Gettin' Clumsy Wid It

J-Cap and I like to laugh about our common malady:  We can barely live with being misunderstood.  Drives us NUTS.

And yet...every time you put pen to paper, finger to key, or open a microphone, you're going to be misunderstood.  Shoot, silence can be misinterpreted, too.  I still don't get Grebbo Marx or whatever his name was.

Here's a nice illustration of things I have to let go.  I don't blame the reporter at all, but I want to add, after each paragraph, "That's not quite what I meant to say, in context..."

Fact is, she did a great job.  I was kinda...clumsy.

I tried to relate that Jesus had his own explanation of the "Good News", and it was a message that clearly meant certain things to his audience.  What, widely, we now call the Gospel -- that Good News -- doesn't really capture what Jesus was talking about. 

In fact, ask most evangelicals, or Bible-believing fundamentalists, and they won't be able to tell you what Jesus's own "Good News" was.  You'll get a blank stare.  (I tried this recently with a Christian talk radio host, a cool, funny, very bright guy who teaches apologetics on his program.  "What did Jesus say the 'Good News' was in Mark 1?  You know, the message he sent his disciples to share?"  -- no idea.)

So, we've lost something really good, but lately, we're seeing people talking about the Good News -- the Kingdom is here -- and understanding its wonderful implications.   When people know what it means to want the Kingdom to come, here on earth, as it is in Heaven, well, they can't wait to make sure little babies in malaria-infested villages have mosquito nets over them. 

I didn't do a very good job of laying this out.  Part of it's because, while many reporters well understand the gospel as we've explained it, they're yet unfamiliar the good news that Jesus sent his disciples out to share in Mark 1. 

That may say something about us.

Comments

[keith]

So would you say that Jesus' gospel and Paul's gospel (1 Cor. 15) are different? If so, is one more important or more authoritative? How do they relate theologically and practically?

[Brant Hansen]

First, I highly recommend N.T. Wright as the guy to read on this.

Second, I'd like to know what you make of the fact that so few evangelicals emphasize Jesus's own primary message of the Kingdom. I'm honestly curious on yours and others' thoughts.

To answer you questions, maybe: I don't discern that Paul's understanding is profoundly different from Jesus's. I *do* think that since we've missed, largely, Jesus's message and what it entails, we tend to emphasize certain of Paul's teachings at the expense of others.

The seemingly-everyday-and-innocuous "Jesus is Lord" message that is so central to Paul is simply not properly appreciated. It is really about the Kingdom, properly understood.

Jesus told his disciples to go and tell the good news, the Kingdom is here. This was before the crucifixion, before the resurrection. And he went up on a mountainside and explained what the Kingdom here-and-now meant.

I Cor 15 emphasizes the resurrection, which, for that audience, would serve as confirmation of the Kingdom message that Jesus taught. I think one has to understand the narrative importance of exile-and-return for this audience to see how Paul was crafting the resurrection in this manner. Again, I think NT Wright is terrific on this...

[foleyma]

You used "nihilistic" and "banal" in the same sentence. In a newspaper. In America!

Cheers!

[Fayola]

And isn't there a direct correlation between Mark 1 and Isiah 61:1-3, which Jesus later quoted is Luke? I've always thought that was God's Good News that Jesus refers to in Mark 1...

[Alice the Brit]

this will go down in history as part of your legacy B-rant !!

quote "charismatic disc jockey"

Keep August 26th free - Crosswaves opening event at Boynton Calvary - bands, food, fun, bring the fam!

love Twix and Twizzler's slave owner!

[Mike Bishop]

Brant,

How do you reconcile your charisma with your banality? That's what I want to know.

[keith]

So I've been thinking about this all day.

"I'd like to know what you make of the fact that so few evangelicals emphasize Jesus's own primary message of the Kingdom."

It seems to me that Jesus' own primary message is never explicitly stated, at least in the way my Western mind expects important messages to be stated. Did Jesus ever say, "This is the gospel message I want you to preach," or "Here is a description of the kingdom that is at hand"? Does "the sermon on the mount" equal "the gospel of the kingdom", or is it just an example of some of the things Jesus taught?

As I read over the sermon on the mount, I see so much more in Jesus' message than how we relate to the poor. We must consider how we pray, think, look, the most efficient way to remove body parts, how to settle disputes before going to court. Also, the verses in the gospels that contain the word "gospel" do not provide a definition of the word. The writer assumes we know what it means.

Thanks for spurring me on, brother. I also read some excerpts from Wright today at Amazon and am interested in reading more.

[Seth Ward]

I heard a music minister get up and sing the Lord's prayer at a Music Minister convention, i.e. cheap cologne and pleated pants fest. He hadn't rehearsed the song and in front of about 1000 of his peers, he turned the Lord's Prayer unintentionally into an ode to Satan. "And lead us now, into temptation and deliver us unto ..(murmur) Satan...FOR THINE, IS THE KINGDOM etc.

No, I think you did pretty well.

[Brant]

I laughed at these comments at 5 a.m. That's something. I hate everything at 5 a.m.

Keith, I think (irony!) you misunderstood me. I don't at ALL think Jesus's Gospel is all about material poverty. It's not the focus of the Sermon on the Mount, either.

But the coming of the Kingdom meant specific things to first-century Jews. And it might be helpful if we understood that, so we'd actually know what Jesus was talking about. The more we understand that, 1) The more we might wonder, "Why didn't they teach me that?" and, 2) the better the "Good News" gets.

[Steve_11]

Howdy Brant - I note that the article cited states: "But Hansen said many Christians would like to see similar discussion on what they believe Jesus would be doing if he were alive today: working to eliminate poverty."

I am no fan of poverty, but on the other hand, I do not recall Jesus empahsizing us "working to eliminate it".
In Matthew 26:11 he said we will always have the poor.
My understanding is that we are to help the poor, yet more important be "ambassadors" of the knigdom of heaven, sharing the good news, whatever that is. We surely can do that by helping the poor, yet the poor will remain.
Now if only we could redistribute the wealth (liberal gospel), and move the people to where the food is (Sam Kinison gospel).

[Brant Hansen]

I don't remember saying that. I think that was her interpretation of what I said, which is rather the point.

I wouldn't put it that way, for precisely the reason you state.

Again, more interesting, perhaps: If the "good news" is that the Kingdom is here, shouldn't we know what that actually means? And shouldn't we be acting on it?

[opera mom]

okay, now i have to go read Mark 1 again. thank you for the inspiration.

[Brant Hansen]

BTW, to show how *not* off the wall I am in this understanding of how we've replaced Jesus's Gospel, this is from the Southern Baptist Convention, of all people:

"DALLAS (BP)--While the Kingdom of God was the central theme of all preaching in the New Testament, it has been virtually ignored by modern-day evangelists. This absence of Kingdom-centered evangelism has had devastating effects on the Western church and has now reached critical mass. An anthropocentric gospel of American individualism, which traces its roots back no farther than to the American frontier, has replaced the God-centered “gospel of the kingdom.” The deficiency is so great that most evangelists and professors of evangelism would be hard-pressed even to define the “gospel of the kingdom”"

http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=17995

[euphrony]

The book of Matthew can be, roughly, divided into three sections: 1) the genealogy and birth of Jesus, 2) the preaching of John the Baptist that the "kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2), and 3) the teaching of Jesus that the "kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). To say that the kingdom is the Good News is more than fairly accurate; kingdom living is the whole message that Jesus brings.

And yet, you seem to be correct in saying that the kingdom is not taught very often today. I'm not trying to implicate that there is a conspiracy, but how would the picture change between the laity and the clergy if a present and not future kingdom were taught, a kingdom to be lived in today and not one to just enter when we die?

[thecachinnator]

I think it's finally coming around to your point: what is the Kingdom? And the fact that most Christians couldn't tell you what it is serves as a pretty good explanation for why it isn't taught.

Euphrony begins to hit on it, but the Kingdom is both present and future. It has elements of both. It is both temporal and eternal. It is physical and ethereal. And even to its first hearers, it was mysterious as all get out! Why else would Jesus constantly describe it in parables? It is not what we would expect or want necessarily any more than it is what those who first heard Jesus' words would think or expect.

It's quite easier to teach "feed the poor" than "realize the Kingdom." That's not to disparage feeding the poor; I'm rather fond of the practice. But the Kingdom is bigger and has room for the poor. Feeding the poor is part of the Kingdom; it is not the Kingdom itself.

[thecachinnator]

BTW, good call on Wright. Very good call.

[Brant Hansen]

And yet...we're commanded to tell the "good news about the Kingdom" (NLT) to everyone. (Matt 24)

It's a story can be told.

If we can't tell it -- and apparently, largely, we can't -- that's more than a profound problem.

I do think "Where God is in control" and "Where God's effective will reigns" or even "God's dream for the world" -- all of those phrases get at it. But the Kingdom meant many things to the audience to whom Jesus was speaking. Many GREAT things.

No, it can't be summed up in its entirety, put on a bumper sticker, and sold at a Mercy Me concert.

I've seen, clearly, it many, many times. I've even mentioned that EVERYONE "gets it", deep down, whether they have prayed a prayer in their lives. They get goosebumps when they see glimpses of it -- redemption in action, last-will-be-first in action.

And it's the Good News, and it can be demonstrated and talked about. Jesus did it, then told us we could.

I wasn't taught how, growing up. But I can do it now. Not in its fullness, but I've got some pretty scandalous good news to tell.

[euphrony]

cachinnator,
Your right, my comment only began to skim the surface of what the kingdom of heaven encompasses. Brevity (or, at least, relative brevity) in someone else’s post is polite. A little over two years ago, I wrote a ~15 page letter of encouragement (given to many of my friends) that talked exclusively about the blessings of God and the kingdom which blesses us and through us blesses the world. A little to long to include in reply to Brant. In fact, I would like to post the whole thing on my blog, but even then it is long and I have not figured out a way to handle it without doing a long serial.

It’s a little like Narnia; all created and part of the kingdom, but there are many places that are not quite tame, just as the Creator is not tame. And there is more (much more) to it than the eye can see or the human mind grasp. Think of Jesus’ promise that he is the gate, in John 10. We enter in to His safe pasture and find rest (the tame places). Of necessity, because we are called and compelled to, we leave the safety and encounter the wilds of the world. This is where we minister, and we travel back and forth as we work and are rejuvenated in God.

And then, there is the picture of 1 Corinthians 15:28 – “When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.” I cannot even begin to fathom this kingdom that Paul describes.

[keith]

So, Brant (or anyone), if you were telling the good news about the Kingdom to someone, what would you say?

[Brant Hansen]

Keith -- a quik (so quik, I've eliminated the extraneous "c"'s) reply, until I can get back to this:

1. Again, N.T. Wright's "The Challenge of Jesus" is a great read for this.

2. There are contextual considerations, here, big-time. Perhaps what I'll do is post about some recent conversations I've had with people who have only heard the "American frontier" gospel, and rejected it.

Anyway, I'll get back to it. I just spent a whole half-hour blathering on about the atheist video thing.