Good News - not easy news

 

Recently the newspapers have reported that some MPs have been demanding ‘good news’ to counteract some of the gloom and doom that seems to have settled upon current affairs.

Of course, the danger of such a request is that governments ‘spin’ their announcements to make them more positive than they truly are.

For Christians the very term Good News is filled with meaning because it’s a somewhat coded phrase encapsulating the essence of the message that Jesus preached.

Perhaps even we, in the Church, sometimes cry out for Good News.  Yet, if by that we mean words that only comfort, then we might have misunderstood the true message of the gospel.

For, in a way, the sermons of our Lord would have been supressed by most publicists.  What advertising agency would ever have let Jesus preach using phrases such as Take up you cross and follow me, or Enter in through the narrow gate?  This is God’s Good News, but it isn’t easy news.  At the centre of the gospel is the idea of sacrificial service and loving faithfulness, and that’s often a tough call.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it The Cost of Discipleship.

Yet, I think deep down we know it’s true.  How often have we heard people say this was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life, but it was also the best thing I’ve ever done.

I’d like to say that about the journey of faith we are on; it may not be easy, but it is certainly good, and Jesus shows us the way.