Isaian Roots of the Gospel

3 Advent b      December 11, 2011

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Psalm 126

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8,19-28

Lectionary Link

  We should not forget the roots in Judaism of Jesus of Nazareth and the Jesus Movement.  Both Jesus and St. Paul would not have considered themselves to be members of a new religion.  They saw themselves as trying to bring vision and new understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures in a new time.

  Since many of the earliest followers of Jesus were also Jews, it is not surprising that the founders of the Christian movement borrowed whole scale from the Hebrew tradition, including the entire front section of the Christian Bible.

  The front section of the New Testament are the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  So we might associate the word Gospel as being an original Christian word.  The actual word Gospel is from the Old English Word, “Godspell” meaning God news.  You remember the rock musical reprising the name “Godspell” because it also had the modern connotation of “being under the spell of God.”  From the 2^nd Century, the word Gospel was used to designate the writings that pertained to the life and words of Jesus of Nazareth.  So when we use the word Gospel today, we think of the four Gospels in the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

  But like so much of Christianity, Gospel, too was borrowed from the Hebrew Scriptures. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the oppressed.”  The Hebrew word for “good news” was translated in the Greek edition of Isaiah as euangellion.  That is the same Greek word that is used for the English word Evangel and it is is translated into English as “Gospel.”

  The Lord’s anointed or Messiah, is the one who brings “Good News.”  The Messiah is the one who brings good news.  Oppressed people do need good news.  The brokenhearted need their inner lives healed.  Captives and prisoners without just cause need release.  People need to know that they are God’s favored ones.  People need to know that justice will be accomplished upon the tyrants.  People who mourn need to be comforted.  They need the condition from which they can exalt and praise rather than mourn.  People need optimism to know that they and their children have a likely future with benefit and blessing.

  When Jesus came and taught, he identified his message with this word of Isaiah.  He told his listener that he came to bring “good news.”  And that is what the early followers of Jesus preached, Good News.

  Good News has it own irresistibility.  One might say that every person is made for good news.  And how do we know it?  When we are experiencing bad news, it seems so unnatural; it seems like something that should be brought to an end as soon as possible.

  One of the saddest things about bad news is that if we get too much of it, we can begin to think that it is what we deserve.  Or even worse, if we get so much bad news, we might become those who deliver bad news to the people in our lives through our words and deeds.

  Today, we might ask ourselves, what would be good news for us today?  And good news might be something different for everyone here or for everyone in this world.  For some in this world, good news might be simply the next meal, or a place to sleep.  To others it might be having the right job.  To others, it might be having the good fellowship of friends, family and a companion.  To others it might be to discover purpose and vocation in life?  To others it might be the need for a profound spiritual experience that affirms God’s loving presence.

  John the Baptist had his own brand of the good news.  He was trying to make straight the way of the Lord.  Well, how did the way of the Lord get so crooked?  God’s way, as it often does, gets all covered up with religion.  That’s why religion in the time of John and Jesus was not good news for many, many people.  Religion was only a way of trying to promote some people as God’s favored ones to the neglect of many who were not offered the message of God’s favor.

  John and Jesus came to those who were made to believe that they had lost God’s favor.  John message of repentance seemed harsh, but it really was one of good news.  His message stated that one did not automatically receive God’s favor because of being born in the right family with the correct rabbinical upbringing; rather one found God’s favor by the choices of one’s life.  One could choose to be in God’s favor, simply by the way that one lived one’s life.  John’s great contribution was to honor the freedom of a person’s choice to be better today than one was yesterday, and look to improve tomorrow.  If one’s standing with God is determined by how one lives, then it diminishes the power of religious authority to be able to judge who is right or wrong with God.  And that is good news.

  We are nearing Christmas time and Christmas time is a time of giving and receiving gifts.  I invite all of us to ask God for the gift of good news.  I ask that God would give each of us lots of good news.  And getting good news may involve us to be more aware of the good news that we have always had, but have taken for granted because it has become so commonplace.  Receiving good news may be as simple as having our eyes open to see how good we actually have it, and not focusing upon the one dominating problem that seems to be current in our lives.

  And why do we have the right to ask for good news?  I think that we are made for good news, but to really appreciate good news, we have to learn how to be people who deliver good news to the people of our lives through the deeds and words of our lives.

  I think that as we deliver good news, we will receive the good news ourselves.  What good news do we have to deliver?  We deliver the good news of God’s love.  We become the hands, the feet, the voice of Christ as we let people know that they truly matter in this life.

  Receiving good news and being those who proclaim good news goes hand in hand.  As we are filled with good news we share from that goodness to those around us.

  My prayer for all of us is that we would have the eyes to see the good news that is towards us today, but also I would hope that each person has the faith and confidence in God to ask for some new and current relevant event of good news that is needed even at this time.

  But also as we ask for the good news that we need for our lives and the lives of those in our world, let us also be willing to become the good news for people who need the good news that only we can bring through the words and deeds of our lives.  In short, let our lives become the living Gospel of Jesus Christ.   Amen.