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“The Proclamation of the Gospel for the Salvation of Humankind”
March 15, '09
Isaiah 40:1-11
1Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. 2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
3A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 6A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. 7The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. 8The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.
9Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.
This past August, Leisa and I noted the twenty-fifth anniversary of our ordination as pastors. In late December, Leisa and I attended a spiritual retreat in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We reflected a lot about the past quarter century as pastors. The retreat had us pondering many things about our own spiritual journeys and our spiritual temperaments. It was an amazing time of reflection. As the title of the retreat promised, it was a time of “Laughing and Weeping.” Quarter century is a milestone of sorts. Time to pause on the journey and reflect where we have been and where we are headed. Painfully obvious to both of us were our individual failings while at the same time, wonderfully joyous to both of us were the realizations of growth within each of our souls. But what was difficult for both of us to comprehend was how each of our growth and change over the quarter century paced or mirrored the change within the Church, the culture, the world, and even the Christian faith over the past quarter century.
Years ago, when our son Joel was twelve years old, I took him on a surprise trip to Israel and Palestine – to the Holy Land. I had hoped it would be as a “coming of age” pilgrimage for him. A ritual, perhaps. “Coming of age” rituals seem to have been lost within our culture. His clothing packed into my backpack, he was not to know the destination of our pilgrimage. He figured it out when we passed through customs in London – when the customs agent asked about our final destination. But my half-year of planning his trip was turned into a tumult when, the day before our pilgrimage departure, one of his closest friends committed suicide. The friend had spent the better part of a week with us a few months before during Christmas vacation. Within twenty-four hours of our pilgrimage, the news of Brian’s death. The nature of our father-son pilgrimage to the Holy Land was dramatically changed.
On the pilgrimage, Joel slept a lot. Carrying a lot in his heart as well as the sensory overload which comes from being in a place like the Holy Land was certainly exhausting. In Jerusalem, Joel went to bed early. I spent some time in the lobby of the guest house. There I met a couple from Ohio. I told them of Joel’s coming-of-age pilgrimage and of his friend’s suicide. Their reflections gave me important insight. A coming-of-age ritual is about a boy losing his innocence. With Brian’s suicide, Joel had lost his innocence. Then we began our pilgrimage. I have often pondered how different the pilgrimage would have been had the circumstances been different.
In Albuquerque over the New Year, as Leisa and I reflected on our quarter century as pastors, we had a somewhat similar pondering. There seemed to be a loss of innocence somewhere along the line, but was it just with us growing a bit older and a bit more experienced; or might it have had something to do with the Church and the world in general?
The Disciples were given some final words from Jesus the Christ following his resurrection. At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus told his disciples to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations. It began as small group of followers whose leader and teacher had been executed. But, following the Pentecost experience of God’s Spirit entering into those few followers, they went into the world and began making disciples of all nations. For the first decades, they were seen as just an off-shoot of Judaism. But it was not long before they were considered enough of a threat to the Roman Empire that the Jesus Movement was made illegal – blamed for the troubles of the Roman Empire. In less than two hundred years, the Christian faith was so widespread within the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine legalized it. A half century after that, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. A dramatically fast spread.
As the world changed, so did Christianity. Moving. Changing. Growing. Having some ugly times. Having some beautiful times. A century ago, within in Presbyterian branch of the Christian faith, a mission statement of sorts was adopted. It is called the Six Great Ends of the Church. The Six Great Ends of the Church are:
The proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind;
the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God;
the maintenance of divine worship;
the preservation of the truth;
the promotion of social righteousness;
and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.
This morning we reflect on the first of the Great Ends of the Church: the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind. Tall order. The Church has been hard at work in proclaiming the gospel for the salvation of humankind. I am a missionary’s kid. My parents, both missionaries in Japan for most of their adult lives. Seems I grew up within the context of this first of the Great Ends of the Church. I understand evangelism. I understand mission. It is part of my formation as a person and as a Christian. I know that the intent of the mission of the Church and the intent of this first of the Six Great Ends of the Church has to do with introducing people to faith in Jesus the Christ. But now I wonder if it isn’t more than that…
I ponder the word: Gospel. What is the Gospel? What is the message? Is it that “Jesus saves?” Or is there more to it than that? In seminary, some of our classes were in Berkeley – about a half hour drive from the seminary. Several vans transported students back and forth from our seminary to the other seminaries which made up the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. For one of the classes, the professor was from our seminary, so I often rode in the van with him to and from class. On the way to and from Berkeley, we would pass a little building: a sportsman’s club. It was called the Rod and Gun Club. One afternoon, on the way home from class, he pointed the little building out to me and told me that really, it was a place which made religious tracts. I didn’t get it. Then, with that usual twinkle in his eye, he referred to the Rod and Gun Club as the God and Run Club. Ah. Religious tracts. God and Run Club.
This many years later, those words almost haunt me. Can that be the nature of some evangelism efforts of the Church? God and Run? Or, is there something more? Then I ponder what the Gospel is. Go into the world and make disciples. Spread the Gospel. Proclamation of the Gospel. The Gospel is the Good News. What is the Good News?
The greatest commandment has two parts: We are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength; and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. That is at the heart of the Gospel. Evangelism is good and necessary, but it is incomplete without the whole commandment. Go out and take the Gospel to the nations. That is good. But there is more. It is the loving our neighbor as ourselves which takes the time and the energy. It is more than a God and Run Club. It is in the loving of of our neighbor as ourselves. It is in the community.
For a long, long time, the Church in this country has assumed that it was living in the Promised Land. Religious freedoms. A country built on the foundation of the Judeo-Christian Tradition. For centuries, it was the norm to assume that the great majority of our nation was Christian. Church membership seemed to be a qualification for any office of importance. But not any more. This is not the Promised Land. We are a people in exile. Like Moses and the People of Israel wandering in the wilderness. Like the people of Judah in Babylon. Like Abram wandering to where the Lord would lead him, and wondering about that promise of descendants when there did not seem to be any coming. Future looked bleak. No place to really call home. Only a promise.
In exile, community is all the more important. We are followers of Jesus the Christ. We journey through life and faith with each other. Perhaps the Gospel for our times is that there can be people who care for each other and love each other and who work at bringing God’s love into the communities they find themselves in.
9Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 11He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.
Amen.