Good News

That's been the theme at First Lutheran this last week. Good news. The NT book of Galatians is shaping our community life at FLC right now. It is being taught and studied in our Bible study groups and it is providing the themes for our worship and messages on Sunday morning. I don't think a day goes by right now that I'm not reading or studying this book somehow. That, in itself, is good news of a kind. It's good to be shaped deeply and consistently by the words of Scripture, and this book in particular has a history of potency in fueling the church's commitment to the Gospel and to life that is consistent with the Gospel.

One topic I'd like to think more about, however, is the relationship between "the gospel" as that term is used, for example, in Matthew, Mark, or Luke and "the gospel" as that term is used by Paul in Galatians or other letters. The audiences who heard Jesus proclaim the good news and who read Matthew's account of it had a lot of context in which to understand "the good news of the Kingdom of God." That wouldn't have meant much, at least at first, to a bunch of Greeks at Thessalonica or to the various audiences in Galatia.

We want First Lutheran to be and to speak good news to our community. I think it would be helpful to think about the ways that Paul translated this message to Mediterranean towns to which he traveled. It might help us think about faithful and applicable articulations of the gospel in 21st century, Midwestern, suburban North America.