Good News Bad News
February 11, 2007
Texts: Jeremiah 17:5-10; Luke 6:17-38
I think we’re all familiar with those “Good news - Bad news” jokes; and of course, it’s a typical way to frame an announcement “Do you want the good news first, or the bad news??” One of my sons once asked me that -- “Mom, I have something to tell you -- do you want the good news first or the bad news?” I opted for the bad news, which he shared with me, and when I asked what the good news was, he looked at me and said -- “There isn’t any good news.” And so here we are, we turn to God’s word for a sign of hope and we read “Blessed are the poor...” -- this is the Good News??? “Woe to you who are satisfied...???” This doesn’t sound like good news -- maybe my son was right. But we all know that the Gospel is the Good News of Christ.
Twelve years ago, I preached my very first sermon in a church, a sermon on these texts, and I opened with that story. It was about something Corey had said, he was four at the time.
After church that day 12 years ago, I came home and asked the boys, “So, what did you think of my sermon?”
Jason, then 10 years old said, “Reverend Rogers tells better stories.” I can always count on Jason for a very honest assessment of my work. Corey said, “Mommy, I thought your sermon was bee-yoo-ti-ful.” Well, I was touched by that support, but aware that he was only four, so I asked, “Thank you, Corey! Did you understand it?” “Oh yes,” he answered, “It was all about me.” And so I learned that in preaching, some folks aren’t going to like what I say, and some folks of those who like it, won’t have heard it all. And of course, most folks aren’t in either camp. Jesus got a lot of different responses to his words, too.
This reading from Luke is known as the Sermon on the Plain – it is Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7. These two passages contain the heart of the teachings of Jesus, and this is the shorter of the two.
These teachings are hard to hear – I get asked from time to time whether I think we are supposed to take these teachings seriously. Yes, I do. While I don’t think the Bible is intended as literal science or history, I think that the evidence is clear that in the area of ethics, Jesus means what he says. I totally believe that God cares deeply about poor people and that wealthy people might be relying too much on stuff and too little on God. I absolutely believe that Jesus calls us to nonviolence. I unequivocally believe that Jesus challenges us to give more money, and promises we will experience more abundance in life when we do. I understand Jesus to be teaching me to love my enemies, and to pray for those who hurt me.
And yet, I live in a nice home. We have two cars. I subscribe to cable and more magazines than I have time to read. And I can be pretty irritable. In short, I have not lived up to this gospel. And it’s hard to preach out of this, because I truly believe that we are meant to take it seriously. And yet I, like every other preacher, struggle with my own failures to live it, plus worrying about offending folks if I preach straightforwardly what I truly believe Jesus is calling us all to do and be.
I remember a conversation I had with a very good friend once. We were talking about how to teach our kids to respond to bullies at school. And I said it was hard for me to reconcile what I wanted to tell my sons with Jesus’ message to turn the other cheek. She said, “Well surely Jesus didn’t mean to do it if you would get hurt!” And my response was, “Well, his teaching got him crucified – yeah, I think he meant it.” Friends, I do believe that Jesus means us to live by these teachings. I utterly believe that he is challenging us, and telling us what God wants for us.
Many of us have trouble living with the actual costs of discipleship – just as we have trouble envisioning the actual costs of environmentalism. Would I support $6/gallon gasoline? Will we make the necessary changes without it?
But it sure is hard to get there from here. I’m reading a book right now called Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, by a young man named Shane Claiborne. He describes in the book his journey to take Jesus seriously, to live by the Gospel, to be an authentic Christian. He reminds me of an article I read about 18 months ago called Coming Out: Liberal AND Evangelical by a fellow named Chapin Garner. I really liked that article. I felt that it described me. The author describes what he means by liberal and evangelical as “loving Jesus, and everybody else, too.” Honestly, these two are describing what I understand Jesus to be calling us to: a life of passionate spirituality, and rigorous faith-based activism. We love God deeply, and love our neighbors substantively.
And neither social activism by itself, OR deep faith by itself is what Jesus is talking about. Jesus calls us to a life of deep relationship with God AND intense engagement with the world. This is why I resonate with the article Liberal AND Evangelical. Liberal is how the author described his activism – his caring about real people and their real problems, and that caring leading to action. This is the way I have seen people at Frame – the description of liberal here has nothing to do with politics – it has to do with theology and social concern – caring about all people regardless of nationality, gender, sexual orientation, income level, religion – not only caring about the people like us, or near us, engaging with this community and the wider world.
And the reason that both Claiborne and Garner can describe themselves as evangelical, and why I can be comfortable with that description also, is that it has to do with taking the Bible seriously as well. It is engaging with the Bible as the Word of God, and letting that Word shape our hearts and guide our actions. But this kind of evangelical is not close-minded, or legalistic, and doesn’t end up looking like the Moral Majority. This kind of evangelical is like Martin Luther King, Jr. not like Pat Robertson – the kind of person who takes the words of Jesus seriously in the same way Mark Twain did, when he remarked “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that I have trouble with, it’s the parts I do understand.”
And being liberal and evangelical means living in tension with the demands of the Gospel, and taking them seriously enough to be very challenged by them. And it also means we won’t pigeon-hole very neatly. When I was ordained, several folks in that Presbytery didn’t want to ordain me because they thought I was too liberal – they suspected I didn’t think God was into sending people to Hell. And then I went to my first call and there were folks there who thought I was too conservative, because I wanted to talk about Jesus. And then when I went to my second call, they found me too liberal, because I said sexual orientation shouldn’t be a barrier to ordination. This is what life is like when you’re liberal AND evangelical – it means taking the pain of the world and the love of Jesus both to heart. And it might mean not fitting in well in a lot of places.
And here’s the deal – I really believe that Jesus is radical, and that loving Jesus should lead us to a ongoing rigorous re-examination of our lives and how we live them. And I fervently believe that when we accept the promises of baptism – either when we are baptized as believers or when we confirm the promises that our parents made for us –then we are truly renouncing evil and claiming the way of Jesus Christ and that should make us different. We shouldn’t fit in so easily. The message of Jesus Christ is demanding and challenging, and if we are truly taking it seriously, then we should be changed, and we should be impacting the world.
And I am so not there yet. I don’t rely on God in that total way that Jeremiah was calling us to in the first reading…. And when I listen to the words of Jesus, I fit the woes better than the blessings: on a global scale, I am very rich. I am full, beyond full – I have too much stuff, and too much to do. I am laughing, and enjoy amusement as much as the next person. And like most people, I like for people to speak well of me.
I don’t care for my enemies very well. I don’t love the people who love me as I’d like to, let alone the people who have treated me badly. I don’t give as much as I feel that I ought to give – though I have begun to learn the joy of giving, and I give more than I used to, but I don’t give to anyone who comes begging. I am definitely a work in process…and that only on my better days.
Jesus asks a great deal of us. And we allow ourselves to ignore many of his very clear demands.
Two weeks ago I flew out of town shortly after church for the first of two conferences in one week. I had to hurry to get to the airport on time, and when I got there, I realized that I hadn’t emptied my purse of all the things that you’re not supposed to take on a plane. So I just hoped for the best. Well, they found my 6-ounce tube of toothpaste and my 8-ounce tube of lotion, and you’re not allowed to have anything over 3 ounces, so they took those. Oh well. But…they didn’t find or take, my pocketknife, my 6-inch metal nail file, my lighter (for candles, but not allowed on planes), and my pewter kilt pin shaped like a dagger, with a 4-inch pin. I didn’t mind their taking my lotion and toothpaste, though I thought it was more show than substance in terms of safety. But I was concerned that they missed the more important items that could really matter. Let’s not do the same with the words of Jesus. Let’s not hear “love your neighbor as yourself” and forget “love your enemies and pray for those who hurt you”. All of what Jesus says is intended for our good, and it will cost us. Our decision to be Christian should cost us something. If it doesn’t, we’re not likely to notice much of an impact in our own lives. Let’s take Jesus seriously enough to take him at his Word, and to take his Word at face value. And let’s not be legalists who take from Jesus just a list of things to do and not do, but forget how he lived from his total trust and love of God. Because that’s the dynamic here – the things we do come in response to our realization of God’s love for us. And it’s only when we allow ourselves to engage with God that we can experience the deep change that allows us to really love God, and be changed by that love in ways that make a difference. Jesus expects us to rely on him as we try to follow him – it all flows from that relationship. The bad news is that we can’t do it on our own; the good news is that we were never meant to. Amen.
I think we’re all familiar with those “Good news - Bad news” jokes; and of course, it’s a typical way to frame an announcement “Do you want the good news first, or the bad news??” One of my sons once asked me that -- “Mom, I have something to tell you -- do you want the good news first or the bad news?” I opted for the bad news, which he shared with me, and when I asked what the good news was, he looked at me and said -- “There isn’t any good news.” And so here we are, we turn to God’s word for a sign of hope and we read “Blessed are the poor...” -- this is the Good News??? “Woe to you who are satisfied...???” This doesn’t sound like good news -- maybe my son was right. But we all know that the Gospel is the Good News of Christ.
Twelve years ago, I preached my very first sermon in a church, a sermon on these texts, and I opened with that story. It was about something Corey had said, he was four at the time.
After church that day 12 years ago, I came home and asked the boys, “So, what did you think of my sermon?”
Jason, then 10 years old said, “Reverend Rogers tells better stories.” I can always count on Jason for a very honest assessment of my work. Corey said, “Mommy, I thought your sermon was bee-yoo-ti-ful.” Well, I was touched by that support, but aware that he was only four, so I asked, “Thank you, Corey! Did you understand it?” “Oh yes,” he answered, “It was all about me.” And so I learned that in preaching, some folks aren’t going to like what I say, and some folks of those who like it, won’t have heard it all. And of course, most folks aren’t in either camp. Jesus got a lot of different responses to his words, too.
This reading from Luke is known as the Sermon on the Plain – it is Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7. These two passages contain the heart of the teachings of Jesus, and this is the shorter of the two.
These teachings are hard to hear – I get asked from time to time whether I think we are supposed to take these teachings seriously. Yes, I do. While I don’t think the Bible is intended as literal science or history, I think that the evidence is clear that in the area of ethics, Jesus means what he says. I totally believe that God cares deeply about poor people and that wealthy people might be relying too much on stuff and too little on God. I absolutely believe that Jesus calls us to nonviolence. I unequivocally believe that Jesus challenges us to give more money, and promises we will experience more abundance in life when we do. I understand Jesus to be teaching me to love my enemies, and to pray for those who hurt me.
And yet, I live in a nice home. We have two cars. I subscribe to cable and more magazines than I have time to read. And I can be pretty irritable. In short, I have not lived up to this gospel. And it’s hard to preach out of this, because I truly believe that we are meant to take it seriously. And yet I, like every other preacher, struggle with my own failures to live it, plus worrying about offending folks if I preach straightforwardly what I truly believe Jesus is calling us all to do and be.
I remember a conversation I had with a very good friend once. We were talking about how to teach our kids to respond to bullies at school. And I said it was hard for me to reconcile what I wanted to tell my sons with Jesus’ message to turn the other cheek. She said, “Well surely Jesus didn’t mean to do it if you would get hurt!” And my response was, “Well, his teaching got him crucified – yeah, I think he meant it.” Friends, I do believe that Jesus means us to live by these teachings. I utterly believe that he is challenging us, and telling us what God wants for us.
Many of us have trouble living with the actual costs of discipleship – just as we have trouble envisioning the actual costs of environmentalism. Would I support $6/gallon gasoline? Will we make the necessary changes without it?
But it sure is hard to get there from here. I’m reading a book right now called Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, by a young man named Shane Claiborne. He describes in the book his journey to take Jesus seriously, to live by the Gospel, to be an authentic Christian. He reminds me of an article I read about 18 months ago called Coming Out: Liberal AND Evangelical by a fellow named Chapin Garner. I really liked that article. I felt that it described me. The author describes what he means by liberal and evangelical as “loving Jesus, and everybody else, too.” Honestly, these two are describing what I understand Jesus to be calling us to: a life of passionate spirituality, and rigorous faith-based activism. We love God deeply, and love our neighbors substantively.
And neither social activism by itself, OR deep faith by itself is what Jesus is talking about. Jesus calls us to a life of deep relationship with God AND intense engagement with the world. This is why I resonate with the article Liberal AND Evangelical. Liberal is how the author described his activism – his caring about real people and their real problems, and that caring leading to action. This is the way I have seen people at Frame – the description of liberal here has nothing to do with politics – it has to do with theology and social concern – caring about all people regardless of nationality, gender, sexual orientation, income level, religion – not only caring about the people like us, or near us, engaging with this community and the wider world.
And the reason that both Claiborne and Garner can describe themselves as evangelical, and why I can be comfortable with that description also, is that it has to do with taking the Bible seriously as well. It is engaging with the Bible as the Word of God, and letting that Word shape our hearts and guide our actions. But this kind of evangelical is not close-minded, or legalistic, and doesn’t end up looking like the Moral Majority. This kind of evangelical is like Martin Luther King, Jr. not like Pat Robertson – the kind of person who takes the words of Jesus seriously in the same way Mark Twain did, when he remarked “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that I have trouble with, it’s the parts I do understand.”
And being liberal and evangelical means living in tension with the demands of the Gospel, and taking them seriously enough to be very challenged by them. And it also means we won’t pigeon-hole very neatly. When I was ordained, several folks in that Presbytery didn’t want to ordain me because they thought I was too liberal – they suspected I didn’t think God was into sending people to Hell. And then I went to my first call and there were folks there who thought I was too conservative, because I wanted to talk about Jesus. And then when I went to my second call, they found me too liberal, because I said sexual orientation shouldn’t be a barrier to ordination. This is what life is like when you’re liberal AND evangelical – it means taking the pain of the world and the love of Jesus both to heart. And it might mean not fitting in well in a lot of places.
And here’s the deal – I really believe that Jesus is radical, and that loving Jesus should lead us to a ongoing rigorous re-examination of our lives and how we live them. And I fervently believe that when we accept the promises of baptism – either when we are baptized as believers or when we confirm the promises that our parents made for us –then we are truly renouncing evil and claiming the way of Jesus Christ and that should make us different. We shouldn’t fit in so easily. The message of Jesus Christ is demanding and challenging, and if we are truly taking it seriously, then we should be changed, and we should be impacting the world.
And I am so not there yet. I don’t rely on God in that total way that Jeremiah was calling us to in the first reading…. And when I listen to the words of Jesus, I fit the woes better than the blessings: on a global scale, I am very rich. I am full, beyond full – I have too much stuff, and too much to do. I am laughing, and enjoy amusement as much as the next person. And like most people, I like for people to speak well of me.
I don’t care for my enemies very well. I don’t love the people who love me as I’d like to, let alone the people who have treated me badly. I don’t give as much as I feel that I ought to give – though I have begun to learn the joy of giving, and I give more than I used to, but I don’t give to anyone who comes begging. I am definitely a work in process…and that only on my better days.
Jesus asks a great deal of us. And we allow ourselves to ignore many of his very clear demands.
Two weeks ago I flew out of town shortly after church for the first of two conferences in one week. I had to hurry to get to the airport on time, and when I got there, I realized that I hadn’t emptied my purse of all the things that you’re not supposed to take on a plane. So I just hoped for the best. Well, they found my 6-ounce tube of toothpaste and my 8-ounce tube of lotion, and you’re not allowed to have anything over 3 ounces, so they took those. Oh well. But…they didn’t find or take, my pocketknife, my 6-inch metal nail file, my lighter (for candles, but not allowed on planes), and my pewter kilt pin shaped like a dagger, with a 4-inch pin. I didn’t mind their taking my lotion and toothpaste, though I thought it was more show than substance in terms of safety. But I was concerned that they missed the more important items that could really matter. Let’s not do the same with the words of Jesus. Let’s not hear “love your neighbor as yourself” and forget “love your enemies and pray for those who hurt you”. All of what Jesus says is intended for our good, and it will cost us. Our decision to be Christian should cost us something. If it doesn’t, we’re not likely to notice much of an impact in our own lives. Let’s take Jesus seriously enough to take him at his Word, and to take his Word at face value. And let’s not be legalists who take from Jesus just a list of things to do and not do, but forget how he lived from his total trust and love of God. Because that’s the dynamic here – the things we do come in response to our realization of God’s love for us. And it’s only when we allow ourselves to engage with God that we can experience the deep change that allows us to really love God, and be changed by that love in ways that make a difference. Jesus expects us to rely on him as we try to follow him – it all flows from that relationship. The bad news is that we can’t do it on our own; the good news is that we were never meant to. Amen.