Re-doing "gospel"

"I don't preach a social gospel; I preach the gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned with the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, 'Now is that political or social?' He said, 'I feed you.' Because the good news to a hungry person is bread." - Desmond Tutu

I read this on the daily Sojourners.com e-mailing sent to me today. It tugs at my heart because so much of what Christian leaders do seems to have to be tempered so that "everybody can get on board", or where church leadership is encouraged to balance "fun" activities with "service" activities. I have read the gospel often, and would love for someone to point out to me where Jesus watered down his message or activity or made sure to include "game time" so his disciples wouldn't get bored. Those who wanted to be on board got on board - the rest remained either disinterested or were prompting his crucifixion. The earliest disciples saw the work they were engaged in as so important that they, well, just did it. Imagine: they didn't have either the time or the notion to stop and say, "Am I having fun? Shouldn't we have a party or something to keep morale up?"

I am not suggesting that we shouldn't try to get others involved in ministry, or that we can't have fun. But maybe we could get more accomplished if we quit trying to convince the unconvinceable; we stopped tempering the important projects we see in our midst to get to the lowest common denominator; and stopped distracting ourselves from God's call in our lives by replacing it with mindless and soul-less recreation.

Instead, let us see the gospel as what it really is: Good News. Good news is not just that you will get "pie in the sky when you die. Bye and Bye. That's a lie" (the latter addition is to quote the great Utah Phillips). This "pie in the sky" kind of message was meant to keep poor people content with their life's lot so they wouldn't stir the waters too much against the hierarchy. No, Good News is not just about eternal salvation, but its about living the life and teaching of Christ in real and tangible ways. Delivering good news is giving a basket of food to the hungry with a smile and a warm heart. Good news is taking your wheel chair down the hall and grieving with the woman whose husband just died. Good news is learning to speak a different language so that you can help your neighbor figure out her taxes. Good news is taking extra time to help a dyslexic child with his reading. Good news might be calling recently-elected, local politicians to task who are behaving like 4 year olds. I would argue that the gospel is always social and always inter-active.

Is your idea of living Christian to sit at home and "develop your own spiritual relationship" and that's it? Study harder, because Jesus in his life and teaching is calling you to get off your duff and make the gospel come alive. What ways can you be the deliverer of the Good News?