Hidden Gospel

"Hidden Gospel" is a good way of summarizing what this season of Advent is all about. We know that Christ is "coming" (in Latin, adventus). But for Episcopalians and other liturgical Christians, Jesus does not actually come until December 25th. The Good News (or Gospel) is that Jesus Christ will be reborn in each of our hearts. But in this season of coming, that Gospel is hidden and waiting to burst forth.

But in another way, I suspect that the world we live in today, and the other 364 days of the year, is full of this hidden Gospel –

-- Hidden beneath the constant demands of work and family that make it a struggle, even for professed Christians, just to show up on Sunday, and to support our common ministry and mission the rest of the week:

-- Hidden beneath the fears, anxieties and griefs that would suck all our hopes into the abyss:

-- Hidden by the increasing suspicion of any claims to know the truth, and any authority demanding obedience of that truth.

So, to find this hidden Good News in our increasingly secular culture may include looking in places other than the Bible or Church. One hidden place for me is the singer/songwriter John Mayer, best known for the song Waiting on the World to Change. The song I’m thinking of today is simply entitled Say. Just three letters, but how hard it can be to actually do what the word means:



Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all of your so-called problems,
Better put 'em in quotations
Say what you need to say

Walking like a one man army
Fighting with the shadows in your head
Living out the same old moment
Knowing you'd be better off instead,
If you could only
Say what you need to say

Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You'd better know that in the end
It’s better to say too much
Than never say what you need to say again

Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open
Say what you need to say

Where is the Gospel here? “My dear Corinthian friends, our mouth and our heart are wide open to you. Our feelings for you are unrestrained; any restraint is on your part. In return (May I speak to you as my children?), open wide your hearts.” (2nd Cor. 6:11-13). What Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, Mayer is, probably without knowing it, interpreting in his own time.

In his correspondence with the Corinthians, Paul was affectionate, annoyed, and downright angry at various points in the two New Testament letters we have received. But through all his emotions, he was open-hearted and open-mouthed. That was the only way he could carry out the “message of reconciliation” that God had given him and the Corinthians in Christ. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, with God urging you through us: Be reconciled to God!” (2 Cor. 5:18-20).

And that message has been entrusted to us: “What is the mission of the Church? The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” (Book of Common Prayer, p.855). Is it easy? Hardly. Are there risks? Paul and John Mayer can certainly testify to that. But in the “Gospel according to John Mayer,” “It’s better to say too much than never to say what you need to say again.” So, “Even as the eyes are closing, Do it with a heart wide open.”

May the coming Christ begin to fill our hearts so much that we can’t help but burst forth our truth, trusting that all our truths will be reconciled. Happy Advent.