Download “Truth in Advertising”

“Truth in Advertising”
A Sermon by the Rev. John C. R. Silbert preached at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Butler, PA
November 13, 2016, the Thirty-Third in Ordinary Time, Year C
Text:
“For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be
remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am
about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.”
-- Isaiah 65:17-18, NRSV
“And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name
and say, ‘I am he!’ and ‘The time is near!’ do not go after them. . . By your endurance you will
gain your souls.’”
-- Luke 21:8, 19, NRSV
Figure 1: Truth in Advertising? Ahhh . . . really?
Let us pray: Our Father and our God, makes us masters of ourselves that we may become the
servants of others. Take my lips and speak through them; take our minds and think through them; take
our hearts and set them on fire, for we would see Jesus this morning, in his name and for his sake, we
pray, Amen.
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Shhh . . . Listen closely . . . Do you hear it? . . . . The silence . . . No political ads – not one! For all
the barrage of them over the last 6 months or so, you’d think the candidates would have put out a quick
15-second stinger ad that said, “(Name of candidate) thanks you for voting!” Not a chance! . . . All the
automated robo-calls have stopped, too. The political season has officially come to a close with the
casting of our ballots last Tuesday.
But another season is upon us as consumers . . . I began to hear its stirrings last week or so on
the radio: a vague holiday sparkle kind of music; not quite “Jingle Bells”, or “Santa Claus is coming to
town”, certainly not “Silent Night”, but undeniably a musical call to think “Happy Holidays!”
We barely get through Halloween anymore! Store fronts move out the bats, cobwebs and jacko-lanterns quickly, installing the fake snow, tinsel and the holly! We see the elves at work in these
displays; if not Santa on his sleigh . . . The store circulars stuffed in the newspapers grow larger -- Whew!
And I haven’t even mentioned the commercials on radio, cable and TV, or all those ad pieces that come
as spam to your email accounts! [Why is it called “spam”? I thought spam was that canned loaf of
protein that pretends to be ham?] Of course, a lot of commercials promise a lot that they can’t hope to
deliver, or deliver as much of what you don’t want with what you do want.
Have you listened closely to the advertisements for prescription mood pills, or diet pills, or some
other medication? The sixty-second Ads usually take about 23 seconds to show the glowing older
couple at play, or riding their bikes through beautiful parks, about to kayak on a scenic lake; they are fit,
trim and happy, enjoying the good life – one of them has taken the little purple pill, or the little green
one, or the one that is chewable and non-acidic . . . The announcer’s voice is sweet, confident, and
refreshing; the music is lovely or graceful or bright and happy . . . but about the 23rd or 24th second, the
voice turns a bit more serious as the announcer says, “Not all users of this product are guaranteed the
same results as the test cases; possible side effects include dehydration, insomnia, incurable hives,
permanent paralysis of the brain, heart attack, or sudden stroke . . . People with high blood pressure,
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low blood pressure, diabetes, women who are pregnant – are there any other kind? – nursing, elderly,
children, teens, men under fifty, or over fifty, who live within the continental United States, or who are
currently alive, should consult a physician before taking this medicine . . . In some cases death can
occur.”
Oh please . . .
The truth about advertising is that if it looks too good to be true, it most likely isn’t true. The
people in the commercials rarely look or act like anybody we know and certainly don’t resemble us, or
anybody else for that matter . . . Advertisers usually want a target audience to aspire to be like the
group being portrayed. If a product is intended for 8-9 year olds, they usually choose 12-13 year olds to
portray the kids. You have the taut and sculpted body work out on the weight machine . . . The truth is
there isn’t much that is real about advertising – aspirations? -- maybe, but truth? . . . No.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get the plain truth about what is what? We have endured a
brutal political season where truth was often sacrificed in favor of the positioning of one candidate or
the other in the eyes of the public . . . I am weary of it all, aren’t you? Just give me the plain,
unvarnished truth.
[“The editor of a small-town newspaper grew tired of being called a liar, and announced that he
would tell the truth in the future. The next issue contained the following item:
Married – Miss Sylvan Rhodes and James Collins, last Saturday at the Baptist parsonage, by the
Rev. J. Gordon. The bride is a very ordinary town girl, who doesn’t know any more about
cooking than a jackrabbit, and never helped her mother three days in her life. She is not a
beauty by any means and has a gait like a duck. The groom is an up-to-date loafer. He has been
living off the old folks at home all of his life and is now worth shucks. It will be a hard life.”i]
O-ooo . . . Ouch. Sometimes the truth hurts.
Sometimes the truth of what is at work in our lives is too much to bear. Why do you think that
advertising works so well? Do you believe for one minute that if advertising didn’t work, companies
would continue doing it? -- Of course it works! In part because we are looking for things that will make
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up for the gaps we experience in our lives. We like novelty when the routine has dulled our daily doses
of reality; we want a diversion from the things that needle us, or stress us, or keep us up at night, or in
our beds well past dawn, repeatedly hitting the snooze button. We want something to invest in that will
leave us as sculpted in body as the person we saw using that machine on TV, or happy and bouncy like
the couple in the pill commercial, or smug and contented because our new car is actually nicer than our
boss’s car, or better than our marriage.
So, the funny thing is we’ll pay for a little unreality to take the edge off the real worlds we live
in. And we all do it, sometime, somewhere . . . and many are the reasons we do, but few of them can
stand up to life in the long run.
The disciples were sitting out in front of the temple in Jerusalem one day admiring the beauty of
the place; how it was adorned with beautiful stones and ornaments given as gifts to God, when Jesus
burst their bubble with a little dose of truth. He caught them in their gaze and said, “The time is coming
when not one stone will be left on a stone.” . . . They asked him when this would be. There he taught
them what must take place – and the message was not one any of us would want to hear: wars and
insurrections and famines and earthquakes and times when even family turn against you . . . “And many
will come and try to lead you astray, he said, saying, ‘I am Christ!’ and ‘The time is near!’ (But they will
all be false advertisers.) Much must happen, and not all of it good, but by your endurance, you will gain
your souls.”
In a way, Jesus was giving his disciples the real deal in an age of false advertising; a simple bit of
truth that is often hard to hear; it goes like this: “The best way out is always through.”
“The best way out is always through” is a line from a poem by Robert Frostii I first read when I
was in seminary. It is strong advice in an age of doubt and worry. It is an affirmation of faith for tough
times, or despite them.
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We have endured a momentous election last Tuesday that reinforces a notion once articulated
by Saint Augustine over 1600 years ago: As Christians, we are alive in two cities – the city of the world
(De Civitate Mundi), and the city of God (De Civitate Dei). Our citizenship in the latter is what gives us
the grace to live completely and fully in the former. These two citizenships are echoed in both of the
passages we read today. On the one hand we have the promise by God through the prophet Isaiah of
new heavens and a new earth when the former things; the hurtful things; the place of tears will pass
away and be remembered no more; a time when the lion and the lamb will lie down together; and the
only thing the serpent can bruise is its own tongue on the dust under its belly.
On the other hand, we live in times described by Jesus when he talked with his disciples; where
wars and famine and violence abound; where lions devour their prey and wolves wear sheep’s’ clothing;
where everybody has snake oil to sell – stuff to consume that never really works as advertised.
In times like these we need to cling closely to Christ our hope – the one on whom the new
heavens and the new earth depend – holding on to the truth of himself in the very center of our souls as
we live our lives in the middle of real, ordinary everyday life.
The real deal in an age of false advertising is to speak clearly by how we live our lives; to live
every day in a way that says to others that Jesus Christ means everything to us. We need to live as if our
very lives depend on him, because they do. Our lives do not depend on purple pills, or ab-flexors, or
sexier cars – if they did, your being here, in church, would be a waste of your time and mine. No, we are
here to bear witness to the truth that God is at work in the world and that his love working through his
children is greater and better than any other thing that money can buy, a politician can promise, or the
world can offer in tough times.
[When Robert Louis Stevenson, the great 19th Century writer, was a twelve year old boy, he sat
at his upstairs bedroom window looking out into the dark watching a man light the street lamps below.
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Stevenson’s governess came into the room and asked him what he was doing. The boy replied, “I am
watching a man cut holes in the darkness.”iii]
The best way out is always through and as we make our way with Christ we cut holes in the
darkness so that his loving light – the dawn of a new creation for all – will shine into it with everlasting
splendor.
In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
i
Illustration Unlimited; p. 289.
Robert Frost, “A Servant to Servants”, lines 55-59, in North of Boston, 1914.
iii
Illustrations Unlimited, p. 178.
ii