Gospel and Heritage

I guess my theological heritage is supposed to be Lutheran, but its not something I've really ever claimed. When I talk about my theological heritage, where I've learned what, what I've ruminated on, etc, it's born out of a melting pot of intellectuals and books, digital life, experience, and conversations with people who are mostly far removed from the Christian faith. For this reason, I'm confused and concerned about the question this week, "thinking together with your own theological heritage or tradition, what is Gospel?"

Naturally then, when I first started drafting this blog, I went to Google, where I received the above definition. Thanks, Google. Heritage on the other hand, I knew without searching, is the combined elements that tell us who we are, that make up our traditions, culture, and nuances. So what then is this Gospel that we speak of?

Gospel, something that is true, is a loving and just God who cares infinitely and deeply for his creation, his created people, who are broken and searching for whatever 'home' they can carve out.

For my understanding, Gospel can't be just God, because we are created in God's image, an extension. From the bible we hear this time and time again, but it explains also the good in the world as it is evident in our life experiences, as presented by the use of some technologies and digital enhancements, and with people who don't even believe this God of ours who see a good in people that cannot be mistaken even against the backdrop of human evils.

Simultaneously, gospel can't be just us, because we are never absolute, by our very life we are finite and fragile. We see in our life experience the expiration of people closest to us, the advertisement of thousands of products claiming to extend our lives, and books upon books that reveal to us how the body expires, how death comes in the bible after the fall of man, and that we cannot, though we may try, live forever.

Together, these pieces make up truth for me at this point. I imagine that this will change. That I will learn something new going forward from here, and that someday my known and perceived truth may change. Until then.