Inadequacies of the Gospel
I am studying for my sermon next Sunday and reading a little piece about the Colossians reading and discovered this little gem about the community in colossa, or whatever their name was, and the news they were receiving about the Gospel not being adequate for their faith.
It reads: "There is a host of different ways in which contemporary believers can be tempted to feel that the basic gospel message is inadequate and that it needs to be supplemented by additional religious rites or disciplines, more sophisticated knowledge, or some compelling experience, if they are to be accepted by God or to reach their full potential as human beings. They need to hear... that there is no inadequacy about its basic message."
Now, I don't know about you, but that was kind of wonderful to hear. It gave my heart a boost, to think that the Gospel message as we have it is all that we need to understand the basic message of faith, the basic message of Christ.
We are in the midst of studying what it means to be missional, or rather, how we can come to understand what God is up to here in the Garden and in Elliot Park and the Downtown community and what our response to God's mission will be. What we are slowly discovering is that everything we need, we have.
We do not need more book studies, we do not need more programs to minister to people who don't need to experience the kind of ministry that program offers. We must instead listen to how God is speaking to us and respond in great love. We must dwell in the scripture, particularly the Gospel, so we can authentically do a ministry that is truly transformational.
Justice, that is what we are called to do, the Jeremiah reading for Sunday speaks to that, to the need to understand that our worship must be about justice, it must prepare us to stand for the poor, the needy, the oppressed, the widowed, the orphaned, all those who live on the margins. When our worship becomes something that is solely for my own meditative benefit, all bets are off and God leaves the building.
To do justice is to be missional, to be missional is to do justice. That is where at the Diocesan level of things we are missing the point. We are so worried about the money we have or do not have, we are so worried about the rules we have or do not yet have, that we can not DO mission, that cannot DO ministry. If our parishes, Diocesan wide are prepared to step into that black hole and through our own ministry, network and build the Diocese through the ministries we have, then so be it, let's go.
Bishop Jelinek said in our clergy meeting a while back, something like, "Let's get on with doing mission." I agree, let's, all together, get on with doing and being mission in the world, participating in the work that God has already begun.
Be well,
A+
It reads: "There is a host of different ways in which contemporary believers can be tempted to feel that the basic gospel message is inadequate and that it needs to be supplemented by additional religious rites or disciplines, more sophisticated knowledge, or some compelling experience, if they are to be accepted by God or to reach their full potential as human beings. They need to hear... that there is no inadequacy about its basic message."
Now, I don't know about you, but that was kind of wonderful to hear. It gave my heart a boost, to think that the Gospel message as we have it is all that we need to understand the basic message of faith, the basic message of Christ.
We are in the midst of studying what it means to be missional, or rather, how we can come to understand what God is up to here in the Garden and in Elliot Park and the Downtown community and what our response to God's mission will be. What we are slowly discovering is that everything we need, we have.
We do not need more book studies, we do not need more programs to minister to people who don't need to experience the kind of ministry that program offers. We must instead listen to how God is speaking to us and respond in great love. We must dwell in the scripture, particularly the Gospel, so we can authentically do a ministry that is truly transformational.
Justice, that is what we are called to do, the Jeremiah reading for Sunday speaks to that, to the need to understand that our worship must be about justice, it must prepare us to stand for the poor, the needy, the oppressed, the widowed, the orphaned, all those who live on the margins. When our worship becomes something that is solely for my own meditative benefit, all bets are off and God leaves the building.
To do justice is to be missional, to be missional is to do justice. That is where at the Diocesan level of things we are missing the point. We are so worried about the money we have or do not have, we are so worried about the rules we have or do not yet have, that we can not DO mission, that cannot DO ministry. If our parishes, Diocesan wide are prepared to step into that black hole and through our own ministry, network and build the Diocese through the ministries we have, then so be it, let's go.
Bishop Jelinek said in our clergy meeting a while back, something like, "Let's get on with doing mission." I agree, let's, all together, get on with doing and being mission in the world, participating in the work that God has already begun.
Be well,
A+
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