Good News to Some, Bad News to Others

There are some people who have the gift to be able to tell a joke at any given moment. I am not such a person. For whatever reason, I have a memory for obscure trivia – such as the names of hundreds of bands or songs from the 1970’s and 80’s when I was paying closer attention to those things -- but at the same time I can remember only one or perhaps two, jokes at any given time. I know enough to be able to point to the general families of jokes. There are the vast numbers of “St. Peter and the Pearly Gates” jokes that tell of the surprise that many receive when they reach heaven. For an obvious reason people can’t wait to tell me the latest “priest, rabbi and minister” jokes. Then there are the “how many people does it take to change a light bulb” school of jokes. I had to look up the Episcopal version, which goes like this: how many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb? Three: one to call the electrician, and two to argue about how much better the old light bulb was.

Then there are the “good news, bad news” jokes. These usually begin by a doctor or a policeman telling a worried family member: I have some good news and some bad news: which do you want first? The only version of this joke I can ever remember is the one about the priest who got up one Sunday and announced to his congregation: I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we have enough money to fund our budget for next year. The bad news is: it's still in your pockets!

To many, even down to the present day, God coming into the world in the person of Jesus was and is all a person could ask for. Christ is about hope, new life and forgiveness. Clearly good news. He is not good news for those who choose not to listen, who oppress those who do, and those who are too afraid to take a chance. This morning I would like to talk to you about the good news/bad news scenario at the core of the Christian message.

The gospel passage for the second Sunday in Advent is taken from the beginning of Mark. In it there is no mention of the familiar account of the announcement of the birth of Jesus to Mary – or even the news that Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, was to have a child at such an advanced age. Nor is anything said in Mark about the teenage years of Jesus or even his early adulthood. This gospel account, the shortest and the oldest, jumps right into the life of Jesus near its end. The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. “Good news” is translated a couple different ways; it is “gospel” in some versions, “proclamation” in others. It is the distillation and the essence of what God wanted to reveal through the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

When I think of good news, I consider how little of it there seems to be in newspapers or on television. There is an accepted formula today that says good news does not sell. Stories of crime, accidents, fires, kidnappings, scandal and death sell and attract viewers and readers. If there are good news stories -- inspiring, touching stories of neighbors helping neighbors and people rebuilding their lives after tragedy – they are often relegated to the end of the broadcast or back of the paper.

Author and minister Frederick Buechner, among my favorites, writes that the “Gospel is bad news before it is good news.” (Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Comedy & Fairy Tale, pg. 7). A man can look into a mirror and see in himself a “chicken, phony, and slob.” But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for.”

Imagine for a moment what so many people must have thought when they came from miles around to be baptized by John in the river Jordan. Why did they come? It has always amazed me how people today will come out of the woodwork and travel for miles when they hear of a sale or the giving away of something for free. We all probably know people who will drive for miles to save a few dollars at a sale. I am struck by the people I see in airports or sporting events who are willing to sign up for a credit card they probably do not need or to get a free duffle bag or stuffed animal. Our version of temptation -- the serpent in the Garden of Eden -- is the allure of getting something for nothing.

But that is not why people came to be baptized by John. He was not handing out free merchandise on the shore of the River Jordan – no free camels, packages of dried figs or jars of wine. What he was giving, doling out with great passion and energy, was an invitation to start over. In God, past sins are forgiven. The water poured over the heads of so many washed them of what the world saw as unclean. It washed them of what they saw to be unclean and unlovable in them. John’s message must have appeared like bad news at first. Who really likes to look at themselves in a mirror? Who wants to leave old ways behind and try on something untested and new? But the bad news gave way to the good. The gift of being invited by God to leave behind what weighs us down so that we can travel lightly through the rest of our lives. The good news continued: someone much greater than John would soon be coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus would bring would be about much more than a cleansing new start, it would literally breathe the presence of God into each person being baptized and draw him or her even closer to the One who created them.

There is good news to be found in many places in scripture. Mary, the mother of Jesus, knew that the child she was carrying would be good news to some and bad news to others. Her Magnificat has given hope to millions on the underside of history. Her words are good news to women, those forgotten, judged, and excluded: for the Lord would lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things while scattering the proud, bringing down the powerful and sending the rich away empty. (Luke 1:51-53) The apostle Paul preached that God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are. (I Corinthians 1:27-28) The wise, the strong, the people who seem to have everything will forever be confronted by this truth: God could care less. Wisdom, might, and material things will not bring us any closer to finding what our souls most long for.

Jesus himself gave perhaps the best take on the good news of the gospel. John the Baptist was in prison and had sent some of his followers to Jesus to ask him directly if he was the messiah. Jesus sent back this answer: "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. (Luke 7:22)

God says to humanity. “I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want to hear first?” “Tell us the bad news,” we respond. “O.K., well the bad news is that I will send you my son and he will live among you and teach you all you need to know about me, but you will reject him and hand him over to a violent death on the cross. What’s the good news? The good news is that he knows what your lives are like more than you can ever know – your suffering and pain – and he can love you in places you will never show anyone else.” God says: “my son can show you how you are to love and worship me in return and show love to those with whom you share this world.”

Some joke.