Good News

Short sermon preached at 8am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull on Sunday 7th December 2008 Advent 2, Year B.

Readings: Isaiah 40: 1-11 2 Peter 3: 8-15a Mark 1: 1-8



Our gospel reading today is the very start of Mark’s gospel. Mark introduces his gospel as, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” I am always very struck by this bold and clear start to the gospel of Mark. There is a clear affirmation the Jesus is the Son of God and there is a clear affirmation that the gospel is good news, good news.
I think it is very important to train ourselves to have the correct perspective and to understand with joy that the gospel is good news. I remember when I was a student someone said to me, “How can you call the gospel good news? It stops you from smoking and drinking and gambling and womanising. It makes you feel guilty and gives you all kinds of scruples about looking after yourself. It puts you at a big disadvantage in this competitive world.” Well this perspective is very understandable in a post-Christian society, but it is profoundly wrong. It is like the perspective of a playboy who fritters away a huge inheritance and then curses his bankers and benefactors when he finally runs out of money. The good news for this playboy is that he is free to become a responsible adult, to start earning money and to stop spending it. It is good news but with his rather warped perspective the playboy experiences it as bad news.
Sometimes people can think that the gospel is bad news because it recognises and takes account of things that we might like to forget about. As we read today from Isaiah “Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.” We might like to forget that one day we shall die, that all human accomplishments crumble with time and pass away. We might like to forget these things, but they are profoundly true and the gospel accepts them and takes proper account of them. The gospel is completely realistic and honest about what it is to be a human being.
Above all the gospel is good news. As Isaiah said, “the word of our God will stand forever.” Through the gospel we have an extraordinary opportunity to build a life that is eternal (Mark 10:30); a life more wonderful than we can imagine, and yet more natural and befitting to our true selves that we could ever have dared to hope. All we have to do is to follow the commands of the gospel. The gospel calls us always to grow in love for God and for our neighbour. It calls us to be honest about our sin, and to trust in the forgiveness that Christ won for us. It calls to trust that even our frailties and weaknesses are part of God’s love for us, through which his power is revealed (2 Cor 12: 9, Heb 11:34). Above all it calls us to be good disciples of Jesus, following, moment by moment, on the journey that he sets before us, that leads to our perfect fulfilment.
So this Advent, let’s listen to John the Baptist’s call to repentance. Let’s be humble enough to get our perspective right and to see that the gospel really is good news, extraordinary good news. Above all let’s do all our part to live out the gospel commandments so as to bring about the great things promised to us.