Good News According to . . .
In his book, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About the Good News?, Rev. Dr. Peter Gomes reminds the reader that in the Bible what is good news for some is often bad news for others.
“My course is a survey of how readings of the same constant text have varied over the centuries, from the formation of the canon to our present time, dependent on context and subtext. A community in exile will read differently than a community in apparent full possession of all it surveys, with those who have nothing welcoming the promised overturning of the standing order, and those who have much of this world’s goods not longing for the end of the age. Depending, then, upon how one reads and interprets, either the Bible is a textbook for the status quo, of quiescent pieties and promises, or it is a recipe for social change and transformation. There are churches dedicated to each point of view, each claiming its share of the good news; but what is good news for some is often bad news for somebody else.”
Are you a person that practices Christianity? Maybe you are Christian-curious or coming back to Christianity after being away or de-churched. I recommend Gomes’ book as a good read, anytime, but especially during Lent. This traditional time in the Christian year when we recognize that Jesus turns his face and his journey through the countryside toward Jerusalem. I don’t think it is so much that he plotted a course on a map as his meandering preaching and healing moved in the general direction of Jerusalem or at least that is what the writers of the gospel narratives and John want us to think.
I digress a moment. We are in an age of Marvel Comics and DC Comics origin stories. Michael Keaton’s Batman introduces Joker, Riddler, and Two Face. The Star Wars franchise kicked off the prequel, an origin story, to aid its reboot. These stories are a staple right now.
Origin stories about heroes and heroines.
Origin stories about anti-heroes, anti-heroines, and villains alike. And these stories about the anti-heroes, anti-heroines, and villains are the ones that give many people anxiety because they ask the viewer to do something that can be painful, “reflect.” Think critically about how a character came to be and behave. Get outside the individualism to see a meta narrative, or several, and consider how systems and communities shape a character’s identity and behavior. It can be a mirror for who we are, what we believe, and how we behave. The “why” is an important component. Empathy. But, if empathy is just a feeling that doesn’t spur action, what good is it? If that empathy doesn’t alter ones behavior or the systems of a community, a church, or a Nation it is just a low, a high, or apathy.
And now down a rabbit hole. Since the turn of the century, humanity is in an age when “feeling” and “believing” are weighted more heavily than ideas and facts. “I believe . . .” I think there can still be some objective facts and Truth, and these can point to how beliefs or feelings are misguided or just wrong. The meta narrative(s) that drive the present in our Nation are splintered. “Out of many, one” is viewed through our particular social group, economic caste, or religious affiliation. Maybe it has always been that way. I want to think better of what America has become. An idea from a Christian education conference many years ago has stuck with me: “When everything matters, nothing matters most.” I’m a GenX’er and that resonates with me as I’ve observed of our changing culture as one standing between Boomers and Millennials. Some, in the halls of power, have figured out what matters most for them and are doing the long work to make it so. Though I don’t believe in hope, one can only hope that those being confirmed to the Federal judiciary will grow, mature, and see the Law through a different lens than their current limited political or religious view. People change for the good.
Back to origin stories. I have decided to read the gospel narratives and John for the coming three years as origin stories for Jesus. This same way of reading can be, will be, applied to the rest of the New Testament. It’s not an exegetical method as much as an intentional way of letting go of tradition’s belief system. So, my discipline for Lent this year is writing my own account of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. Yes, handwriting an account.
Hat tip to Rev. Colton Lott for the introduction to using a fountain pen.
