“The Gospel According To Us”

“The Gospel According To Us”

Text: Proverbs 1:20-33

© September 17, 2006 by C. Edward Bowen

Do you know the name Ferdinand Magellan? Maybe you remember from history class that he was the one who set sail in the year 1519 and became the first explorer to circumnavigate the earth, he became the first explorer to sail completely around the world. But, of course, that was long, long before there was a Panama Canal. So in order to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, he had to sail all the way down around the southern tip of South America, through a rather hazardous stretch of waters off the coast of what is called Tierra del Fuego.

As Magellan and his ships passed through those waters, they looked on shore and saw hundreds of natives there tending their fires. But to Magellan’s surprise, the natives didn’t seem to be paying any attention whatsoever to the massive sailing vessels of his fleet that were passing right there in front of them. Later on, when Magellan eventually met up with those natives, they explained that they didn’t bother watching Magellan’s ships because they thought they were an illusion, a dream. In all their lives, those natives had never seen anything like those ships before, and so they concluded that such things couldn’t possibly exist, that such things couldn’t possibly be real.[1]

Are we at times like those natives when we read the Bible? In the Bible, God gives us a vision about the kind of life that God wants us to live. But are we at times tempted to think, “Come on! No one can really live like that. What the Bible is talking about is only a dream, it’s not something that we’re really supposed to pay attention to, is it?”

But here in this reading that we just heard from the book of Proverbs, God is saying, “Yes! I do expect you to pay attention to what I’m saying to you. Because what I’m saying to you is real – it’s not just some dream – it’s the way I want you to live.”

You see, here in this passage in Proverbs, God is said to be like a woman who stands out in the streets and calls out to people, begging them to pay attention to what she’s saying. Now this passage isn’t saying that God is a woman, because God isn’t male or female – God is spirit. No, what this passage is saying is that at times God is like a woman who stands in our midst and who cries out, “Why aren’t you listening? Why aren’t you paying attention to what I’m saying? Because what I’m telling you is important. And if you don’t pay attention and take my words seriously, you’re going to be sorry. You’re going to be really, really sorry.”

But the truth is that we often have a hard time paying attention to what God is saying. And the reason is because we hear what God says about how we should live our lives, but then we figure that our ideas about how we should live our lives are so much better.

It’s like what happened there in the first reading we had today, from the Gospel of Mark. There Jesus announced to his followers, “Pretty soon my enemies are going to arrest me, beat me, and put me to death on a cross. And if you want to be my disciples, then you need to be prepared to follow me. You need to be prepared to take up your cross and come with me.” But Peter spoke up and basically said, “Jesus, we want to be your disciples, but we don’t want to do what you’re saying. We want to be your disciples, but how about if we come up with our own ideas about what it means to follow you?”

We might shake our heads and wonder how those first disciples could have said that to Jesus. Why did they hesitate so much to do what Jesus told them to do? But are we all that different? Because are we willing to do what Jesus tells us to do, or do we prefer coming up with our own ideas about what it means to be Jesus’ disciples?

Well, what does Jesus want us to do? What kind of lives does Jesus want us to live? Really we’d have to read the entire Bible to get the complete answer to that question. But if we want a summary, if we want some of the highlights of what Jesus has to say to us, there is probably no better place to turn than what is called the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is so named because Jesus went up on a certain hill, or mountain, and there he taught his followers in a sermon what it means to be his disciples.

And so I would invite you to turn to the Sermon on the Mount in the pew Bibles. As you may be aware, the Sermon on the Mount is found in the Gospel of Matthew, beginning at chapter 5, which may be found on page 4 in the New Testament, which is in the back part of the Bible. We’re going to take a look at just a few small portions of the Sermon on the Mount, but what we’re going to be asking ourselves is, “Do we accept and believe what Jesus says? Do we accept and believe what Jesus says the gospel means for our lives? Or do we prefer coming up with our own version of what the gospel is all about?”

The Sermon on the Mount goes from the beginning of chapter 5 in the Gospel of Matthew to the end of chapter 7. But let’s begin with what Jesus says in chapter 5, starting at verse 38. Starting at chapter 5, verse 38, Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

No more eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. No more hating our enemies. Instead, Jesus commands us to love our enemies and to pray for them. Do we believe that? Is that the kind of gospel we want to live our lives by? Or do we figure that what Jesus is saying is nothing more than a dream, something that we’re not really supposed to take seriously?

Throughout much of Christian history, many people have balked at what Jesus said. Back during the Middle Ages, the Crusades weren’t about loving your enemies and praying for them. No, the Crusades were about people who called themselves Christians going off and killing and massacring and destroying. Or when the first Europeans came here to the New World, for the most part they weren’t guided by the principle of loving those who were different from themselves. No, when the first Europeans came here, most of whom called themselves Christians, they slaughtered the natives, they engaged in genocide, and often said it was what Jesus wanted them to do. Was that really what Jesus wanted them to do? Or was it simply what they wanted to do?

Or even today, do we strive to love our enemies and pray for them? Or is our first inclination to take our enemies and bomb them, torture them, execute them? At some level inside us, we tell ourselves, “Sure, Jesus said that we’re supposed to love our enemies and pray for them, but Jesus just doesn’t understand the real world, the world that we live in today. No, what Jesus says is a nice dream, but it’s just not real.” And so we take the gospel that Jesus gives us, and we often replace it with our own version of the gospel, a version that teaches revenge, retaliation, and violence.

Or take a look at what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 6 at verse 24. There at chapter 6, verse 24, Jesus says: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Forget about greed. Stop obsessing about how to get rich. Instead, Jesus tells us that all that really matters in life is God, and God alone. Do we believe that? Is that the kind of gospel we want to live our lives by? Or do we figure that what Jesus is saying is nothing more than a dream, something that we’re not really supposed to take seriously?

Maybe you saw the cover story in Time magazine this week.[2] The article was about how a growing number of churches today, including some of the very largest congregations in the country, are what as known as Prosperity churches. They’re teaching people that if you are faithful and really believe, then God will make you rich and prosperous beyond your wildest dreams. That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

But the problem is that’s not the gospel that Jesus gave us. No, Jesus was the one who said we’re supposed to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. He didn’t say anything about making a financial killing in the process. No, that’s not the gospel that Jesus gave us. That’s our version the gospel, the gospel according to us.

Or take a look at chapter 7, verse 21. In chapter 7 at verse 21, Jesus says: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”

Being a Christian isn’t about believing the right thoughts in our minds. Being a Christian isn’t about being able to say the right religious words. Instead, Jesus says that to be his disciple means to do what he tells us to do, to live the way that he wants us to live. Do we believe that? Is that the kind of gospel we want to live our lives by? Or do we figure that what Jesus is saying is nothing more than a dream, something that we’re not really supposed to take seriously?

The sad fact is that many people who call themselves Christians don’t do what Jesus commands. For instance, they recently did a survey of teenagers. And in that survey they found that teenagers who say they are Christians are just about as likely as non-Christian teenagers to have watched as X-rated or pornographic movie (32% v. 41%). They found that Christian teenagers are just about as likely as non-Christian teenagers to have had sex (23% v. 29%). And they found that Christian teenagers are actually more likely than non-Christian teenagers to have cheated on tests at school (29% v. 27%).[3]

Jesus tells us what the gospel is. He tells us what kind of life he wants us to live. But it seems that all too often, we’re not interested in listening to what Jesus has to say. Instead, we come up with our own ideas, we come up with our own gospel.

Lawyers say there is a growing trend nowadays for people to not only make out a regular will, but also to make out an ethical will. An ethical will involves writing down on paper the values that you think are important and that you hope your descendants and heirs will cherish as well. For instance, some people write in their ethical will that they hope their offspring will spend more time with their families or that they hope their descendants will remain faithful to their religious traditions.[4]

I believe we could say that in the Bible, and especially in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has given us his ethical will. If it was a will that involved us receiving money or real estate or jewelry, I imagine our ears would perk up in an instant and we’d pay close attention to what the maker of that will had to say. But in speaking to us and telling us what he wants us to do with our lives, in speaking to us and telling us what values he wants us to have, Jesus has given us a gift that is far more valuable than any money, any real estate, any jewelry.

Stop inventing your own gospel. Stop coming up with your own ideas about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Instead, listen and pay attention to what Jesus has to be say about what it means to be his disciple. Because in the end, the gospel that Jesus offers us is the only real gospel there is.