preserving the edges

"The gospel is a stark message, and it intrudes into the world's thinking and priorities with sharp, bracing truths. Sadly there has always been a tendency among Christians ... to soften some of those edges so that the gospel will be more readily acceptable to the world.

(I want to) preserve those edges and prevent the erosion of truths that, though hard for the world to swallow, are indispensable to the good news of Jesus.

All of us are tempted, in the name of being winsome witnesses, to present the gospel in as attractive a way as possible. That's fine in some respects - it is 'good news', after all - but we must also be careful not to round off the gospel's sharp points. We must preserve the edges."

[Greg Gilbert, 'What is the Gospel?']

It's a telling phrase, that last one.

We must preserve the edges. Those 'sharp, bracing truths' which form the cutting edge of the gospel.

I share the sentiment. I spend most of my time, I suppose, seeking to do two complementary things. Seeking to present the gospel in as attractive a way as possible on the one hand: while, at the same time, seeking to ensure that I'm not in any way rounding off the gospel's "sharp points".

This morning I was conducting a funeral service. There's the chance on such occasions for me to preach.

I use that term because it's more than just a resume of someone's life. I speak about the person who has died, of course. But I speak about the Lord. And I'm seeking to set before the people there some basic scriptural truths.

That's my privilged responsibility. Rarely are hearts more open to all the ultimate issues of life and death than they are at a funeral service. Against the backdrop of eternity I cannot ever countenance 'short-changing' people there, by sliding past these vital gospel truths.

And yes, I'm wanting to speak in the warmest and gentlest of ways. I'm wanting to soothe and to solace the pain in the grief people feel. I'm wanting to set forth the gospel as attractively as I can.

But at the same time I cannot ever hide the more unpalatable, or uncomfortable truths. The 'sharp, bracing truths' which form the cutting edge of the gospel. The challenge, the summons, the call of the King: the urgency with which that call is addressed to us all: the issues that hang on the way we respond to that call.

We must preserve the edges.

Lunch-time was filled with a meeting of pastors from all over town. I'd arranged for us all to meet here. It's important we don't simply beaver away in our own little patches, forgetting the wider dimension. We're never alone in this work.

So we meet like this, from time to time, to talk, to reflect, and to pray. We're troubled by the way in which it seems as if the 'sharp points' of the gospel are being slowly, subtly 'rounded off' in much of what's being pedalled as the good news of the gospel in these days.

In proclaiming the gospel in as winsome a way as we can, we're nonetheless keen to preserve the edges.

How can we do that? Not just in the preaching and the pastoring which fills our time and occupies our hearts in that small patch of Scotland which we loosely call our 'parish'. But in the wider context of the church at large - in what we sometimes think of as the 'corridors of power'. Big church as well as wee church.

How are the edges preserved in the church at large, when the temptation to soften the edges of the gospel (so that the gospel will be somehow 'more readily acceptable to the world'), has become in fact a tendency and trend?

We look to the Lord for his wisdom and grace in these days. And we pray for his power which alone can reverse all such trends.

The cups from that meeting had hardly been washed before I was meeting with one of the leaders here. To think with him about precisely these concerns. Preserving the edges.

But this time in the context of a local congregation. When the cutting edge of gospel truth is lost, or rounded off, a congregation soon gets rather 'rounded' in its shape.

Flabby and fat, to put it rather bluntly and in terms which pc tries to hide away. Flabby and fat, and less and less fit for purpose.

Soften those edges and the local congregation starts going soft. The spiritual equivalent of 'middle-age spread' in congregational life.

I want to prevent that. We need to preserve the edges. We work a bit on that this afternoon.

After that I'm out visiting. And in the course of visiting the issue of commitment rears its head.

That, I suspect, is one of the 'sharp edges' of the gospel. We proclaim the good news, but that message commends Jesus Christ and announces that Jesus is Lord.

Lord. The one before whom we bow. The one whose way we will walk, whose word we will learn, whose will we will gladly obey. The one in whom we live - and the one, as well, through whom we die.

We cease to be the piper who gets to call the tune. We can't decide, far less dictate, what level of commitment we will show. He calls the tune. He leads the dance. He is Lord.

He is ours. And we are emphatically his. That's good news. But it has massive implications! There are 'sharp, bracing truths' which go with it.

We must preserve the edges.