Not man's Gospel.

Here was a critically important discovery.  St. Paul realized preaching was not his word but God's.  His conversion was 180 degree.  "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1 Cor. 2:2)

This puts me in mind of something from our recent news.  President Obama this week nominated to the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor.  In making the announcement the president upheld her "inspiring life's journey," "her extraordinary" personal story, and her "distinguished career."  All that is well and good.

What must never be forgotten however is that the best person on the Supreme Court disappears.  I don't care how "inspiring" or "extraordinary" or "distinguished" a nominee may be.  Will they uphold the law!  I don't care how perceptive or empathetic or charming Judge Sotomayor may be.  I don't care whether she's a woman, an Hispanic, or as one commentator said "a green Martian."  She isn't the center, nor is the court.  The center is the Constitution.

So too was St. Paul's "life story" irrelevant.  You don't hear him referring to his "distinguished career" or propose the Gospel will be helped by his "inspiring life's journey."

The Gospel was not his.  People had heard enough of "his" biography which was really the opposite of worthy.  Paul even called his credentials "rubbish" (Philippians 3:4-8) and glories only in the righteousness which was not his own but which came from God through faith in Christ.

Far too long it had been all about himself, all about his accomplishments, passion, drive, and stature.  Oh yes, notoriety, press, and reputation are heady things.  They remain as seductive today as ever.  Wouldn't it be great to be a big church with a watertight budget, a dynamic, charismatic (and handsome) speaker, and great reputation as a happenin' place? 

However, the Gospel doesn't place man in the center. 

The Gospel is not man's Gospel.

The Gospel is Jesus Christ.  It is the Lord of heaven among us in human flesh ministering to the lost, unlovely scoundrel.  It is ridding us of ourselves, getting me, myself, and I out of the spotlight and placing before us the mercy of God in Christ.  The Gospel is the gracious and beautiful gift of forgiveness proclaimed to sinners and the newness of life bestowed to all through the Name and merit of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is the prism through which we rightly understand the church doesn't rise or thrive by consulting market strategies, bringing in celebrities, imitating the world, bending to current social patterns, or being gender-inclusive or whatever other politically correct designation suggests.

The Gospel is not man's property. 

Did you notice that Paul didn't even consult the apostles for years.  Wouldn't you think he would try to hobnob with them as soon as possible?  Wouldn't you expect him to consult with the most famous disciple, Peter? 

But Cephas (Peter) didn't author the Gospel.  Even James, the Lord's brother, is not the "go to" guy.  No man validates the Gospel.  No person enhances the glory of Christ's sacrifice or smartens God's Word.  Paul doesn't go to Jerusalem.  He goes off to Arabia.

He didn't congratulate himself on finally "getting his life together" and go out on the stump to give his personal witness.  Why not?  The word was getting around, "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."  People love such stories.  But that would have been man's gospel ("not that there is another one"--Gal. 1:7), and Paul wanted nothing but the Gospel of Christ, the only real Gospel.

The Gospel is Christ.  The church is Christ.  The gifts of Word and Sacrament are Christ.  The power is Christ.  The life is Christ.

The preaching of the church is not man's Gospel or our property.  The all-and-all of the Gospel is the presence of God's Son among us in the fullness of His mercy, truth, and peace.  His story is our story and nothing more. 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them ..." (2 Cor. 5:17-19a)

This is the Gospel of Christ.

It's not man's gospel, thank God!

I'm sure St. Paul nodded his head is complete agreement with John the Baptist's decisive statement about Jesus, "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30)

Let everything else - everything! - disappear and every attention be given only to the revelation of Jesus Christ.  It is He who speaks grace and truth.  It is He who acts in water and in wine.  It is He who opens heaven to us by forgiving us our sins.  It is He who teaches and comforts, who eradicates the ego and imparts the image of Christ. 

It is He who raised you to life and has consecrated you as His own.  You rightly confess, "I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 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."  (Galatians 2:20)

The glory and the Gospel are Christ's.