“The gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the [imagination] of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. So what if even in his sin the slob is loved and forgiven when the very mark and subsance of his sin and his slobbery is that he keeps turning down the love and forgiveness because he either doesn’t believe them or doesn’t want them or doesn’t give a damn? In answer, the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen…Zaccheus climbs up a sycamore tree a crook and climbs down a saint. Paul sets out a hatchet man for the Pharisees and comes back a fool for Christ. It is impossible for anybody to leave behind the darkness of the world he carries on his back like a snail, but for God all things are possible. That is fairytale. All together they are truth.”
Frederick Beucher, Telling The Truth, The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairytale”
Thanks Rob!