What's the Good News?

Gospel: Mark 16: 15-18

"Proclaim the Good News to all creation." This is the simple mandate of the Christian.  But what is this Good News? Listening to the din of the churches nowadays one might think it to be a political program, or a particular code of sexual morality, or even some community organizing project affecting social change in the world.  And good news? We are more likely to hear some version of gloom and doom. The ecclesiastical gods cannot agree amongst themselves...

When one kingdom conquered another, the army would march into the occupied region and make an announcement: accept the new regime and mercy would be shown to you; reject it and you will be severely punished and put into slavery.  The Good News is that God's kingdom has arrived and has proclaimed mercy extended to all, and the only condition set upon is that we extend mercy to others.  

If we reject this offer or condition, God does not punish us; we punish ourselves.  We create a world of vengeance, a world where mercy and love are not possible, a place where we can neither receive nor extend mercy and love.  In short, God does not send us to hell; we create a hell on earth for ourselves and for others.  Paul accepted this Good News and shared it with others, and it changed him from a murderous hater to a bearer of love for all.  The Good News can affect this change in us as well.