"Who put glass around my chair? If the commoners are always doing that, I'll never have a place to sit. Oh, and let them eat cake!" - Me.
Is your understanding of the Gospel robust? Melissa and I were chatting about this last night as we thought about the world from our bed.
I know my understanding is woefully inadequate. Unfortanately, for me I often relate it to a formula that goes something like this: Jesus came, died, rose againg and will come back. This formula has in it the essence of the Gospel.
But if it remains a formula, especially in Americanized Christianity, it can become very unnattractive. It's just a means to be saved. "Sign on with this creed, and you'll go to heaven when you die."
That's not at all really Good News is it? Good News to me would be if God had made a way for us to be with him forever; if God had shown both his love and justice in our history; if God had stooped low to lift us onto his lap, brushing away all the tears, hurt and chaos from a world full of death and suffering; if God had made a way to renew his creation and his creatures, to breathe back into them his breath of life, to walk with them in the coolness of the garden, to fill the ache that lurks in the heart of every man, the ache for something more, something greater, something other, something truly good. This would be Good News. This is the Good News. It makes for long sentances with lots of semi-colons.
In light of the above I don't know why I'm stumped when I lay on my bed and think "What difference does it all make?" Last night I asked Melissa, "Are we royaly?" Of course we are!!!
We are "co-heirs with Christ." We are true sons and daughters of God. It's pretty amazing! I have a really hard time believing it. And the amazing thing is we are all this right now. It's just really crazy stuff.
So why do I yawn? Why do I moan and complain about my day? Why do I poke about with my idols, trying to get a little life out of them, when I have everything, absolutely everything and more in God.
Melissa said that it's because we are still hard-wired by our former slavery. It's true, the very state we've been rescued from, the state we're used to seems to rule our daily experience. I can't seem to shake it. One day I will. Every day a little more. And a little more.
God's kingdom came in a small package, a baby. And just like his king grew and matured, my guess is as we seek to comprehend and understand more about the robust Good News, God's kingdom will grow in our hearts and lives. For God is on the move. Our king will win the day.
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