Editorial by Rev. Ana Fletcher, Intercultural Communities Enabler

“Preach the gospel always, if necessary use words.”

At this time, we have so many opportunities to be Christ’s hands and feet in our communities, to bless others through social connection (while physically distant!), help with errands and bring joy in the midst of adversity.

But it is also a time when people desperately need to hear the Gospel.

In the West, particularly, society prides itself on self-sufficiency, self-autonomy, and the ability of logic, reason and science to solve our problems. Yet now, more than any other time in our recent history there is a global awareness of human frailty and mortality. We recognise that humans cannot solve all our problems individually – or even together. Over and over again, as I talk to colleagues, our church, and those in our community, I am aware of our desperate need for Jesus and the good news that he offers our hurting and suffering world.

The Gospel is not about what we do. Our acts of loving care and service are things we do because we are a people transformed by the Gospel at work in our lives. So while our loving actions may communicate about the transformation that the Gospel brings, they do not communicate the scandal or the hope of the Gospel. The world needs us to be people who are quick to speak the words of ‘why’ we are the way we are, why we do what we do.

It was only a few weeks ago that I was part of a workshop on the Gospel and Culture at Anglican Movement’s Training Day. We were talking about how the Gospel appeals to people’s needs in different ways and I shared that the most uncomfortable appeal of the Gospel for me is to meet people’s fear of judgment and death. Yet, that is exactly the comfort that many around us need right now.

People who are fearful of judgment and death need to hear about the loving God that chose to enter our suffering world. That God’s grace isn’t about what we have done – or failed to do – but is offered to us through the our saviour Jesus who has defeated death! Those of us who live with fear and anxiety need to be invited to experience the comfort that comes from being held in God’s loving embrace now, in death and for eternity.

This Gospel is something that we share through our words – it is to speak God’s words of grace and love over others. It is to invite them to experience God’s grace and love in their own lives.

I’m not suggesting that we take advantage of people’s vulnerabilities or that we peddle a quick fix. Rather, I am saying that we need to be emboldened in our conviction that the Gospel is good news in a hurting world and to step out in courage. We need to become a people who preach the Gospel always, and know how to use words.