EUANGELION
Today I realized what the good news really is. Here it is: you are loved. This is where it all begins. This is where it all ends. You, the downtrodden, the weary, the outcast, the hated, the marginalized, the beaten, the ostracized, the broken…you are loved. There it is, Euangelion…it’s Good News.
I say this is where it all begins because this is the fundamental lens through which humanity must be viewed. If we are truly made in God’s image, and God’s good news is a proclamation of everlasting love, then Christ-followers, as His ambassadors must also see humanity through this lens. We must see the worth of every human being. We must, as Mother Theresa so eloquently puts it, “see God in the eyes of every human being.” This of course does not negate the fact that we are a broken people…in fact, it only reinforces it. It reinforces the fact that we are all in need of the same undying love that can only be found in one Source.
My point when it comes to proclamation of the euangelion is essentially this…if that kind of love can only be found in one Source, then one might expect that those who are exposed to that kind of love might wonder where such love comes from. It is at this point that the beauty of euangelion is found. The fact is, the good news is not all that great if we tell people that we are somehow more complete then them. It’s not so great if we tell them that the ways that they experience meaning aren’t Biblically sound. It’s not so great if we tell them that they have to give away their cultural identity if they want to experience “right” Christianity. I will tell you when the good news turn into really Good News, that is when we proclaim that the love of Christ trancends prejudice, it transcends bias, it transcends race, language, gender, and cultural barriers. All of a sudden, the Good News means something everywhere you take it.
What is my point? My point is that if God is love, and God is universal…than Love is the universal language by which His followers must speak. I cannot linguistically preach the Good News to my Italian speaking friends, but I can speak in Love. Love requires no verbs or adjectives, it is unconcerned with phrases and semantics. What it does require is a transformed heart, and a transformed way of viewing the world. It means being open to thinking about the ways you have seen people as less than what their Creator sees them as. It means letting go of your pride, of your malice, and of your part in the perpetuation of hatred in this world.
What does it all mean? I promise you this…that when this becomes the lens through which you view the world, the good news will quickly turn into Great News. There are a lot of people who are tired of all the bad news on the evening newscast, and I say, let’s give them the Good stuff.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
All of a sudden this passage is taking on new meaning and that is Euangelion.
