Entrusted with the Message of the Gospel

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, October 29, 2023
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

When have you heard really good news?  How did you feel?  Did it catch you by surprise, or did you experience relief to receive good news you expected?  Many of you know my brother lives in Norway.  We try to keep in touch monthly but to be honest I am the one who usually initiates our conversations.  I knew something was up a few years ago when he texted to arrange a video chat, intentionally.  He had either really good or really bad news, I thought.  And indeed he was calling to say, “We got married!”  And then even bigger, better news, “We’re having a baby!”  That was a memorable, amazing video chat.  Sometimes I wish there were more days in my life like that with momentously good news to hear!  Lord knows, we all need some good news.
We live in a world that unhealthily fixates on bad news.  The media knows that sensationally bad news sells.  Good news usually finds its way in a cute clip the last thirty seconds of the news hour, or in the back corner or bottom of the last page.  We expect bad news on the daily – an update on the war in Israel or Ukraine.  Another mass shooting.  Another natural disaster or tragic accident.  As Christians, however, we are called to be persistent messengers of good news, despite the barrage of bad news around us.  Jesus is God’s answer to the world’s bad news. And in fact, every day, we can stand to be reminded ourselves that Jesus is God’s gift of momentously good news for us.
“We have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel,” Paul writes.  God trusts us to share the message of the gospel, as people of faith.  What is the message that we have to share, though?  Are we supposed to memorize and quote back whole books of the Bible, namely Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the gospels in our New Testament?  Is the message we need to share only in the four gospels – and so by the way Pastor Rebecca why are you preaching on a letter of Paul instead – isn’t the gospel more important?  (The answer by the way is no – we can find good news in all scripture including the Old Testament and sometimes as we’ve seen lately the gospel reading doesn’t offer us the good news we need to hear). We throw around this phrase that as Christians we should share the message of the gospel, but it’s OK to stop once and awhile and clarify what the gospel message we are to share even is.  So be warned – you can’t claim ignorance anymore after this sermon as a reason not to share the gospel with others.  Let’s unpack what it means to share the gospel.
“Gospel” is a churchy word.  It is actually an Old English word that means “good news,” which is the same translation for the original Greek Paul uses here – euangelion – good news or “good message.”  The Greek is where we get the word “evangelical” and “evangelism” and if you listen closely, you hear “angel” in the word – we are God’s angels or messengers, bringing good news about what Jesus has done for us to others.  We are ordinary angels that God uses to assure people of the simple fact that God loves them and wants them to love God and others likewise, as Jesus tells us in our gospel for today.  And we are not alone in confusing what the gospel message is sometimes for other messages, because this was the primary concern for Luther in his time as well, and why we celebrate the Reformation still today.
On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther famously nailed 95 Theses or arguments he had with the Catholic Church of which he was a part – a professor, monk and priest – to say the Church at the time was distorting the gospel.  Telling people they had to pay money for indulgences to buy their own salvation and others and using those funds to build a beautiful new church building in Rome was not the gospel, Luther argued passionately.  Rather, Luther tirelessly and prolifically preached and taught that God loves us and saves us through our faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection.  We are saved by God’s grace, not because of anything we can do to earn or deserve God’s love.  This is still the gospel.  This was the gospel message, the good news that the first Christians in Thessalonica knew and shared in 42 AD, and this is the message we have to share today. Jesus is God’s good news for our bad situations.  This simple message spread like wildfire through early Christian communities during Paul’s day and again sparking the Reformation in Luther’s day.  Simply sharing this good news about Jesus today can do the same today, because people still think they have to save themselves – if I just find the right diet and exercise routine.  If I just find the right job or make enough money.  If I can get into the right school and get good enough grades.  If the right kind of people like me.  Paul and Luther encourage us to stop trying to get it right because we never totally will, on our own, and instead look to Jesus who helps us accept ourselves as we are and rely on him instead of our own strength.  That’s grace. God loves us right now, despite ourselves, especially when we don’t deserve it.
Sometimes it is difficult to preach on letters of Paul because he uses “high-falutin” theological language. Thessalonica was the capital port city of Macedonia, and Paul is using language of the Greek philosophers – talking like the people talk.  That means some of what he says sounds perhaps pretentious or is lost on us, because we don’t typically speak in the language of Greek philosophers today, of course.  But knowing this leads us to ask, how do we use language that makes sense to people today to share the good news of what God in Christ has done for us?  What good news about Jesus do people need to hear that is relevant for their lives today?
On this Reformation Sunday, we celebrate that Martin Luther used the Gutenberg printing press, a modern invention of his time, to share the good news of Jesus Christ through pictures and simple, cheaply printed pamphlets. He also promoted literacy and learning, parents teaching their children to read with the Small Catechism as well as better education for priests with the Large Catechism so that all people, regardless of social class or status as lay person or clergy could understand and share the gospel better.  We, too, can think about how we use social media, livestreaming, Zoom and other digital platforms to share the good news of God’s love for us in Jesus.  We can think about how we encourage learning and growing in faith in worship on Sunday morning, in Sunday School, in our youth group and confirmation classes, in our adult Bible study, but also beyond these programs, too.  What tools and materials could we share with people to help build faith at home, even when people are away or too busy for regular weekly church activities?  How can we simply, truthfully say Jesus loves you and so do I in a way that resonates and causes others to want to share that simple good news with even more people?
Thanks be to God, God trusts us with the message of the gospel.  May God give us the wisdom and the courage to share this simple message of God’s love for the world, for the world needs to hear it.  Amen.