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Re: Spring Cleaning!

By: joe-taylor in FFFT | Recommend this post (0)
Sun, 31 Mar 13 2:40 PM | 49 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Food For Further Thought 		Msg. 51213 of 65535
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The Gospel in Seven Words or Less


"He is not here, He is risen." Matthew 28: 6


Last year, the Christian Century magazine posed this question to writers: "What would you say is the core of the gospel? Can you state it in seven words or less?"

What an enormous question. But on this Easter Sunday how would you answer it?

The editors did add that we could follow our seven words with 75 words of explanation. But 75 words are not a lot. To put it in perspective, the average daily devotional is 250 words.

So on this Easter Sunday, how would you sum up the gospel in seven words? To help answer that question, let me share the additional instructions that the editors gave us about those 75 words of explaination. "This isn't a place to add a lot of abstract theological language nor is it an opportunity to say 'here's what I DON'T mean by choosing that phrase.' Instead, expand on your seven word version by stating positively and plainly what it means and why it's the core of the gospel."

Can you do that? Can you state "positively and plainly" the core of the gospel? If God is still speaking, we need to be able to speak too.

The writers did a lovely job with the assignment, but my favorites came from the responses from readers who offered a wonderful mix of perspectives. You can find them at www.christiancentury.org but here are just a few:

Love God. Love Others. Love Yourself. Serve.

Sin destroys life; Jesus resurrects it.

God loves you, so get over yourself.

And as for my own, here's what I came up with: Everybody gets to grow and change.

But today, it strikes me that the best short version of the gospel is the traditional back and forth litergical dialogue we engage in on Easter mornings. Let's have it be our seven word gospel prayer for this new day.


Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!


Lillian Daniel is Senior Minister, First Congregational Church, UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois.


To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.


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The above is a reply to the following message:
Re: Spring Cleaning!
By: joe-taylor in FFFT
Sat, 30 Mar 13 4:48 PM 		Msg. 51197 of 65535

Change


"All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come." Job 14:14

Change in a major motif among the suffering and the oppressed. I suspect that the hope that his condition could and would be changed is what kept Job alive during the dark midnight of his deep agony and excruciating losses. An old preacher used to tell us that it took a change to get us into our predicaments, and it would surely take a change to get us out of them. As Job discovered, the key to our victories in life is always connected to our willingness to wait until our change comes.

We've heard that the only constant in life is change, but change itself is not inevitable. Someone has to want it and see it. Someone has to pray for it and work for it. Someone has to anticipate it, and plan for it, and understand it, and recognize it, and define it, and adjust to it. Waiting for change is by no means passive.

The Mahatma Ghandi challenges us to "be the change that we wish to see in the world." In our living embodiment of the change we want to see, we become the active agents of its realization. The moment that we become dedicated to change is the moment that change begins. True change always happens from the inside out. And true change always begins with the person who wants to see change happen.

In his beloved rhapsody of change, Sam Cook sings:

"I was born by the river, in a little tent. Oh and just like the river I've been runnin' ever since. It's been a long, a long time comin', but I know a change gon' come. Oh yes it will!"

If you've ever heard Sam Cook sing that song, you are convinced that the person heralding the coming of change in the song has already been changed. He is not just passively hoping for change. He is giving passionate presence and passionate impetus to the change he wants to see. And by the transformation that can only be generated by the shear force of transformed soul power, we are all convicted, converted and convinced that "change gon' come. Yes it will!"


Lord, please allow the changes that we want to see, be seen in us. Amen.


Kenneth L. Samuel is Pastor of Victory for the World Church, UCC, Stone Mountain, Georgia.

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