Today’s Theological Pondering (12/3/16)

Many people think the gospel, the “good news” of Jesus Christ, is believing in him and then going to heaven when you die. But any good Bible scholar will tell you, that’s not in scripture!

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This past Thursday, I had a conversation that has had me pondering: what, exactly, is the “good news” and how is it applicable to today’s world?

As I wrote above, most Americans articulate the “good news” as an individual message. If I believe in Jesus, then I get to go to heaven when I die. But I’ve had two events in my life that have directly challenged that.

One: my conversion from western Christianity (United Methodism) to eastern Christianity (Orthodoxy).

Two: reading the Bible as well as the work of Bible-believing scholars (such as N.T. Wright, Richard B. Hays, Luke Timothy Johnson, among others).

Now, I realize the “good news” is much bigger than any individual, moralistic message.

WHAT IS THE GOOD NEWS?

It’s a message about how God rescues his people from sin and death. It’s a message about how he’s becoming King through his Son, the anointed (messiah) Jesus. It’s a message about how God is renewing and recreating the entire world. It’s a message about how anyone and everyone can become a member of God’s family through trust in the faithfulness of the Messiah. It’s a message about how we are renewed and recreated (resurrection) to participate in this whole thing.

Now, the surprising part is that God undertakes this rescue operation through a crucified Messiah. Perhaps we would have preferred it if God had acted through an army of angels, but he didn’t. He conquers death by entering into death and invites us to experience this renewal by uniting ourselves to the Messiah in a death like his (baptism).

Nevertheless, God’s plan of new creation, with renewed people, has started…but it’s not yet finished. We live in the in-between time. We live in the hope (expectation) that Jesus will return and compete it.

Though this whole thing comes about in a surprising way – not through an army – the first century “good news” still confronted the authorities and powers of its day.

JEWISH POWERS

One of the major symbols of Jewish authority was the Temple. The Temple was a part of how God had acted to rescue his people from their exile from the paradise of Eden. It was how he had (re)created the nation of Israel. It was where he dwelt in a cloud and how he lived among his people.

So when Jesus directly confronts the Temple, he’s directly confronting the first-century Jewish powers and identity.

He declares that he is able to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. One Gospel writer tells us that Jesus was talking about his own body. In other words, Jesus was taking everything that the Temple meant – how God dwelled among his people there, the place where heaven and earth met – and he was applying to himself.

It was now in Jesus that God was dwelling among his people (later the Holy Spirit). Jesus was now where heaven and earth met. Jesus was the new Temple (we use the word “incarnation” to mean all of this).

The good news, in this case, confronts the powers of Judaism to show that God is becoming King in and through Jesus the Messiah, the representative of Israel.

ROMAN POWERS

The good news, in the first century, didn’t just confront Jewish powers. If God was truly becoming King and renewing all of creation, then he also had to confront secular authority.

In the first century, Rome was considered the “savior” of the world – specifically the Caesar. A few years back, Rome found itself in the midst of a bloody civil war. Octavian – later Caesar Augustus – wins the war and brings peace to Rome, but this also meant peace for the entire world (as they understood it).

The result was that Augustus had become the “savior” and then the “son of god.”

Do those terms sound familiar? They should, they are terms also used to describe Jesus!

By applying them to Jesus, the early Christians were saying that Caesar’s power was subject to a higher authority. Jesus was taking control; God was becoming King. It was through this that true peace will come about – not through any war a Caesar could win.

AMERICAN POWERS

So this brings me to my theological pondering.

How is the “good news” applicable to today’s world? How does it apply to Americans?

Here are a few thoughts:

DEMOCRACY

As Americans, we tend to put our trust in democracy. Through democracy, we hope to find peace. Through democracy, we feel empowered as a people.

It would seem, though, that the “good news” would directly confront this. If God is becoming King through Jesus, then the gospel would show that we are only playing around with democracy.

We’re like children pretending to play “kings and queens.” We have no real power. In some ways, we’re making ourselves out to be “god,” thinking we can rule a country (or the world) and bring “salvation” to suffering people (social programs) or suffering countries (freedom fighters).

A today’s gospel may proclaim that Jesus is the true democratic ideal.

FREEDOM

As Americans, we tend to also put our trust in freedom.

We brag about how we fought the Revolutionary War and freed ourselves from kingly tyranny. We make our soldiers out to be heroes, fighting for our freedoms.

But, it would seem, that the “good news” would say that any freedom we have as Americans is merely a false freedom. True freedom is only found through the work of the Messiah on the cross. With American freedom, we are still subjects of death.

I know many people won’t like this confrontation. We want our veterans to be heroes who fought for a good cause. But, if anything, we should see them as an embodiment of the Messiah – sacrificing their lives for others as he did for the world.

The good news has to remind us that to boast of American freedom is an idol that prevents us from seeing our true freedom in Jesus.

HOW DO WE PREACH THIS?

So if the “good news” is about God becoming King in and through the Messiah and this becomes a clash with the authorities of our day (which are shown to be false idols, false gods, and/or false ideals in light of what God has done through his Messiah), how do we preach it?

Firstly, I think we need to reclaim what the gospel actually is. It’s not a moral contract where Christ is a sacrifice to make up for our moral failure so we can go to heaven.

We need to preach a message where God becomes King. A message that God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. A message where the Kingdom of God is coming to bear upon the world. A message that all will be renewed.

Secondly, we need to find creative ways to make this message relevant in our world. In the first century, it was a message that clashed with the ruling powers of the day. This is precisely because one can’t be the subject of two kings – you have to choose. I believe, in America, we’ve missed this point.

We tend to think that America is blessed by God and we are free to worship as we choose, a separation of church and state. But if God is King, we have to realize any power “the people” hold is temporary. In fact, it isn’t power at all. We should see ourselves instead as “good stewards” taking care of creation until the King returns.

Thirdly, we need to stop preaching religion and start preaching the “good news.”

What do I mean by this? Well, in my Church, it’s easy to preach “about” Orthodoxy rather than the “wisdom” or “message” of Orthodoxy.

When one preaches “about” Orthodoxy, one preaches about the beauty of the icons, the vestments, the chanting, the incense, etc. Not that there’s anything wrong with learning about those things, but one shouldn’t confuse the history of the Church or the life of a saint as the “good news” – though they can be told in such a way as to reveal the “good news.”

The message, or wisdom, of Orthodoxy is all that “good news” stuff I mentioned above. Indeed, it’s summed up in our Paschal hymn: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life. We should be spending our time unpacking what all that means. This should be the “meat” of our preaching.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This “good news” has all sorts of implications. If we are a new creation who lives knowing that God is taking control, then we have a new way of living. We have a new way of seeing the world.

Most importantly, however, we have a duty to praise God for what he’s done (worship) and a duty to reflect this new kingdom into the world. But if we are to reflect this “good news” into the world, we should announce it accurately.

(I’d love to hear your comments about how to apply the gospel in today’s world.)

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I now invite you to enter deeper into the mystery of Christ with the Orthodox Church!

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