Dear Church Family,
Recently, the highly regarded magazine The Christian Century featured an article by David Heim about a challenge it posed to various writers. The assignment given to them was to proclaim the gospel in a maximum of seven words. The writers gave diverse answers that I found quite revealing. A number alluded to the traditional theological view that we are all sinners unconditionally embraced by God’s love. For example, the esteemed academic Martin Marty wrote, “God, through Jesus Christ, welcomes you anyhow.” Likewise, Donald Shriver proclaimed, “Divinely persistent, God really loves us,” while Mary Karr emphasized the fresh start that forgiveness brings in stating, “We are the Church of Infinite Chances.”
While I appreciated the word usage of these offerings, the simple dichotomy of human sin and divine grace does not resonate with me. I believe our faith should stress not just our potential for what is wrong and evil but also our potential for what is right and good. At the same time, I believe God should be viewed as more than a benevolent dispenser of loving forgiveness to us lowly, wayward humans. Instead, I believe God should be viewed as empowering and ennobling us with a love that works in and through us as we engage the broader world. In the end, the answer I liked the best of those given was that of Bill McKibben who cited the Golden Rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Still, even this answer did not satisfy me since I believe the Kingdom of God should be at the heart of any summary.
While I fear we are succumbing to a simplistic culture of sound bites by reducing our faith to seven words, I was nevertheless surprised by how this exercise of distilling the Christian message into a short sentence compelled me to think more clearly and deeply about what I believe and don’t believe. I thus came to believe that there is perhaps a value to determining what I regard to be the “essence of the essence of Christianity.” If I were to take a stab at it today, I would say, “Jesus embodied Love and proclaimed the Kingdom.” Now, the assignment is yours. What are your seven words?
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Brooks