January 21, 2024 Sermon
“The Good News of the Good News”
Rev. Robert McDowell
A family had twin boys whose only resemblance to each other was their looks. If one felt it was too hot, the other thought it was too cold. If one said the TV was too loud, the other claimed the volume needed to be turned up. Opposite in every way, one was an eternal optimist, the other a doom and gloom pessimist.
Just to see what would happen, on the twins' birthday, their father loaded the pessimist's room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist's room, he loaded with horse manure.
That night the father passed by the pessimist's room and found him sitting amidst his new gifts and crying bitterly.
"Why are you crying?" the father asked.
"Because my friends will be jealous, I'll have to read all these instructions before I can do anything with this stuff, I'll constantly need batteries, and my toys will eventually get broken." answered the pessimist twin.
Passing the optimist twin's room, the father found him dancing for joy in the pile of manure. "What are you so happy about?" he asked.
To which his optimist twin replied, "There's got to be a pony in here somewhere!"
Some people can be positive in any situation!
I think it’s interesting that the first four books of the New Testament that tell the story of Jesus are called, “Gospels.” The word, “gospel” literally means, “good news.” The story of Jesus is a story of good news. Our faith is a good news faith.
And really, the entire bible is one big story of how a loving God who created this world is bound and determined to rescue it from sin and death. The bible is a story of good news.
In our Gospel reading for today, Jesus begins his ministry by proclaiming this good news. And notice that Jesus isn’t saying that this good news is something that will only be for the future. This good news has already been launched in the here and now. Listen to the past and present tenses from this verse. Jesus says, “The time IS fulfilled, and the kingdom of God HAS come near.”
This is the good news of the good news! The good news is that the good news is already happening! And it has been happening because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Can you think of any gooder news than that? J Pardon my grammar! The good news is that the good news is already happening!
Where do you see the good news of the good news at work? Where do you see the good news of the good news in your day-to-day living?
We live during a time where there seems like there’s nothing but bad news. Mass shootings seem like a common occurrence, increasing poverty, negativity abounds in politics, the threat of nuclear war – the list goes on and on. You can see why somebody would choose to be a pessimist instead of an optimist.
But the good news of the good news is that God’s kingdom has already come near. The signs of God’s grace surround us in any given moment even in the midst of the struggles, pain, and difficult transitions that we face in our daily living.
Jesus certainly knew how difficult life can be sometimes. Mark tells us that just before Jesus began to announce the good news of God’s kingdom, that John the Baptist had been arrested. By referring to this sad event, Mark wants us to know that in the midst of life’s struggles and disappointments, there is hope. The kingdom of God has come near.
Speaking of transitions, just think about Jesus calling those first disciples. They were fishermen. In Israel, fishing was often a family business going back several generations, even centuries. And Jesus called these two fishermen to leave not just a hobby, but their livelihood, their family business of being fishermen in order to follow him.
When you have a family business that has any history to it, there’s an expectation that this will carry on with the next generation if possible. And here, these disciples were willing to say goodbye to the world as they knew it. I can’t think of a more daring step of faith.
When you read this scripture, you wonder if Mark wasn’t also thinking about Abraham from the Old Testament. Like the fishermen in Mark’s Gospel, God called Abraham to leave what he was doing, his home, his whole way of living in order to follow God into an unknown future.
Over the years, I have had young people from my various congregations serve in the Peace Corps. Stephanie was one of those young adults and her assignment took her to Botswana, Africa. I think it’s incredible for young people like Stephanie to make this huge commitment and help others in a foreign land.
In her work in the Peace Corps, Stephanie was helping to stop the spread of AIDS through the medical clinic in her village. I remember meeting Stephanie when I first became pastor of her church. She was teaching Sunday School for the High School youth.
Stephanie shared with me about her decision to leave the comforts of her home and her familiar way of life. She said that there were times when she questioned if she made the right decision to serve in this way. But then she said, “You only have one life to live so you better make sure you are living it to the fullest.”
When she shared those thoughts, it reminded me so much of the disciples and how Jesus called them to leave everything and follow Him. The good news isn’t just something that’s way out there in the future. It’s also breaking into this present time. As Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is at hand.”
Even in the midst of life’s transitions, God is with us. This is the good news of the good news.
Several years ago, I received a text message on a Saturday night from someone who was a member of a previous church I had served. He wanted to know our worship times because he wanted to attend worship the next morning at the church I was serving. And so, I responded with our worship times and gave him directions.
Just before our service that next morning, I met Mike at the front entrance of the church. You just couldn’t miss Mike because he was wearing a very bright pink polo shirt that morning. Mike always wears something pink because it was his wife’s favorite color.
They’re house was decorated in pink. They even had beautiful pink plants all around the front of their house.
Mike’s wife died during my time at that church. In fact, that was my last funeral before moving to my new church. I’ll never forget that funeral because Mike wore a bright pink blazer to his wife’s service.
During my sermon at his wife’s funeral, I said that because of Mike and Wanda’s strong faith during Wanda’s fight with cancer, in my mind, pink was now the new color to symbolize the good news of our faith. In fact, this is the pink tie that I bought the day before the funeral to wear in loving memory of Wanda.
And so, it was not surprising at all when I spotted Mike wearing a pink polo shirt when he attended worship at my new church that Sunday morning. We hugged and had a brief conversation before the worship service began.
I said, “Mike, since today is All Saints’ Sunday, I’m thinking of your wife, Wanda and her strong faith.”
Mike was taken aback. He said, “Today is All Saints’ Sunday? I didn’t know that.” Tears welled up in his eyes. He looked at me again and said, “All Saints’ Sunday. Hmm.”
I could tell that Mike was experiencing a God moment. It just so happened that he picked that Sunday out of the blue and it ended up being the perfect Sunday for us to reconnect and for him to remember and give thanks for Wanda’s life and receive Christ’s healing love in an unexpected and holy way.
The good news is that the good news isn’t just something for us to receive in the future. It’s always available to us in the present moment, especially when we have a heavy heart and we are in need of comfort.
Several year ago, I pastored a church that got hit by a tornado. When I arrived as their new pastor, they were still in the rebuilding phase and holding their Sunday worship at the local High School.
It was a very difficult time for that congregation. Before the tornado hit the church, they had just completed a one million dollar building expansion. The tornado destroyed a lot of the new addition. And the congregation was faced with yet another stressful rebuilding project.
A member of that church wrote this journal entry about her experience during that difficult time in the life of our church. Here is what she wrote about that time when her church was going through that difficult and stressful time:
“I am discouraged and sad. Our church was hit by a tornado several months ago. Much of the building was destroyed; the rest was badly damaged. It will take a year to rebuild. Everyone pulled together through the clean-up and the start of the rebuilding.
Now, six months later, the weariness of living with construction has hit. We’ve had flat tires from nails in the parking lot, and the strains of meeting in a dozen places around town have worn our spirits thin.
We are caught in a conflict over the reconstruction – should we rebuild what we had or redesign for future needs? We have differing hopes, a deep sense of loss, and competition for inadequate space.
Fierce disagreements among people who hold different priorities make this a tense and ragged time. I am beset by ugliness and conflict. I find myself in tears, wanting to run away from it all. I desperately want God to gather me up like a sobbing child, hold me against his shoulder and comfort me.
As I sit in the living room, the cat climbs onto my shoulder, snuggles down and purrs. I let go of fears and strife and I settle into the peaceful joy of cat-cuddling.
God gently whispers into my ear, ‘This is how I love you.’
My anguish diminishes as I understand; as painful as this is, it will pass. I am not alone. I am in the embrace of God.”
For Barb, she was able to embrace the good news of the good news even in the midst of the rubble and the chaos. She was reminded of God’s love for her in a moment when she needed it the most.
Barb eventually included this entry in a book she wrote called “Road Grace.” And the wonderful outcome of that rebuilding process while I was there as their pastor was that not only was the church able to rebuild, they ended up having enough insurance funds leftover which they ended up donating to a neighboring church that had also been hit by that same tornado.
Our Gospel reading tells us that as Jesus begins to share this good news that the kingdom of God has come near, he calls on some fisherman to drop what they’re doing and follow him. “Repent and believe in the good news,” he tells them. And they followed.
Jesus’ announcement of the good news isn’t only for those fishermen. It’s also for the woman whose church had been hit by a tornado and was facing the stress of rebuilding. It’s for the widower who wears pink polo shirts and who misses his wife. It’s for the young woman serving in the Peace Corp. It’s for the optimist AND the pessimist.
It’s for anybody who needs to hear these words, “Now is the time! The Kingdom of God is here.”
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