Gospel Means Good News

Thus we continue in our Lenten series: “Into the Wilderness.” As we make this pilgrimage together, our goal is that this would be a season of renewal and preparation. That it would be a time where we would be intentional to experience renewal by the grace of God through addition rather than subtraction. That it would be a time where we would be prepared for Easter and the embrace of this new normal. Today, we take a break from our series examining poetry so that we might lift up our common story and discern God’s calling and will for our church.

I read Paul’s exhortation to “hold this treasure in clay jars,” and hear the early church articulating the inexplicable—God is with us. This One who is the Creator of the universe, Lord over all came to earth in the form of a servant so that we might have life and life abundant. This One who came did not come to exercise the kind of power, control, and cruelty that I had come to experience, but offered a different way that we ourselves could participate in. This new life which confesses the name of Jesus is distinctly different in that it seeks wholeness and connectedness as its end. In this way, we confess ourselves, but Christ who is in us. We are not our own but are connected creatures in creation sustained by the grace of our Creator. To this end, we must articulate for ourselves just how this gospel is good news. For me, at its most basic the good news can be summed up as such: “God, in loving freedom, freely chose to become God for us.” Scripture tells this story. God’s reconciling work to humanity and the universe is shown from Israel to Jesus to the church. This is a story that we are invited to participate in even as the prophets, priests, and people of Israel participated. It is a story of resurrection. Where once there was evil, sin, and death, God has resurrected goodness, connection, and life. It is a story of reconciliation. Where once there was division and strife, we find harmony and peace. We are not only given the gift of eternal life, but we have been given the first fruits of reconciliation. But what does that look like? For me? For us?

I was born in a Christian home and encountered Jesus when I was four years old at a Vacation Bible School event. While I walked with God through my adolescent and teenage years, it was a later experience of God’s grace that continually shapes story, worldview, and starting point. When I was a sophomore in high school, I became very depressed. I had lost several friendships, experienced bullying, and came to feel like no one cared about me. In one of my darkest moments, I experienced something profound. I felt God call out to me, “Andrew, I love you.” All the noise in my head stopped. The God of the universe knows even me. “Andrew, I love you.” I had known God throughout my life, but it was at this moment where I felt the overwhelming, transformative love of God. Indeed, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away. Despite feeling rejection, I realized that I was not alone in this world. I realized that no matter how far I ran or hid I could not escape the grace of God. Even though I knew God all my life, this experience continues to shape my story and witness. This is the good news that I carry with me: that “Light shone out of the darkness.”[1]

The unearned, unmerited grace is the treasure we hold in clay jars—clay jars which are metaphors for our human vulnerability. While we are the ones who hold this treasure, the frailty of these vessels make it clear that this new creation formed by grace and sustained in love has not fashioned by our hands. The faith which we hold dear “belongs to God and does not come from us.”[2] Indeed, it takes shape in our paradoxical experiences of being afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.[3] It becomes manifest in our bodies as we give ourselves up to death for Jesus’ sake—as we die to the distorted patterns that harm us and others and take on the suffering that comes with embodying God’s mercy and consolation amid forces that contradict it.[4] This is how the life of Jesus becomes manifest in our bodies. This is how death in us becomes life for others.[5]

Despite the accusations against him, Paul’s message is not an ideology that he uses to control others. Rather, it is grounded in the one who raised the Lord Jesus. It points again and again and again to the One who will not only raise him but desires to bring all into Jesus’ loving presence. This is why Paul can say that everything he does is for their sake—because grace, as it extends to more and more people, is always about an overflow of thanksgiving, to God’s glory.[6] For this reason, Paul does not depict these extreme hardships in order to highlight his own strength amidst adversity nor does not present them as an ideal of suffering to follow. Instead, his point underscores that God’s “shining” through us occurs precisely as we rely solely on God’s promises of justice and mercy despite what may afflict us.

So who, as the children of God, do we become as a result of all this? What marks this new creation Paul tells us about? What persists in us that is authentically us, in spite of the transformation which works in us? “Who” we become is now defined solely by carrying Jesus’ death around in our bodies. Only in this way can Jesus’ life be manifest in those bodies. And “what” defines our identity over time is nothing other than being continually given up to death for Jesus’ sake and the reign of God he embodied.[7] Only in this way is Jesus’ life manifest amidst the afflictions we experience in our finite flesh. Dying in Jesus, we now live solely for the one who died for all so that all might live. This now is what has been written on our hearts. This now is what identifies us as the people of God, in spite of what happens to us. As Paul succinctly put it, “death in us, life for you.”[8] As all that distorts and spoils our created goodness dies in Jesus, so also is the flourishing of new creation raised in us as we are joined in Jesus’ resurrection. Here, this flourishing and renewal entails sharing in the sufferings of Jesus. It requires us to continually surrender that which this crucified Messiah, the Wisdom of God, embodied.[9] In fact, it is precisely as we share in Jesus’ life and sufferings that the light of God’s glory shines. Amidst our fragile clay jars the glory of this crucified Messiah shines forth. This is how death in us becomes life-giving for others.

Here we find our common story as the faithful of Corvallis United Methodist Church. Despite our diverse stories and encounters with God, each of us holds this same good news in our hearts. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life. Lord Jesus, come in glory. So it is that our witness is not meant to be for ourselves only, but to be shared as good news to and for all. Here, evangelism does not exist to further its own practice or even to further the practices of the church. Evangelism exists to invite people into the good news of God.”[10] Together, as the body of Christ, we have the opportunity as leaders of the church to rediscover the grace of God which far eclipses minimalist interpretations of “going to heaven when we die.” We have the opportunity to participate in God’s saving work even as we pray, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Look and see for the horizons of our faith possibilities are beyond count or comprehension. Together, we are given the task to dream, imagine, and construct our uniquely Corvallis United Methodist Christian witness that affects the hearts, minds, and souls of individuals, communities, and social structures. With this treasure in clay jars, we are invited to abundantly share the good news of Jesus as we point again and again to Christ in our piety, worship, mercy, and justice ministries.

Let us recall for a moment our mission statement: At Corvallis UMC it is our mission to be Christ’s hands and feet in the heart of the valley by seeking the transformation of lives and the well-being of our community. This is our common story which we are sharing with our community. We are the hands and feet of Christ when we participate in community meals which serve the homeless, widowed, food disadvantaged, and sick. We are the hands and feet of Christ when we take part in Spring clean-up days. We are the hands and feet of Christ when we partner with local churches to put on Vacation Bible School. We are the hands and feet of Christ when we put on dinners like our Saint Patrick’s Day Dinner and show our neighborhood’s the joy, hope, and love we have in our hearts. We are the hands and feet of Christ when we study Scripture, pray, and worship and we invite others into those activities. This is who we are called to be: the ones who proclaim the good news of God with us. The one’s who wear the grace of God in our hearts as we engage in works of mercy and piety. The one’s who share Christ’s love in our neighborhood as we share with word and deed the resurrected power of Jesus.

Do you feel God nudging you this morning? Do you feel God calling you to a particular people or ministry? Let’s take a moment and leave room for the Spirit to lead us. Write this person, people, ministry, or cause down on a piece of paper or record it on your cell phone. Once you have written this down, I encourage you to share it with myself, a friend, or a few folks in our congregation. Together, prayerfully consider next steps and consider how you respond to the call you have received. As the people of this church, let us embrace our mission statement and our callings. Let us be the ones who do not hoard the riches of God’s grace, but share it by our words and deeds. Let us be the people that embrace the final paragraph of our reading this morning:

13 But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. 15 Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.[11]

[1] 2 Cor. 4:6.

[2] 2 Cor. 4:7.

[3] 2 Cor. 4:8-9.

[4] Lois Malcolm, “Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:1-15,” Working Preacher (Luther Seminary, June 5, 2016), https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/preaching-series-on-2-corinthians-3/commentary-on-2-corinthians-41-15.

[5] 2 Cor. 4:10-11.

[6] Malcolm, “Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:1-15.”; 2 Cor. 4:12-15.

[7] Lois Malcolm, “Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:5-12,” Working Preacher (Luther Seminary, June 3, 2018), https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-09-2/commentary-on-2-corinthians-45-12.

[8] 2 Cor. 4:12.

[9] Malcolm, “Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:5-12.”

[10] Mark R. Teasdale, Evangelism for Non-Evangelists: Sharing the Gospel Authentically (Westmont, IL: IVP Academic, 2016).

[11] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), 2 Co 4:1–15.