Those of you who read my previous post on tomorrow's Gospel lesson know that my friend Tom in Ontario posited the question: Where is the Gospel here? 'Cause all that taking-up-your-cross stuff doesn't sound like especially good news.
Well, over on Beliefnet, in reference to something else entirely, my friend prjp offered a quote from Francis of Assisi that may just define the Gospel behind the Gospel lesson. Francis said, and I'm paraphrasing, that once we realize that in Holy Baptism we died the only death that really matters, we become able to risk other kinds of death for Christ's sake.
Think that's it?
2 comments:
I am also struggling right now with the whole law- gaspel thing and just re-read Luthers's "On Christian Freedom". I totally hate to say it, but I think we liberal Lutherans like to ignore the law and only focus on the gospel, rather than present them in a more dialectical nature as Luther does. I'm glad I didn't have to preach on the gospel text yesterday....btw, intresting that the NT reading was from James, which Luther felt had no gospel in it, only law.
Do you have the exact quote from Francis or a link to same? Thanks.
RAR
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