rational, reasoning mind that God has given you, but verify your reasoning by Scripture.
Trust the experiences you have when God's Holy Spirit touches and moves you, but verify your experience with God's nature as revealed in the Bible.
This is what it means to be part of the Methodist tradition. We acknowledge Reason, Tradition, and Experience, but only as they bring light and understanding to the foundation of our faith - Scripture.
The world will speak in many different voices. Those voices can help, but they can also lead us astray. May we always return to Scripture as we seek to authentically trust, but verify in our faith.
Grace and Peace,
