Wednesday, May 22, 2024

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7, New Living Translation)

“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1:15)

             It is enough to give me heartburn or indigestion.

Every morning, while having my breakfast of toast and coffee, I watch the headline news on CP24 out of Toronto. Every morning, it seems to be a litany of shootings, stabbings, hit-and-run fatalities, weather disasters, wars and sleazy trials. Bad news is rampant.  I am just skimming the surface by only reading the headlines, but I’m not sure I want to hear or know the whole stories behind and beyond those headlines. After breakfast, I go on-line to Google News and CBC news and Peterborough Examiner. I must be a bearer for punishment as it is more of the same. I may read a couple of stories that pique my curiosity. I stick mostly to sports but even that is disappointing if one is a Blue Jays’ fan.

I need some Good News. More than just how a fireman rescued a cat stuck up in a tree.  Something that is real good news. Something that makes me pause and consider its truth and purpose. Something that speaks to me and sparks some hope, joy, understanding and invites me to live in a world which is under the guidance and purview of God, rather than overrun by sin, violence, hatred, evil, humanity’s foibles and failings.  I need some good news that resists those stories, that challenges those stories, that overcomes those stories, that promises me that there is way more to life than just these stories.

Then Jesus enters my world - your world.

Something begins to change. God is closer than we thought. The winds (i.e. Holy Spirit) of radical change are beginning to blow. There is an alternative to the bad news of the world. Jesus is now the supreme difference maker in our world. He gives you and me a real chance to survive in the midst of worldly chaos, confusion and disturbance. As the angel predicted at the very outset: “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.” (Luke 2: 10)

Throughout the book of Acts, which chronicles the activities of the early church the message about Jesus is always referred to as Good News. “This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.” (Acts 10: 36) But just for Israel but for all people everywhere and anytime. The world in those days was no better or worse than the world we live in, but the Good News rises above the din and invites us to share in its power and encouragement: “We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.” (Acts 154: 15)

The apostle Paul usually refers to the message about Jesus as Good News: “I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:23) This Good News which includes salvation, redemption, freedom, all because of Jesus Christ, separates us from the world, even though we should never give up on the world. “This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.”  (Colossians 1:6)

Good News for you and me – Jesus loves you and me. Good News – we are not alone. Good News – we are not abandoned. Good News – God is at work in this world, even against the powers and principalities who oppose him.  Good News – there will be peace and salvation.

Come, Lord Jesus, come!

 Dale