So, what is Good News?
“I will, with God’s help.”
The Baptismal Covenant
Good News. Gospel. Godspell. Euangelion.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica (aka the Google of my youth): “The English word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon godspell (“good story”). The classical Greek word euangelion means “a reward for bringing of good news” or the “good news” itself. In the emperor cult particularly, in which the Roman emperor was venerated as the spirit and protector of the empire, the term took on a religious meaning: the announcement of the appearance or accession to the throne of the ruler. In contemporary Greek it denoted a weighty, authoritative, royal, and official message.”
I believe that your life, and mine, are to be lived as Good News, as a good story, a rewarding existence. We have the agency, the choice, to live in certain ways that enhance the rewarding nature of life. Our very lives and the ways we choose to live them, point to what we value. To those who know us or observe us in some way, our lives carry messages.
Will the message of your life be good? Will it point toward justice, toward beauty, toward truth, toward love?
As a parent of a 14 year old daughter and a 17 year old son, I’m very aware that they are picking up messages from me ALL THE TIME. Parents are the primary message-givers to their children. They might stand next to us in church and hear us renew our Baptismal Covenant, yet see us resist apologizing, dishonor a political candidate, disrespect another person. Being observed so closely brings into sharp relief how very hard it is to be faithful and consistent. How hard it is to live out the Good News.
In the Baptismal Covenant of The Episcopal Church (Book of Common Prayer, pages 304-305) we have a great summary of the key teachings of those who follow in the way of Jesus. With God’s help…
We commit to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer.
We commit to persevere in resisting evil, and to repentance & return when we fall into sin. (Yep, that’s when, not if.)
We commit to proclaiming by word and example the GOOD NEWS of God in Christ.
We commit to seeking and servbing Christ in all persons, to loving neighbor as self.
We commit to striving for justice and peace among all people, to respecting the dignity of every human being.
Our children hear us renewing these commitments, and we witness one another doing our darndest to live into them.
I’m doing my darndest to live into the GOOD NEWS as my understanding of it unfolds, and I invite you to celebrate this lifestyle with me.
Lifestyle.
A lifestyle is the way we design our life, consciously organizing our resources to reflect what we value. A luxury lifestyle focuses on yachts, premier hotels, expensive designer clothing. An organic lifestyle is designed around choices to live free of pesticides for health and environmental reasons. A Good News Lifestyle claims the choices we make to design our life as a celebration of the deeply transformative Good News of God’s great love for us and for all of creation, and says “yes” to God’s invitation to choose life-giving ways to be in relationship with people, ideas, attitudes, possessions, the environment, our selves, and so much more.
A lifestyle is a choice. It is consciously attended to, regarded, and celebrated.
I’ve always loved a good story, and I love that our lives hold good stories for others around us.
