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| As Frederick Buechner once wrote, "The Gospel is bad news before it is good news." This is good news to us who see bad news everywhere we look these days. |
© Seth Olson 2019
October 13, 2019—The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost—Proper 23 (Gospel Reflection Track)
One of my favorite writers is Frederick Buechner. He once wrote, “The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that [humans are sinners], to use the old word, that [we are] evil in the imagination of [our hearts], that when [we look] in the mirror all in a lather what [we see] is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy.” Sounds pretty rough, but this is only the beginning.
The gospel is tragedy first precisely because we forget who we are and whose we are. We are God’s children and we belong to God. We come to earth knowing this deep truth within our souls. When we gaze upon newborns we remember this clearly, but somewhere along the way we lose track of the truth. This is the bad news before the good news. But, there is good news.
In today’s Epistle—when Paul was writing to his protégé Timothy—we hear the writer speak of his gospel. “My good news,” Paul wrote. What was this good news? Simply put, though Jesus died—tragedy—he was the Messiah, was raised from the dead, and brought those who believe in him with him—good news! We will return to this shape in a moment.
To Paul though, this message was worth undergoing suffering. Sometimes Paul comes off sounding outlandish or braggadocios, but here he was spot on. He was willing to be beaten and imprisoned, so that he could share good news. He underwent the bad news before ultimately experiencing the good. There’s that shape again.
Sometimes though we cannot help but get wrapped up in bad news. There is no shortage of it today in the world and in our lives. God's own creation cries out for greater care; famine, oppression, human trafficking, violence, and disease indicate a need for greater care of our neighbors; and in our own lives stress, anxiety, busyness, illness, and broken relationships point to the yearning within us to better care for ourselves. Bad news all around, right?
How do we respond? One way to respond is to get stuck in the tragedy, or worse yet to inflict tragedy upon others. Immersed in the bad news we counter what others do to us with what is called complimentary behavior—like for like. The Old Testament way of saying this is “an eye for an eye.” Or, in the positive, “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.”
We even get a glimpse of this way in Paul’s letter to Timothy. Paul wrote, “If we deny him, he will also deny us.” If we are loyal, then that’s what we’ll get in return—a tooth for a tooth, denial for denial. Except that is not all there is. This is only the first act. This is merely the set up—the tragedy before the turn, for this letter more fully says: “If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.” This opens up another way of viewing everything: death doesn’t lead to death, but to life. Endurance leads to reigning with God. Even denial gets redemption because God cannot deny God’s self. God will always be faithful. Now we see coming into focus the shape of the ultimate Good News!
Even if we falter. Even if we fail. Even when we are unfaithful, when we cannot be trusted, God will always remain faithful and trustworthy and true. This is the good news that comes in the wake of any and all bad news. And Paul truly was one who was acquainted with bad news. He knew suffering, imprisonment, betrayal, torture, and death. He willingly experienced bad news before tasting the good news. He knew the shape of the Gospel precisely because he had lived it.
Now Paul's phrase “my good news” sparked a deep wondering in my soul. Often in the Church we will talk about our favorite Gospel. Do you like Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John? I don't want burst your bubble, but there is only one Gospel—the Good News of Christ Jesus. Even knowing that there is simply THE Good News, sometimes we restrict it to the past. We mistakenly believe that God’s Good News happened 2,000 years ago half-way around the world, and four men wrote about it, and that’s it. Since then, the good news dried up, God went into hiding, and every once in a while we get a mysteriously communication as God watches from on high—like the outline of Jesus’ face in a piece of toast. But, the truth is the good news of Christ Jesus never stopped. And, it never will.
Each one of us is called to be a gospel writer. I am called to share the good news. You are called to share the good news. We are called to share the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to All Saints. This good news is diverse and unique according to each one of our voices, and yet it shares some similarities. Each one of us experiences our own Good Fridays before grace bursts in on Easter Morning. We all go to the cross on Calvary before seeing the tomb is empty. Like Buechner wrote, it is bad news before it is good news. We, like Paul, know this shape, the shape of the Gospel because it’s the shape of our lives. And, if we look around we start to see this pattern everywhere, like in today’s reading from Luke.
Seeing the arc of this leper’s life it takes the same shape as bad news looping towards good. This leper was an outcast because of his disease, and Jesus’ disciples who practiced Judaism would have looked down upon him doubly because he was a Samaritan. Samaritans had a different worldview and a different holy place, which led to conflict and even violence between the two peoples. For a Samaritan to be held up as an example for the disciples would have been challenging to say the least, but here we find this Samaritan leper’s life take the very shape of the Good News of Christ Jesus.
The leper was ostracized, ridiculed, and isolated with other lepers because of his disease—bad news. But then, he encountered Jesus. This interaction disrupted the leper’s life. He along with others asked for mercy from God. Jesus shared God’s healing with him. And, he was cured—good news! That’s it then, the leper’s life took the shape of the gospel… but that’s not it. That’s not all!
As the once-diseased man began to walk away, he observed he was cured, he turned back to God, he praised God, worshiped God by prostrating himself at Jesus’ feet, and he thanked God. We know the shape of the Gospel—tragedy gracefully swooping towards good news. But the one-time leper shows us the shape of a life impacted by good news: asking for mercy, observing God’s grace, turning back to God, praising and worshiping God, and giving thanks to God. The passage ends with some powerful words that put an exclamation point on this response to the Gospel.
Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well.” But, really he told the man, “Your faith has made you whole.” This faith, this trusting in God, allows us to walk from the bad news into the Good News of Christ with confidence that no matter what happens Jesus is walking with us. This is not just any good news it is our good news. And, it is worth sharing!
We, at All Saints, are in the midst of sharing our good news in many different ways. Last week we started a season of Shining Our Light. Today we will hear more stories of how we are revealing God’s transforming love in the world. What is this season, this time of stewardship all about? It’s about seeing the shape of the Gospel as the shape of our lives. It’s about responding to the good news in our lives and in this community with gratitude, by turning to God, and worshiping God.
God gives us everything. God shapes our lives such that through Christ all bad news bends forever towards good news. And as we walk through this life in which we see in the shape of the Gospel in multitudinous ways, may we respond like the Samaritan leper. As the light of Christ shines in our lives illuminating God’s mercy manifest within us, we are called to turn to God by praising, worshiping, and giving thanks for all the blessings we receive. What is the Good News according to All Saints? It is that Christ’s love transforms every bit of bad news into good news. And for that, thanks be to God.
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