Liturgical Calendar - Jeremiah's Vow

Lent 2023 | Day 31: The Gospel’s Yearning

Jesus is the embodiment of the message of the Gospel. The Gospel points to Jesus because Jesus is what the Gospel is hoping we all surrender to.

When I was planning this series, I began with the simple idea of the ABCs of the Gospel. With that in mind, I began to try and find a word that began with every letter of the alphabet. Since Lent has 40 days in it (not counting Sundays) I decided to abandon that theme. However, today’s focus is one of the ideas that I had in that initial brainstorming session.

Now that you have a little background, it would be helpful to explain what I was thinking. The Gospel’s yearning is not trying to anthropomorphize the Gospel. I am not trying to give it emotions or treat it like a person. At least not in an artificial way.

I believe that the Gospel is a message about Jesus. I believe that the message about Jesus is designed to invite sinners into fellowship with God. But there is another reality about the Gospel I think we should consider. I believe that Jesus is the Gospel.

By virtue of his incarnation, the Logos of God, the Word of God became flesh. That is the witness of John. One of the fundamental implications of this reality is that Jesus is the Gospel in the flesh.

Again, I am not trying to blur the lines of what the Gospel is or who Jesus is. I am trying to show a connection that we too often miss. Jesus is the embodiment of the message of the Gospel. The Gospel points to Jesus because Jesus is what the Gospel is hoping we all surrender to.

So, while we have been looking at the message over the last few weeks, today I want us to look at the person who is the Gospel.

And if Jesus is the Gospel, then there is a very real sense in which the Gospel has a yearning. Jesus has a desire for those who are lost. How do we know this? Because Jesus said it himself.

³⁵Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. ³⁶But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.
Matthew 9:35-37 NKJV

And again in Luke, as he approached the city of God on his way to his crucifixion.

³⁴“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under herwings, but you were not willing!
Luke 13:34 NKJV

But there are many other places where the Scriptures share that Jesus had compassion on someone (cf.: Matthew 14:14-21; Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13; Matthew 20:34).

God desires for “all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Jesus shares that desire. And the Gospel is the manifestation of this desire.

We may feel a little uncomfortable describing God or Jesus as having a yearning. But we should not think of this as being some kind of deficit in God. Rather it is an expression of his love for those who bear his image.

God’s love has reached out to us in Jesus. And the Gospel is the message that continually reminds us of this love.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 30: The Gospel’s Example

The Gospel is not merely a message of salvation. The Gospel is also a mandate for mission.

There comes a moment in our faith journey when a change takes place. It happens at different times for everyone, but it will happen. And when it does, we will feel a different level of responsibility for our own lives and witness.

The change I am referring to is the Gospel’s example.

When we first encounter the Gospel it is a call to repentance. A call to surrender our wills to that of the Father. The Gospel is extending a rope for rescue from the black hole of sin. This is the Gospel at the start.

But, if we accept the Gospel and its demands, we begin to experience a different pull. It is no longer simply a call to repent. Even though that is still present. But now there is a different impetus for action. While we were running to Jesus from sin, we are now running from fear and toward others.

This is the essence of the Great Commission. We are drawn to Jesus by the power of the Spirit, but then we are sent from Jesus with the Power of the Spirit. This shift is the natural and, dare I say, the expected trajectory of growth.

As we mature in our understanding of Jesus, we turn from his sacrifice to his life. As we begin to embody the gift of grace we have received, we turn to Jesus to help us better understand how we should now live. This is what we should be looking for.

This is why the Gospel is not merely a message of salvation. The Gospel is also a mandate for mission.

We have been saved so that we might become witnesses to others. Not just so they can look at us, but so that they might also become beneficiaries of God’s love and mercy.

The Gospel’s example is that it calls us to salvation and then sends us to be heralds.

This is not an accidental byproduct of the Gospel. This movement from sinner to saint, from lost to found, from stranger to sons and daughters is intentional. It was built into the plan of God for our redemption from the beginning!

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 29: The Gospel’s Winsomeness

As the years have continue to add up in my life, the more amazed I am at how the Gospel is often derided for its simplicity. Let me just say, this is a feature and not a bug.

Today we will discuss the Gospel’s Winsomeness.

The word winsome means: “generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence”¹

As the years have continued to add up in my life, the more amazed I am at how the Gospel is often derided for its simplicity. Let me just say, this is a feature and not a bug. It was God’s purpose to design the Gospel so it was easy to understand and accept.

But it seems that this simplicity, this winsomeness, has left the impression that it is not true, sophisticated, or even believable. Profundity and complexity and difficulty are seen as being more valuable. But, I think this betrays a fundamental flaw in how people think.

It has been my experience that people want to feel like they are “in on a secret.” That they have access to some special morsel of information and because they do, they are in a special group. While there is nothing inherently wrong with being a part of something unique, when this becomes the defining characteristic of our life’s pursuit, it can become quite dangerous.

We can get sucked into the never-ending game of one-upping each other. We have to do better in our attempts than those who have come before. This is a foolish endeavor. Not because we can’t be increasingly more creative, but because we will never reach the end of our trying.

The Gospel is winsome. It is simple and therefore beautiful. If we are not careful we can think that because a child can believe it that it is not worthy of our more mature considerations. And this is where we would be wrong.

One of the fundamental realities of the Gospel is that we will never fully apprehend its expansive nature. Yes, we can see many of the components that make it work. We can even understand what we are supposed to do. But in the end, we are only drinking from the ocean a cup at a time. We will never be able to finish. We can admire its beauty and never be able to dive into its depths.

As I said at the start, this aspect of the Gospel is not a bug. It is one of the essential features of the Gospel.

God, in His infinite wisdom, has made the most important message so accessible that it almost feels impossible to be true.

And that is the wonder of it. It is true.

Amen. Hallelujah.

Lent 2023 Series

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/winsome [↩]

Lent 2023 | The Fifth Sunday in Lent

The Collect

We beseech you, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon your people; that by your great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.¹

The Lessons

Psalm: Ps. 43

O. T.: Gen. 22:1-14

Epistle: Heb. 9: 11-15

Gospel: John 8:49-59

Meditation

Lent 2023 Series

Collect and Lessons are from the Book of Prayer and Order (2020). [↩]

Lent 2023 | Day 28: The Gospel’s Victory

When we hear the Gospel, we are hearing the sound of victory!

In a few days, we will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. We will commemorate the fulfillment of God’s promise to redeem the lost. The message of the Gospel is one of forgiveness and mercy. It is a message of peace and purpose. The Gospel is a message that should inspire hope. But why can it do this?

The Gospel’s victory over death means that we do not have to fear what happens after we transition from this life. We fear death because we do not know what awaits us on the other side. But, in the resurrection of Jesus, we now know.

The apostle Paul describes the situation using the sharpest contrast possible. Let’s read what he told the Corinthian church.

¹³But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. ¹⁴And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. ¹⁵Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. ¹⁶For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. ¹⁷And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! ¹⁸Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. ¹⁹If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. ²⁰But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:13-20 NKJV

The connection between our hope for what comes after death in this world is directly and inseparably tied to Jesus’s resurrection. If Jesus did not rise, then there was no victory over death. Death would have in fact won. And what we are preaching is not true, not helpful, and not worthy of being believed.

When we hear the Gospel, we are hearing the sound of victory!

When we believe the Gospel, we become participants in the victory Jesus has won for us.

It does not matter if we do not feel worthy of it. The victory is still ours.

I am so thankful for this reality of the Gospel. I am thankful that when I did not have the tools or the strength for a battle, Jesus came and won the war.

To God be the glory for he has won the victory!

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 27: The Gospel’s Uniqueness

In Christianity, God makes the first move. What’s more, in Christianity God comes and entered the human experience and provided a living example of what he desired.

The exclusive truth claims of the Gospel must be considered when comparing Christianity with other religious systems. What this means is, we must take each claim as a good faith expression of what it describes and assess its reliability to our experiences, coherence with what we know about the world, and congruity within the system making the claims as a whole.

Each of these will help us to better determine which system of belief best leads us to the truth. The goal of belief should not be to satisfy some emotional need. The goal of belief should be to give us tools and structures of thought that help us live in this world.

When our belief system keeps us from living in accord with the truth, we become susceptible to lies and manipulations. The truth is the only antidote to the lies we are told. The truth is the only shield we have to protect ourselves from becoming puppets to another person’s agenda.

We do not have the time in this post to go through each of the criteria I shared above. But, there is a quality of the Gospel that gives it a “head start” on other belief systems.

Of all the religions and systems of belief, the Christian faith is the only one that argues for divine intervention as the initiating action in the relationship. What this means is that in virtually all other systems, we must work our way toward God. But in Christianity, God makes the first move.

What’s more, in Christianity, God comes and entered the human experience and provided a living example of what he desired. And while other religions may try and argue that this understanding of divine intervention exists, it does not compare to what Christianity claims to have happened.

The Gospel’s uniqueness is that God enters the world and calls all who hear to come to Him. The Gospel is a call to follow. Not to perform acts of righteousness to placate God. Not to say the right words in the right way to flatter God. Not even to go to a particular place in order to find God.

The Gospel says that God came to personally invite us to follow him. This is the difference between the faith of Jesus and all other systems.

We are invited to participate in a relationship initiated by God Himself. And here’s the best part, God even paid the price for us to be able to approach Him at all.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 26: The Gospel’s Truthfulness

The way God has woven his divine will and actions into the human story is itself miraculous.

Today we look at the Gospel’s truthfulness.

It may seem like an odd thing to consider. However, if we are going to place our eternal hope in the Gospel, we should consider if it conforms to what we know about the world. We can make the mistake of assuming something is truthful. But, if we consider the underlying presuppositions and discover them to be true, we can have greater confidence in what we believe.

Of the many remarkable realities of the Scripture, its historicity is one of the more phenomenal. The way God has woven his divine will and actions into the human story is itself miraculous. Time and again we see how key figures, locations, and events are confirmed through historical and archeological study.

The context of the bible’s unfolding revelation is seen in the ever-moving story of human events. The mechanics of how God has accomplished this are hidden from us. They simply escape our capabilities to understand. But what we can know is that it happened. When the seemingly impossible is confirmed through an investigative process, our doubts are minimized. As a secondary result, our capacity to believe increases.

In the same way, the Gospel’s truthfulness can be validated by the events surrounding Jesus’s crucifixion. Two classic works have made the case for the reliability of the historical record—Evidence that Demands a Verdict and The Case for Christ.

Both of these resources serve as explorations into the evidence surrounding the central claim of the Gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. And in both volumes we are confronted with one unavoidable conclusion, Jesus is who the Gospel proclaims.

We all have to make up our own minds on the issue. We all have to investigate the claims of the Gospel and come to a decision. And it must be our decision.

When all is said and done, and we stand before God, we will give an account for our own lives. No excuse will be accepted or cause God to relent. We will be confronted with the question of what we did with the evidence we were given.

The Gospel is a truthful message because it declares events that happened and people who lived. What is left for us to do is decide if we will conform our lives to the implications of what the Gospel points to.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 25: The Gospel’s Requirements

The Gospel is the constant reminder that only God could save us. Only God could restore us. Only God could provide the means of return to Him.

Of the many things I have heard people ask on their faith journey, the one that seems most prominent is this: “What does God want from me?”

This desire to know what God expects is normal. It is also good for us to consider. If we want to understand what we are supposed to do now that we have a relationship with God, then reflecting on this topic is important.

What I find to be most challenging in the discussion is, too often, we are talking about what God wants with a proper frame of reference. We want an answer but we have fully appreciated what God has already done to point us in the right direction. This is where the Gospel helps us know what God is “looking for.”

The Gospel’s requirements are the way we know what God wants. By starting where God starts with regard to our reconciliation with Him, we can better understand how we please God with our lives.

In order for us to have a relationship with God, our sins must be addressed. This is the impediment that keeps us from God. Jesus entered the world, died, was buried, and was raised on the third day for our redemption. If we put our trust in Jesus and his work, we will be saved. This salvation is the gift of God to those who no longer depend on themselves, but have instead accepted the power of the blood of Jesus to cover the effects of sin.

These are the essential realities of the Gospel. Any one of these realities could take multiple volumes to fully tease out. But for our purposes, this provides an overview of what God has done and what we must accept.

One of the great challenges here is that in order for any of this to happen, we have to accept what God has said is the problem. We have to agree with God that our sin is the principal hindrance to our relationship with Him. And, to go one step further, we have to acknowledge that we cannot overcome this obstacle in our own strength or authority.

So, what is it that the Gospel requires? It actually requires only one thing. The Gospel requires humility.

The Gospel is a constant reminder that only God could save us. Only God could restore us. Only God could provide the means of return to Him.

But if we refuse to accept God’s plan, if we demand for God to alter what He has provided, we are not functioning out of humility. We are operating out of pride.

Bishop Luis Scott has often said the Church is the only place where the price of membership is standing up and admitting there’s something wrong with you. In every other institution, we are presenting our best face. We are putting the highlights of our successes. But not in the Church.

Humility is the price of entry. This is what the Gospel requires. That we would agree with God regarding our needs. And that we would accept what God has provided as the remedy for that need.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 24: The Gospel’s Quality

The Gospel’s essential quality is that it is a simple message.

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, we have hinted at this next aspect of the Gospel. In a lot of ways, this reality of the Gospel is what makes all the other considerations we are making even possible.

Today we will look at the Gospel’s quality.

What do I mean by quality? I mean the very nature of the message that makes it possible for us to understand and believe it. What is it about the way the Gospel is constructed and presented that it gives so many people the opportunity to believe?

The Gospel’s essential quality is that it is a simple message. The Gospel has some very deep and theological foundations, but none of those need to be known in order to understand what it is asking. When we look at the Gospel’s focus we can see why it is simple.

The Gospel is not trying to answer every question we might have. It provides an answer to one question.

The Gospel is not trying to answer every problem being experienced in the world. It points to THE problem faced by all people and offers that solution to it.

The Gospel is not trying to answer every reason to be skeptical about God and God’s motives. It declares that God has entered the human experience and provided a path to reconciliation with Him.

The Gospel is focused and simple. And these and all the other facets we have been discussing give the Gospel its particular quality.

To put it another way, the Gospel is a perfect message. It communicates the minimum required for it to be effective to its purpose. But it also opens the door to the depths of truth and insight about the one who sent the message to us.

Lent 2023 Series

Lent 2023 | Day 23: The Gospel’s Nobility

Every facet of the Gospel diamond adds both texture and value to the Good news. The longer I consider the Gospel, the more beautiful it becomes.

Jesus tells his disciple and his detractors that he did not come for the well, but for those who are sick.

This seems like an odd thing to say. But when we consider that only those who perceive their own need are likely to accept help, it makes more sense.

Every facet of the Gospel diamond adds both texture and value to the Good News. The longer I consider the Gospel, the more beautiful it becomes. Each face of it added another level of distinctiveness separating it from all other philosophies and doctrines of men.

In particular, the people who accepted the Gospel Jesus proclaimed and embodied were those whose need exceeded their access. They were most often the downtrodden, the outcast, and the forgotten. And it was to those in dire circumstances that Jesus declared the arrival of the kingdom of God. I have given this aspect of the Gospel the description of nobility.

The Gospel’s nobility is that it is never denied to anyone. Even those who occupy the lowliest stations in life are given access to the treasures of the kingdom. It does not matter how far you feel you have fallen, all may come. All have been invited to the banquet.

Let’s not take for granted this reality of the Gospel. Those who needed it most are the ones who reject what Jesus offered. And they did so believing they did not need the Gospel at all.

But those who knew they deserved it least, were the ones who found themselves being given entry. We know this is how they felt because many times we are shown how surprised they were at getting an audience with Jesus.

Even when he was tired, Jesus served the people. When it would take him away from what he was doing, Jesus would go. When he knew that the religious leaders would try and create confusion, Jesus still went and taught the people with authority.

The Gospel is a noble message because it bestows dignity on everyone. And this happens because in sharing it with everyone, God declares that all are eligible to have an eternal fellowship with Him.

Lent 2023 Series