Chapter 1 The Gospel The Word of God Made Flesh Dwelling Among Us A word is dead When it is said Some say. I say it just Begins to live That day. Emily Dickinson For Christians there are traditionally four gospels: Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John (in the order they were written down). These are the canonical gospels-the four accepted as uni­versally comprising the core of belief within the Church. In reality, historically there were many more-some say nineteen or twenty, others as many as thirty-four. Others say that many communities wrote their own gospels, perhaps as many as two hundred in the first couple of hundred years of Christianity being preached to all the ends of the earth. In Luke''s gospel we read in the very fi rst line: Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed. (Lk 1:1-4) Out of the sheer abundance and diversity of the gospel-orderly accounts of events that have been fulfilled and passed on to others, concerning the truth-these four eventually became the founda­tion and universally preserved tradition that has been handed on by the institutional Church over the last two thousand years.

A gospel is simply "good news," from the Greek euangelion. There were earlier oral traditions and lost written ones besides these four ac­counts, and there were myriad others. There are many called "lost gospels" and fragments and variations that belong to the category of noncanonical-meaning not usually accepted or included in the core teachings and beliefs of the Church. By the end of the second century these four gospels were chosen and used over the others. It is generally believed that no one really knows exactly how the four were singled out or how the canon was selected. The process seems to have happened at the grass roots, and spread across the Christian world along with the Church, drawing others into the practice and belief of Christianity. In other words, one could say that it was the work of the Spirit. There is mention of the list in 367 by Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria and in The Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius (early fourth century).

It is thought that in 325 at the fi rst Council of Nicaea, Constantine established the canon and put an end to the writing of more gospels. The gospels are collections of Jesus''s sayings, stories about Jesus, stories Jesus told, and reactions to these events and words. The practice of writing a gospel is not unique to Christianity; in fact, during the time of Jesus and the early Church, the most common gospel was that of Rome-the good news of the empire and of the emperor who saw himself as and decreed that he was indeed a god. This gospel of Rome was sent out periodically through the entire realm to inform the populace, those conquered, and those who wielded power in its name what Rome was doing and to stir up enthusiasm for the emperor and his edicts and decisions. None of the four gospels are meant to be read as eyewitness accounts-they are belief statements of the early Christian Church. These are believers'' creeds, so to speak: catechetical teaching texts to both prepare people for initiation-the receiving of the sacraments of baptism, confirmation (sealing in the Spirit), and Eucharist-as well as further lifelong instructions and exhorta­tions to believers after the initiation rites, called the mystogia, or the ever-deeper entrance into and experience of the mysteries of revelation and belief. Generally speaking, the gospels were written within the fi rst hundred years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. This book is not interested in the historicity of the gospels, or specifi cs on their relation to other gospels.

The diversity and the depth of the four we have as a foundation are rich and powerful wisdom for anyone who calls himself a believer in Jesus, to be counted among his followers and alive in the community of the Risen Lord. This book is interested in the Truth of the gospels and what they meant and should-and could-mean to believers today. In the last two thousand-plus years, it appears that the Church no longer preaches the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John but instead preaches its own gospel: what it has developed into historically and cultur­ally, even politically and economically, rather than the Good News to the Poor, the Good News of the present reality of the Kingdom of God in our midst, and the Good News of Love as I Have Loved You as its essence, meaning, practice, and reason for existence in the world. This book hopes to look at issues including: If the gospels were written today-Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John-would they say the same things, emphasize the same teachings, the same exhorta­tions on how to live and be in relation with others and the world, and with God? Or is there need for a new gospel? What is gospel truth? How do you read the gospels? What is the connection be­tween Word and practice in the gospels and in the community? How do you take words off the paper, put them into your mouth, and make them live again in a community? If the gospels were originally an oral tradition, how do we reclaim and recover that tradition-read between, under, and over the lines on the pages today? And perhaps most important of all-how does the Word in the gospels in the power of the Spirit continue to convert as radi­cally as it did in its beginning century; to transform human beings'' lives, attitudes, decision making, choices, and beliefs on how to be human and like God in the world today? Basically I am saying that there isn''t a need to rewrite the gos­pels, because we have already done that in many ways: interpreting them to suit our needs, our power, and our agendas rather than letting the Word transform us. We have not lived the gospels or steeped ourselves in their mysteries, their power, and the presence of the Risen Lord among us. We have used the gospels to proof-text other statements and laws. We have taken lines and phrases out of context and often misused them and, in doing so, have often con­tradicted some of the primary and foundational teachings of Jesus. We have ignored whole pieces of the gospel because they are too difficult and too demanding, too convicting of us as not believing and not practicing what we claim in our words.

We have betrayed the gospels as individual persons, as communities, as groups, as in­stitutions, and as leaders-even as Church, the Body of Christ. The next eight chapters will look at each of the gospels in the order we have them, as they were written, in sets-then and now. We will look at their cores, at their hearts, and at what Jesus is say­ing, demanding, confronting us with, and summoning us to live. Each chapter will look at the gospel then and will be followed by a look at that gospel today. Each was written for a particular commu­nity coping with history, with persecution and peace, with econom­ics and other religions, with governments and cultures, and even with languages. Each has moral principles, values, and commands that are simple, clearly stated, and come with the expectation that they are to be obeyed-along with what to do when they are ig­nored, disobeyed, and twisted to destroy the integrity of Jesus''s words and actions. They were written for believers-some already baptized, others preparing for the sacraments of initiation-and for those who were seeking reentry into the community after betraying their belief or committing such actions that tore the community to shreds religiously and spiritually. Each chapter that looked at a particular gospel then will be fol­lowed by a look at that gospel now, in light of history today, at na­tional, universal, and local church levels.

We''ll analyze the struggles we are confronted with today not only as individuals but primarily as communities of believers who are to become Good News to all, but especially to the poor, the outcast, the fringe, the excluded, the "other" in all societies. Each gospel will reveal a piece of the larger puzzle of values, and ways of life and meaning that are found at the heart of the gospels-beliefs about Jesus and what it means to pro­claim and become the words that we speak aloud to others. Hope­fully we will experience the gospels as the living, breathing Word of God, the double-edged sword of truth, laying bare and exposing what is evil and yet as living water and the presence of the Spirit of God breathing life into us still. The last chapter will look at suggestions for other gospels for the twenty-first-century world, and some issues that are alluded to in the four original gospels but now need to be spelled out: the de­mand that there be no war, no violence; the relationship between science, technology, and religion; interreligious dialogue; the uni­verse, its resources, and state of being in the two thousand years since Jesus; and the understanding of the world, the arts, and their connection to the gospels. Lastly we will look at the structure of the institution and how it contradicts and has become a stumbling block and scandal for many, even those who already believe. We will examine the position and devaluati.