What is the 'Good News'?

Sermon by the Revd Dr Brutus Green
Readings: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Psalm 62:5-12; Heb 9:24-end; Mark 1:14-20

What is the good news? It’s an important question. Christianity rests on four accounts of Jesus, entitled Gospels. Which is just Old English for ‘good news’. Practically the first words of Mark, the earliest Gospel written,  Are the good news of Jesus Christ – Here, still in chapter one, enter Jesus. His first words: The time is come; The kingdom of God is near; Repent and believe in the good news.

What is the good news?

When Oscar Wilde was taking his entrance exam for what was, at the time, one of Britain’s top universities, he was asked to read and translate from one of the Gospels. After a while the examiner said ‘enough’ – to which he allegedly replied, ‘But wait! I want to see how it ends!’ Intriguingly, there are three different versions of this anecdote. In one, it’s alleged this episode took place at lights-out in Reading gaol, where Wilde did hard labour. The meaning and inflection are very different from impertinent youth in a privileged college to middle-age in the dystopia of a Victorian prison. either pretended ignorance /or the soul seeking refuge.

But in either case, the gospel is not very obviously good news for its protagonist, except perhaps at the very end. The reader might feel a certain sense of false advertisement from the title.

So we might also ask – who is it good news for?

Today’s Gospel moves immediately from this proclamation of ‘good news’ to the call of the disciples. – aha! – you say – Good news for the followers of Jesus! Only at the end of this Gospel – every disciple has betrayed and failed Jesus.  It’s not just Judas, unfairly singled out; It’s all of them. Denied, fled, sold out. In what is probably the original ending of the Gospel, we hear no more about the disciples after that. In the “shorter ending”, only that they are sent out with ‘the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.’ In the “longer ending”, the disciples don’t believe Mary, they then don’t believe two unnamed disciples who claim to have seen the resurrected Jesus; Finally, Jesus appears and upbraids them for their lack of faith before sending them out. To cut to their ends: Peter – crucified. Andrew – crucified. James – killed by the sword. John, died in old age in Turkey. Well done John. But not on the whole ‘good news’.

You’re probably thinking by now – “this must be about heaven right?” Life wasn’t great 2000 years ago and these guys all died violent bloody deaths – Christianity’s great selling point is the eternal life thing. The good news is “do your best now, and next time things are going to be way better”.

But this isn’t what Jesus preached. ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near’ The Good News is not a future, next time thing; The Good News is about now.

 So let’s think about some good news stories.

It’s hard to think of anyone who would not celebrate the abolition of slavery. And yet Wilberforce formed the abolitionists in 1787, bringing forward the 1792 Slave Trade Bill, only to be eviscerated by government;  it was not until 1833 that the effective Slavery Abolition Act was passed, extended to the British empire in 1838.  So something as morally indefensible as slavery took 50 years of exhausting campaigning to convince the British government. Because, of course, the abolition of slavery was not perceived as good news by everyone. Or for everyone. 

It is lucky we live in a time when politicians are less swayed by personal interests.

And this case is hardly even unusual. Emiline Pankhurst declared: ‘I am here as a person who, according to the law courts of my country, it has been decided, is of no value to the community at all; and I am adjudged because of my life to be a dangerous person, under sentence of penal servitude in a convict prison.’ We may note that it was ordinary people (and politicians), but not gangsters, refusing Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela. Supporting Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, Stalin. In the 1980s AIDS crisis – how many ordinary people vilified and disowned young gay men in this country? In a climate crisis, where some countries do not turn up, and leaders jump on and off private flights; 

What is the good news? and whom is it good news for?

I bring this up, not because the Gospel is politically good news – Though it is: Jesus proclaims in Luke chapter 4 ‘good news to the poor… release to the captives… recovery of sight to the blind… let[ting] the oppressed go free,’ (not written in 1833 but nearly 2000 years ago) But these events in our recent past show that even what would today be unthinkable to defend, has not been recognised as good news in its day. And realistically, why would we be any better? we too are doubtless skirting unknowingly around the things our great grandchildren – and history – will despise us for.

So if I unrolled a scroll today and said to you all: The time is come; The kingdom of God is near; Repent and believe in the good news. How would you understand ‘good news’? Well let’s take Jesus proclamation as a whole. ‘The time is come’. Clearly what’s being said here is that THIS MOMENT matters. These very minutes. If you feel moved to step outside now to start a liberation movement or at least start peeling potatoes for lunch I’ll understand. 

In some respects 2021AD makes this year sound more impressive than it is. According to physicists we are in cosmic terms something closer to star date 13,835,467,653;  which makes this year seem less important.

But if we are to believe in good news, this year matters. The year 33 mattered. 1833 also mattered. 1964 mattered for the US Civil Rights Act 1928 mattered for women in this country. These are markers but the point is that for justice, mercy, peace, every moment is an opportunity and somewhere in the world the kingdom of God, good news, is happening. For many each year is life and death; a meeting point of time and eternity. At this point, as at every point, you and every other creature God has made, matters; their suffering and their justice matters; And is known by God.

What then does Jesus mean when he says, ‘the kingdom of God has come near’? Well again, while the year can seem arbitrary,  Or can seem like a date written in bold in the history books; We may or may not perceive the nearness of the kingdom of God.

Jesus has announced the reign of God as a present reality; But it’s been denied by the world in every moment since. To follow Christ is to realise and pursue the grace present in this moment; to seek to make it known; To proclaim that peace, justice, freedom, forgiveness, reconciliation, joy – Can be taken hold of today. That there is grace enough today for today. Whatever it may seem like.

Which is not to deny our pain; But in that wonderful phrase of St Paul’s, to acknowledge that ‘my grace is sufficient for you’. Because you matter to God, the complete riches of his grace are open to each one of us. Despite the individual difficulty each of us faces – known only to ourselves and God – God loves us fully, unreservedly, unconditionally.

This is the good news we’re called to celebrate. Neither a final future overturning that will make up for our pain; Nor the obviously false claim that life is without problems. But the claim that the grace of God is sufficient for us. That whatever our difficulty, God is with us and will not abandon us. And that in ways we don’t know, the good news is already happening and will one day be made clear to us; Whether we’re enjoying our privileges, or serving hard labour.

And who is this good news for? Well because it’s good news, it’s for everyone, without discrimination. We don’t earn this good news – it’s simply a gift for us to receive. And we may fight it, refuse it, not acknowledge it; We may not perceive it in this moment, in this life time, as good news. In which case repent and believe!

But to the one watching with faith:  it remains the good news. a vision of hope in every age. Amen.