“The Beginning of the Good News”
Mark probably didn’t realize that
he was coining a new word when he penned the first verse of his letter. He probably thought that was what he was doing,
just writing a letter. He probably had
determined the message, or underlying theme of this letter, so it is no
accident that as he begins he uses an appropriate phrase to describe what he is
attempting to do. But it is doubtful
that he knew that phrase would become a word synonymous with the message itself.
Mark writes: “The
beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.”
“Good News”. In Greek the word is εὐαγγέλιον (euaggelion). And it was just a word, until it gets used by
Mark. Then it becomes a title, even a
summary statement. It turns into the short-hand for the whole of the rest of
everything that Mark writes, and after him what Matthew and Luke and John
writes. It becomes the message of the
Christian Church.
“The
good news of Jesus Christ.”
It is good news, isn’t it? A news that is so broad, so enormous, so
intricate and complicated that it is in most instances it is better to use a
summary statement than to try to condense that good news into a five page
document or even an eleven minute sermon.
It is the news that brought you here today; it is the news that will
support you in all of your tomorrows.
“The
good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
I am going to talk about this
good news, and how it might be described, but before I do, I don’t want to cut
short the diversity of how that good news is experienced in your life. So, we are going to do one of those things
where you turn and talk to your neighbor.
Start to consider who can speak with.
Make sure to look around you and behind you so that no one sitting alone
fails to have a conversation partner.
But I do want you to take 30 seconds to speak with your own words what
the “good news” means. So turn to
someone and tell them - turn to someone and hear from them – how do you
experience the “good news of Jesus Christ” in your life?
I would love to hear your words
regarding good news; and for those to be shared. But my experience with Children Sermons has
taught me not to ask questions if you are not prepared for ALL the
answers. I did start a Facebook chain
yesterday afternoon. You could check
that out, if you want to see some of the replies and share your own. I want to do this morning is shift through
the appointed lessons for the day, and mine from them an expressions of the
“good news” which remains consistent for all of us.
I am going to start with the
reading from Isaiah. So take out your
bibles, and turn to Isaiah 40. If you
have a study bible, you need to look at the footnote. Mine notes “Chapters 40-55: Book of the Consolation of Israel.” These chapters recount the events that come
decades after the events spoken of in the opening verses of Isaiah. The opening chapters were words of warning. Those chapters told Israel that because of
her transgression, they would lose their home, their temple would be destroyed,
and they would face exile. All those
things have come to pass. Now, during
the time of the reign of Cyrus of Persia, a new message is spoken. And this new message is a message of comfort
and assurance. It is good news to a
people down beaten and exiled.
Isaiah 40: “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.” See that word “cry,” in verse 2? It could be translated “preach,” as in
“preach it brother!” Preach the good
news! Speak tenderly to my people!
Proclaim that Jerusalem has “served her term.” Her “penalty is paid.”
That sounds like “good news,”
wouldn’t you agree? If you were one of
the Israelites living in Assyria, wouldn’t you hear these words as good
news? If you were one of the few left
behind, to rummage through the ruins of the destroyed Temple, wouldn’t you hear
these words as good news?
The exchange in verses 3 – 9
needs some work with punctuation. God is
the speaker in verse 6 who issues the order “Cry out!” The whole of the next two verses voices the
reluctance of the preacher to preach these words. The one asked to preach asks, “What shall I
cry? All people are grass.. the grass
withers.. surely the people are grass.”
Why bother? We have languished
toward extinction from one generation to the next. “Why bother?” All of that is the voice of realism, the
voice of experience, the complaint of the worn-out preacher who has had very
little good news to proclaim.
Then comes God’s answer. “Get up to a high mountain… (God says) lift
up your voice.. O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings.. say to the cities of
Judah, ‘Here is your God!’”
“Here is your God!” That is the good news, the εὐαγγέλιον. The good news, the best possible news is that
God is here!
God
is here. And he will feed his sheep like
a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms.
Sounds
like good news to me. It probably sounds
a lot like the examples of good news you shared with one another a bit
earlier. Whatever else might be said
about “good news” surely there is a piece or part of it that comes back around
to the promise that God is here, that God is in our lives, that God has set
aside the heavens (wherever or whatever they may be) in order to say to us –
“What happens here – right here – matters to me!”
The
poetic imagery of Isaiah 40:3-4 is picked up in Mark 1. The most direct route from Assyria to
Jerusalem is daunting. There are mountains
and valleys, there are dangers and obstacles.
To get there, one would have to take a long and circuitous route to the
north, then west and finally south. God
is so eager to be with us that God will not put up with such delays. “Level the mountains! Fill in the valleys!” “Here
is your God!” (Somebody,
somewhere ought to say, “Preach it!”)
Of course, “crying out” the
message does not immediately make it so.
And I want to make sure that I don’t overlook the response Andrew
Nichols gave as we studied these texts together on Tuesday. “Seems sort of nebulous,” I think he
said. And the promise of God’s arrival is
rather weak when contrasted with the undeniable strength of heartbreak, or
rejection, or cancer, or death. That
promise can seem, in the face of such things, in need of a lot more substance
and strength.
I think that is why Mark was wise
enough to call his writings the BEGINNING
of the good news. He knew that
more would need to come; he knew that more would come; and he invites us to not
merely read of his experience of this good news but to begin to live it in our
own lives and to share the experiences with those hungering and thirsting for
its assurances. The “good news” becomes εὐαγγέλιον when it is shared one with
another, when it is given witnesses in our own day and time.
Thursday
was not particularly a good day for me.
I wondered, at various times, how I would stand before you this day and
speak of the “good news.” Those feelings
on Thursday was a complete shift in direction from my day on Wednesday, when I
had found myself being the one to offer encouragement to another. The good news of which I was so confident on
Wednesday seemed an idle tale to me the very next day. Then I sat at coffee with a few fellow
travelers and with their witness I gained the strength to make it through my
day on Thursday and into the delightful day that Friday became.
The
assurance of God’s presence is nebulous until it takes flesh and blood in the
words, the hugs, and the mere presence of those who have experienced that
presence and are prepared to speak of it.
When they say to me, “Here is your God!”
I know that it is true.
“The beginning of the good news of Jesus
Christ.” Where
this beginning will take us, only we can determine. How this ending will find root in the lives
of those around us, only we can decide.
Turn
to someone sitting around you. Say to them,
“Your God is here!” Allow them to
experience the assurance that whatever the day may bring, they are not
alone. God has come to them; and God has
sent you to wait with them until that presence has its world-altering effect on
their lives.
Amen.
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