My Gospel Declares...

Passage: Romans 2:1-16

One of my favorite Simpsons moments takes place in an annual Halloween episode. The Simpsons family is vacationing in Morocco, where they explore a local bazaar. Homer is irresistibly drawn to a severed monkey’s paw which, according to the shopkeeper, will grant four wishes. However, there’s a downside. Here it is, in the shopkeeper’s own words:

Shopkeeper: Take this object, but beware it carries a terrible curse!
Homer: Ooh, that's bad.
Shopkeeper: But it comes with a free frogurt!
Homer: That's good.
Shopkeeper: The frogurt is also cursed.
Homer: That's bad.
Shopkeeper: But you get your choice of toppings.
Homer: That's good!
Shopkeeper: The toppings contain potassium benzoate.
[Homer looks puzzled]
Shopkeeper: ...That's bad.

By the time you get to Lord’s Day 5 of the Catechism, you can’t tell anymore what’s good news and bad news. The authors have take such pains to establish the human need for salvation that you can’t help wondering if you’re ever going to hear the gospel. As it turns out, the Catechism isn’t reinventing the wheel here. The Gospel writers and Apostles of the Bible do much the same thing. The New Testament book that summarizes the Gospel most comprehensively is Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Paul begins his Gospel presentation precisely the way the authors of the Catechism begin theirs: with an outline of God’s expectations and our failure to measure up. Bad news. In this case, argue the tenets of our faith, you can’t have the good news without the bad. Paul says, “According to my Gospel, God will hold all people accountable for their sins.” This is an essential component of the good news – human accountability. It becomes bad news if accountability is all you’ve got. If in fact there will come a day when your laundry list of lies, infidelities and knives in the back will be aired and you’ll have to pay the price. How does it become good news? If, when the list has been read and the sentence meted out someone else has already paid. This, says Paul, is my Gospel. It’s ours, too.