Reclaiming the Gospel

“I am not ashamed of the gospel”, Paul once wrote,

“because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”

 

and yet we live in a time when the adjective Christian, is for many, a negative

standing for a rejection of science, rigidity, exclusion, judgement, retribution,

even cruelty and abuse

 

indeed Christianity is seen not as a positive force that draws the world together in love, but as a form of toxic tribalism

 

what has happened?

how have we ended up with what can only be called a “tortured gospel”               

a gospel that violates itself?

 

Richard Rohr has said that “humanity is that which is eternally crucified and eternally resurrected, all at once!”

 

It seems that at some level the answer is in that paradox, that tension

To put the tension another way, the Gospel emerges out of sacrifice,

and only from that place of beginning

can it lead to our being raised to a new way of doing life

 

if our faith starts with power, and privilege, and domination

(as American Christianity all too often does)

then the gospel becomes other than what it is

tortured

 

twisted into a shape that is unrecognizable

 

the tortured Gospel has lost the balance between power and love

intimacy and immanence

servanthood and victory

grace and law

accountability and retribution

 

it has lost the key values taught by Jesus

compassion, inclusion, generosity, sacrifice, patience, humility, kindness, and caring

and has replaced them with values out of the culture of dominance

judgment, exclusion, greed, power, pride, domination, and coercion

 

the poor are no longer blessed, they are shamed

the grieving are ignored

those who hunger for righteousness, and protest, are driven from the streets

by riot police in armor, and hit by cars, driven by people who may well claim Christ

truth has been exchanged, even by many preachers, for words that fit an ideology created by human deceit

 

in seeking victory

we have chosen to believe that this victory is to be won in the realm of politics

and force (military and police)

that it is to be one by dominating and imposing

in short, by “crushing” the enemy, emotionally and physically

we have tortured the gospel

 

those called to crucifixion have become the crucifiers

and we have chosen to exalt ourselves, rather than let God exalt us through

through our sacrifice and love

we have created a self-serving religion with a self-serving God

rather than a servant religion with a God who ‘takes on servanthood” to save us (Philippians 2)

 

which is an odd way to get to this thought

the best way to defeat the bad is by the practice of the better

or as Paul would say

“don’t overcome evil, but overcome evil with good”

 

I know kindness, and caring, patience and tolerance feel weak

in this world where people grab power and abuse it

where lies abound, and are believed

where the cruel seem to dominate

 

but if we dive into the battle

and fight fire with fire

hate with hate

cruelty with cruelty

our faith will become a casualty

and our gospel tortured

 

we must engage in the practice of “the better”

it is not that I do this, not very well

but in spite of my failure I believe

that newness comes when we make the sacrifices of love

and I believe

it is time reclaim the Gospel