"I Must Preach the Gospel; I Have No Choice"

Sermon for Fifth Sunday of the Year, Cycle B, Feb 9, 1997

by Most Rev. Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Presiding Bishop, United Catholic Church

Job 7: 1-4, 6-7

Psalm 147, 1-6

1 Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22-23

Mark 1: 29-39

"I am under compulsion to preach the gospel, and have no choice. I am ruined if I do not preach it! I do all that I do for the sake of the gospel in the hope of having a share in its blessings."

That was St. Paul. Now, listen to Jesus: "Let us move on to the neighboring villages so that I may proclaim the gospel there also. That is what I have come to do."

Both Paul and Jesus sure place a lot of importance on preaching the gospel. They make it sound like it’s their most important job. Did you ever think that maybe it should be important to us, too? Should we be going around preaching the gospel? (Not just people like me in these funny clothes, but all of us?)

I know, I’m a bishop, and that’s my job; but you’re retired. Your job is playing golf and touring in your RV. But seriously, there are churches where preaching the gospel is everybody’s job. As Catholics, we’re not used to that. But if Paul and Jesus think it’s so important, maybe we ought to think about it.

First, it might help if we knew what the gospel is. As Catholics, we tend to think of the gospel as a reading from one of the first four books of the New Testament. But, of course, that’s not what Paul and Jesus meant. In order to get a handle on it, I looked up every passage in the Bible where the word "gospel" is used.

It often appears with a modifying prepositional phrase: gospel of God, gospel of God’s grace, gospel of your salvation, gospel of peace, gospel of eternity.

Then there’s the one Jesus uses the most: gospel of the kingdom. But all these are pretty general. They don’t tell us much about what the gospel is.

One hint is that the gospel is usually something you preach or proclaim. It seems that the gospel is a message. Many modern translations render it as "good news."

Jesus almost always associated the gospel with the poor. In Luke 4:18, when Jesus is quoting Isaiah, he said "He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." And in Luke 7:22, he says "Go, tell John what you have seen and heard: ... the poor have the gospel proclaimed to them."

Still, none of this tells us what the message is. Most of the passages don’t.

Of all the times "gospel" is mentioned in the New Testament (103 times in the KJV), only four times does it say anything about just what the gospel message is. Here are those four passages:

Matthew 24:13-14: "The one who perseveres to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world."

Mark 1:14: "Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: ‘This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe.’"

(These first two are from Jesus. The last two are from Paul.)

Romans 1:16: "I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes."

1 Corinthians 15:1-6: "I want to make quite clear to you, brothers, what the message of the gospel that I preached to you is: that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, and that he appeared ..."

Now, if we put all these together, we get a gospel message something like this: "The kingdom of God is at hand. Christ died for our sins and was raised. Repent and believe. If you persevere, you will be saved by the power of God."

This is a fairly accurate representation of the gospel message. But in this dry and legalistic format, it’s not very exciting.

A more poetic form of the same message is the familiar John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone that believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life."

But we’ve heard that so often, that I fear we’ve become numb to it. Let’s try something else.

How many of you saw "Dead Man Walking" or maybe read the book? Well Sister Prejean, the real-life nun who wrote it — and lived it — tells a story that may help. It’s about an old woman who claimed she talked with God. Now, the local bishop was skeptical. After all, he talked to God, but God never talked back. What makes this old woman think God talks to her? So the bishop went to see the old woman. After a while, he thought of a way to show her up as a fraud. He said to her, "Next time you talk to God, ask him what my most grievous sin was. When I come back, tell me what he says."

The following week, the bishop went back to see the woman. "Well," he said, "did you ask God what my most grievous sin was?" "Yes," the old woman replied. "And what did God say?" demanded the bishop. The old woman immediately replied, "God says he forgets."

Now that, I contend, is good news. All of us are painfully aware of our shortcomings, our failures, and (to use the old word) our sins. We are probably even more aware of each other’s. The good news is that to God, it’s as if they never happened. A few minutes ago, I gave everyone here General Absolution. God has forgiven and forgotten every sin you’ve ever committed. It doesn’t matter how many marriages you’ve had, or what your sexual preferences are, or if you practice birth control, or for whom you voted in the last election, or how many times you have failed the one you love.

You are at this moment as pure as snow. In a few minutes God will give himself to you in Holy Communion; and should you die, he will be waiting with his infinite love to welcome you into an eternity of indescribable bliss. If that isn’t good news, I don’t know what is.

Another piece of good news is that this perfection, this state of grace is available to you always. God promises you the help you need to change your life, to resist temptation, to do his will. He will not let us face any temptation too strong to resist. "My grace is sufficient for you," he tells us. Second, should we fall (and we all have before), his forgiveness is instantly available, and you don’t need a priest or bishop to give it to you. All you have to do is ask God. Oh, if you want to go to confession and receive the sacrament of reconciliation, we’re available. But you don’t have to wait for that. God’s grace and love and forgiveness are always yours for the asking.

This is the gospel, and I think it’s pretty exciting — too exciting to keep to yourself. Preaching the gospel isn’t just for the clergy. I preached for many years prior to my ordination. At the same time, I know it isn’t easy. Most of us aren’t comfortable talking about our faith — at least until we’re asked. But we can still preach the gospel, by the way we live. When we know God loves us and are sure of our future with him, we gain a certain serenity and the ability to reach out to others. We begin to exemplify the line, "Those Christians, how they love one another!" All of us, every one of us, are called to preach the gospel by living our lives so that the peace and love and joy of God show through us. God is calling us. God is calling you. Answer that call.

Let us pray. Lord, let each of us contemplate your gospel message. Let it excite us as if we were hearing it for the first time. Let it give us the peace and joy that you intend for us. Let us hear your call to service. Let each of us answer that call in our own way, and help us to answer "Yes." Enable us to preach your gospel with the way we live our lives. And if it is your will that we do it with words, help us, as you did your first apostles, with the power of your Holy Spirit. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our savior. Amen.

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