The Gospel to Europe

(Watch video below)

Europe is built on its land—sweeps from frigid fisheries,

down Faroe’s treeless sides,

across plush Baltic wheatfields through rugged hills and lush boreal forest,

crafted coves and caves,

soars up snowy-peaked Alps,

lolls under island sun,

and hews from harsh hard plains;

turns to wild beauty of the Balkans,

through the crackled archipelagic south.

At first it looks like a wild quilt stitched in tribute to the beauty of Creation—

Then: humans

People showed up from nearly every direction: migrants seeking new lands

As new families and great tribes came, communities—

eventually became cities—stacked carefully, stone on stone,

Europe became Europe, built not only on its land but on itself:

Layer upon layer, tribe overlaid by tribe, families intermarried, languages formed

and reformed, built and rebuilt, intermingled interspersed

Kingdoms careened from one prince to another empire;

some wrecked, others polished faceted stone

What were barely recognizable as settlements, became centers of culture, science,

law, education, arts, faith.

But the truest, greatest depth of Europe’s beauty was on its way

Follow the sparkling tongues and howler wind

God’s Spirit breathed the blast of life into Europe.

The first believers brought Jesus to people who had never heard his name

They came with good news, and those wanting, longing

found rest in the presence of the gospel lived out

Through horrors of plagues, of crusades and tyrants, and persecutions,

Believers stuck to Jesus like a burr to a topcoat

Their communal orders generated economic opportunity

And artists gave The Story to an illiterate world before Gutenberg made it readable.

Centers of art and study and contemplation grew into movements grew into libraries

into universities that would soon educate the world

and come to learn from that world—

to explore and explain the glory of God’s creation.

Europe has stumbled and fought, and but for breaths might have destroyed itself—

yet it moves toward its future, embracing the constant change that shapes the land

and influences its inhabitants.

The dynamic of Europe remains the dynamic of the gospel itself:

full of beauty, full of hope—a faceted jewel, cut to reflect the world God made—

The world God is still making.

Script by Alison Siewert, video production and edition by Philip Barry. Made for the Lausanne Movement Europe.