It's Good News Week Mark 1:1-8

In 1965 (I know, I’m old.) a group named Hedgehoppers Anonymous came out with a song that has twisted my brain for 52 years now. In the first place, because I never actually saw their name, I heard the name as Head Choppers Anonymous. It was not until a few years ago that I got that straightened out, so the group and the song were even more twisted than it needed to be. It sounded like this happy song that had just awful words. Yet it was the disconnect between this happy music and the dismal depressing words that have shaped me.

It's good news week

It's good news week
Someone's dropped a bomb somewhere
Contaminating atmosphere
And blackening the sky

It's good news week
Someone's found a way to give
The rotting dead a will to live
Go on and never die

Have you heard the news
What did it say?
Who's won that race?
What's the weather like today?
What's the weather like today?

It's good news week
Families shake the need for gold
By stimulating birth control
We're wanting less to eat

It's good news week
Doctors finding many ways
Of wrapping brains on metal trays
To keep us from the heat
To keep us from the heat
To keep us from the heat

I have got to tell you that this group from the 60’s captured part of what the Gospel of Mark is addressing. We may not really feel the dissonance and the challenge of these words today like the people did almost 2000 years ago because we don’t live in a world of gathering our news through the use of street criers as the people did then.

International news, even national news, was relatively unknown unless the laws and the policies of the country directly impacted your life personally. It’s good news week! Nothing bad is going on in your life this week. In this system, no news, really was good news.

Every day blurred into the next. Season followed season, years followed years. The only thing that really interrupted you in your life was the invasion of your country by another; or maybe the tax burden had risen to the point where you couldn’t afford it, and you might have to sell yourself into slavery in order to pay what was due. But really not much changed from time to time. If you lived out in the country, where the city folk didn’t tend to travel, you might not even know that the governmental leadership had changed from one emperor to another.

Yet, in the cities, there would have been a greater awareness of the political times. Criers would be sent out from the sources of power to announce when important events had taken place. “It’s good news week,” the crier might say. “The armies of Rome have conquered the Goths and our northern boundaries are secure. We give thanks to our emperor, the son of god.” Of course, those who heard this news may have been thinking, “Thousands die repelling the invasion.”

Or, “It’s good news week,” the crier might say. “Grain from Egypt is bountiful this year. The emperor has increased the allotment for every family in the city. God be praised!” And the masses may have heard, “Taxes will be higher in order to pay for the grain, and it doesn’t matter how much the allotment gets increased there still won’t be enough to feed all of the people in Rome.”

Or, “It’s good news week,” the crier might say. “The rebellion of the Maccabees has been crushed. Peace reigns in the empire again. The arm of our emperor is strong.” Those who were unhappy may have understood, “Toe the line or die.”

In the midst of these many messages from the criers of “good news”, we hear Mark’s opening words of the Gospel. In these words, we encounter something familiar but new, something that is comforting and revolutionary at the same time. They sound like the words of the street, and yet, Mark shifts our thoughts from the worldly to the divine in this opening sentence.

In the struggle for power between heaven and earth, heaven has won. In the great cosmic battle between goodness and evil, goodness has won. If there can be a contest between God and the devil, then God has won. And, in that battle of life over death, life is victorious. Yet, let us not be so overwhelmed that we do not notice that this victory includes relationships with outsiders, a humiliating trial, and an excruciating crucifixion, before Jesus is raised up from death and the grave and shows the world the way to everlasting life. Only when we bear witness to ALL of this news are we able to say, “It truly IS a good news week.”

Mark’s statement of good news meets us where we are. It meets us in the middle of time for we have entered into the story after Christ’s first rising from the tomb while awaiting his coming again, in glory, “to judge the living and the dead, …the resurrection of the body, and the life of the world to come.” In this middle time, Mark comes to us with amazing, hope-filled news that speaks of God’s activity in the world in a way that surpasses the worldly news of empires and those who would rule over us.

Mark does not talk about an emperor, a king, a president, or a governor. This Good News declares the divine character and authority of Jesus Christ himself. “It’s good news week.” Today we hear those words of joy and hope that lead to faithful living with God and one another.

Where do these words first come to us? Are they from the city? Not necessarily. We hear these words for us wherever we are, even in the wilderness places of our lives. Therefore, we hear the proclamation of victory over death and the grave and enter into new ways of understanding the world. It is not the world of day after day, season after season, year after year, with little or no relief. This is a new world with new ways for a new life in the presence of the resurrected one of God, so we begin where all things begin, at the beginning: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.”

What does this new life look like? Well, Mark tells us that this new world begins with repentance and forgiveness. It begins with naming our short comings and failings that separate us and alienate us from one another. It begins with the waters of baptism and the sealing of the Holy Spirit. It begins with an understanding that the world of hospitality and holy ground are gifts from God that have been given to us since the beginning of our creation and continue to come to us in new beginnings each and every day.

We do not begin this new life in ourselves, but in this new relationship with Christ, in the new world of possibility and hope. In this new beginning we will walk with Christ into the wilderness where we will be tempted by the devil and overcome the power of those temptations. We will walk with the sick, the poor, the grieving, and the disabled. We will encounter people who are outside the boundaries of our society and find value and faith in their living. And at the end of our Gospel, we will witness what God’s son, this Jesus Christ, has done for us so that we can freely enter into this new way of living.

It’s good news week. And this week we are able to say that good news is not about warfare and the fear of bombs blackening the skies but about advocating and working for peace based on relationships of trust. It’s good news week, and we can say that it is not about ways of living and medical advances that only postpone death but about abundant life and new ways of living. It’s good news week, and that good news is not about mundane conversations about who won the game or what the weather is like. The good news for us today and this week is about God’s continued presence and activity in our world and our relationships with one another.

From the words of Isaiah, we hear that this is the time of delivering: our term is due, our suffering and labor is ended. It’s time to live into the future with hope. From 2 Peter, we hear that the time of God’s work and presence among us may not always be apparent, but, God’s time is not our time, and we need to continue to keep the faith. This new way of living will require persistence.

To live into the future with hope with persistence means we need to continue in faith in Christ to stand up and speak out, being the criers of God’s victory and hope in the streets and paths where we are called to serve. We do not do this in order to be saved. We do this because we are saved, in the good news of Jesus Christ.