This question was posed in a pastors’ meeting once. It seems like a pretty basic question, but there was a long pause as we thought about it more deeply. The initial response within the group was to point to I Corinthians 15:1-11, which focuses on Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. It’s a passage that gets a lot of attention in Protestant circles.
But as the conversation evolved we came to reckon with how the word “gospel” as used in the whole of the New Testament, which goes a lot deeper than what Paul was addressing when he wrote to the Corinthians. The Corinthian church, after all, was a very troubled congregation. Its problems included skepticism about the resurrection, which is a core Christian doctrine. So Paul tells them (in I Corinthians 15:14) that “if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain and your faith is in vain.” It was natural for Paul to focus on Jesus’ passion and resurrection in that setting, but certainly that’s not the whole of it, (much as not every congregation is exactly like the Corinthian congregation, thank God). What are some ways that the word “gospel” is used in other settings? I was drawn to the beginning of Mark’s gospel. The whole of his book is presented as the “gospel of Jesus Christ” (Mark 1:1). And a little later, right after Jesus’ baptism and temptation, the term describes His first preaching – there called “the gospel of God” (Mark 1:14). What does this mean? I think it helps to think about a typical set of church announcements. Most churches have a bulletin with some kind of listing of times and events going on in the life of the church: Time Event 6:00 PM – Wednesday Women’s Bible Study 12:00 p.m. – Thursday Church Association meeting 10:00 a.m. – Sunday Worship service We can think of the gospel in a similar way… Time: One of the Greek words for “time” in the New Testament is “chronos”, which relates to the specific measures of time (year, month, date, time, etc). But Mark 1:15 uses a different word for time – “kairos” – here quoting Jesus’ when He says, “The time is fulfilled.” This gives a sense of God’s providential timing, irrespective of the chronological time-frame. Remember this: the right decision at wrong time is the wrong decision. We all want to be in line with God’s timing. Event: Jesus said “The kingdom of God has come near.” This was spoken in a context of great political frustration. Ever since Pompey’s conquest of Jerusalem in 63 B.C., the Israelites had endured a brutal Roman occupation (not unlike the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II). There was a deep yearning for the times when Israel had been a strong united nation under the Davidic monarchy – for a Messiah to bring Israel back to that kind of life. There was hope that God would intervene and establish His kingdom. But here Jesus declared that the Kingdom of God is at hand. This is a liberating thing if you think about it. You don’t need to wait for a change in politics. You can focus on God’s reign in your life, in your church, and in your family life right now. The first response to all this that Jesus calls for is to repent – which means to turn from sin and turn to God. This can happen in an immediate and acknowledged sense – but it can also be gradual, where it’s not observable in an instant but over time. In either case, the point is that there’s a lasting transformation that’s rooted in the experience of God. The second response is to believe in the good news. There’s a popular line of thought these days: “Your beliefs don’t make you a better person; your actions do.” That overlooks relationship between the two; it’s like saying “What you drink doesn’t make you a safer driver; your control of the steering wheel does.” What we believe affects what our lives become. It’s good for our minds to be lifted above the idols of the world – all these things that would otherwise shape our course and steer us off track. The good news of the gospel gives us a change of focus – with a positive view of God and of life. These days the world is full of all kinds of bad news: wars, political discord, shootings, climate chaos, racial strife, church closings, etc. But it’s important to keep our focus on the good news: The Holy Spirit is still real; the Bible is still the word of God. Christ is risen; Jesus is Lord; the gospel is true, and the gospel is good news – which means that we’re good news people in a bad news world. God bless you. Pastor Andrew McHenry First Congregational Church of Oroville
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I’m thinking of at least two things that can compromise our quality of life:
Money is a touchy subject in any age. It was especially so in Jesus’ time; the Roman Empire taxed its subjected people groups heavily. Being an enemy power, the fact that they were extracting resources from people who were already poor in order to fund their occupying regime was infuriating. And here’s the problem: It’s easy to take on a posture of resentment – and that’s no way to live. Think of a time when your demeanor was dominated by resentment. That’s not a good spiritual disposition to have. It was in this context that Jesus was facing hostility from people who wanted to kill Him (Mark 11:18). They instigated some religious opponents to entrap Him with His words (12:13), who asked Him if the Jewish law allowed people to pay the imperial tax. “Should we pay it or should we not?” was their question (in 12:15). And they were thinking, if He answers yes, then He’ll alienate His following. People will desert Him, since they resent the Roman Empire. But if He answers no, then He’s instigating a rebellion – and since He’s leading a religious movement, the Romans will probably want to kill Him. How did Jesus handle it? In a Bible study a couple weeks ago, Chris Lombardi challenged us to focus on the questions Jesus asked. Jesus doesn’t want us to be robots, being spoon-fed answers line by line. He wants people to think. In this case, it’s interesting that He didn’t give some kind of dissertation for an answer. Instead, He pointed to the Roman coin in question and asked about the pictures that were on it (12:16). This led to His famous dictum: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s” (12:17). What’s lost in the popular understanding is how much of a challenge this was to everyone – and especially the two groups that were trying to entrap Jesus (identified in 12:13). The Pharisees were famous for their hypocrisy (cf. Matthew 23:1-39) – which would’ve been all the more apparent if they were the ones that produced the coin. There were several different kinds of currency floating around at the time, and no one was forcing them to use the Roman type. The fact that they had it would indicate they were willing to reap the economic benefits of that system even if they opposed the tax. The other group was the Herodians. Their ranks included the Sadducean priests, who held their positions in the temple by collusion with the Roman empire. It gave them some measure of prestige – so their ultimate motivation was greed. Jesus’ message, then, to both groups was essentially this: If you are carrying this kind of coin, you can see who it belongs to. Hand it over; don’t let your greed hold you back. But the bigger emphasis was the last part of His statement: Render unto God what is God’s. It reminds me of David’s prayer in I Chronicles 29:11: “Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.” What is there that does not belong to God? He’s the proper owner of everything. And the less inclined we are to hold anything back, the more we stand to be used by Him – including being freed from things that would compromise us while we walk this earth. God bless you, Pastor Andrew McHenry - First Congregational Church of Oroville “Then Peter came and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if my brother or sister sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.’ - Matthew 18:21-22
The most popular rendering of this verse is “seventy times seven” – which is 490 if you want to get mathematical about it. But either way the meaning is the same: Forgiveness is a permanent disposition, regardless of the frequency or the attitude of the person who sinned against us. This raises some questions though. Forgiveness is natural when there’s a sincere apology, and when the sin is not repeated. But what if that’s not the case? Do I have to become a doormat then? Here it’s important to remember that Jesus never discounted the need to address sin in preventative ways. Forgiveness certainly doesn’t mean that you condone the offense; nor does it mean that you put yourself in a position where you’re repeatedly mistreated over and over again. Jesus addressed this beforehand, both with His warnings (in 18:6-14), and with His stipulations for handling the situation when people sin against you (in 18:15-20). But perhaps the bigger issue is with what happens inside of you. You can’t always control other people, but you can decide what attitude you’re going to take. That is where forgiveness comes in. Jesus used a word-play when He taught about it. It’s derived from a man named Lamech in Genesis 4:24. Lamech was a descendant of Cain, the world’s first murderer. God had protected Cain from escalating violence with an edict of seven-fold vengeance (in Genesis 4:15). Lamech, having all the characteristics of a wife-beater, brought this up when he threatened his wives – saying that his multiplied vengeance was seventy-seven-fold (in 4:23-24). And to this day the world is still like that: Rage multiplies, violence gives way to more violence, and hatred goes on for generations – just like it was with the Hatfields and McCoys. But things don’t have to be that way, in part because Jesus showed us a better way when He adopted Lamech’s wording – this time applying it to grace. So Matthew 18:22 is a deliberate contrast with Genesis 4:24. And forgiveness is what we do regardless of the disposition of the offender – because the world needs fewer men like Lamech, and more men like Jesus. In reading the book Amish Grace a certain contrast struck me. I thought of all the hurt and anger in the Nickel Mines shooter. It was a rage against God and life. It began with his completely understandable pain and grief from the loss of his first-born child – a daughter who died not long after birth in 1997. That pain turned into a rage that was fomenting inside him, and the Nickel Mines shooting was basically his way of lashing out at God. For contrast, I think of the Amish family in Berne, Indiana – Levi & Rebecca Schwartz, who in 1979 were riding home one night with their seven children. They were harassed by four non-Amish teenagers in a truck, who threw rocks at their buggy. One of the rocks struck and killed their seven-month-old daughter Adeline. The boys were immediately arrested, and there was quite a bit of outrage in the community. People were calling for harsh punishments, but it’s interesting that this was not reciprocated by the Amish community. In fact, when Levi Schwartz was asked about it, he said this: “Sometimes I do get to feeling angry, but I don’t want to have that feeling against anyone. It’s a bad way to live.” What a great observation – and what a contrast! Why harbor all that toxic energy? It’s not doing any harm to the person you’re mad at. It’s only hurting you. Jesus helps us to think of this in light of God’s forgiveness that’s been extended to each of us. We all have our own measure of sinfulness, and our own need for grace. So given all that God has done for us in Christ, how could we not extend that same grace to others? (cf. Matthew 18:23-35). This is why we pray in the Lord’s prayer each week the line that says: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” God bless you. Pastor Andrew McHenry – First Congregational Church of Oroville “Go to church? Why, if I went to church the roof would cave in!”
This is a common expression from people with either no history or with a very distant history of going to church. It’s usually given in good humor – as a teasing way of making an excuse for not being in church. In one of my previous churches we actually put a new roof in while I was there. It needed to be done, so the church Trustees took bids and chose a competent company. After it was done, I went on the radio with a church ad telling everyone that we had a new roof. “I promise you: The roof’s not going to cave in. It’s in good shape, so if that’s been your excuse, you’ll need to think of a better one. Or better yet, come and join us for worship at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday.” I thought of this while I was studying Amos 9:1-4, where the prophet had a vision of the sanctuary roof caving. The setting was likely at the altar of Bethel – an old historic worship site going back to Jacob’s famous vision of his ladder there (in Genesis 28:10-17). Years later it was the site of a famous confrontation when the high priest tried to run Amos out of town (in Amos 7:10-13). This is the last of five separate visions that come towards the end of Amos’ prophecies. The first two (in 7:1-6) are of catastrophes that inspire Amos to respond immediately with prayer. They are testimony both to the grace of God, and to the power and value of intercessory prayer. Sometimes if you see something bad coming, you just need to pray for it to stop. The second pair of visions (in 7:7-9 and 8:1-3) are of regular things that are then interpreted by God as signs of national disaster; these are described in graphic terms. The overall sense is that bad consequences are coming. Prayer might help, but it won’t remove them. Sometimes there are bad things ahead – whether by our own mistakes, someone else’s choices, or things that are beyond anybody’s control. This last vision is different from the previous four; it especially serves as an indictment of bad religion. This can happen when people assume their piety gives a false sense of security: “God has blessed this place! Surely nothing bad will ever happen here. Whatever else is going on in the rest of the world, God will protect us here!” Not every popular religious idea is a good one. In this case, Amos’ vision of the roof caving in was a counter-sign that God was not pleased with what He saw at Bethel. And the vision of the earthquake leading to the cave-in was then followed by that of a war – all of it expressing divine judgement. Amos quotes God as saying this: “I will fix my eyes on them for harm and not for good.” The inescapability of it all (in 9:2-4) brought to mind a song I learned in grade school: “So high you can’t get over it / So low you can’t get under it / So wide you can’t get around it / You must go through the door.” But there’s another song I’ve learned from years of leading worship services since then: “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me…” If divine oversight can be taken as a threat, it can also be taken as a comfort when we have faith and ask for forgiveness. It’s true that God is omniscient (i.e. He’s all-knowing) and omnipresent (He’s everywhere). We have no secrets with God, but if that’s threatening to us, we can talk that over with Him. God is gracious. We know of this because of what He’s done for us in Jesus Christ. We can let our sins be nailed to the cross forever and live in reconciliation with Him. And if we do that, there’s no reason to feel threatened. We can trust in the God who is good, and who has a good future in store for His people. (cf. 9:11-15). We can take comfort in knowing that even if the rest of the world forgets us, God still has His eyes on us. Hear this as good news, my friends – whatever roof you may be under right now. God bless you, Pastor Andrew McHenry First Congregational Church of Oroville Religious violence is one troubling part of this period in history. I’m thinking of everything from the 9/11 attacks to the January 6th Capitol riots to the recent shootings in northern and southern California. The concept of religious violence, in particular, seems self-contradictory: Our faith values should propel us to good things – like faith, hope, and love (I Corinthians 13:13); or like righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17) – rather than cruelty and death. Where does this come from?
A good person to study in relation to religious violence is the apostle Paul. Going both by the personal recounting of his life details (Galatians 1:13) and the historical records (Acts 7:58, 8:1, 9:1-2), we know that Paul was once a violent religious thug – but that he was rescued from it. He was seized by the grace of God in his encounter with Jesus and was brought to an experience of salvation. So today we know Paul not chiefly as a perpetrator of religious violence, but as the brilliant writer, charismatic leader, and proclaimer of the gospel who wrote a large portion of the New Testament. I thought of all this while I was studying Romans 5:1-21 over the last couple months of 2022. Paul’s testimony from his personal experience was a big part of the reason why he spoke so effusively about salvation (in 5:15-21). And a key motivating factor was what he came to rejoice in (or alternately, to boast in). Think about this for a minute: What brings you joy? What do you rejoice in? Paul identified three things (in 5:1-11)…
Part of the good news is that the violence ultimately didn’t overcome Jesus. His resurrection from the grave signified His victory over violence and death. And it’s interesting that He didn’t engage in any kind of retaliatory violence when He had the chance: He didn’t come after Pontius Pilate or Judas Iscariot, or any of the Romans who crucified Him. Rather, He gathered with His disciples and gave them the Great Commission to continue His work in the world (Matthew 28:19-20, John 20:21). And it’s a work we continue with to this very day. God bless you. Andrew McHenry, Pastor First Congregational Church Think from your experiences of responding to bad situations. What did you do? What choices did you make?
Sometimes there are adverse situations that go back to bad choices. This happened in Genesis 3:1-7, after Eve got into a conversation with a serpent. God was cast as an object of suspicion, and eventually she gave in, consuming the forbidden fruit. Her husband went right along with it, and they both were alienated from God. This alienation was depicted by Adam and Eve hiding from God (in 3:8-10). Before this, there had been nothing but positive interactions between God and humanity (especially in 2:18-23.) But now there was this estrangement – climaxing in God’s confrontation and sentencing (in 3:11-19). Sometimes in life you’re forced to live with the consequences of other people’s bad choices – and sometimes it’s your own choices that bring it on. But either way, choices do have consequences. And while you can’t always choose your circumstances, you can choose how you respond. All this serves to introduce the great contrast between God and humanity. In 3:20 the man responds first by giving the woman her name. In the Hebrew language “Eve” sounds like the word for “living.” This can be understood from more than one angle.
But fortunately it’s different with God. God is light; in Him there’s no darkness at all (I John 1:5). The contrast is seen in Genesis 3:20 going into 3:21, where God responds by giving the people skin garments. These replaced the fig leaves that had been used before (from 3:7). God has His ways of meeting our needs. Think of how you feel when you’re nicely dressed. It makes you feel good about yourself, doesn’t it? This is especially true in light of the issue of shame (which also comes up in 2:25 and 3:10). The world tends to engage in public shaming rituals, but God in His grace moves beyond all that. Some people have seen the skin garments as a precursor for the Old Testament sacrificial system – which is a hard part of the Old Testament to relate to. But consider this: Jesus concluded it all, once and for all in His sacrificial death on the cross (Romans 6:10). So we can let all our bad choices from the past be nailed to the cross forever, and then focus on God’s future for all of us – with His Holy Spirit guiding us as we respond to our circumstances, be they good or bad. God bless you. Andrew McHenry, Pastor First Congregational Church What comes to mind when you hear the word “Eden”? I suspect the answers would vary.
A lengthier description is given (in 2:11-14) of the four rivers that flow out of Eden…
It's interesting to me that the part about rivers immediately precedes God’s directives to the newly-made man (in 2:15-17). There are three parts to it…
It’s interesting to note: Eden is mentioned at the end of the Bible as well. Humanity was banished from the garden after the fall (in Genesis 3:23-24), but we hear about Eden again in Revelation 22:1-5 – in John’s vision of how things ultimately will turn out. Eternally, God’s plan is to restore Eden. It’s the New Jerusalem, with the tree of life and its leaves for the healing of the nations. And the right to take from the tree of life is given to all who have washed their robes (22:14). God bless you. Andrew McHenry - Pastor - First Congregational Church of Oroville It’s interesting to juxtapose two popular pieces of Christian fiction, written almost a century apart:
One is Charles M. Sheldon’s In His Steps. Written in 1896 by a Congregational pastor on his front porch, it became a global best-seller in part because of a defective copyright. The storyline challenges the readers to live by the question “What Would Jesus Do?” (which has since been abbreviated to WWJD?). I remember reading it for the first time as a teenager in the spring of 1987. It inspired me to think of how Christians can really make a difference when we set out to do what Jesus would do. Life is full of holy possibilities. The other book was written in 1995 by a dispensational pastor named Tim LaHaye, collaborating with a fiction writer named Jerry Jenkins: Left Behind. It imagines a scenario where a mix of puzzled non-Christians and people who thought they were Christians are left behind when the rapture takes the true believers to heaven. The plot develops into a global conspiracy with the Romanian head-of-state becoming the UN Secretary, and then a global emperor. The UN relocates into Babylon, while the major storyline focuses on a team of budding new Christians who are aware of what’s happening in the conspiracy and band together. It’s entertaining reading, but it builds on fears and tends towards conspiracy theories that are not consistent with the fruit of Spirit. Left Behind finds some of its inspiration in Revelation, the last book of the Bible. But a key thing to remember is this: Revelation was written to bless us, not to stir up fears and reckless speculation. It’s meant to challenge our fears and to help us live faithfully. I thought of this as I was studying the seven beatitudes of Revelation. They focus on several things…
The Christian life is like that. Christ is coming; help is on the way. He’s got the end taken care of. We just live faithfully in the meantime. Sometimes things are hard, but we know that He’ll see us through. God bless you. Andrew McHenry, Pastor First Congregational Church Several years ago I helped to organize an unusual collaborative forum. There were three of us: a pastor, a poet, and a philosopher. Each of us had our niche in that little college town we were in. Each of us could approach any number of topics from our respective disciplines. And we all brought something to the discussion. It wasn’t hard for us to come up with the first topic for our forum: death.
Sometimes in jest we called our group a “death panel” but our starting point was something of common recognition: For centuries an underlying assumption was that all of life is preparation for death. Today that’s no longer the case; often people don’t give it much thought. Sometimes they avoid thinking about death until they’re forced to face it – and then they’re completely unprepared. But sooner or later every one of us is going to have to face our mortality – and this is relevant to each of our disciplines: Lots of poetry has been written about death. Philosophers have penned volumes about it, and we pastors have done our share of funerals. So this led to a very interesting discussion. The second beatitude in Revelation (in 14:13) says this: “’Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.’ As with all scripture, it’s helpful to understand the context for this one. Revelation 14:1-5 describes a worship scene that derives from a previous description of the throne room of God (back in 4:1-11). Here the heavenly saints are singing a new song (14:3). This is followed by three angelic visions…
This can be scary too: “What does it mean if God knows the awful truth about me?” But even there we find hope – because that points to our need for grace. God knows our deepest faults. He sent Jesus into this world, with all of its beastly evil, out of love for all of us. He conquered death in His cross and resurrection, so death is not a defeat. The endurance of the saints (in Revelation 14:12) is not a reference to the New Orleans football team. Rather, it’s the sustaining perseverance of the faithful when the going gets tough. God bless you as you persevere, Andrew McHenry, Pastor First Congregational Church A fellow in one of the churches I served years ago didn’t like us singing “the Battle Hymn of the Republic”. He was originally from Georgia; he thought it was too hard on the south with its violent imagery. I remember him citing a line from it: “He is trampling down the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.” He asked me, “Where does that stuff come from?”
As a matter of fact, that very graphic image derives from the last book of the Bible: the book of Revelation. It’s in Revelation 14:17-20, to be specific. Revelation is famous for its graphic images of judgment, sin, the forces of evil, destruction, and damnation. Some people don’t like all this and they don’t want anything to do with it. This is why it’s important to see how the book of Revelation begins – which reminds me of an expression: “You get only one chance to make a good first impression.” Revelation doesn’t begin with a harsh, graphic word of judgment and damnation, but with a word of blessing. Revelation 1:3 is the first of seven beatitudes in Revelation. (The others are in 14:13, 16:15, 19:9, 20:6, 22:7, and 22:14). They’re not as famous as Jesus’ beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (in Matthew 5:3-12) because they’re not all bunched together. But they’re just as important; all scripture comes from God. And the first one sets the tone for the whole book by identifying one set of blessings that God sends.
One part of my routine with the church newsletter has been to ask for deadlines. Deadlines are a great motivator. If I know it’s coming, I can make sure to get my things in on time. The same thing is true with the Christian life, but in a different sense. Jesus could return at any moment – and what’s more, none of us knows our time. Occasionally people say to me “I hope you can do my funeral when I pass.” It’s an honor to be asked, but I always feel obligated to clarify something: You may have the chance to come to my funeral before I get the chance to do yours. None of our time is guaranteed on this side of eternity. So we live faithfully, knowing that at any moment we could meet our maker. And the word of God shapes our course, and there’s great blessing to be found in it. God bless you, Andrew McHenry, Pastor First Congregational Church of Oroville |
Andrew McHenryI am a husband, a Congregational pastor, and a native Kansan currently living in Thermalito, California. In the past I have also been a prison chaplain and a youth pastor. Interests include reading, railroads, prog rock, KU, and the KC Royals. Archives
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