American Kerygma: Only Jesus can fix things
Read More Looking Up
Read More Upward Glances
Our world is broken.
Most what we see day-to-day forces us to agree that our world is broken. When we disagree, we disagree on the degree, the cause of and the solution to the problem we all recognize. In America, though, the variety of solutions we all fight over has a theme, “Do your best to change and behave according to my group’s definition of good.”
For example, the Foundation for a Better Life’s “Pass It On” campaign offers encouragement to demonstrate positive values to the people around us. One of the campaign’s TV spots offers an improbable scenario in which a man, in the throes of an argument with his domestic partner, spontaneously reverses his position. “OK. I was wrong.” Simple as that, and the problem is solved. I am not a veteran of ministry, but I’m no spring chick, either. In my experience, even among the strongest of marriages, it never works that way. As this mythical couple kisses to make up, the improbable minute-long-drama concludes, “Forgiveness. Pass it on.” They proclaim, “We think it’s good to forgive, so just do what we say to make our world better.” This kind of solution, however, depends on the perfect cooperation of deeply flawed people like me and you.
God has a different solution. The Kerygma — the message or proclamation — of Jesus and the early church says there is nothing we can do to fix ourselves, so do nothing but put your trust in Jesus. He alone can fix the world through his sacrificial death, resurrection from the dead and imminent return. This is what Jesus meant in Mark 1:15 when he said, “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the Gospel.”
Believe in Jesus. Believe in his ability to fix the world. Believe Jesus alone is the solution. “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, … this is what we preach, and this is what you believed” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4 & 11). The solution to the broken world begins, continues and ends with nothing but faith in Jesus. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
The early church, as well as the modern church in every country where it is healthy and growing, was profoundly committed to this message. The true gospel is that Jesus alone can fix the world and the people in it, independent of our utterly inadequate efforts.
But the church in America, which is universally struggling, has adopted the American Kerygma in lieu of Jesus’ message, “Do your best to change and behave according to my group’s definition of good.” No wonder we struggle. Our message is just a more boring version of what people hear everywhere else.
If, by the gospel — our true Kerygma — God will fix the whole world, how much more could he fix the United States of America by the same message? The church should stop striving to be relevant to a worldview opposed to the God it claims to serve and instead push for distinctiveness in the gospel. The solution we’re supposed to proclaim in word and in deed is trusting in the crucified and risen Christ alone. I propose that we “determine to know nothing … except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). No public service announcement can give our nation forgiveness or patience or love. Only Jesus can.