[BIBLE] Hiding the rusting Volkswagen in the bushes

[Lou Ruppert <lruppert@syr.edu>]

Today's verses are 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 -
  Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not
  lose heart.  Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we
  do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God.  On the
  contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to
  every man's conscience in the sight of God.  And even if our gospel
  is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this
  age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the
  light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of
  God.  For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and
  ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.  For God, who said, "Let
  light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to
  give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
  Christ.

Some people have a strange way of sharing the gospel.  Paul talks about
that in the verses for this week.  Some people hide the gospel or twist
it up so that it appeals to people without them knowing exactly what
they're getting.  Others drop the gospel entirely and worry about
talking about their own righteousness and how great their church is,
forgetting entirely about the whole thing that brought them there. 
It's like my cousins who owned a Volkswagen bus.  They bought it when
they were young and toured the whole country with it in the early 70's
(who didn't tour the country in a volkswagen bus in the 1970's?).  When
it got older it began to rust, until one day the engine dropped out and
they stashed it in the bushes behind the barn, never to be seen again. 
It got them where they needed to go, and rather than pass it on to
someone else, they were ashamed of it and hid it.  I think some people
see the gospel of Christ like that, like something that got them saved,
but they're embarassed about it, so they find ways of either hiding it,
or distracting from it so they don't have to be seen with it.

Paul talks about our ministry being through the mercy of God.  That's
true.  We all suck compared to what we should be, and through God's
mercy we're saved without having to do any real work.  That's mercy, so
the fact that he's asked us to share the gospel should be a pretty
small matter, but to some people it's like being seen in public with
your parents in your teens.  "Oh no, I've been seen with them!  I could
die."  There was one ministry on our campus that I was briefly in
contact with that, while they share the gospel and that's cool, would
have a survey every year where they'd ask a bunch of nebulous questions
about spirituality at the dining centers.  People would think "It's
just a survey." and would fill it out, only to have people at their
doorstep trying to convert them with a set of rigid laws out of a
booklet.  They were tricked into hearing a canned gospel, and as a
result lots of them were stubbornly opposed to it.  They'd been
tricked.  The unsaved people I knew at the time (myself included)
resented them for that.  "Why can't they just come out and say it?" 
Other groups of people come along and preach parts of the gospel,
trying to scare people into praying or coax them along with a pressure
pitch and things, and while they have their place, and often it works,
it obscures the truth of the gospel.  A famous evangelist once said that
the gospel too simple for some people, so they try to complicate it, to
dress it up with their own stuff.  The thing is, and Paul says this,
when you hide the gospel and change it, you're only hiding it from the
people you're trying to reach.  Who else is there?  You wouldn't hide
it from other Christians. Why would you?  They already know it.  So if
you're hiding or dressing the gospel up, trying to sugar coat it, or
whatever, you're only hiding it from those you're trying to reach. 
Paul says that the unbelievers of this age are visually impaired, to
use a modern term, and that we're veiling the gospel for them.  That's
pretty lousy.  Imagine putting the most important parts of a contract
in small print or in jumbled messy handwriting for someone who can't
see well.  They won't get it.

When we share the gospel we shouldn't be thinking like we're preaching
about ourselves.  I've heard a lot of people say things like "He's in
trouble, he should come to our church and get cleaned up." or "You
won't go to heaven unless you come out to such and such a denomination
and get to know God."  The focus is on the men and not God.  In order
to feel like you need to hide the gospel, there must be some stake in
hiding it.  What do you have to lose?  People's opinion of you if
you're seen with this crazy gospel you've decided is uncool.  So you
hide it and put it at a distance, deny it, or pretend it isn't there. 
Imagine if people who thought as if they were preaching themselves
really did preach themselves.  "I'm Lou, and I squander all of my
money, hold petty grudges against my friends, waste time and
underappreciate friendships, ignore God so I can daydream my days away,
forego work because I'm lazy, and all sorts of other things.  But
here's the good part.  You can be just like me.  All you have to do is
come learn from me and adopt my rules.  Isn't that the kind of freedom
you'd want?"  It's pretty ridiculous, isn't it?  That's the darkness of
being human.  We have all of these faults, and yet we want to hide God
along with them.  God says that his light should shine through
darkness.  We're pathetic but we know God, so everything's cool.  Other
people can see that too if we don't hide it.  Don't worry about being
God's PR man.  He doesn't need you.  You have faults, and can't hide
them, and shouldn't because it perfects God's light for others to see
them, so why would you want to hide faults in someone who has none?  If
you try, you'll only hide truth, and people will remain blind.


-Lou

-- 
Lou Ruppert - Network Systems Programmer, Syracuse University: lruppert@syr.edu
       "The Lou Ruppert home page": http://www.ucf.org/~lruppert/
"And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon
     thy face?" -Joshua 7:10  See http://www.ucf.org/God/offer.html