1:21-23 – You, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

This gospel Paul speaks of, has been proclaimed “in all creation.”

It brings to mind passages that seem to contradict this idea:

Matthew 24:14 – “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

I’ve heard this verse used many times to support foreign missions — basically that if we don’t preach the gospel to every single people group in the world, “the end” will not come.

But, for me, this just creates a lot of questions…

The “gospel of the kingdom”…WHO is proclaiming it? HOW is it to be proclaimed?

John 1:9 – The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

I love this verse. I’ve used it many times. It’s a foundational idea to how we are trying to engage the arts. Christ, the True Light, enlightens not only believers, but everyone. WHO is exempt?

I wonder how this relates to this verse:

Rom. 1:19 – What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

Or even this one:

Rom. 1:21 – For although they knew God…

I have tried to understand what “knowledge” truly is for quite some time now. This passage seems to be saying that the “unrighteous,” in some sense, know God.

Acts 17:23 – “…What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you…”

Paul takes something that these thinkers are seemingly ignorant about, and declares that this unknown god is truly God.

Another interesting thing about this passage in Acts is that Paul doesn’t specifically mention the name “Jesus.” Why? In verse 17:18 it says, “he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection,” but in the actual text of his speaking, he does not say Jesus.

What does this say about the idea that Christ is the only way to God? Or even, what does it say about our preaching? Are we required to say the name Jesus this or that many times?

Of course, I am not trying to denigrate the name of Christ, or the centrality of Christ, but…maybe God is “free” to use more than us simply inserting certain words into our conversations, in order to feel we have “accomplished” something.

Maybe if we think of only confessing believers being able to “preach the gospel”, we are limiting the scope of the Kingdom. Maybe Newbigin is right, God is always ahead of us, working when we are not — the prevenience of the gospel.

I also wonder how the relational aspect of missions can be lost when our thinking is directly primarily at “reaching” the most amount of people, with the ultimate end of the “Second Coming”?

Rick’s book is based on a series of sermons he did last year, which you can download here.

As we move into Advent season, we have been thinking a lot about some ideas that Rick touches on in the book. I seem to keep running into these same thoughts from various authors and pastors, like Eugene Peterson, Walter Brueggemann, N.T. Wright, and Lesslie Newbigin…

As He looked into their eyes, He saw a question: “Are you the one?” And behind the question He saw longing. Longing for “the one” to come and explain why the world was such a wreck. Longing for rescue, for healing, for one moment of insight that would change it all. Longing for their one true king to show up and reclaim his kingdom and kick the Roman occupiers out and make everything right again.

We’re using the lectionary this year for Advent, and the overarching theme I kept coming across was really this same idea. The idea of misplaced hope, of false expectations. That God is a mystery and we can’t put him into our box. I am looking forward to this time together as a community.

present indulgence: american football

present indulgence: converge – petitioning the empty sky