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“Good News People”

Isaiah 9:1-4 ? Matthew 4:12-23

Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight,

O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer.  Amen. 

I.

Not long ago I heard about a minister’s wife who had moved with her husband to a new congregation.  After being there for a few months, she was delighted when a member of the congregation came up to her after worship and told her what an inspiration she was to the women in the church. 

Well, the minister’s wife literally glowed with delight on hearing that good news, and wondered to herself which of her many gifts and talents had been so appreciated.  Was it perhaps her teaching in the Sunday School?  Her encouragement of women’s fellowship activities?  Her leadership gifts?  Her hostessing skills?  Maybe the way she kept her children so quiet and seemingly-attentive during worship?  Or maybe even the patient way she handled criticism? 

She couldn’t keep herself from asking:  “In what way am I an inspiration?” she inquired.

“Because no-one,” came the enthusiastic reply, “until you came to the church was wearing colored tights.  You’ve given us all inspiration to go out and buy some!”[1]

But whatever kind of inspiration we may talk about, not all Christians have it.  Some seem to take away all the inspiration and joy and uplift when they come into a room.  I recall one dear such woman in one of the churches where I served as an associate pastor.  I had been there only a few days when I heard the secretary shout out into the office area, “Here comes Glenda!  Take cover!”  And within moments, every restroom in the church was suddenly occupied!

Unknowing that I was at that time, I stayed out in the hall to see what all the commotion was about.  Spotting me, Glenda asked if she could come into my office.  She had a few concerns, she said.  Well, close to an hour later, I said goodbye – but not before hearing a criticism of every single element in my ministry, all the way from some improper grammar I had used to the fact that I slumped in the big chancel chair when the senior minister was preaching! 

I know Glenda’s heart was in the right place.  Or at least I think it was.  But bad news was her stock in trade.  And I recall that little verse by Scotland’s beloved Robert Burns:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us![2]

By contrast, I – and I suspect most of us here today – would hope that our coming to church or anywhere else would be warmly anticipated.  Most of us would hope that we would be seen not as bad news people, but rather as good news people.  Good news people – even as our Lord himself was seen.

II.

And indeed, good news was our Lord’s stock in trade.  It was the last little verse of our Gospel Lesson today.  Did you hear it?  “Jesus went throughout Galilee…proclaiming the good news of the kingdom….”[3]  It’s almost a footnote, since Matthew records it right after a soaring quote from Isaiah, coupled with the much-quoted story of calling two fishermen to become “fishers of people.”  But there it is, nonetheless – and not to be lost in the shuffle:  the reminder that good news was what Jesus was all about, and that his ministry was filled with it.

“Good news….”  The Greek word that the Bible uses for it is euangelion.  The “shorthand” translation is the old English word, “gospel.”  But newer Bible translations want us to hear the meaning, and not just an ancient word; so our NRSV translation today reads simply, “good news.” 

Good news is, bottom-line, what the Christian message is all about.  It’s what church is all about.  It’s what the Christian life is all about.  And, apart from it, we may have religion; but we don’t have Christianity; apart from it, we may give lip-service to Jesus, but we don’t know Jesus. 

Because, again, Jesus was a good news person.  Whatever else he did – calling for repentance, for example, or railing against the merchants in the Temple, and so on – was only toward the end of the great and over-arching good news that he came to proclaim, both in word and in deed:  the good news that God loves you and me, and we too should love one another. 

What a pity it is, though, that most of the paintings and other depictions of Jesus don’t seem to show that.  How many pictures have you seen of Jesus smiling?  Or, heavens! of Jesus laughing?  Indeed, the only picture I personally have ever seen of Jesus actually laughing is the picture I showed you some month ago that Playboy magazine printed some forty years ago!  (And now, of course, I wonder who many will ask me after the service, “How is that our pastor knows what was in Playboy?!)  But it was there, though I don’t remember the artist who drew it. I believe it was the first such picture ever to be painted too; although Google had quite a collection of additional ones, when I checked this past week.

But recent scholars have pointed out not only that Jesus might have laughed, but that he also did have quite a sense of humor.  As one online responder sums up his own reaction to that:   “My own insight on this matter is deeply personal. I believe that Jesus Christ loves me. I cannot imagine that anyone without a sense of humor could do that.[4]

Yet humor itself isn’t the sum of it.  I would suspect that it’s difficult to be a good news person without a sense of humor.  And yet, it’s simply a life and a teaching defined by “good news” that our text today wants to tell us about. 

And, again, good news is the bottom line of our text.  Apart from that, how would it make sense to quote from Isaiah about “the people who sat in darkness” having seen a great light?  Apart from that¸ how would Jesus ever have been able to attract those first two disciples in our story – much less the hundreds, even thousands, who came later?  People ordinarily don’t follow bad news leaders; but people can’t be held back from following a good news leader. 

And that’s what we find with Jesus:  people couldn’t be held back from following him.  As even his opponents say on Palm Sunday, “Look, the whole world has gone after him.”[5]  Why?  Because the world loves, the world longs for, the world desperately needs people with good news.

III.

In our day, this has been called “the power of positive thinking.”  And a person like the late Norman Vincent Peale of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City made a lifetime ministry out of those five words, and everything they engendered.  (And, by the way, did you know that Peale was a native Ohioan and a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan?) 

Peale’s main thesis was that you could turn life around for the good by focusing your mind on positive things – focusing your mind on good news, we might well say – and seeking to banish negative thoughts or bad news from your life.  His “prescription” for doing that was to pray ceaselessly – in particular, to pray brief little prayers like this:  “O God, I hereby draw power from You as an illimitatable source.”  Do that, he promised, and you can gain victory over almost any adversity.[6] 

About the same time as Peale, Dale Carnegie came along with his own positive-thinking blockbuster.  It was a book that he entitled, How to Win Friends and Influence People.  The thesis in a nutshell?  I don’t think I’m doing Carnegie an injustice when I say that his thesis could be stated in five words – though they are my words and not his:  “Be a good news person.”

Well, theologians offered their critiques of both Peale and Carnegie.  And surely they are right.  Because, what they basically all say is that there is more to Christian faith than just positive thinking, more to Christian faith than just doing the right things to win friends and influence people, more to Christian faith than, even, being a good news person.

And there is.  Christian faith is so much more than just that.  And yet, our little text for today might suggest that there was scarcely anything more important to Jesus.  And, if we look at what is important today, I think we could say that there is scarcely anything more important to how we live out our lives as disciples of Jesus in 2008.  Let the world’s supply of truly good news people increase by even a small percentage, and see what a difference that will make!

Just like the woman with the dog.  She had heard somewhere that dogs were healthier if they were fed a tablespoon of cod liver oil every day.  So she bought a big bottle of the stuff; and each day, as soon as she got home from work, she would chase the dog through the house till she caught him.  Then she would wrestle him to the floor, pry open his mouth, and administer the cod liver oil.  Pretty soon, the dog would hear her car, and would run to hide under the bed before she opened the door.

One day, though, in the midst of the usual mélée with the dog, she accidentally knocked over the bottle.  When she got up to go get a mop, much to her surprise the dog trotted right over to the mess, and lapped up every single drop.  As it turned out, the dog loved cod liver oil.  The owner had been presenting it, however, as a bad news matter.  When she accidentally presented it in a way that the dog interpreted as good news, there was no longer a problem.  Now the dog no longer hid, when her car came up the driveway.[7] It makes a difference  - - and not just to dogs(!) - -  when good news people come into our lives.

IV.

Jesus, again, was a good news person.  As our text puts it, “Jesus went throughout Galilee…proclaiming the good news of the kingdom….”

We talked last week about being disciples of Jesus.  To be a disciple, I said, means to follow, to learn from, and to imitate.  If that’s true, then this is the inescapable conclusion:  that you and I are called to be, are meant to be, good news people in the image of Jesus Christ.  

Good news people….  Sounds great, doesn’t it?  I hope someone knows me as a good news person – and I suspect you hope the same in your life.  But for most of us that doesn’t happen just by wishing.  So here are some all-too-brief nutshells of how to let it happen.

First, read your Bible.  Not just for information.  Not just for counting the pages.  But read your Bible looking for the Gospel, for the good news.  Calvin told us that the good news is revealed from Genesis to Revelation.  So start where you will, find the good news, stop there for a moment, and pray for God to let that item of good news become part of your life.

Second, put yourself in the company of good news people.  And, on the other hand, stay away from bad news people.  The influence of others who are committed to good news makes an amazing imprint on our lives.

Third, say good news things.  Speak positively, as much as possible.  Why?  Because what we say, the words we speak, have a tremendous influence on who we become.  Perhaps the words we use influence us more than they influence even those to whom and with whom we speak.  Words have a kind of “cementing” power:  they seal what we think into our existence.  You remember how your Mom said, “If you can’t say something good, don’t say anything at all?”  She was right.  Follow her advice!

Fourth, dedicate your life to something positive – something that produces or furthers good news in the world.  If it’s not, or can’t be, your work, or occupation, look for something outside your work.  But find something that produces or furthers good news, and dedicate yourself to it.  For some, that will be working in our Soup Kitchen or our Tutorial Center, or some other helping agency; for others, it will be say,  simply resolving to attend as many symphony concerts as possible – to further the presence of beauty in our world, or something akin.  But, whatever it is, dedicate your life to something positive. 

Finally, monitor your soul or spirit.  When a dark cloud or mood descends, deal with it right then – don’t let it settle in and take over.  Of course, pray.  And use the most simple gift of all the many that God gives us – make yourself smile, if you can.  Some research has shown that simply smiling can actually change your mood from bad news to good news – and it certainly changes what you bring into the presence of others.

V.

How sad, when the angry mullahs of Iraq and the dour-faced Puritans of Christianity represent the news that religious faith brings into our world!  How tragic, when people see Christianity, especially, as representing the bad news of life.

But Jesus was a good news person.  And his disciples – you and I – are called to be the same.  

What a change it would make – make in our world, our home, our personal view of life; what a change it would make in our church – if you and I were dedicated to being or becoming men and women of good news:  good news people!

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In the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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