Kurt Vonnegut Jr. on the Gospel
Rosewater was on the next bed, reading, and Billy drew him into the conversation, asked him what he was reading this time.
So Rosewater told him. It was the Gospel from Outer Space, by Kilgore Trout. It was about a visitor from outer space, shaped very much like a Tralfamadorian, by the way. The visitor from outer space made a serious study of Christianity to learn, if he could, why Christians found it so easy to be cruel. He concluded that at least part of the trouble was slipshod storytelling in the New Testament. He suppsed that the intent of the Gospels was to teach people, among other things, to be merciful, even to the lowest of the low.
But the Gospels actually taught this: Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn’t well connected. So it goes.
The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn’t look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought, and Rosewater read out loud again, “Oh, boy - they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time!” And that thought had a brother: “There are right people to lynch?”
The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels.
So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn’t possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that too, since the new Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was.
And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of The Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this: From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections!
[From "Slaughterhous 5 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]
[IN]justice
Michael - brought a group of extraordinary people together to make this magazine happen. It features some Third Space friends and family - Chris Jardin, Jenn Knight, Jonah Clifford. The New Canadian Centre is featured, as is “Bike”, whom we share our space with. Preaching the gospel? That’s easy. Living the gospel? Another matter altogether. This is what living the gospel can look like.
Glossary
The thing I like most about Kingdom Grace is that Grace doesn’t post unless she has something to say. Mindless chatter to fill page views is not her style. Unfortunately, though, I missed a post in which she wrote her own glossary of Christian terms. It’s inspired me to do the same. I’m not saying that Grace was ‘wrong’ by writing my own - far from it. I simply wanted to explore these ideas personally.
sin: anything that wounds our relationship with God, with others and with our self.
repentance: shifting the purpose of our lives from the satisfaction of our self to the experience of God.
righteousness: healing, wholeness
holiness: a state of being characterized the presence of God
judgment: restoring things to the way they were intended to be (That’s Grace’s definition. I couldn’t possibly have said it better.)
sabbath: an intentional period of rest, calm and peace
revelation: God revealing Himself (not facts) - Again, Grace’s definition.
faith: living as if a thing is true - or a thing is possessed - even if we cannot prove it
grace: the empowering and invigorating presence of the Holy Spirit
church: any group of people who love God and love one another
religion: practices and rituals intended to appease God (who doesn’t need to be appeased, btw)
gospel: the message that through faith in Jesus Christ we can experience healing from sin.
salvation: rescue (Grace’s definition)
new birth, born again: the inner transformation brought about by grace
heaven: any realm (earthly or otherwise) in which God’s presence is fully known
hell: any realm (earthly or otherwise) in which God’s presence is not known at all
How would you define these terms? Is there any you’d do differently?