Four Questions in Gospeling Your Life

 

Another resource in our toybox as we play with the Gospels comes from Alexander John Shaia, who sees the four Gospels as a journey.  Shaia describes Matthew’s Gospel by writing, “In Matthew’s gospel, the central landscape is that of an inner mountain. Much like the people of the first century who climbed up a mountain to hear Jesus teach, the first path invites us to climb toward a larger understanding of God and ourselves. Yet, this journey begins in grief, as we must first let go of yesterday’s truths.  Matthew’s Gospel —like the season of autumn—is bittersweet with gratitude for this year’s harvest and a recognition of our need to make room for what comes next.  Like climbing a mountain trail on which you cannot see what lies ahead, letting go and moving onward can take all the courage we have. In this moment, as those earliest Christians did, we may also turn to The Gospel of Matthew as a wise guide, answering the question, “How do we face change?”

 

Shaia says as we climb the mountains in Matthew we face storms, just as Jesus’ disciples faced a storm in the boat on the Sea of Galilee.  Mark seeks to help people amid the chaos that comes with the challenge of the climb and the changes we sense stirring within us.  One of Mark’s central questions is “How do we move through suffering?”

 

As the suffering subsides, as we gather a few deep breaths finding equilibrium, as ache and hope sit awkwardly side-by-side, we start to wonder, how can we also live joy?  In these moments, Shaia says, there is an opening like an everlasting embrace of an eternal guardian and intimate lover.  There is a union.  The Gospel of John calls this “abiding”.  We abide in the eternal and within a wide diversity of people.  John’s question is seeking to tell us about how we live in joy alongside the truth of change and suffering.

 

Finally, Luke turns to the question of how do we mature/live/practice service amid our humanness?  How do we reach out when we are suffering, changing, mixing heartbreak and hope, joy and moments of pain?  Luke lives into this question for us today.

 

How do we face change?  How do we dance amid suffering?  How do we abide in joy?  How do we reach out in service to others and with all creation?  These four questions are like an undercurrent in the gospels seeking to meet you where you are.  Which question is your question today?  Or maybe all of them are.  I encourage you to keep these questions close by (I will remind you when we are reading each Gospel too).  As you read the gospels in 50ish days, you join with our ancestors who have asked these questions and met God’s love in the flesh who still meets us right where we are in the messy middle of our lives.  Amen.