The Jesus We’ve Never Known (I) from the Gospel We’ve Never Heard (II) Out of the Bible We’ve Never Read (III) in the Church We’ve Never Experienced (IV)

 

II  From the Gospel We’ve Never Heard  The “Gospel” of a "Defeated" God

The “gospel” is believed to be a known quantity in North American society.  Friend and foe alike would agree that what follows is the “default” for “gospel” in our culture.

-God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.                                                       -However, you are a sinner and your sin has separated you fro -But Jesus came and died on the cross for your sins.                                                                                  -If you accept his death for you, you will be forgiven and accepted by to God.                                                                                                                            -Thus, you are assured that you will spend eternity with God in heaven.

This is the “gospel” Billy Graham preached.  It’s the “gospel” of the well-known “Four Spiritual Laws” from Campus Crusade for Christ.  The widely used “Evangelism Explosion” program of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church is based on it as is the “Romans Road to Salvation” approach to evangelism.  And this is the “gospel” that riles those unsympathetic to its theology.  Make no mistake, when push comes to shove in our culture, this set of ideas IS the “gospel.”

But is it really?  “Gospel” means “good news.”  It celebrates a victory.  It is a triumphant cry that Jesus is Victor and through him God has accomplished all he purposed in creating humanity and the world.  My claim is that the “gospel” as outlined above, when assessed by the gospel we actually find in the Bible, is not the “good news” of a God victorious in all his ways.  Rather, this “gospel” is, in truth, the bad news of a defeated deity!  Little wonder that our world finds such a “gospel” uninteresting and irrelevant and the church finds such little “oomph” for witness and mission in it!

This outrageous claim can only be justified by a comparison of the biblical gospel (BG) with our default “gospel” (DG). 

-In the BG God intends to have a worldwide community of humans living in union and communion with him, themselves, each other, and the creation itself.  We will have perfected bodies suited to the “new creation” (see Rev.21 and 1 Cor.15).

In the DG God intends for humanity to live eternally with him in heaven in a spiritual (immaterial) existence. This is the pervasive influence of the Greek philosopher Plato who divided reality into two realms, the spiritual (the soul, inner, invisible) realm of the good, the right, and the beautiful and the material (the body, physical, earthly, visible) realm of decay and darkness that weighs down the soul and hinders its journey back the realm of the spiritual, its proper home. Breaking the hold of the material realm on our souls and finally fleeing it in death is the goal.

 

-In the BG God acts to rescue sinful humanity, reclaim them for their original dignity and vocation of serving as God’s royal representatives in creation protecting and nurturing creation to its full flourishing, and renew the creation, the world to come, as our eternal habitation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the DG God rescues sinful humanity through the death of Jesus Christ so that God and humanity may enjoy eternal union and communion in heaven.  Our vocation here is to “save as many souls” as possible for this heavenly life for which we wait.

-In the BG God will throughout eternity come to live in and with us on the new creation and we will “reign” (Rev.22:5) with him forever fulfilling our vocation to be God’s image-bearers (Gen.1:26-28) and stewards of creation (Genesis 2:15), thus experiencing finally and in full life as God intends.

In the DG God will live with us in “spiritual” union and communion in the heavenly realm after the earth and all things material are done away with.

 

Note well: when compared with the BG, the DG presents a God whose ultimate purpose is defeated, whose power is limited, and who cannot finally win the victory over death.  This is why I claim the DG is actually the “bad news” of a defeated deity.  And this is what we have proclaimed as God’s “good news” for the last couple of centuries!    

In comparison with the BG, the DG portrays a God whose ultimate purpose is defeated.  The picture of the end in Revelation 21-22 is about as far removed from that of an eternal, immaterial existence in heaven forever as it could be. Instead of an embodied life with the forever incarnate Jesus on a perfected creation serving God by caring for and nurturing creation and each other, we end up with an “angel-like” existence in a non-material realm with God forever.  If you are bored with the latter picture, as I am, you should be. This is a diminished picture of the best a defeated deity could do.  Why should that interest anyone?   

Somehow God has failed to bring the fullness of life he created to its intended end – to be the eternal habitation of God and his people.  Neither the creation nor human life maintains their created unity.  Both lose the material dimensions of their reality in the end envisioned by the DG. This is the triumph of Plato over the Bible.  Matter matters to the Bible’s God.  And it matters eternally.  This is a corollary to the Christian doctrine of creation.

Further, in the Apostles’ Creed we affirm “the resurrection of the body” which includes us as well as Jesus. After all, it would be strange if Jesus was the only bit of the first creation that makes it into the world to come.  The idea of an immaterial, “spiritual” existence is utterly foreign to the BG.  Life after death, however, a disembodied life with God in heaven, is what most Christians envision will be the last chapter of their lives. If so, if the DG is right about this, then the Bible’s God is a defeated deity.  He cannot bring what he has made to the end he envisions for it.

In comparison with the BG, the DG presents a God whose power is limited.  Not only does God not bring his creation project to completion, he is apparently unable to do it. If God intends what we see pictured in Revelation 21-22 and yet we end up with a disembodied existence in heaven, then somewhere along the line God has been forced to change his plans and scale back the scope of his creation project.  Rather than human and creational flourishing, we have a salvage operation!

Or perhaps God simply changed his mind. Maybe he started out with the plan we find in BG but decided to change horses in midstream and adjust the goal for humanity to what we find in DG.  In this case, it’s not God’s power to accomplish his will that is limited but rather his power to plan and implement a coherent program!  Either way, this hardly seems a deity who is trustworthy.  In short, this deity is a defeated deity who seems far from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, and most critically, this God cannot defeat his creatures’ greatest foe – death.  Think about it:  as Christians we define death as the loss of bodily life in which our “souls,” that inner, “spiritual” part of us, the “real” us (as we think) goes to heaven to be with God forever.  If this version of “life after death” is the best God can offer us, however, then he has acquiesced to the power of death!  That’s putting lipstick on a pig! It’s the final, ultimate sundering of what God has put together in creation and wants to finally keep together in the new creation.

Thus we rightly live in “slavery by the fear of death” (Heb.2:15) to the one who has ”the power of death . . . the devil.” (Heb.2:14).  For this one, it seems, is the real arbiter of our final destiny.

In BG, however, “life after death” is not the final chapter in our existence but only the next to last chapter.  The final chapter is what N. T. Wright has helpfully called “life after life after death,” the resurrection of the dead.  Here God exerts his power to undo all that division, destruction, and death sought to spread.  Here all things are fully and finally reconciled, set right, brought together, body and “soul” are reunited, and creation is made new and perfect.  The bride (the people of God) is ready for her beloved, the Lamb and the new heavens and the new earth are resplendent in beauty and glory for their nuptials. And it will be evident then what we claim in faith now, that in Christ ”every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes’” (2 Cor.1:20).

Now, I am not claiming that the adherents of DG consciously make these negative claims or are even aware of them.  Clearly, they are not.  However, it seems inescapable to me that if BG is something like I sketched it, the implications outlined above hold. These claims about a “defeated God” are the joker in the deck of DG.  They impact the way we present the gospel and the way it is received by those we seek to reach.

Three questions, at least, haunt human life. Three questions every human faces.

-Who am I?                                                                                                                                                         -What is my purpose in life?                                                                                                                             -What can I hope for?

DG answers these questions:

-I am a sinner in need of rescue.                                                                                                     -The purpose of my life is to find a way out of it safely through Jesus Christ.                                       -My hope lies in a completely different kind of life in a completely different place beyond death than we experience on earth. A “better place” as we often hear in funerals.

BG, on the other hand, answers:

-I am a good creation of God graced with dignity and the vocation to be God’s royal representative and steward of his creation.

-I have gone terribly wrong.  That, however, does not expunge the dignity and vocation God has given me.  The purpose of my life lies in rediscovering and embracing both my rescue from sin and my restoration to the dignity of my stewardly vocation by God that I can begin to live that vocation out in my daily life. 

-My hope lies in God’s promise that he will defeat death and all other enemies of his good purposes and bring me and all the rest of creation to the full experience of the life he intends for me. 

I suspect that nearly all of us harbor somewhere deep inside us a sense, a glimmer, or a longing to believe that we are connected to the source of all that is.  And whatever we may call this source, connection to it makes us loved and valued. Further, we sense as well that life in the body is or least could be a good thing, something to be affirmed and nourished.  And finally, we hope, in spite of all the evil, tragedy, and suffering we experience, for the fulfillment of the promise of our life as a physical-spiritual being and a setting right of all that has gone wrong and hindered a flourishing of life’s potential.

All this comes to expression, of course, in a multitude of different ways.  It comes in bits and pieces, in contradictory and only partly coherent beliefs and longings, and even in their violent denial and repression.  But they are there.  Any presentation of the gospel that fails to honor these longings and intuitions is not likely to seem plausible.

It is my contention that DG fails spectacularly at this point!  If our primary identity is a sinner in need of rescue, if our purpose is to find deliverance from the conditions of our creation, and our hope lies in final escape to that “better place,” our world is not likely to hear or experience this in a way that coheres with these longings for dignity, goodness, beauty, fulfillment, and justice that seem to drive human being.  BG, on the other hand, offers a vision that affirms those longings and identifies their true source and fulfillment in the mighty acts of the triune God, preeminently and climactically in the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Our culture has been snookered by Plato for a long time now.  His division of reality into two separate realms of the “spiritual” and the material, with the former being good and desirable and the latter not, gave an air of plausibility to and was a major influence in shaping the development of DG.  In our day, though, many of us realize that we’ve been had by this divided view of reality and are working hard to overcome it. That inevitably means a fresh re-reading of the Bible and re-thinking of its message as if Plato didn’t matter (so to speak). What we find when we do this is something like what I have called BG.  And we have seen that the differences between DG and BG are profound and the consequences substantial    

My hope in this analysis of “the ‘good news’ of a defeated God” is to awaken us to the powerful implications of DG if BG is correct.  We need a God who is truly and fully victorious in all of life, a God who can make and keep his promises, and one for whom death is no match as we move forward into the 21^st century.  I hope God’s people will be roused to reconsider and reframe their message and manner of life in accord with BG.  And most of all, I hope we gratefully receive anew the gift of life God has given us and live it for all it is worth for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the glory of God! 

A Sermon

The following is a sermon I have preached several times addressing our issue of a gospel we have never heard.

How Do You Spell “Gospel”?                                                                                                                                           (lsaiah 52:7-10; Romans 1:16-17)

“It’s the economy, stupid!”  Remember that?  James Carville’s slogan to keep Bill Clinton focused on the main issue of the 1992 Presidential campaign.  It’s now enshrined in American political lore. 

I think we need a similar slogan for Christians: “It’s the gospel, stupid!”  We have PSADD, you see, Promiscuous Spiritual Attention Deficit Disorder.  We’ll spread our attention and focus on almost anything like a dog marking a new territory.  But “the” thing we supposed be tethered to:  the gospel, slips from mind and heart with embarrassing ease. 

In fact, I have that slogan taped on the inside cover of my Bible because I too have PSADD. I keep it there to continually remind me of what the central issue of ministry really is – the gospel!

ln our New Testament reading from Romans we hear the Apostle Paul passionately exclaim , "For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." As I listen to Paul I am tempted to think that here he is reminding himself, as well as his hearers, of what is really basic and fundamental - the gospel, the gospel. You see, Paul was no more immune than you or I to being distracted by PSADD.

For the strange truth is that the gospel tends to slip out of our vision at just those points where we think we know it best! When I believe that I have the basics mastered and can turn my attention to other pressing matters, like committee work, stewardship programs, Wednesday Night suppers, counseling and so forth - I stand in danger of losing my focus and need the reminder, "lt's the gospel, stupid!"

What is this "gospel" that is so central to Christian faith and life? How would you describe it to a friend or neighbor? What truth or realities lie at the heart of what we believe? How, I want to ask this morning, do you spell "gospel"?

I'm going to tell you how I spell it. And I'll do it by throwing out a word or phrase beginning with each letter of the word "gospel." Now you may or may not altogether agree with how I spell it. That's OK! What's important is for us to think together about the central reality of our lives - the gospel! How we dot every "i" or cross every "t" is probably less important than the process of thinking it through and in that process catching a new and fresh glimpse of the awesome reality of the God made known to us in Jesus Christ.

Let’s get started.  I’ll stipulate that the “G” is not God.  God is at the heart of all we’ll talk about here and not just one letter.  Look at our Old Testament reading from lsaiah 52. Can you find anything there which might be our "G"? How about the "good news" in v.7.

What makes the "gospel" good news? Three things come to mind. First, the "gospel" is news! lt is a report, a testimony, a declaration of what God has done for us. What we couldn't and wouldn't do for ourselves God has done for us. The "gospel" is not a set of rules and regulations we must follow to be acceptable to God. There's no moralism in the good news - whether it be the legalistic reinforcement of traditional morality from the right or the equally rigid insistence on the so-called "political correctness" from the left! There's simply an announcement of what God has done.  It’s front page newspaper stuff.  Not for the religion section or the op ed page – the front page, news!

lf the "gospel" is news, it is also good news. That's the second thing I want to highlight. This declaration of what God has done for us is unimaginably good. lt's the news we most need to hear about our human condition. A friend of mine once said, in the midst of a severe struggle with his faith, "l need good news, not good advice!" And that good news is that god has defeated the foes of our humanity –sin, death, evil, and the devil.  God’s victory opens up to us a full and free forgiveness, unconditional acceptance and restoration to pursue again the purpose for which we were created. And that purpose is for us to serve God as his royal representatives reflecting his will and way in the world and protect the creation and nurture it to its full flourishing.  Such good news as this assaults our despair by beaming a laser of light to dispel any area of darkness in our lives.

And that's the third thing I want to say about "good news." lt is good because it touches every area of our lives. The "gospel" is a cord made of many strands. And it's tragic when some Christians pick up only one strand and claim that it is the whole of the good news. And the tragedy is compounded when we grow suspicious of other Christians who discover other strands and end up fighting with each other over which side is right. I pray that we may all catch a glimpse of the many dimensions of God's "gospel" today.

A group of Presbyterian churches issued a statement some years ago entitled "A Theological Basis for Evangelism." Listen to how they outline some of the many dimensions of the "gospel":

-for those suffering from the guilt of sin, the good news is forgiveness, restoration, and new life through Jesus Christ

-for those facing death, the good news is that in Jesus Christ...death is swallowed up in victory; that God goes with us through the valley of the shadow of death; and that beyond the grave, our Lord welcomes us into the Church Triumphant

-for those whose lives are consumed by materialism and pleasure, the good news is that Jesus' pattern of servanthood brings wholeness to life, that simplicity brings freedom

-for those whose lives are threatened, exploited, shattered, or oppressed, the good news is that God and God's people stand with them in defending life in all its fullness and advocating justice with dignity for all persons and groups.

Now, how do you spell "gospel"?

How about "o," the second letter? Both lsaiah and Paul point to it when they refer to God's care for all kinds of people. Paul refers to "Jews" and "Greeks" to denote all of humanity, and lsaiah speaks of God reaching out to all humankind.       

Therefore I call the "o" "openness."

At the heart of the good news is the assurance of God's wondrous and radical openness to all kinds of folk. The wideness of God's heart is graphically symbolized by Jesus Christ on the cross. There, in those scarred and wounded arms, open and extended as fully as possible, a rebellious world finds itself wrapped in a divine embrace of mercy.

And as we experience that divine embrace of mercy ourselves, perhaps we will find it possible to open up to others. Maybe not quite as fully or as widely as Christ, but maybe wide enough to welcome and embrace some of the others around us, especially those others who are different from us and difficult for us to accept.

Now, again, how do you spell "gospel"?

You can find the "s" of "gospel" in Romans 1:16. You found it didn't you? Yes, it’s "salvation." Or that's at least part of it. I'm going to change our spelling of "gospel" to include a double "s" because theologically we can't understand "salvation" without a consideration of "sin" too.

Notice I said "sin" in the singular, not "sins" in the plural. That's because at the root of all the sins we commit is the reality of sin as a power which holds us in its sway; a power from which we cannot escape. The Bible primarily understands sin as a power at work in our lives, just as salvation is also a power at work in and among us. These two powers vie for control of our lives.

This conflict between the power of sin and the power of salvation is fundamentally a conflict of loyalties. Sin warps our lives by inducing us to place loyalty to ourselves and our own interests above everything else. This self-loyalty is evident in the very way we describe the decades of our national life:  the seventies is the "I gotta be me" years, the eighties the "l gotta get mine" decade, the nineties, “I gotta get more,” and the two thousands, the “I gotta get yours” decade.

The "gospel," however, comes announcing freedom from this warped loyalty (which it names as idolatry) and freedom for a new loyalty to God and the interests of God's kingdom. And the ability to declare and live out of this new loyalty is what the Bible calls "salvation"!

And how are you going to spell "gospel" today?

The fourth letter of "gospel," "p" captures the spirit of both our texts. How would you describe the way lsaiah and Paul feel about what they are writing about? I'd call it "passion."

Once upon a time Satan was addressing his new recruits on the nuts and bolts of deception. He asks them what they think might work best. 

A young recruit immediately answered that every effort should be made to convince people that God did not exist. Satan smiled and replied, 'Ah, the frontal attack. We've tried that for centuries but with very little success. We've only a handful of true atheists to show for our trouble."

Another recruit suggested, "Perhaps we could convince people that there is no hell."

"We had a fair amount of success with that strategy. But it has seemed to run its course. We did ourselves in by promoting so much hatred and war and perversion that now people sense that there will indeed be a reckoning for the evil that they do. Any other ideas?"

"How about telling folks that God is so easy-going and accepting that there's no need to rush into making any decision about religious matters."

Satan perked up at this response and said, "You've hit upon our second most effective temptation. Promoting a sentimentalized view of God has for centuries been one of our better methods. There's still a better way, though."

Puzzle as they might, the recruits could come up with no more ideas. Finally, one of them asked Satan, "Please tell us, Master, what is the best method!"

"Our best method," he replied, "works with those who go to church regularly as well as those who do not. We call it ‘moderation.' We convince people not to get too excited or overly committed to God. This way they convince themselves that they are believers though in truth there is no fire in the soul. 'Moderation' works just about every time."

Yes, fire in the soul, the passion for God and God's kingdom lies near to every faithful response to the gospel. This will exhibit itself differently from person to person, but it will be there! lt's part and parcel of the "good news."

Again, I need to ask, how do you spell "gospel"?

Good news, passionately embraced, can't be hoarded away in our hearts or in our churches. lt insists on being shared, spread abroad by word and deed. Thus, I would make "evangelism" the "e" of gospel.

Some media preachers and fundamentalists have given this great word a bad name. For some the mention of evangelism conjures up images of buttonholing people on the street corner and demanding to know if they are "saved." And in reaction many mainline Christians have reduced the content of evangelism to occasionally, very occasionally, inviting a friend or neighbor to church.

Evangelism, though, is neither a brow-beating moralism nor simple friendliness.  It is the announcement that Jesus is Lord of all, the only Lord with a rightful claim on our allegiance and love. Evangelism deals fundamentally with idolatry (who or what we serve) rather than morality (what we do). Evangelism does not mean pointing out people's faults and problems and telling them that Jesus will help them become a better person. lt does mean pointing out to them the false and destructive powers to which they given their allegiance and inviting them to turn from their idols and trust in the one true and living God.

Yet one more time, how do you spell "gospel"?

The "L" of "gospel" can hardly be anything other than "love" can it? Yet having said that, I realize t haven't said much until I say what I mean by "love." Moses Mendelssohn, one of the great minds of the 18th century, was much acclaimed as both a scholar and as a warm and compassionate person. When it came time for him to marry, his father arranged a marriage with Fromet Guggenheim, a rich, young and beautiful woman. Mendelssohn, on the other hand, was of poor origins, and though brilliant, was small, ugly and had a hunchback.

The two had never met and first saw each other at a party in their honor. Fromet observed Mendelssohn at a distance as he talked with other guests. She was repulsed by his physical appearance. So repulsed, in fact, that she called the marriage off without even speaking to him.

Moses Mendelssohn, though, asked her for another opportunity to meet and talk.  Fromet Guggenheim agreed. After a few minutes of quiet conversation, Mendelssohn said, "l want to tell you a story."

"As you know," he began, "all marriages are arranged in heaven. Before I was born an angel was escorting me to earth. I asked if it was possible for me to see the woman God had selected for me. The angel answered that though it was highly unusual he thought it could be arranged.

"l was granted one look, and to my astonishment the woman had an ugly hump on her back. I pleaded with God, 'lt is not fair that a woman be a hunchback. She will be the object of scorn and contempt. I beg you, give me the hump, and let her be well formed and beautiful.'

Mendelssohn was silent a moment and then said, "God heard my prayer and granted my wish. I am that boy and you are that girl."

Fromet Guggenheim looked at Moses Mendelssohn with new eyes. The man she now saw sitting across from her, and whom she later married, was a man of deep compassion, uncommon grace and wonderfully attractive.

And that's the attractiveness of the God of the "gospel," a God willing to bear the hurt and pain of his creatures on their behalf and for their healing!

Now, I have to ask you again, how do you spell "gospel"?

Good news, openness to all people, the victory of salvation over sin, passion for God, evangelism and love - these are the heart of the gospel. And I suggest that the best way to spell it is not G-O-S-P-E-L but rather J-E-S-U-S C-H-R-I-S-T.

For he, he embodies each of those qualities and as such is a walking parable of the "gospel." He is the one through whom we experience the love and acceptance of God. Indeed, we know no other God save the one we meet in Jesus Christ.

And that gets us to the heart of the matter. Every barrier, every sin, every impediment to our relation to God has been dealt with and removed by Jesus Christ. The sole issue outstanding between God and humanity is Jesus Christ. He is either the good news of God or we have no good news at all!

Karl Barth, the greatest theologian of the last century, was asked late in his life what was the most profound theological thought he had ever had (which, by the way, is simply another way of asking our question, "How do you spell 'gospel'?") This wise and learned man, author of more than ten thousand pages of top shelf theology, pondered but a moment before answering. His reply astonished his listeners. For he said, "Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so."

One last time, I ask you, how do you spell "gospel"?

Your Gospel May Be Too Small If . . .

-You think the earth is not a part of God’s eternal plan.

To see heaven or some other place not this earth as our eternal abode is to deny the biblical testimony that God intends this earth to be his home with us forever. Heaven is more of a holding station for us after death until Christ’s return. With his return we will be raised, given our resurrection bodies (like Jesus’, flesh + more) and return with him to take up eternal residence here.

-You think God’s plan of having humanity reign on earth as his royal priests will never be fulfilled.

If we return to heaven after death and that is our final state, then we will have never experienced the fulfillment of God’s intentions for us in creation. However, the good news is that God will make the new creation his home (Rev.21:3) and we will “reign” there forever (22:5). Reigning is the fulfillment of the royal priesthood or divine-image bearing.

-You think Christ became human only because humans sinned and needed redemption.

This makes Jesus’ coming dependent on our sin! Did God then create us to sin so Jesus could come? I hope you don’t believe this.

Jesus was always going to come to earth as the climax of God’s intention to draw as near as possible to his human creatures. And how much nearer can God draw to us than to become one of us!

Our sin created additional difficulties to be dealt with as part of his mission but the fulfillment of that mission entailed Christ becoming human from the get-go.

-You think that the forgiveness of sins is the end/goal of God’s redemptive work.

This follows from what we just saw. Forgiveness of sins in a necessary and wondrous act on God’s part to graciously reclaim rebellious ingrates like us. But in addition to reclaiming us through Christ’s forgiveness won at the cross, God restores us to his original creational purposes for us fulfilled in Christ’s resurrection. It’s not that we’re reclaimed so we can start over again. “Back in the garden,” so to speak. No, not at all. We lost the game ourselves but now we win through Christ. We will henceforth live as victors in Christ and our task will be to live into that victory from this day through eternity.

-You think of humans primarily as sinners in need of redemption (which we, of course, are) rather than divine image-bearers in primarily in need of restoration to their primal dignity and vocation of God’s royal representatives in the world and creation’s wise overseers.

In his great sermon “The Weight of Glory,” C. S. Lewis shows us in his own inimitable way, the difference that I’ve pointed to makes in how we approach others.

“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s  glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a  corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.”

I hope your gospel is not too small. Or if it is, that you will quickly enlarge it to genuine biblical proportions.