God's Last Words

“WHAT MAKES IT GOOD NEWS”

Mark 1: 14-15

Good news/bad news jokes have a way of popping up unexpectedly and adding a touch of lightness to our lives. Listen to these pastor jokes:

Good News: The women's group voted to send you a get-well card. Bad News: The vote passed by 31-30.

Good News: The pastor-parish relations committee accepted your job description the way you wrote it. Bad News: They were so inspired by it that they decided to seek a new minister capable of filling the position.

Good News: Church attendance rose dramatically the last three weeks. Bad News: You were on vacation.

A guy is in the hospital with two broken legs. The nurse comes in and tells him that there's good news and bad news. The guy asks for the bad news first. The nurse says, "We're going to have to remove your legs."

Then the guy asks for the good news. The nurse says, "The guy in the next bed wants to buy your sneakers."

Friends our life is a series of problems: either you are in one now, or you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one.” From our perspective life is kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and that at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.”

Our Gospel for today is Mark 1: 14-15- “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

The Greek word for “good news” is euangelion and means the truth and message of Jesus’ death and resurrection whereby reconciliation with God is achieved.

We are to repent, (the Greek word is nacham, meaning to confess and change the mind and receive comfort from that action) and believe (Greek word pisteuo meaning standing fast in one’s faith and knowledge).

The Apostle Peter teaches Christians who have been chased from their homes and “scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bythinia” by the Romans (1 Peter 1:1). He tells them the good news.

Peter tells them that we are born again “into a living hope,” in 1Peter 1: 3).

He goes on to write in verses 4-6, “We have “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.” We know that “our salvation will be fully revealed in the last time.” All this is a treasure trove and will sustain us even while we “may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”

When the bad news comes, we also have God’s word through Paul: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor. 4: 17-18)

The problem with bad news is that it may make us forget or fail to look for the learning experience or the silver lining in the experience that is always there. As a Christian it is the journey of faith that’s more important than the temporary human condition that keeps us less than perfect here on earth.

The problem with good news is that we may come to take it for granted. We may lose compassion for those struggling with problems.

Either way we need to be careful to cultivate a state of mind that always allows God’s role and presence to be seen, whether good or bad in the transitory condition of our earthly, fragile lives.

So why is Jesus’ message good news?

A group of church elders were interviewing a prospective confirmation class at the church and were asking each the question, “How did you get saved?”

One young man answered, “God did His part, and I did my part.” The elders were not so sure what the young man meant by this so they questioned him further.

The teenager explained what he meant by his answer: “God did the part of saving, and I did my part of sinning. I ran from God as fast as I could and God took out after me until He finally ran me down.”

Friends, that is how each of us comes to a saving relationship with Jesus, and that’s definitely good news!

Amen.