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Christianity Today, January, 2008 |

CHRISTIAN VISION PROJECT

The Lima Bean Gospel

The Good News is so much bigger than we make it out to be.

Mark Labberton | posted 1/08/2008 08:19AM

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The particularity of our Sun is not a problem, because it shines on the just and on the unjust. So does God's particular love in Christ. The church cannot afford to give the impression that the particularity of the gospel only shines on us. If we love as we have been loved, the immensity and scope of God's intimate and cosmic gospel in Jesus Christ will be more evidently the salt and light of the world. We will be far more like Jesus described us—tangy and tangible Good News. And that is no lima bean gospel.

Mark Labberton is senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, and a senior fellow of International Justice Mission.

Related Elsewhere:

Previous Christian Vision Project themes were culture in 2006 and mission in 2007. Articles include:

Unexpected Global Lessons | How short-term mission is becoming a two-way street. (December 4, 2007)

The Dread Cancer of Stinginess | When it comes to missions giving, donor dependency may not be the greatest problem. (October 2, 2007)

Powering Down | World Vision India head Jayakumar Christian on how the poor become movers and shakers, and movers and shakers become poor. (August 31, 2007)

Liberate My People | Theologian and educator Ruth Padilla DeBorst says true Christian mission addresses issues of power and poverty. (August 8, 2007)

From Tower-Dwellers to Travelers | Ugandan-born theologian Emmanuel Katongole offers a new paradigm for missions. (July 3, 2007)

Mark Labberton's sermons are available from his church, First Presbyterian Church of Berkley.

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January 2008, Vol. 52, No. 1

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Stefan

Posted: January 15, 2008 8:38 AM

This is a wonderful essay. The "smallness" of the gospel is directly related to the minimal impact it seems to have of the lives of so many of us. The teachings of Jesus are radical call for the abandonment of the self-absorption and self-aggrandizement we normally live by. As such, they are the last thing we want to hear, because if we really hear them it begins a painful, life-long process of transformation that destroys forever the possibility of the comfy, untroubled, unchallenging existence that we secretly hope will be ours if we play our cards right. The biggest problem of the church is that we talk endlessly about Jesus and the gospel while thinking that somehow that the transformational part is optional. No wonder unbelievers are unimpressed!

bernie

Posted: January 12, 2008 7:34 AM

How i do wish that those christians that believe that only those who have a correct faith in Jesus "get to go to heaven" would step up to the plate and address the question of what happens to the rest of this earth's population. Percentage wise over recorded Hx would the number of "saved" even reach double didits? So what does God do with everyone else? And if you say that they spend eterity in hell do you ever wonder why God is disliked and rejected. Yes, our gospel as often preached and believed is too small. A God who treats His created children worse than you and i would ever treat our own is not worthy of respect let alone worship. Perhaps God will one day have to find another method to convey His love and inclusivness for all of us since the Christian church appears to be failing rather miserably as a whole to do so.

Diane

Posted: January 11, 2008 1:25 PM

I think the two commentors have missed the point here. I think the point is for us as Christians to be more like Jesus (who is not boring, like a bowl of lima beans), so that people of the world will see Jesus in us. Then they will want to know Him. If we act like a boring bowl of lima beans and worship like a boring bowl of lima beans, no one will want to be like us and therefor they will consider Jesus irrelevant. The mission of the church and Christians is to bring people to the saving grace of Christ, not to try to exclude as many people as possible. God isn't willing for anyone to perish eternally and it is our goal to bring as many people to Jesus as we can. We can honor Christ by doing that.

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