the gospel?

During some of the teaching opportunities with already-christians lately, I've asked a question. What was the Gospel that Jesus taught? The most common answer tends to be "love." However, while that was indeed a major component and motivator of His Gospel, I find myself challenging, if not correcting, this assumption much to the surprise of the group. Groups of people have repeatedly not known the answer to the question: What was the Gospel that Jesus taught?

The Gospels tells us that Jesus proclaimed the Good News (i.e. Gospel) of the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven if you're reading Matthew. I can't do justice to this subject in a brief reflection e-mail, but it is helpful to begin and think about it. The "Kingdom" is not Christendom (a mistake made in medieval Europe) nor is it any one religious organization today. Rather, Jesus continued a theme begun in Genesis and runs right up through Revelation. God reigns, and He is working within the story of humanity to re-align creation with it's rightful Ruler -- the Creator. Jesus' life, ministry, and teachings is the manifestation of this truth. How important is this to our Christian faith? ...Besides being central to it? Think about some of the familar alternatives.

What happens if we receive a gospel of pragmatism (i.e. the gospel "works" better)? The faith crisis often comes when we have trouble making the gospel "work" and produce the right results or outcomes. What about a gospel of moralism? We face the crisis head-on when we encounter people who are morally better than ourselves but who don't share our belief system (or drive ourselves crazy in an effort to be better so that our gospel is justified!). The gospel of reason has legs to stand on, right? But the Apostle Paul calls the Gospel "foolishness" to some. He wasn't talking about unreasonable or even "bad" people; rather to people who's worldview kept them spiritually blind. The self-help gospel is quite popular as a kind of religious pop psychology and is very similar to the gospel of consumerism or religious experience whose sole objective is to somehow make me satisfied.

The Gospel -- actually all of Scripture -- is a story of relationship with the major parts & players being: God, a rebellious creation, His redeeming work, and His redeemed people. It's the story of God's mission to redeem creation and restore His Reign. We're part of a larger story. But as the seed is planted in the soil of human hearts, we reep what has been sown -- whether by us or in previous experience.

Pray for us. Allow me to echo one of Paul's prayer requests (adapted from Eph. 6:19-20 NLT) with a few changes to fit our local situation. And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words as I boldly explain God's secret plan that the Good News is for [everyone. There is a price to pay] for preaching this message as God's ambassador. But pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him, as I should.

Simple pleasures

I'm sitting on our sofa with my 2 1/2 year old daughter. She's snuggled up next to me and asks, What do you think? I responded, Oh I'm thinking about God. People have a lot of problems and I'm trying to understand how to explain the Kingdom of God to them.

Then I ask my daughter, Princess, what do you think?

She answers, I think I want a popsicle.

Discipleship & Inclusion

These days, a lot of Christian leaders from many different backgrounds are discussing Christian discipleship. That is, there is a renewal of studying the concept of the Kingdom of God, of reflecting on the character of Christ, and of taking initiatives to facilitate these themes in contemporary society. An atmosphere of struggle in Christianity in the West seems to be producing somewhat of a "theological revival." A friend from Sacramento best sums all this up, when he asks the question about every aspect of ministry: Does it look like Jesus? Of course, the challenge here continues as we must realize who Jesus was in HIS original context in order to know who He is today in ours.

This evening I was reading Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context by Glen Stassen and David Gushee. As I read, I came across this statement: The delivering righteousness that Jesus taught therefore exceeded that of the Pharisees, for they excluded outcasts and the impure from their community of righteous practice (2003:70). I've come to appreciate this about Jesus. It was the Pharisees who thought cleansing their community of all sin and sinners was the answer and Jesus seems to really go after them on this point, to the extent of telling His followers -- don't be like them at all! Now, the Pharisees were the "good guys." They kept everyone in check. They kept everythinig pure. They made sure that the righteous were in and that the unrighteous knew that they were unrighteous. Jesus doesn't stand for this.

Jesus calls his followers to be more inclusive than the Pharisees. To include the sinner in their midst. To practice table fellowship with someone in the First Century context, was to commit to the deepest act of fellowship. Jesus calls us into the places of great messiness and compassionate fellowship with the world. But Jesus doesn't just say, It's all good either. He calls His followers to a deeper holiness. Don't even be given to lust or greed or resentment or worry!

I have grown to have a deep appreciation of this aspect of imitation of Jesus. I find myself (along with others) living in this embrace of the sinner while holding out the call to follow the Master. In imitation of Christ, we even sometimes find ourselves in settings where the unbelievers, the struggling, and the marginalized outnumber the followers of Christ. At its core this is an embrace of the Mission of God and is imitation of Christ.