DOCSLIB.ORG

The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus THE SCANDALOUS GOSPEL OF JESUS What's So Good About the Good News? PETER J. GOMES HarperOne An Imprint of HarperCoIlinsPwWishers <9 HarperOne THE SCANDALOUS GOSPEL OF JESUS: What's So Good About the Good News? Copyright © 2007 by Peter J. Gomes. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatso­ ever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promo­ tional use. For information please write: Special Markets Department, Harper­ Collins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. HarperCollins Web site: http://www.harpercollins.com HarperCollins®, g| ®, and HarperOne™ are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers. FIRST EDITION Designed by Joseph Rutt Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available. ISBN: 978-0-06-000073-8 08 09 IO II RRD (H) IO 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 To Pelham Wilder Jr. 1920- and Sterly Lebey Wilder 1921-1998 Splendid partners Wonderful friends Contents Introduction I PART I The Trouble with Scripture ONE We Start with the Bible 9 TWO An Offending Gospel 25 THREE The Risks of Nonconformity 45 FOUR What Would Jesus Have Me Do? 65 PART 2 The Gospel and the Conventional Wisdom FIVE The Gospel and Fear 89 six The Gospel and Conflict 109 SEVEN The Gospel and the Future 137 Vlll Contents PART 3 Where Do We Go from Here? EIGHT A Social Gospel 161 NINE An Inclusive Gospel 187 TEN A Gospel of Hope 209 ELEVEN Conclusion 231 Acknowledgments 247 Notes 249 Index 253 Introduction The great principle dominating the composition of Scripture is that of the ascent towards discovery. —Henri Daniel-Rops, What Is the Bible? When I remember that the literal translation of the term gospel is "good news," I recall a wonderful encounter with her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. In the summer of 2001, I found myself at divine service in the parish church in Windsor Great Park, where the royal family attends Sunday worship when in Windsor. The parish church is tiny, Victorian, and Gothic, com­ plete with a choir composed of estate workers, and on the Sunday in question both Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother were in attendance. lb my great delight, immediately following the service I was in­ vited to join mother and daughter for drinks at Royal Lodge, the Windsor residence of the Queen Mother. Then in her one hundred and second year, she was holding court in the form of a splendid 2 THE SCANDALOUS GOSPEL OF JESUS pre-luncheon party in a setting worthy of a Merchant and Ivory film, and eventually I was summoned into the royal presence, where Her Majesty maintained a lively conversation. Among other obser­ vations, the Queen Mother remarked on how excellent the sermon had been. "Don't you agree?" she asked me, which is a difficult question for an honest clergyman to answer, so I did what anyone would do under the circumstances: I agreed. Then, with that world- class twinkle in her eye, the Queen Mother remarked, "I do like a bit of good news on Sunday, don't you?" To that declaration I gave hearty assent, for the great gift of the Christian faith is the proclamation of good news even in bad or dif­ ficult times. To be reminded of the good news is to be reminded of the real gospel, and in some sense I owe what follows here to that casually accurate remark of the Queen Mother, who unknowingly serves as the inspiration for these thoughts on the substance of Jesus' preaching and teaching. I cherish her remark as a reminder not only of a delightful and memorable morning, but of why Chris­ tians continue to be sustained by the real gospel message of Jesus Christ. For that small insight into a great truth I shall always be in happy debt to her late Majesty. For many years now I have preached and taught from the Bible. As an ordained Christian minister I am expected to do so, and as a uni­ versity preacher and professor I regard this task as one of my greatest and happiest responsibilities. It is not, however, easy work. The Bible itself is a complicated collection of books, written by many hands over many years and in a wide variety of media, including poetry, history, parable, theology, and apocalypse. To say that the books are inspired or written according to a theory of divine dictation does not make them any easier to read or understand; if the Bible were simple to understand and easy to appropriate, then preachers and theolo­ gians would have nothing to do and there could be no excuse for the spiritual and moral chaos in which the world habitually finds itself. Introduction 3 To some degree, one more book on the Bible is always justified, for if we honestly search the scriptures and live honestly in our own time and not in some other, we are likely to discover something new or hear something old afresh. We can appreciate the enigmatic truth in the title of one of Marcus Borg's most successful books of biblical scholarship, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. So I venture one more book on the Bible, and presume to add to the groaning shelves on this seemingly inexhaustible subject. This, however, is a Bible book with a difference. When in 19961 wrote The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, I did so with the assumption that the most popular bestseller was not necessarily the best-read book, and I wanted the average person to be able to read the Bible with the benefit of a century of the best critical schol­ arship. My hope was that people would pass beyond their reverence for scripture and actually see what it had to say. In my second book in this series, The Good Life: Truths That Last in Times of Need, I hoped to make it possible for the faithful and intelligent reader of the Bible to apply it to that which helped make a good life, rather than just a good living. I wrote in the heated aftermath of the terrible events of September 11, 2001, with the hope that the Bible and the truths to which it points would issue in the living of lives of noble purpose. Now I write another Bible book, with the radical suggestion that we use the Bible to go beyond the Bible and embrace that to which it points: the gospel, or the good news. In a time when it is easier to write about doom and gloom than about hope and promise, I sug­ gest that Jesus came into the world not as a Bible teacher directing us back into a text, but as one who proclaimed a realm beyond the Bible. He proclaimed his good news against the conventional wisdom of his day, taking up with unacceptable people and advanc­ ing dangerous, even revolutionary, ideas, nearly all of which remain to be discovered and acted upon. I have always been persuaded of the truth of the aphorism attributed to G. K. Chesterton, that 4 THE SCANDALOUS GOSPEL OF JESUS "Christianity is not a faith that has been tried and found wanting, but a faith that has been wanted and never tried." My argument, initially inspired by Vanderbilt University theolo­ gian Edward Farley's seminal article, entitled "Preaching the Bible and Preaching the Gospel,"1 has taken me to the conviction that in order to take seriously the gospel, that is, the content and direction of Jesus' own preaching and teaching, we must dare to venture beyond the Bible itself and into the uncharted territory of the gospel. I was encouraged to do this by a sense that the times in which Jesus did his preaching and teaching were remarkably similar to our own. Then, as now, there was a large and lively enterprise of religion, but beneath the surface of conformity ran deep rivers of fear, disappointment, and frustration. Then, as now, the world found it easier to deal with bad news or conventional wisdom, and thus resisted the in-breaking of anything new or confrontational. Jesus' death on the cross made it clear that the world to which he preached the glad tidings was not prepared to hear them or to take seriously the one who proclaimed them. The "battles for the Bible," which have been fought as skirmishes in the larger culture wars for centuries but with a particular inten­ sity in our own times, have not proved edifying. There may be more Bibles in more tongues and hands now than at any other time in human history, yet the world seems no nearer to the kingdom of God than it ever has been. As a consequence of this view, some say that the gospel is a fraud, an illusion sustained only by a gullible public, and others say that things are so bad that the end of the world must be at hand, and the sooner it comes, the better. I embrace neither of these positions in this book, and I write for those for whom neither position is credible or acceptable. I believe that there is a vast universe of people of goodwill and reasonable intelligence eager to give the Christian faith a chance to speak in their lives and world, who are not satisfied with the conventional Introduction 5 wisdom, and who find things as they are simply not good enough.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Prelude for Transfiguration - Matthew H
    F I R S T C O N G R E G A T I O N A L C H U R C H HYMN O Wondrous Sight, O Vision Fair 75 B E N N I N G T O N , V E R M O N T (LYRICS REPRINTED AT THE END OF THE ORDER OF SERVICE) This anonymous fifteenth-century hymn was written for the Feast of Transfiguration. The Latin Vermont’s Colonial Shrine: Welcoming all to share God’s light, original was included in the Sarum Breviary (1495). The translation by John Mason Neale was and proclaiming God’s embracing love since 1806 published in The Hymnal Noted (1851). This hymn is set to the tune Deo Gracias which is an English melody dating from the fifteenth century. It was composed as the setting for a ballad recalling the success of the British army over the French in Normandy (agincourt), about 1415. It T H E REV . K E N N E T H A. C LARKE , M I N IS T E R ended with the words “Deo gracias.” When the tune became associated as a hymn setting, its name GENE MARIE CALLAHAN, ORGANIST became Deo Gracias. FEBRUARY 14, 2021 SECOND LESSON Mark 9:2-9 p. 820 TRANSFIGURATION SUNDAY PRELUDE Prelude for Transfiguration - Matthew H. Corl SERMON Staying Close By OPENING WORDS (responsive) HYMN Not Always on the Mount (LYRICS REPRINTED AT THE END OF THE ORDER OF SERVICE) Let us praise the Lord with open hearts. This hymn was written by Frederick Lucian Hosmer (1840-1929).
    [Show full text]
  • Unitarian Hymn-Writers, to Meet the Require- Ments of the Student of Hymnody
    BY H. W. STEPHENSON, M.A. PREFACE 1 HAVE not attempted, in these brief notices of Unitarian hymn-writers, to meet the require- ments of the student of Hymnody. My aim has been to interest the general reader in what has interested me. The text, therefore, is not bur- First +ublishbd, Dec. 1931 dened with footnotes and references. The chief sources of information, so far as they are known to me, are indicated in the Bibliography at the end of the book. In many cases, however, I have failed to find any memoir adequate to my purpose, and have had to make use of " appreciations " such as have appeared in this journal or that, scanty obituary notices, and scattered references in other biographies, memoirs, and reminiscences. Complete acknowledgment of sources is hardly possible, and may be regarded as unnecessary. Primarily, the Bibliography is given in order that any interested reader may not be entirely without guidance if there is the desire to know more than could be included in these pages. Though en- PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LTD. tirely responsible for what is here presented, I Bungay, Suffolk gladly acknowledge my indebtedness to the Rev. v , PREFACE Valentine D. Davis for reading most of the copy in MS. and the whole of the proofs. For his long-continued and careful work on Unitarian Hymnody Mr. Davis has earned the gratitude of us all. CONTENTS PAGE I. JOHNJOHNS (1801-1847) . 9 11. SIR JOHNBOWRING (1792-1872) I 6 111. SARAHFLOWER ADAMS (1805-1848) . 25 IV. FREDERICHENRY HEDGE ( ~805-I890) .
    [Show full text]
  • Baylor University
    ABSTRACT We Believe in the Communion of Saints: A Proposed Protestant Reclamation of the Doctrine Jonathan Scott Speegle Mentor: Bob Patterson, Ph.D. The corrective theology of the Reformation broke the historic union, at least in Europe, among all members of the kingdom of God. Perhaps the most serious Protestant loss—one still not satisfactorily recovered—is the doctrine of the communion between pilgrims and saints, especially when we remember that the Reformation declared all Christians to be saints, not just those who had been officially beatified and canonized. So, while the theology of the Church’s true treasury may have been corrected, Protestant Christians remain bereft of a satisfactory explication of their creedal claim that “we believe in the Communion of Saints” Hence there is a Protestant need for a recovered doctrine of the Communion of Saints as including the dead no less than the living. This proposed reclamation of the doctrine of the Communion of Saints living and dead for Protestant Christianity will be attempted in this dissertation in three parts. Part one will survey the historical development of the doctrine and outline the reasons for its ultimate rejection. Part two will construct a biblically grounded eschatological context through which we can understand, in part, the life beyond. Part three will explore the Church’s understanding of the various interactions between believers on earth and those in heaven. The story of Augustine’s mother Monica’s internment will introduce the Communion of Saints as a spiritual bond which knits together the faithful in this world and the saints beyond in a mystical organic and historic unity within which there exists a mutuality of faith, prayer, and love that is best and most fully expressed in the Eucharistic feast.
    [Show full text]
  • The Poets' Lincoln; Tributes in Verse to the Martyred President
    iift of if asou swomc pterce Edition Limited to 250 Copies Poets Lincoln TRIBUTES IN VERSE TO THE MARTYRED PRESIDENT Selected by OSBORN H. OLDROYD AUTHOR OFj&quot;THE ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND EDITOR OF THE &quot;WORDS OF LINCOLN&quot; With many portraits of Lincoln, illustrations of events in his life, etc. PUBLISHED BY THE EDITOR AT &quot;THE HOUSE WHERE LINCOLN DIED WASHINGTON, D. C. 1915 Copyright 1915, by OSBORN H. OLDROYD ACKNOWLEDGMENT Editor is most grateful to the various authors who THEhave willingly given their consent to the use of their respective poems in the compilation of this volume. It has been a somewhat difficult problem, not only to select the more appropriate productions, but also to find the names of their authors, for in his Lincoln collection there are many hundreds of poems which have appeared from time to time in magazines, newspapers and other productions, some of which are accom panied by more than one name as author of the same poem. In a number of instances it has been difficult to ascertain the name of the actual owner of the copyright, the poems having been printed in so many forms without the copyright mark attached. The Editor in particular extends his grateful acknowledg ment to the Houghton Mifflin Company for permission to reprint the &quot;Emancipation Group&quot; by John G. Whittier; the &quot;Life Mask&quot; by Richard Watson Gilder; &quot;The Hand of Lincoln&quot; by Clarence Stedman; &quot;Commemoration Ode&quot; by James Russell Lowell, and the &quot;Gettysburg Address&quot; by Bayard Taylor; to Charles Scribner s Sons for two &quot;Lincoln&quot; poems by Richard Henry Stoddard; and to the J.
    [Show full text]
  • A Backward Glance at Eighty, Recollections & Comments, by Charles A
    A backward glance at eighty, recollections & comments, by Charles A. Murdock; Massachusetts 1841, Humboldt Bay 1855, San Francisco 1864 A CAMERA GLANCE AT EIGHTY A BACKWARD GLANCE AT EIGHTY RECOLLECTIONS & COMMENT BY CHARLES A. MURDOCK MASSACHUSETTS 1841 HUMBOLDT BAY 1855 SAN FRANCISCO 1864 PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 1921 COPYRIGHT, 1921 A backward glance at eighty, recollections & comments, by Charles A. Murdock; Massachusetts 1841, Humboldt Bay 1855, San Francisco 1864 http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.137 BY CHAS. A. MURDOCK PRESS NEAL, STRATFORD & KERR THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED TO THE FRIENDS WHO INSPIRED IT MEMORIAL EDITION No.— Chas A Murdock CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. NEW ENGLAND 1 II. A HIDDEN HARBOR 21 III. NINE YEARS NORTH 43 IV. THE REAL BRET HARTE 69 V. SAN FRANCISCO—THE SIXTIES 99 VI. LATER SAN FRANCISCO 131 VII. INCIDENTS IN PUBLIC SERVICE 157 VIII. AN INVESTMENT 183 IX. BY-PRODUCT 199 X. CONCERNING PERSONS 217 XI. OUTINGS 247 XII. OCCASIONAL VERSE 269 EPILOGUE 275 ILLUSTRATIONS A CAMERA GLANCE AT EIGHTY Frontispiece PAGE HUMBOLDT BAY, WINSHIP MAP 40 FRANCIS BRET HARTE (Saroney, 1874) 80 THE CLAY-STREET OFFICE THE DAY AFTER 152 THOMAS STARR KING (Original given Bret Harte) 184 HORATIO STEBBINS, SAN FRANCISCO, 1864-1900 192 HORACE DAVIS, HARVARD IN 1836 224 OUTINGS: THE SIERRAS, HAWAII 264 A backward glance at eighty, recollections & comments, by Charles A. Murdock; Massachusetts 1841, Humboldt Bay 1855, San Francisco 1864 http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.137 FOREWORD IN the autumn of 1920 the Board of Directors of the Pacific Coast Conference of Unitarian Churches took note of the approaching eightieth birthday of Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Class of Sixty Tenn Harvard University Fiftietb Nniversary
    — — 1862 C/a55 Report 1912 ’ C l a s s of S ix ty T en n H a r v a r d U n iv e r s ity Fift ie t b fin n iv e rs a ry ’ C a mt riage 7 am twentietb N ineteen Twelve C o n t e n t s T HE CLASS OF 1862 GRADU AT ES BIOGRAPHIES T EMPORARY MEMBERS BIRTHDAYS MARRIAGES CHILDREN DEATHS THE CLASS IN THE WAR ADDRESSES PORTRAITS OF TH E CLASS T b e C l a s s of 1 8 6 2 GRADUATES ARTHUR AMORY CHARLES CARROLL BALCH MURRA Y ROBERTS BALLOU LUTHER GUSTAVUS BARRETT WILLIAM FRANCIS BARTLE TT T R WARRE EARD 1870 I HAMA N B , JAME S VILA BLAKE EDWARD CARSON BOWMAN CHARLES BOYDEN SOLOMON HOYT BRACKETT WILLIAM TU FTS BRIGH AM JOSEPH PERRIN BURRAGE CLARK CARTER WILLIAM HOBBS CHADBOURN TH OMAS LINC OLN CHADBOURNE GEORGE EDWIN CHA PMAN JAMES GILMAN COLE CHARLE S JEROME COLEMAN TH OMAS BUCKMINSTER CURTIS BEN MAJOR DAVENPORT ALBERT EDWIN DAVIS JOH N RICHARD DENNE T T JOHN HOAG DILLINGHAM CHARLE S T ROWBRIDGE DWIGHT ALBERT WILLIAM EDMANDS JOHN HOWARD ELLIS EDWARD ELI ENSIGN HERCU LE S WARRE N FAY GEORGE ALFRE D FISKE SAMU EL EA T ON FIT ' ’ viii C A S S O F S I T Y —T O — W . L X E U . GEORGE ALBERT FLETCHER CHARLE S FOLLE N FOLSOM SHE PARD DE VERE U X GILBERT FRA NCIS WEBST ER GOSS JAM E S INGERSOLL GRA FT ON JAME S GRE EN CHARLE S E'RA GRE ENE CHA RLES EDWARD GRINNELL SAMUE L CU SHM A N HAVE N MAYO WILLIAMSON HA 'ELTINE WILLIAM H EDGE CHARLE S EDWARD HICKLING JOHN HODGE S FREDERICK LUC IAN HOSMER JOHN ELBRID GE H U D SON FREDERIC WOLTERS H U IDEKOPER HE NRY SHIPPEN HU IDEKOPER HENRY UPHAM JE FFRIE S DERMOT WARBUR T ON KEE GAN CHARLE S PARKER KEMP W AM H E R KER
    [Show full text]
  • J#A'.Iirsf^^*^^ L S'"^V • ^-, •
    VOLUME 38 NUMBER 3 SPRING, 1955 %'.-ak WRi|| -M'^M llfiill- iftj#a'.iirSf^^*^^ l s'"^v • ^-, • ''V 11 'M ^"l j .£(W W".'* R 1 £ ?i' • ^&J| ' '« V "• -V* i? X<» T"t ^.: •.<!n.,^. •'•-•1>*3 Here it is: springtime in miniature, picturing beauty and stillness. Sequestered, with bird song and quiet flow of the Mullet, here is peace in ISature^s little spot. Mirroring the trees crowding its bank, the placid stream flows a leisurely way through Old Wade House State Park, a unit of the hill and vale and forest of the lovely Kettle Moraine landscape. A more extensive view ON THE COVER would picture in the foreground, left, massive Wade House, brooding over a bygone day; to the right, the restored blacksmith shop, sheltering its own bulky treasures. Great elms—fresh green—shading the stage­ coach inn, wild flowering crabapple wearing a blush of pink, native shrubs showing their own blossom splendor, all silently at work to give someone a moment of beauty and surcease from toil. The WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published by the Stale Historical Soricty of Wis­ consin, 816 State Street, Madison 6, Wisconsin. Distributed to members as part of their dues (Annual Membership, $4.00; Contributing, $10; Business and Professional, $25: Life, $100; Sustaining, $100 or more annually; Patron, $1,000 or more annually.) \ early subscription, $4.00; single numbers, $1.00. As of July 1, 1954, introductory offer for NKVV members only, Annual dues $1.00, Magazine subscription $3.00. Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors.
    [Show full text]
  • Congregational Record.Pdf
    Dear Congregation, Welcome to the 2018-19 Ministerial Search Congregational Record! This document was written by the Ministerial Search Committee, based on five months of research, conversation, and discernment including the results of the congregational survey and six focus groups. (The complete survey results are available separately on our website, http://firstuustlouis.org/ about-us/ministerial-search-committee.) The questions were given to us by the UUA and are standardized across all congregations currently in search. The purpose of the Congregational Record is to convey to ministerial candidates as complete and honest a portrayal of our congregation as possible. Although we hope and believe that the document will also serve as material for ongoing conversations in the congregation, that was not its intended purpose. Also, please be aware that it has already been shared with candidates and can no longer be changed. As a reminder, these are the principles we have committed to uphold throughout the search process in our covenant with the congregation, and which we have kept in mind as we wrote this Congregational Record: 1. Recognize and remain grateful for the trust bestowed upon us by the congregation. 2. Follow the search process and best practices as determined by the UUA Transitions Office based on the experiences of congregations and ministers over decades of time. 3. Conduct our work with due diligence and to the best of our ability. 4. Keep the congregation informed of the search process. 5. Maintain transparency in the search process, while keeping some information confidential as necessary. 6. Strive to discover what is best for our church, not what may be best for ourselves or a small group of the congregation.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Visioning Local Congregations As Being the Exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the World
    Please HONOR the copyright of these documents by not retransmitting or making any additional copies in any form (Except for private personal use). We appreciate your respectful cooperation. ___________________________ Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) P.O. Box 30183 Portland, Oregon 97294 USA Website: www.tren.com E-mail: [email protected] Phone# 1-800-334-8736 ___________________________ ATTENTION CATALOGING LIBRARIANS TREN ID# Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) MARC Record # RE-VISIONING LOCAL CONGREGATIONS AS BEING THE EXHIBITION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD TO THE WORLD A MINISTRY FOCUS PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY JAMES A. TWEEDIE JULY 2011 ABSTRACT Re-visioning Local Congregations as Being the Exhibition of the Kingdom of God to the World James A. Tweedie Doctor of Ministry School of Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary 2011 The goal of this study is to explore the relationship between the biblical and theological understandings of Jesus’ image of the kingdom of God and a local congregation. This paper argues that Jesus’ image of the kingdom of God can provide a more comprehensive and effective model for the life and mission of Reformed Protestant congregations in Hawaii than other images and models that are more common and more widely used. The thesis was tested through new membership classes, sermon series, Bible study groups in Mililani Presbyterian Church in Mililani, Hawaii, and Ocean Beach Presbyterian Church in Seaview, Washington. Through an examination of Scripture this study identifies the kingdom of God as the central theme of Jesus’ thought and teaching and the preeminent image used by him to represent the “abundant life” accessible to his followers.
    [Show full text]