When Catch Phrases Do Not Catch
October 5, 2008
One of the few advantages of being a pastor for only 3 years is that I don’t feel out of touch with the experience of being a hearer rather than a preacher on Sunday morning. More than that, I can think over sermons I heard from amazing preachers in the Midwest and the South and recall terminology that did not connect with me-catch phrases that somehow never caught, however passionately they were preached.
Those experiences preserve me from frustration when my intelligent, insightful wife comments on one of my catch phrases, “Sorry, that doesn’t do anything for me.” Such has been the case in our recent focus on holding fast to the gospel, where one of the phrases I have used frequently is that of “looking away from myself to Christ.” While Rachael understands the concept, it did not give her practical help in allowing the gospel to affect her day-in, day-out living.
Thankfully this did not cause her to give up on applying a biblical concept, but drove her to find her own language that made the gospel truth hit home. So as she has sought to hold fast to the gospel in her fight against sin, she came up with this phrase: “aiming the gospel.” More specifically, Rachael says, “We should be aiming the gospel (the message of Jesus’ incarnation, perfect righteous life, crucifixion, resurrection, coming reign and glory) at the individual lies that we believe.”
For me, the helpful, sin-conquering picture was that of looking away from myself and my circumstances to the objective, outside-of-me reality of Christ’s death and resurrection, hence “looking away from myself to Christ.” For Rachael, the more helpful imagery is to understand the powerful gospel as a weapon with which we take aim at lies we embrace, lies that lead us away from God to sin. The various aspects of the gospel-Jesus’ death for our sins, his resurrection for our eternal life, his right standing with God that we inherit-these are arrows in a quiver which we can let fly on a variety of lies that tempt us toward unbelief.
This imagery may or may not resonate with you. The broader point is that we must sufficiently meditate on the realities of the gospel so that we can find our own summary statements, our own catch phrases that will help us hold fast to the gospel throughout the day. I pray that God would grant us dozens of these so that we might remain reminded, as Paul wrote, “of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you” (1 Corinthians 15:1-2).
Pastor Chris