What is the gospel?

The gospel is a public announcement of good news.  In the 1st century world, the "evangel" was sort of like the breaking news story interrupting regularly scheduled programming or business.  It typically had something to do with Roman imperial triumph.  It may have been the ascension of a new Emperor.  In the American empire, the evangel might be a spike in the stock market, lower gas prices, the victory of a favorite sports team,or the cancellation of a Khardashian reality TV show.  The intent was not to convert someone into a believer.  It was to confirm for people who was in charge, who retained power. 
It's strange how modern Christians, especially in the U.S., have twisted the use of the Greek word Evangel into a tool of conversion or propaganda.  From street evangelists to televangelists, the public broadcasting of a particular version of Christianity has been practiced for about three centuries.  It is a narrow definition of Christianity or 'gospel' that focuses on personal salvation.  It was reduced to an after- death spiritual plan to avoid hell and enter heaven. Given a choice between dying as a sinner destined for the wrath of God and an eternity in hell OR dying as a believer, whose sins were forgiven by Jesus so that one might live in heaven for an eternity with God, the person was persuaded to make a confession of faith, say a prayer of repentance, and receive forgiveness that led to an amendment of life and a life of holiness. Belief becomes a litmus test for whether a person is blessed or cursed by God.  I've heard preachers say, "Get 'em saved and Get 'em in a church". Jesus' death and resurrection becomes a personal tool by which I get forgiveness for sins and a ticket to eternal life in heaven.  This is not the good news, as it is written in the New testament stories of Jesus.  
Since the Great Awakening revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries, public preaching of the Bible in the U.S. has ignored whole aspects of the character of the gospel as it was presented by Jesus, the first Christians, and the New testament evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--writers/interpreters of the story of Jesus of Nazareth, about whom the content of the gospels was written).  Good news was about something far greater than whether or not a few believers get to go to heaven, while all the rest are subject to divine punishment in hell.  In fact, if this were the "gospel" it would not be good news for a whole lot of people.  It would just be bad news.   

So, what is the good news presented by Jesus of Nazareth to the 1st century world?  And how is it still good news for 21st century people?  In three parts, we will walk through the story of a people and their God.  

PART 1.  An ancient people long to be free
The good news was first, old news.  It began with an emerging belief in one God, the creator of heaven and earth. This belief developed and was codified in the writings of the Book of Genesis. God the creator was a speaking God.  God spoke creation into existence.  And God spoke to people in a personal way, making contact between heaven and earth. This one God had called a people to live in a covenant relationship (an ancient code of agreement whereby two parties agree to certain conditions by which they will coexist in harmony or mutuality.  A marriage is a kind of covenant, whereby two families are joined together in a sharing of a common life). This covenant required sacrifice, a sign in the flesh of a people's faithfulness.  Abraham, the founder, and his offspring undertook the covenant of circumcision---a sacrifice in the flesh and sign of their commitment to God. This covenant in the flesh related to the virility and fruitfulness of human creatures, recognizing that life comes from God and not from men.  
This covenantal relationship with a family of middle eastern nomads was tested by a tribal/ethnic crisis in about the 16th century BC. These Nomads had settled in the ancient superpower of Egypt, had been subjugated as migrant slaves, and been subjected to population control through the elimination of firstborn male children.  It's a horrible story.  The story is found in the ancient book of Exodus: the story of Moses, the LORD (YHWH or GOD) and the Hebrews. It is a story about power and control, as the great and might Pharaoh faces off against the God of the universe.  Guess who wins.  As a result, the Hebrews' identity as God's people is confirmed in their miraculous liberation.  A second covenant is established with them.   
This covenant included a rule of law, a way of life, traditions and customs peculiar to this community of people---the Hebrews, or the Israelites.  This covenant was sealed by divine protection and provision that was remembered annually as the Passover, a celebration of liberation from Egyptian servitude and exploitation. The covenant was further codified in the books of the law, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  A priestly, holiness code was embedded in their identity as God's faithful people enters the wilderness.  All along, the desire of God is to live in relationship with these people, to speak and be heard, to love and obey, to free and to serve.   
So, the good news was a story of a covenant relationship that involved liberation from oppression and a rule of law or way of life, called the Torah whereby these people would be set apart and identified as this God's holy people. The story was a story of freedom through divine mercy and obedience to divine commands.    
The good news continued as these people settled in a land.  This land was already settled by other tribes.  The Hebrews displaced or annihilated these tribes in a season of bloody conquest and occupation that is recorded in the books of Joshua and Judges. They believed that the God who liberated them from Egypt also prepared this place for them to live.  Understandably, the divine endorsement of colonialism and the subjugation or annihilation of native peoples continues to cause deep enmity and hatred between groups, in the Middle East and in other parts of the world. Racial and ethnic cleansing in the name of God continues to threaten stability and harmony between groups and nations.  It is hard to read divine endorsement of massacres.  But it was part of the story that will later make the good news good.      
Over time, these warriors grew into a monarchy.  But as a political entity, they were small and obstructive.  Larger global powers always threatened to or carried out regime change and mass deportations through armed conflict.  Exile, destruction of sacred places, taxation, military occupation, and pollution of ethnicity through intermarriage caused great turmoil for Israel.  Identity and calling were disrupted, reformed, and disrupted over and over again.  For the better part of 800 years, the people of Israel lived under oppressive outside rule.  Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans all overpowered this relatively small, but strategically important seaside nation called Israel.  Its a wonder and a miracle of God that they still exist.
The good news came at a time of painful oppression and threat.  The Romans were a powerful military empire that occupied the land and built entire cities within Israel. Rather than deport the people, they moved in and settled among them.  Political leaders from within Israel were made loyal puppets of the Emperor.  King Herod and his sons were Jewish rulers in the 1st century, who were permitted to retain leadership for purposes of social control.  Fellow Israelites were enlisted to support the empires' nation-building work.  Forced to live beside non-Israelites, their distinctive lifestyle was threatened.  Rome's occupation ushered in a time of hardship, division, and hopeful longing in Israel.  It was during this time that everything changed. 
During this time, religious/political factions developed within Judaism in response or reaction against the Roman imperial occupation.  Pharisees maintained a legal approach to identity and culture retention.  They kept themselves holy (set apart from non-Jews) by adherence to the written law.  Sadducees developed an alliance with Rome in order to maintain the ancient Jewish temple rituals and traditions that had been codified in the law books and practiced by the priesthood since the building of the temple in the 10th century and its restoration in the 6th century BC.  Power resided in the temple and the Sadducees intended to protect it.  Zealots were revolutionaries, who sought to use violence to overthrow the occupying Roman powers. They incited riots, protest, and terrorist attacks to disrupt the Roman presence.  Their actions were often met with harsh penalties, including state execution by crucifixion.  Crucifixion was the means by which Romans executed political criminals and publicly dehumanized their enemies.  It was also a means of detraction because of the long-suffering death crucifixion rendered on its victims.
Essenes were desert monastics who desired to maintain ethnic and religious purity by establishing a fringe community outside the city in Judea (southern Israel).  They waited with urgent patience for the coming of a Messiah--foretold in ancient prophecy that promised that their God would remember them, hear their cries, rescue and redeem the people by sending a divine representative, a man who would become a King of the Jews.  This Messiah would usher in an age of peace, freedom, prosperity, and joy.  He would renew the covenant and rebuild the nation as the blessed family of God.  Other nations would surrender and serve them.  The ancient writings of the prophets spoke of a time and a person who would come to save Israel.  They longed for a certain kind of freedom in order to practice the law of God---to love the Lord their God with all their hearts, minds, bodies, and souls.  Some in Israel believed that that time had come.

Enter Jesus of Nazareth.   
 
        

what is koinonia?

It's a Greek Word.  Now, I'm not a Greek snob about the New Testament.  I don't flaunt the biblical language thing.  When I was a student in seminary, I took new Testament Greek.  The language opens up the scripture in ways that English sometimes doesn't.  It raises ideas and questions that English can't.  And it puts the Christian message in the language of its first audience. 
Koinonia is one of my favorite Greek words.  It means sharing, generosity, association, communion, fellowship, participation, a close relationship. And it describes what the first church looked like in practice.
The word is found in the Book of Acts, chapter 2 to describe the gathering of believers in Jerusalem after the day of Pentecost.  Describing the gathering the writer said, "They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and koinonia, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."  Acts 2:42.
This is what the first church looked like; this is what they did.  Four acts of devotion:  Apostles' teaching, koinonia, breaking of bread, prayers. So, they were students/disciples of the first followers of Jesus.  They likely heard the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.  But they may have also heard his teachings, parables, and stories of his miracles.  The disciples taught what their rabbi taught them.  According to the end of the Gospel of according to Matthew, this was Jesus final instructions to his disciples--to go and make disciples of all ethnic groups, baptizing and teaching them.      
Second, they practiced koinonia---they held a common life together, they shared. They participate in each other's lives, the struggles and joys of daily life.  They built strong relationships among those who gathered.  They developed friendships, kinships, bonds of love.  They were generous with one another.
Third, they broke the bread.  This was a reenactment of the last supper, of the supper at Emmaus, of the feeding of the multitudes.  It was the earliest form of the Lord's supper, Holy Communion, the Eucharist.  For them, Jesus was truly present in the act of breaking bread. He was in it with them and for them.  It was a meal that signified an end to hunger.  It was a meal that signified the forgiveness of sins. 
Fourth, they prayed.  How?  With the Psalms and with the prayer Jesus taught his disciples.  They would have adapted and adopted some Jewish prayers, too.      
So, what if the 21st century church adopted the practices and culture of the 1st century church?  What might that look like and sound like? 
First, it begins with the teachings of the apostles--the New Testament and the story of Jesus, the people of God, and the salvation of the world.  What did Jesus teach?  How did he teach it and to whom? Why did they form koinonia, a highly participatory community of people in relationships characterized by sharing?    
 

sending and going

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them everything that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am always with you until the end of the age." Gospel of Matthew 28.  

My last post was on people leaving church.  Now I want to look at another angle.  Sending and going.  Church is not meant to be a stagnant community of people who remain together, huddled in a sanctuary until the end of time.  Church is an outward movement of the Holy Spirit sending Christ's followers into the world to share the gospel with power.  It is the people of God, freed and forgiven in Christ to love our neighbors with a radical, bold, and sacrificial love that changes lives and deepens our relationships with God. 
If our orientation is to hold on to one another forever against the cultural tide of mobility and change, then we are failing to grasp the commission and calling of the church as public witness for the world.
Jesus called fishermen and taught them to catch people.  What he also taught them was the capacity to catch and release them back into the proverbial sea.  Time and again, Jesus touches the lives of ordinary people dealing with overwhelming challenges in their lives, often with no support or care. Jesus' engagement with them provides the kind of support, compassion, forgiveness, and healing necessary for them to take up life again.  And it is clear that there is multiplication taking place as Jesus releases healed people back into community, who share their story with other broken people who need healing.  These people seek out Jesus because they are drawn to him by what others have said about him. Jesus catches, cleans, and releases people so that more people might be drawn to him.  So, if the church is a gathering of unchanged people, who have not yet experienced the fullness of God's love in their lives, then they will not likely share their faith and hope with others.  And there will be no multiplication, no release of the power of God to heal and rescue.   
Therefore, our orientation as followers of Jesus is outward, toward others.  As leaders, we are called to prepare and release God's beloved children to be salt and light and yeast and seeds in the soil of humanity.  So, if every gathering of Christians is not also a sending and going, it is not complete in its vocation. So much of our time and energy is spent on the gathering of the people of God, that we have forgotten how to send the people of God.  But now, Jesus is inviting and challenging his church to remember the apostles and the movement of the church from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.  We are always pioneers, moving beyond where we have been to be present where God is--in unexpected places.  Church is found where the beloved community is actively proclaiming in word and service what God has done for us.   
At the end of worship this is what we say:

The Spirit who gathers us here sends us forth to share the love of Christ with our neighbors, making disciples of Jesus Christ, and workers with us in the Kingdom of God. Go in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  May God the Father, Son +, and Holy Spirit bless you in your coming and in your going. Amen.                    

leaving

I have been a pastor in my current place of residence for 10 years now.  I have seen more people come and go from church than I can count.  Some people left church angry or dissatisfied.  Some people left church sad.  Some folks left church because they found something else.  Some people left church to get more rest or work or exercise or family time.  Some people left church because it wasn't interesting enough for them.  Some were just worn out.  Being the leader of a small church is challenging. Momentum waxes and wanes like the lunar calendar.  I've seen entire families come and go after a season or a year or two. Some people leave church because someone they loved died and they could not bear to be part of the Christian community again.  In the past year, I've seen people drift away from church:  People who were connected, involved, in leadership, as committed as anyone.      
People leave church. It's a common trend, well documented and publicized. We can read all the statistics and the explanations why people leave church. Books have been written about this from many perspectives.  There are generational analyses and social/ ethical claims and worship wars between the traditional/liturgical and the contemporary/evangelical.  Everyone has an answer for why people leave or don't go to church.  It's the church's problem.  Or it's a cultural phenomenon.  Or it's the wickedness of secularism. We guesstimate that only about 20% of Americans are worshiping on any given Sunday morning anymore. Patterns and lifestyles have changed.  Sunday morning is not the sacred time it once was.  But Sunday has not been replaced by some other day and time for people of Christian religious faith to gather.    
 
I'm personally tired of the analysis and the diagnoses of the problem with the irrelevant church or with the secular culture. I think we're missing something in the discussion.
 When people leave church, those who remain grieve. There is a sense of abandonment, personal failure, and even betrayal sometimes. Faithfulness has been spiritualized to the extent that faith is only about one's relationship with God. To have faith is to believe in God.  But, this narrow definition of faith has excluded important characteristics that have been observed and practiced for thousands of years. Faith is also about consistent, enduring loyalty to others. It is about constancy and steadfastness, even with people with whom one does not agree. Loyalty has been lost to consumerism and personal choice. If you don't like something, move on. We are a fickle and restless people, who cannot remain part of a thing long enough for that thing to become part of us.  The grass is always greener.  And there's always a reason to leave. 
But, the biblical witness, psalms and prophets, suggests that God's faithfulness to Israel was proved by long suffering and patient forbearance with an obstinate and rebellious people. Like a parent with a wayward child. Or a spouse with an unfaithful spouse. To be faithful is to show up, even with and for those lousy sinners. To be faithful is, according to Jesus to be abandoned by ones friends and betrayed into the hands of those who would kill you. That's love. It endures all things.
I have been here for ten years.  I'm surprised I've lasted this long.  I know pastors who have been in a place for forty.  I used to think that was too long. Now I'm not so sure.  I think it provides a countercultural witness that speaks to the enduring quality of faith.  I can't leave church. It's full of broken and messed up people. And when they leave, I grieve. Abandonment is the cross we bear. My hope is knowing that God will never abandon the church, the faithful servants of Christ in every age.

ninjas and vivofits and eternal life

³⁵ Jesus said to [the crowd,] “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ⁴¹ Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³ Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. ⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Gospel of John 6.

We recently purchased a Ninja.  Not the Japanese fighting kind; though this one slices and dices at high speeds too.  A Ninja is an appliance, a machine that food processes and blends.  All I know is that we can make smoothies now.  I’m not much of a breakfast eater, but a good fruit smoothie works for me. Just add coffee and I‘m good to go.   I guess some smoothies can even include veggies, like kale and spinach.    We unboxed the Ninja and tested it last night, making a variety of smoothies for dinner.  We are overly impressed with this machine.  And the smoothies were delicious, and more importantly the right consistency.  No chunks.  No kale stuck in the teeth.  They were smooth smoothies.  We started imagining things, like starting our weekdays with smoothies that we can take along to school and work.  Smoothies will provide energy and nutrition.  Smoothies will assure a healthy breakfast.  Smoothies will help some of us gain a little weight and some of us lose a little weight.  They’re the magic bullet.  And there’s so much more we can do with the Ninja, that the Ninja can do for us.  Food processing means fresh ingredients.  Better food.  Healthier food.  Stronger bodies.  This is very good.  The Ninja adds value to our lives. 

Jesus says, "I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry."

And there’s this.  An activity tracker.  They’re the newest wearable technology.  It tells me when I’m being lazy and I need to get up and move.  It counts steps.  And it monitors my sleep.  It reminds me to get more active and to achieve my fitness goals.  I have fitness goals.  I’ve become interested in cycling.  And I like to run and swim. I may actually work up to a real triathlon, eventually.  Increased personal wellness has become a priority.  In 2014 I had knee surgery and a strange illness that kept me in bed for about two weeks.  I still think it was Lyme disease.  Anyway, so I’m taking matters into my own hands. Daily activity will increase. Walking, running, cycling, swimming.  On the farm we never needed to get more exercise.  Work was enough.  But Americans are relatively sedentary these days, with the health problems to show for it.  I want to lose the beer belly and gain some muscle and some endurance.  Hearth health is the key in my family.  No cancers, just heart issues.  So I can beat this.  Thank you Garmin Vivofit 2, with your partnership I will improve the overall quality of my physical health.

Jesus said,” I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Is it possible that my present and future life, the good and healthy life that God intends for God’s creatures, depends on Jesus?  Not the Ninja or the Vivofit?  Is it possible that we replace Jesus as the way of life with other things?  Do we seek to secure and satisfy ourselves with things other than Jesus?  We've been taught to believe that the bread of life is not Jesus, its money.  The more one has, the better one’s life becomes.  We accomplish the accumulation of material things that we deem necessary to improve the quality of life, to help us achieve our fitness goals, to improve our youthful appearance, to make us feel better.  We secure our lives with savings, investments, and retirement accounts.  Life is about consumption.  The more one consumes the more life you have in you.  But maybe we believe that we make our own lives, that we save ourselves, that our health depends on smoothies and daily exercise.  

Jesus invites us to satisfy our needs, our longings, our fears, our worries, our health challenges by eating his body and drinking his blood. It is free and simple.  It is small, subtle, and available.  It doesn’t require much technology.  Eat,drink, believe.  Of course, the problem we have with this is the problem some of Jesus’ contemporaries had with it.  Why Jesus?  He’s just another man.  The way to eternal life, to heaven, to the best life, to God has to be something other than a crucified Jewish rabbi from the 1^st century.  The magic bullet must be something else.  Something we do.  Some high achievement of humanity.  Science, medicine, technology, wealth.  These save us. Trusting God alone is not an option. 

The idolatry of the self, the desire to save myself, the insatiable appetite of the consumer ego---this is sin in our age.  A faith perspective sees through Jesus’ eyes. The things we make and use are neither good nor bad. They are things.  And they can prevent us from seeing the daily work of God in our lives.  Life is not found in the Ninja, the vivofit, or the 401 K.  It is found in a person.  Life is personal.  Whether we need to get rid of things to clear a way for God is also personal. These things can also enhance our lives and our relationship with God, especially when they allow us to serve others.  We give ourselves and our things to the people we are called to love.  Faith is all about perspective.  If things have replaced God as the source of happiness, freedom, health, and peace in your life then hear this good news: 

Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.” 

Hunger

Hunger is important for faith.  There is physical hunger and there is spiritual hunger.  Emptiness.  Hunger places us in a state of human vulnerability in which we become more open to God, to powers outside of ourselves that can provide, fill the void.  We prefer to be full, satisfied.  But is that really possible?  Can we fill ourselves up enough? Our efforts are temporary and often riddled with unfairness.  If we are full, its because someone else is not.  There is sacrifice in the system that keeps some people in a state of vulnerability and others in a state of satisfaction.  Is the world a place of hunger and vulnerability or a place of fullness, abundance, and satisfaction? I suspect that those who are not hungry cannot know the full power of God’s love and grace.  Jesus seems to be for the sick and the hungry.  I suppose its when we are sick and hungry that Jesus matters.  Closeness to Jesus has something to do with how sick and hungry we are.  It’s good to be a little hungry.       

A hungry church is driven by a hunger to know the heart of God through the world’s hunger.  At community meals and food pantries.  At the Sunday gathering around the altar.  We enact feeding miracles.  We experience hunger and see the God who provides.  Jesus fed large crowds, turning scarce supplies into abundance.  So do we.  Jesus turned the Passover meal into the Lord’s Supper---in which the bread and cup are His body and blood, given and shed on the cross for the salvation of the world.  And here we are, about to receive Him again.  About a thousand years before Jesus did it, Elisha did it.  Before that, God sent manna to those barely freed slaves on the road to the promised land.  Before that, God put an imprisoned Hebrew in charge of the abundant food supply for all of the Middle East at a time of famine.  Before that, God created humankind and placed them in a garden with the covenant calling to till and keep the earth, to be fruitful and multiply.  Food is a sign of God’s presence, power, and provision.  Food, eating, feeding hungry people are visible expressions of God’s Word to the world.  God’s goodness and mercy, God’s grace and love are offered up to us in the bread and cup we share.  But this is not new news for you.  I have said this all before.  You get it.

This week I took the leftover bread from Peter’s Porch to Lancaster Council of Churches new food hub in the city.  It is an amazing place with large cold storage and ample space to organize food donations for distribution to hungry Lancaster residents.  The vision for that place is to serve the county’s food needs by becoming a central collecting point for locally grown, fresh food that is donated or bought to feed the hungry.  They are part of a broader movement called Hunger Free Lancaster County.  I sit on the board of this grassroots organization.  Our goal, under the leadership of former Senator Mike Brubaker is to end hunger in the county by 2018 by assuring that every Lancaster county resident has access to three healthy meals a day.  21.6 million meals will be needed to fill the gap.  My work on the board extends to the service committee.  I am working on food recovery and gleaning efforts.  I am meeting local farmers and growers to talk about acquiring more fresh locally grown food for anti-hunger food relief programs.  I spent some time on Friday at Lancaster Central market talking to vendors about the work of HFLC.  I’m hoping to organize two large field or orchard gleans for 2015. I have a lead on a tomato farm.  But not an orchard yet.  On Tuesday I will go to Root’s market to talk with vendors.  On Thursday, I’m going to Leola Produce auction to learn how to buy large quantities of produce there.  I feel like Joseph. We have to get a handle on the abundance, in order to address the scarcity.  There are hungry people here.  They are living on a very low income.  Many of them are seniors and children.  They are working families and people with disabilities.  Hunger is not racially discriminatory.  White, black, and brown people are hungry.  Any one of us are only a day away from hunger.  Do not eat for one day and you will taste its power.  Hunger drives behavior. Hunger, emptiness, scarcity causes fear, anxiety, mistrust, hoarding, even violence.

Today we are invited to pay attention to the hunger, the emptiness, the illness inside us and in the world God made.  Jesus came to reveal abundance, to satisfy our needs, to feed our souls with the bread of heaven.  But if we're not hungry, we won't eat.  Even Jesus knows that.  So, what are you hungry for?