Text: Acts 5:27-32
Theme: “The Organic Gospel is A Message” (First in A
Series)
2nd Sunday of Easter
April 3, 2016
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau
+In
the Name of Jesus+
27 The apostles
were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the
high priest. 28 “We gave you
strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled
Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s
blood.”
29 Peter and the other apostles replied:
“We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus
from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as
Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their
sins. 32 We are
witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to
those who obey him.”
“It seems to have lost the sense of urgency and organic vitality
that made it great,” so wrote Nico Hines in Megapolis
magazine. He referred to New York
City. Once thought to be the greatest
city in the world, his view was that London, England had replaced it since the
Big Apple had lost its “organic” vitality.”
Speaking
of all things organic, just a few blocks from here, there is a small grocery
store. It has a limited inventory. It’s not a Super WalMart, a Kroger, or an
Albertson’s. Not far from the downtown
square, there’s another store that is similar.
What
makes them somewhat unique is that they offer the buying public natural or
“organic” foods. Organic foods tend to
be more localized; they are minimally packaged or not packaged at all. Missing are all the various and sundry
preservatives that keep the food “fresh” as it is moved from harvest and
preparation to the retail shelves. You
get the idea.
What
does the word “organic” mean? How is it
defined? Here come the folks from
Dictionary.com to the rescue. They give
us seven definitions, but the one most suited to our purposes is this: “organic” is “characteristic of,
pertaining to, or derived from living organisms.”
The first point I wish to make, as we begin a series entitled
“The Organic Gospel: The Genuine Evangel
for an “Evangelical” World”, is that the Gospel of Jesus – the good news that
His person and work brought to the world – is organic. It is a living thing – an organism, if you
will. The great majority of the Old
Testament was written in the language of ancient Hebrew. The Hebrew word for “word” is dabar.
It means word, or word event, or thing; it pulsates with energy, with
life. St. Paul said: “I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the
power of God unto salvation.”
Within dabar is a power to evoke some kind of
change. It may be a simple
reaction. Here’s a dabar that, in literary/poetic circles, has been called a
“limerick”.
There
was a young woman from Ryde
Who ate
a green apple and died.
The
apple fermented inside the lamented
And
made cider inside her inside.
Such a limerick, as this kind of modern dabar reveals, can evoke a reaction, a chuckle, or a “good grief”
and roll of the eyes.
My point is that the organic gospel –the original “good news”,
the euanggelion (lit: eu/blessed,
anggelion/message)—evokes a reaction and so much more. Ultimately, cutting to the chase, the organic
gospel changes people.
A second point I wish to make is this: today, particularly in America, the organic
gospel – the original, real thing – has been pre-packaged, packaged, and
“preserved” with so much worldly gobbledygook, that we’ve lost sight of what it
actually is. Marshall McLuhan had it
right: “The medium has become the
message.” It’s not so much the gospel;
it’s how it’s packaged, how it’s presented, how it’s delivered to a “buying”
public.
Elsewhere and in differing forums, I’ve been occasionally
critical of the behavior of those in the “young millennial” demographic. This morning I extend a word of praise. These 20somethings and 30somethings can spot
phoniness from a mile away. They know
about packaging and presentation – far better than we baby boomers and greatest
generation-types do. And they have
spiritual lives; those lives may not be what we think a spiritual life is or
what it should be, but they do. Most of
them, at least the ones I’ve met, if pressed, would say that “religion” is
three things: 1. Do the right thing; 2.
Take care of one another; and 3. Entertain the possibility that there is a
power greater than self in the world.
Millennials are profoundly good at processing massive bits of
information very quickly, and that’s what it boils down to. One scholar called it “moralistic,
therapeutic, deism”: do the right thing;
take care of one another; consider a power greater than yourself. Is the organic gospel in there? Maybe, maybe not. But that’s where they’re honestly at.
Young parents and grandparents know what I’m talking about. Little Johnny or Susie sees an incredible toy
on the retail shelf at Target – let’s say it’s “Captain America” (or fill in
whichever action-figure, fun-figure you want).
My grandson Noah sees the package on the shelf and says: “Papa, that’s what I want.” (This process
takes longer than you might think.) We
transact our business with my Target RedCard and go on our way. Eventually, Noah says: “Papa, can you open it up for me.” We get back to the house, and off I go trying
to extricate the genuine article, Captain America, from the confines of his
packaging. Torn cardboard and
twisty-ties litter the floor. In the
end, Noah is happy and, in a way, I am too.
Modern Americans “walk down the spiritual/religious aisles”, so
to speak, and what to they find? They
discover row upon row of nice packaging, colorful packaging, packaging that –
like the forbidden fruit – is “appealing” to the eye: “God will save your marriage{“; “God will
straighten up your finances”; “God will give your life meaning”; “God will make
America great again” – and on it goes.
The organic gospel, the evangel,
may be in there, but it’s entirely covered over by the packaging. What I intend to do in this series of
meditations, based on the lectionary choice of the Book of Acts for the Easter
season, is precisely this: to tear away
the packaging.
The organic gospel – the genuine article, the real deal – is a
message that produces change. It is so
supremely powerful that some powerful forces tried to stop it dead in its
tracks.
29 Peter and the other apostles replied:
“We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus
from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as
Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their
sins.
Looking
over the readings for over a month and a half of Sundays, the unpackaging of
the organic gospel will reveal much to us.
Here’s just a sampling:
It’s not
about membership in a particular church; it’s about discipleship;
It’s not
about what people want; it’s about what God wants for His people.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment