A gospel before THE Gospels?

 The apostle Paul grasps deeply why the death and resurrection of Jesus is very good news, and his letters can be seen as the first Gospel, as many as twenty years before Mark, the first synoptic Gospel and likely at least forty years before John. The “Gospel According to Paul” is the exhilarating GOOD NEWS that God delights in us, gives everything to love us, is always on our side, is dwelling within us, always wanting us to grow together in peace, joy, and mutual love. Paul, in the tradition of the Prophets, calls us to know the heart of God so that we can make it our own. Jesus is the embodied Word, coming directly out of the heart of God.
    For Paul, the Lord Jesus Christ is God’s “heart of flesh” broken and poured out, the fulfillment of the promise made by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that God would remove our “hearts of stone” and replace them with God's merciful, generous, loyal, loving, and compassionate heart . For Paul, Jesus’ death and resurrection empowers all people to be as fully alive as is our Living God, FOREVER. Paul’s understanding of five Greek words,  “katalasso” (reconciliation), “kenosis” (self-emptying obedience), “pistis” (faithfulness), “metanoia” (a continually opening and more loving heart), and “koinonia” (life as a family), expresses the mutual relationship among God, all persons, and all creation that God has always desired."
The stunning, motivating and dangerous surprise of the Good News according to Paul is that Jesus is “flipping the world upside down.” The angry mobs pursuing Paul and Silas in Thessaloniki appealed to the local Roman appointed governor:

“These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.” (Thessalonians 17:7)

The Gospel according to Paul is Good News too amazing to comprehend, the paradox of paradoxes, so powerful that it can only be expressed in his most poetic language, in Paul’s fluent voice, framed in philosophical depth, language so infinitely resonant and open ended that its meaning can never be exhausted or controlled.  (Later,  the concept of the Trinity was needed and developed to hold a place for such non dualistic, humble, surrender to the divine mystery in theological discourse).

In the late winter/early spring of 2025, my colleague in lay ministry Emily Curry asked me to be the nightly vespers preacher at this summer’s family “camp meeting” bible week she was helping to organize at Empire Grove, a Methodist enclave near Poland, Maine. Since 1840, at the peak of the Second Great Awakening, circuit rider preachers have held revival meetings at Empire Grove, and a long line of inspired pastors and committed families not only have continued the camp meeting tradition but have built a small enclave of cottages and prayer spaces in the still rustic, forested parcel bequeathed by one of the original families. Empire Grove History Project., Matt Cranson (2022 ).    Emily was bubbling over with excitement, having recently returned from a trip to Hawaii with her fiance’s family. Her return luggage was heavier than when she left, because it was stuffed with decorations gathered to enhance the theme of this year’s camp meeting, “A Luau with the Lord.”  My first thought was “Why would a person as focused and serious as the apostle Paul want to be part of a Hawaiian themed party in the woods of Maine?!” But my initial hesitation was replaced immediately by the sense that a festive banquet would be the perfect setting to share Paul’s exuberant gratitude for the coming of God’s reign on earth in the person of the anointed Lord Jesus. More than any other value throughout his mission, Paul literally fought for table fellowship for all, a radical call to be transformed into a true family, a new way of living that would foster complete inclusion and mutual interdependence at the banquet of life for all who would identify as brother and sisters of God’s anointed, beloved,  child, the Lord Jesus. 

Paul is notoriously bold, passionate and intense, but he is so primarily out of joy, gratitude, and genuine warmth for the people with whom he wants to share the Good News he has received from Jesus. For Paul, what Jesus reveals about who God is and who human beings are made to be is actually GREAT news. Paul knows that Jesus reveals what God is really like: God adores us, like parents adore their children and grandchildren. God is faithful and good. God is on our side. God is never going to let us go or give up on us. We are “wired” and guided by the Holy Spirit to be aligned with  God and to be visible manifestations of God’s invisible being . We hunger and thirst for love, much like God longs for us. 

Paul knows that if we stay close to and live like Jesus, we can become like Him, in the same way that a child can grow up to become like their mother, father, brother or sister. Paul proclaims the GREAT, liberating, news that Jesus, NOT Caesar, is LORD, and that GOD’s restorative, merciful, reconciling, way of love will triumph over all powers, including death. Paul is thrilled to explain that we can be liberated from the fear of death, free from the purity codes of religious law AND from the unjust laws of empire. 

Paul helps early followers of Jesus to understand the meaning of the cross, that our response to God’s Love should be an imitation of Jesus’ trusting obedience, so as to be transformed into the Body of Christ. Paul shows us that prayer can be a tuning of our hearts with God’s. Paul recognizes that our weaknesses, limitations and vulnerabilities make us more needful and open to God and to one another, guiding us to encourage and build each other up in our longing to grow in love, peace, and joy.