Monday, January 25, 2016

25 January 2016 - pro-claiming


Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.

Jesus calls us to make disciples of all nations. He says to us "Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News." The world is in desperate need of this good news. It "is the power of God unto salvation" (see Romans 1:16). The gospels are written "so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (see John 20:31). The world needs life and salvation. The proclamation of the gospel is step one.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Maybe we don't realize the urgency of this need. And yet we can clearly see a world which is lost without Jesus. We see people exhausting themselves storing up treasures which moth and rust will eventually destroy. If we're honest we sometimes do this as well. We sometimes work for bread that will leave us hungry again rather than the only bread which will satisfy. We drink from wells which leave us thirsty rather than from the water of life. The world and even we ourselves need to hear this good news. Salvation is not automatic. It is a response to an invitation. If we shy away from that invitation or ignore it that is not a safe way to live. Maybe we're afraid of what people will think. Maybe we're worried about what they'll do.

Saint Paul is a great hero for us. We can look at his example when we're afraid to proclaim the good news or when we're feeling ashamed of the gospel. No one embodies the call to proclaim the good news more than him.

I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches (see 2nd Corinthians 11:23-28).

It's true that he is well credentialed. He studies under the most preeminent rabbi of his time in the person of Gamiliel. And his letters are often abstract and intellectual. But Paul's most poignant appeals are ones which are easy to understand.

And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (see Galatians 2:20).

We can all speak of the one who loved us and gave himself for us and how faith in him makes all the difference in our own lives. Looking to the witness we have in Paul we receive strength to speak even when the message is not popular. And Paul also teaches us not to rule anyone out in advance. Paul seems like the least likely person to become a Christian. Until he does.

All who heard him were astounded and said, 
“Is not this the man who in Jerusalem
ravaged those who call upon this name,
and came here expressly to take them back in chains
to the chief priests?”

May the scales fall from our own eyes so that we can truly appreciate "the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus" (see Ephesians 2:7). May Saint Paul inspire us and strengthen us with his prayers so that we can tell at least our little part of the whole world about this good news.

Praise the LORD, all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.

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