I think it was Martin Luther who said John 3:16 is “The Gospel in Miniature”. It’s also been called “The Gospel in a Nutshell”. While I affirm that characterization, such a condensation is like coming in at the middle of a movie. The Gospel is not an isolated truth. It is expressed in the culmination of centuries of an evolving relationship between humanity and humanity’s Creator. That evolving process must be delineated, or it will be assumed. And you know what “they say” happens when we assume.
The alternative, however,
is clumsy and cumbersome. If we pause to lay out our assumptions and reassemble
the context of every discussion, most discussions will lose momentum and coast
to a stop before any significant conclusion is reached.
Without that cumbersome
setup, however, the outcome of any significant conversation is predictable;
indeed, we live that outcome most days of our lives: we end up with Democrats
and Republicans and Libertarians and Tea Partiers—and Baptists and Catholics
and Presbyterians and Quakers and Methodists and . . .
Gratefully, we still have
options. (1) We can choose to respect and honor each other in our differences,
and even to harvest an occasional pearl of wisdom and faith from our brothers
and sisters and cousins with whom we differ. (2) We can assume our assessment
of truth is absolute and deny any credibility on the part of any who dare
disagree. From there, we can (2a) ignore or shun those who differ; (2b) contend
with those who differ and try to persuade them to our perspective; (2c) try to
destroy those who differ. Sadly, 2c is rapidly becoming the modus operandi of many persons and
groups whose identity is grounded rigidly in any specific ideology.
For all these
reasons I will need a container somewhat larger than a nutshell if I am to
offer any summary perspective on the Gospel. There are Scriptural hooks upon
which I hang my summary, and I will gladly share them upon request.
* * * * *
Humanity is created in the
image of its Creator. This imago dei
(divine image) includes freedom of choice.
In granting free choice, our Creator freely, voluntarily and intentionally
became vulnerable. Our Creator
completely understood and accepted the risk that humans could choose ways inconsistent
with the desire and purpose that motivated creation in the first place.
That desire and purpose
was a fulfilling, loving relationship
between Creator and creature. As the poet caricatured, “God said, ‘I’m lonely.
I’ll make me a man.’”[1]
Our Creator set everything
up; providing every necessity to sustain meaningful, purposeful life and
relationship in an idyllic setting of pleasure and comfort. The Creator also
established boundaries which, if honored, would insure the continuation of that
pleasure and comfort and meaning. Within those boundaries was the revealed path
toward full and abundant life and relationship with the Creator.
But the boundaries were
permeable. Humanity had freedom of choice, without which no relationship is
possible.
The boundary was a tree.
Whether the tree was literal or metaphoric is irrelevant; indeed, it morphs
into virtually unlimited images. For a toddler, it may be the burner on a stove
and the related warning, “Hot!” The tree was called “the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil.” Key word is “knowledge.” Perhaps the tree was a
personification of the question, “Why?”
I don’t know if physics
can have any correlation with theology (Astronomer, Carl Sagan, at least found
a spiritual kind of awe in his work). A basic observation in physics is “for
every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. In human life and
relationships natural consequences
accompany every enacted choice. Most often those natural consequences are
predictable: “Touch the burner and you’ll get burned.” “Hot!”
Predictable! But, how many
toddlers heed adult advice regarding the “Hot!” burner?
We want to “know”. Instead of accepting the Creator’s
loving provision and boundaries, we shift our focus to the persistent question,
“What if I get it wrong?” Instead of accepting life as gift, we try to prove our
worthiness: self-justification trumps grateful acceptance. Every time.
So here we humans are:
sewing fig leaves together to hide our nakedness (which for some reason we
assume is evil), hiding in the bushes and fabricating strategies calculated to
escape responsibility and accountability for our choices. The “blame game” doesn’t
work any better now than then; nevertheless, it remains the best humanity has
been able to come up with.
And here is our Creator, “OK,
you’ve chosen a different path than I laid out for full and abundant living.
Let’s go to ‘Plan B.’ Let’s get you away from that tree; and since you want to feel
useful, take some of my creative spirit and till the soil to produce your own food.”
When we humans choose a
different path, our Creator is the master of improvisation, and provides
everything necessary to redirect our path back toward the full and abundant
life our Creator continues to offer and eternally desires for us.
Essentially, that’s the
“Gospel.” That’s the “Good News.” We humans make choices that are not
consistent with the Creator’s way of full, abundant living. Our different idea never
works as we anticipate. But, the Creator is always with us, improvising a detour
back to the Creator’s more productive path to fulfilling, loving relationship
with the Creator and with each other.
The gospel has been played
out again and again in virtually every generation, in virtually every
individual life. The Bible is a faithful witness to that divine human dance: an
accumulation of testimony and counter-testimony through generations of the Creator’s
people as they struggle with their freedom of choice, living out the natural,
predictable consequences, but always with the gracious offer of choosing the Creator’s
improvised detour back to abundant life.
That gospel was ultimately
lived out and demonstrated in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. There are multiple
theories (called “atonement theories) explaining how the life of Jesus
manifested the Creator’s improvised detour, and how we humans can become
reconnected (reconciled) with the revealed path toward fulfilling, loving
relationship with the Creator and with each other.
But virtually all atonement
theories are extensions of the original human need to “know” the “right” way. The goal of virtually every atonement theory
is to codify what is “right”, thereby guaranteeing (perhaps even obligating) the
Creator’s acceptance and justification of our life.
The historic result has
been to shatter the body of believers and to set them against one another.
The Gospel—the Good
News—is that the Creator’s improvised detour is not of our devising; nor does
it require our assent or understanding. Like every manifestation of the Creator’s
love, the detour is provided as gift, personified in the life of a man who
said, “Follow me.” In essence, the intention and effort to heed that call and
to follow Jesus is, itself, an expression of faith and, finally, the enactment
of the “right” choice.
Thanks be to God, Creator
of all that is, Redeemer of all that is broken, and Sustainer of all that is
holy!
[1] James Weldon Johnson, (1964)
[1927], God’s trombones: seven negro sermons in verse (hardback), Douglas,
Aaron Ill; Falls, CB lettering, New York: Viking.
