The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Easter 6C
From the reading from Acts: “During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.”
During this Easter season, we read from the book of Acts and the Gospels about how the Gospel spreads like wildfire. On Easter Day, it’s Mary Magdalene alone taking back the message, “I have seen the risen Lord!” The next week the circle keeps expanding: the rest of the apostles, groups of disciples in Jerusalem, and more. Then we see how a persecutor of the church, Saul, has a vision and changes his ways and becomes Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. That’s how powerful the Gospel message is! And it keeps going outward.
For many centuries after, there was a triumphalism in this message. “See? We’re right! We’re popular! We’re the ones with the truth!” Then with the Roman Empire making Christianity the official religion, where the Empire was, so too was Christianity. The mix of military and Christianity would persist throughout the ages – through the Crusades, through the explorers who took the Gospel along with swords and guns as they colonized and divvied up wide swaths of the world, stealing the land, resources, and rights away from the inhabitants who were first there.
We now recognize how much that mix of power and the Gospel undermined the proclamation of the Gospel. The good and holy name of Jesus was defamed when colonizing forces denied the humanity and dignity of others – since the Gospel proclaims that God loved the world so much that Jesus Christ took on our human nature that we might be joined with God forever, then anything that denies that human dignity is a denial of the love of Jesus for all people.
And so we changed our way of thinking. We no longer sing “Onward Christian soldiers” like we’re parading for war to convert others. We call people to the banquet of the Eucharist, we call people to the work of the Kingdom of God, we call people to the way of the love of Jesus Christ. It is an invitation, not a military campaign nor an advertising campaign.
We forget, though, how much people really do want to hear the Gospel, the Gospel as it really is. There are people longing to hear this Good News. They call out like the Macedonian in Paul’s dream that we read in Acts: “Come to us, and help us.” People want the Gospel. They know, deep down, it means something holy, something transformative and loving.
People want to hear the Good News of God’s love. The world around us feels so unloving so often. People argue with strangers on the internet, and people are strangers to their neighbors and communities. People don’t know what kind of greeting they’ll get if they go to a neighbor’s door – will it be a frosty reception through a security camera, or worse? People chatter on neighborhood apps about what they see peering out their front windows – is it a threat, or just a child or teen being a nuisance by existing? So how do we proclaim God’s love when humans seem so focused on closing off from one another?
People want to hear the Good News of Jesus. People have long heard the “turn or burn” message that some people insisted the Gospel was – either turn and accept Jesus the way we accept Jesus, or you’re going to go to hell forever at the hands of a loving God. A monstrous message if I’ve ever heard one. “Love me or I’ll send you to hell” is hardly an invitation to love – and anyone who has read the Old Testament knows how much God keeps trying again and again to heal those who have rejected his love, and anyone who has read the New Testament knows how Jesus seeks out the wayward and the lost to lead them to the way we’re meant to be: to love God, and to love our neighbor.
People deserve to hear that the Gospel means new life now, and new life forever. They deserve to hear that the Gospel means loving God now and loving our neighbor as ourselves. The Gospel means caring for those in need and having a tender heart brimming and burning with God’s love – to let our hearts become like God’s heart. And God is loving, God is just, God is merciful.
If you read the Bible and listen to it, you’ll hear that message. If you read the early church fathers and mothers, you’ll hear that message. Christian theologians and mystics have proclaimed that very Gospel. This isn’t some new-fangled idea of the Gospel. It’s the root.
Since this is what the Gospel is, then why don’t we share it? We have all sorts of barriers we set up in ourselves for sharing it. What is it that holds you back from sharing Jesus and the Gospel with others? What is it that holds you back from talking about matters of the spirit with others?
People hunger for deeper spiritual life. People hunger for community to talk about holy things, to grow in love and wisdom, to learn more about themselves and to be transformed by God. What is it that holds us back from sharing the Good News of all the good we find in Jesus?
The people around us in Boise and the Treasure Valley want to hear this Good News. They want to hear the Gospel. We think that people know about the Episcopal Church and just aren’t interested – I got a note from a neighbor here on the Bench who was in awe of the Presiding Bishop’s stance on immigration, grateful for a moral voice when human lives are treated so callously. I’ve heard from folks grateful for Bishop Budde from Washington DC asking for mercy for immigrants and LGBT folks – Mercy is a core virtue of God, so mercy is a core virtue for us Christians! People want to hear Christians speaking the Gospel. People want to see Christians living the Gospel. People want to know that there are Christians who really do believe what Jesus taught and did, and who try their hardest to live it out and who admit when they stumble and who get back up and try again. The world wants to hear the Gospel – and the world wants Christians on fire with God’s love. Will we proclaim the Gospel, and will we let the Gospel ignite our hearts with God’s love?