Tutu Too

I saw this on Karen's blog, and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I've been accused of espousing a "social gospel". My response, minus the occasional flowery expletive, is similar to Big D's.

I don't preach a social gospel; I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, "Now is that political or social?" He said, "I feed you." Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.
Bishop Desmond Tutu

This is the gospel. Period. Anything else is... something else.

I don't preach a social gospel; I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, "Now is that political or social?" He said, "I feed you." Because the good news to a hungry person is bread.
Bishop Desmond Tutu

This is the gospel. Period. Anything else is... something else.

Comments

[Bruce]

I agree with this. People like Rick only want Jesus around when they're dead; but Jesus wants to be with us as we live.

[Nicks]

When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, "Now is that political or social?" He said, "I feed you." Because the good news to a hungry person is bread. Bishop Desmond Tutu

This is the gospel. Period. Anything else is... something else.

Good news, yes. The Gospel, No.

I don’t find anywhere Paul feeds people, and he preached the gospel.

And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Acts 16:29-31 (NASB)

Paul mentions “something else”. Did he misrepresent the Gospel?

I don’t find anywhere Jesus sent the disciples out to feed people as par to the gospel.

These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Matt. 10:5-8 (NASB)

Every case of feeding I am aware of was an opportunity for Jesus to demonstrate a sign of His messiah ship.

He said* to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.” And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons. Mark 1:38-39 (NASB)

When day came, Jesus left and went to a secluded place; and the crowds were searching for Him, and came to Him and tried to keep Him from going away from them. But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” So He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Luke 4:42-44 (NASB)

Are Christians called to feed the hungry, most assuredly, But Jesus last instruction was to go and make disciples.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt. 28:19-20 (NASB)

Teaching them to observe. Is feeding teaching? Or does feeding come as a result of knowing, observing and acting?

[Mike]

Nicks, read the quote again... It sounds to me like you're taking a rather narrow view of it.

I think what Tutu is saying, and I know what I am saying, is that a gospel that does not have a prominent, perhaps even central place for the poor is no gospel at all.

2 quick thoughts: Both Paul and Jesus summed up the law with the two important commandments love God and love your neighbour.

Also, I loved your quote of Matthew 28. I remember hearing Dallas Willard refer to vs. 20 as The Great Omission from The Great Commission. "Teaching them to observe... all that I commanded you." In other words, teach them what I taught you. What did he teach them? We pay lots of attention to the baptizing and making disciples part, and tend to ignore Jesus' explanation of what that means.

[Mike]

PS. I should have added that I would substitute the broader issue of "injustice" for "hunger".

[David]

I'm in agreement with Mike. We've made "make disciples" into "get some converts" when discipleship by necessity - to follow in Jesus' footsteps - includes feeding the poor and loving the marginalized. To not do this is to both fail as disciples ourselves and to create, not disciples but hangers-on.

I find myself redefining the word gospel these days. We seem to have made it entirely about "going to heaven" and have disregarded Jesus' statements that the Kingdom of God is here. Like He was saying "don't wait for heaven, start making it happen" - or to put it another way "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Jesus seemed to care a great deal about not just our souls but our bodies as well. To care for the soul and neglect the body is a denial of the incarnation and is something a little close to gnosticism.

I also think that we've perched on Matt.28 for too long. Yes, it was the last thing He said, or is recorded to have said, and yes, it most certainly is important. But I don't think he meant to preface it with: "Ignore ALL the other stuff I taught you, ok, NOW..." I think He assumed they might remember at least some of the last three years - the miracles (which seem to be all about the body and temporal concerns), the loving of the unloved, the touching the untouched and unclean.

I love Tutu's words. They ring with truth, the same kind of feeling as when Jesus said "you ought to have done the one without neglecting the other."

I hate to be the cynic but I think we'd simply RATHER be out there telling people they need Jesus and then moving on. It's much messier, much harder, much longer a process to truly make disciples, especially when it requires out of pocket expenses.

2000 years and we've still not got it. I used to think it was about just our propensity to be so polarized - do one OR the other. Now I begin to think the problem is that there should never have been that false dichotomy to begin with. You can't truly have one without the other, they form a whole, and anything less is not discipleship. Matthew 28 should be interpretted with Matthew 25 sitting wide open beside it. 1 Cor.13 might be helpful too.

All that to say, go Bishop Tutu, go!

[george]

We have to preach the whole gospel don't we Mike? How did Jesus start it off: "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"

If we are involved in missions why do we do it? Is it just to feed people and help them with their physical needs? If that's all it is then that is the social gospel.

In helping people meet their needs the destination needs to be the sharing of the gospel don't you think? Isn't it all about helping people to get to that place where they see their need to be reconciled to God and to trust Christ as their Lord and Savior? Then to disciple them and encourage them as they grow in Christ?

Does Stephen Lewis share the gospel with people?

[Mike]

Hey George - good to hear from you again.

This is where the conversation gets interesting! I suppose I need to back up and ask you to define the word "gospel", and the verb "share", for that matter. Absent that background, let me take a crack at a reply anyway.

In helping people meet their needs the destination needs to be the sharing of the gospel don't you think?

I believe that helping people meet their needs is sharing the gospel. (The gospel to me is God's redemptive plan for the world.) As I write this I'm sitting up at Linwood House, where I'm preparing for our Board of Director's meeting tomorrow. This past week we had our December edition of The Journey here. I know I won't word this well, but we're not working with this community, trying to get them off drugs, out of the sex trade, so that we can then get them converted. We're working with them because in God's redemptive world there are no drug addicts, no prostitutes. Of course, along the way, we introduce them to Jesus, in word and deed, but it's not a "bait and switch" game.

(I'll back up here and confirm that I no longer believe that "spreading the gospel" is getting people to say the sinners prayer. It's more than that. Sometimes its less.)

Regular visitors to the blog are sick of hearing me go on about those who believe in Jesus versus those who do what he said. In a perfect world they would be one in the same but this is not a perfect world. I know lots of Christians who wouldn't cross the street to help out someone in need. And I know self-described "athesists" who would. So for me its no longer about who is "saved" and who is not. For most of my life the "believing" thing and the "doing" thing were separated. When I look at what Jesus talked about it doesn't look like that dichotomy was his idea.

You mentioned Stephen Lewis, one of my inspirations. No, Stephen would probably tell you that what he is doing is not spreading the gospel. Yet, he cares more about the AIDS issue that any Christian I know. Any. I can't separate those things anymore.

Enough for now. So... what's your definiton of the gospel?

[Glenn]

ok mike (and you know i'm with you on this) what is "the gospel". 25 words or less.

[george]

Mike, you and I could go on for a long time about this, I just know it. I love these conversations unfortunately not enough time.

Maybe when you come visit your family out here I'll join you in going to the Meeting House and we could do lunch after.

I'm involved in downtown ministry also and I love the people we serve. Its all about relaionship building for sure and helping them out and listening and all that. But more than anything I want to be used by God to share the message of His great love for them and how they can be reconciled to Him and how they can enter into a relaionship with Him so that they too can be empowered by His Spirit and begin to allow Him to start to change them from the inside out. Just like He did in my life.

Its not a hard gospel we want to bring its a gospel of God's incredible love. But in His great love there is a call to repentance doesn't matter who we are. That's why He sent His Son to die for our sin, so that as we come to Him in repentance and faith we can have new life and have salvation, eternal life, that begins in the here and now. Oh, the joy that that brings.

That's it for now, have a great week-end

[David]

I am always amused by how we can say similar things and think we're at loggerheads.

Without engaging in the search for a definition of the word "gospel" let me suggest that for too long in our efforts to spread that gospel we have mistaken the role of God in the process and the role of man. I believe to the core of my being that most of the North American evangelical church has neglected their role in the process and assumed God's role. We have become morality police, trying to clean the sin out of the sinner, so to speak, BEFORE they even encounter a redeemer. We've become rabid apologist, trying to convince people how to think right so they can believe the right things, BEFORE they encounter Him by faith, as though evidence is all they need and then POOF! We've even gone so far as to presss people for decisions, as though when the Holy Spirit of God does His thing, however He does that, we couls stop someone from coming to God.

Ultimately if we all shut up a little more and did what Jesus asked us to do, we'd need less words. St. Francis is reputed to have said "Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words" and i think there's great wisdom in that. It reveals an undertanding of this "good news" as something more than a "Jesus came to take us to heaven" proposition.

I like what Mike said about the kingdom. Yes, by all means, repent. But what did Jesus mean by that? After all He was still a ways from crucifixion and resurrection. It was about the Kingdom. In the presence of the Kindgom come you must turn around, do a 180 in your thoughts, actions, and belief structures. But to throw out a statement like "Jesus has to be your personal Lord and Saviour" has become meaningless (the statement, not the underlying reality). We all say it, it means so many things it means nothing. But let me suggest it could mean that He saves us from ourselves, our sin, guilt, fear, powerlessness - and into a life of following within the kingdom, and that following MUST mean doing the things Jesus did. His life and teaching was remarkably free of anything resembling the evangelism of today.

We are too keen to make projects out of people and save their souls when what they really need is to be loved and cherished, to be SHOWN that they are loved and cherished by the Father. Yes, there may be a point at which we verbally point to Jesus and recount the theologies of the story, but let's keep in mind it is the Father who draws them, the Spirit who convicts and even grants repentance. It is a redeemer who later "cleans them up". Our role is relatively small.

To be told God loves you is meaningless unless you've been given a frame of reference.

[george]

David, would you agree with Oswald Chambers when he says that the foundation of Christianity is repentance?

I agree with you totally we have to show people the love of Christ. But that's not all. We need to also tell them about Christ so they too can be reconciled to God. We need to do all that and leave the results up to God because like you said He is the one who does all the work in drawing and convicting.

How will they know if nobody tells them?

I heard a great quote this week, God's love and His justice meet at the cross. How true. God loves us but he is also just and cannot let sin go unpunished. Therefore the cross. New life for those who put their trust in Christ. It always starts with repentance.

[David]

I agree wholeheartedly. I think the bones of the matter is in defining repentance. Even harder is in defining what repentance ought to look like. But ultimately, yes, repentance is the first step in discipleship. I think.

I think you may have me pegged as some nutty liberal who's keen to cut some of the good bits out of the gospel. In fact I see my return to agressively pursuing the so-called social gospel elements as a return to the true heart of the WAY in which discipleship occurs. I still "share the gospel", heck, I even conduct workshops on HOW to communicate the gospel to this generation. But I am less and less convinced that our methods and even the content of the message have been as faithful to the biblical narrative as we'd like to think they are.

[David]

Post script - I'm not saying all liberals are nutty. Heck I'm not even saying I'm not a "liberal" - I'm just saying I'm not a nutty liberal. Funny thing, words like "conservative" and "liberal" - so relative. I'm pretty sure I am too liberal for some conservatives and too conservative for some liberals. Story of my life. :-)