One of the things I endeavor to do each week as I’m preparing my sermon is that I make a concerted effort to keep the Gospel message relevant to our context as Americans living in Davis, WV. I spend a lot of time on the internet browsing news sites, keeping up on world events. I talk politics and pop culture, and I hope that by doing so I make the messages that Jesus intends for us to hear about who he is and what he’s about come through all the clearer.

But sometimes it’s hard when confronted with certain Scripture texts to preach a sermon any more complicated that “Jesus loves you. Amen.” No flourishes. No relevant illustration. No clever example drawn from film, TV, or music. Just the plain simple Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

And maybe that’s not a bad thing. Maybe there are times, as my newsletter article this month talks about, when we need to get back to the basics. Back to that core message and hammer it home again. Because it so often easy for us to forget.

You see the devil wants us to forget. He wants us silent in our doubts. He wants us thinking all this God stuff is a load of lies. And he’s got a lot of things to throw at us to see that it happens.

Despair is his most potent weapon. Life throws all kinds of stuff at us, we struggle with illness in ourselves and others. We are the whimsy often times of financial and economic trends. Our jobs and livelihood can sometimes vanish in a moments notice in a volatile market. We can be victims of crime (For the first time earlier this week, I had one of my online accounts hacked into.) Our relationships can be rocky with family, with spouses, with children or parents. All these things can give us tunnel vision and we see only the bad stuff, the stuff that’s gone wrong in our lives, and we’re blind to the good and what’s gone right.

Rejection is another potent weapon. I heard a disturbing statistic at Synod Assembly, disturbing but not terribly surprising. Only 20% of the population of this country attends worship on Sunday morning. Only 1 in 5 place worship as a priority, even if they regard themselves as Christian. We’re the oddballs, the weirdos. The vast majority of people we encounter in our day to day lives have little or no regard for the church. That can make life hard, the deck is stacked against us when we seek to share what we have received, what we believe, and ways in which God has affected our lives.

The third weapon is the most insidious. Success can be a dangerous weapon. It can test us as much as misfortune, if not more so, because it can trick us. Everything’s going great. Everything’s going wonderful. Nothing going to break my stride. What do I need God for?

All these things can blind us to basic realities. All these things can distract us and drive us to doubt the fundamental things that we believe. They make us forget “Christ lived, Christ died, Christ rose again, Christ is coming back. Go and tell.”

You don’t get anymore basic than that. And yet it is so easy to forget.

Our Scripture texts for today seem to tackle this very issue head on. Paul, in the letter to the Romans, goes right to the heart of the matter. We are justified by faith. We have peace with God, and yet we have suffering. But suffering need not lead to despair. It can produce endurance, and character, and hope, when we remember that Christ died for us, ungodly and sinful as we are. When we remember how much God loves us.

Jesus too in our Gospel lesson seems to go to the heart of the matter. See, no matter how much doubt and despair the devil pitches at us, he can never take us from God’s love. But he can keep us quiet out of fear of rejection, keep us from telling others the basic truths we have received.

Jesus sends out the disciples to spread the Gospel, to heal the sick, to cure the lepers, embrace the outcast, all the stuff that Jesus himself does. He gives the disciples a simple message, “The kingdom of God has come near.” And it the town rejects them, if what they fear the most comes to pass, Jesus tells them, tell anyway. Wipe off the dust and say to them, “The kingdom has come near.”

Both Jesus and Paul are onto something. Even in the midst of doubt, in the midst of distraction, in the midst of despair, and all the other things that assail our faith, if we keep hearing the simple truth of the Gospel, we’ll start to believe it again. If we keep saying and living the simple truth of the Gospel, we’ll start to believe it again. That’s why Paul and Jesus both give the instruction that they do. And what was good for the church of ancient Rome and for the Twelve Apostles is good for us.

Life may throw a whole bunch of curveballs at us, unexpected events both good and bad. We may find ourselves as lambs in the midst of wolves, the oddballs, the minority who believe. But believe anyway. Proclaim anyway. Never forget the simple truth that brings us to this place, that sets a fire in our hearts, and gives us hope for the future. Christ lived. Christ died. Christ rose again. Christ is coming back. Go and tell. Amen.