One of the more remarkable transitions we’re undergoing here in the West is the ability to be okay with paradox, mystery, loose ends. Which is good, because the Gospel is a story filled paradox.
Some examples:
1. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and it is not yet come. Already, and not yet. (More here and here).
2. The King of Glory, through whom God the Father spoke the world into existance, smelled of cow manure at his birth, and was mutilated at his death.
3. We are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved.
4. We are given faith as a gift of grace, and we are to work out that salvation in fear and trembling.
5. God is three; God is One. God is Father, Jesus is son and God; Spirit is independant and God.
We could go on and on, couldn’t we?
Both-and, all-the-above, and yet there are certainly truths core to our belief system.
Why do we attempt to dissolve the mystery of the Gospel into 3-point sermons on Powerpoint slides and one application at the end? Perhaps the challenge of the current church isn’t modernism or pentecostalism or dispensationalism or consumerism or factionality. Perhaps it’s Easy Answers.
pat loughery 
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