BLOG 7/17/16. RESCUING THE BEAUTIFUL WORD ‘EVANGELICAL’ FROM ABUSE.

BLOG 7/17/16. RESCUING THE BEAUTIFUL WORD ‘EVANGELICAL’ FROM ABUSE

There is something very irresponsible, if not downright obscene, about the way the popular media and too many cnservative religious groups have hi-jacked the designation: evangelical to denote a segment of strident, very political conservatives (who seek refuge under a grossly misunderstood version of the Christian faith).. That usage is the very anti-thesis of an understanding of the Christian that flows from the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. First off, the early Christian church appropriated a neutral Greek word (euangellion), meaning: thrilling announcement to speak of the awesome life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

So what does it mean? Let’s begin with a reference from the 8th century B.C. Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, that Jesus himself used to usher in his own earthly ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news (euangellion in the Greek translation of the Old Testament) to to the poor …”. So when Jesus inaugurates his own public ministry in his hometown of Nazareth (after his forty days of trial in the wilderness) he is asked to do the reading for the day, which happens to be that very passage from Isaiah. … Slow down here and note what that good news consists of. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to (whom?) the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives (primarily those imprisoned for unpayable debts, etc.) and the recovering of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (the Jubilee year when all property and status was returned to its original owner in Jewish law [though there is no evidence that it was ever practiced]). Ah! But then he very candidly appropriates this prophecy as referring to himself. He, himself, is that good news: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-21). They cannot accept this and chase him out of town—but to my Blog readers, don’t miss the content of the good news. He, then, forthwith begins: “Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the euangellion/gospel of God, and saying ‘the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God (i.e., God’s New Creation-making all things new), repent and believe the gospel/euangellion.’”

What then does the euangellion/evangel look like? Jesus spells that out in Matthew 5 ff. It looks like adherents, or believers who identify with the poor, who mourn of those who have suffered loss and tragedy, who are modest/humble/meek, who hunger and thirst for what is right, who are merciful, who are pure in heart, who are peacemakers, who are willing to be reviled and persecuted for what is right, and who rejoice in all of this. In short, they (true ‘evangelicals’)are those who are suffused with the sweet aroma of Christ.

But most tellingly, what is ultimately the criteria about who is and who is not part of that New Creation, that evangelical people of Jesus Christ. Jesus teaches that when he comes again, he will come in judgment and the criteria will be: did they give food to the hungry? drink to the thirsty? take strangers (immigrants?) into their homes? clothe the naked? visit those in prison? Those who live such self-giving, humanitarian, caring lives to the helpless of this world will hear him say: “Come, blessed of my Father.” To those who harden their hearts to the poor and helpless and minorities or this society he will say: “Depart from me, I never know you” … (no matter how much they seek to identify themselves as  orthodox ‘evangelicals’ (Matthew 25:31ff). Such people obscenely appropriate the noble word evangelical for an agenda alien to the gospel of God. (By the way, … in the light of this passage it could be easily contended that those not necessarily even pretending to be religious but meeting these needs are closer to God (than those who harden their hearts and ignore such human tragedy), i.e., folk like: Doctors Without Borders, the International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, and so many others.) Do you get my point? The sweet aroma of Christ in the hurt and brokenness of this present scene—those with the heart of God for his hurting children.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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