headlines

Who reads the newspaper?  Daily or weekly?  We get the Saturday and Sunday news at my house.  Newspapers are dying.  People get their news electronically today.  They don’t need newspapers.  Readerships are down.  I heard about it on Marketplace report on NPR the other night.  They said that newspapers are losing the loyal older population faster than expected and they don’t know how to attract the younger crowd.  Wow.  Sounds like a lot of Christianity has the same problem. The medium in which we share the news is not retaining and attracting newer, younger people.  Newspaper is a 500 year- old- invention. So are Lutherans.  Advent is about new beginnings, fresh imagination for what life in this world can and should be like.  We want this season to be about nostalgia, but it is not.  It is about change, new beginnings, renewal from the inside-out. 

John the baptist was calling for radical life change.  A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, according to the gospel of Mark.  He was not only talking about my bad deeds or your wicked thoughts.  He knew that the world had gone to hell in a hand basket.  The whole world, from top to bottom. Things needed to change, whole cloth.  We’re talking more like sweeping revolution than cleaning up spilled milk.    

John knew the headlines, the news stories of his day.  They probably went something like this:

“Herod builds new palace.  300 homes are torn down to begin new construction.  Displaced families seek shelter in city.”

 “Herod seen on the town with his brother’s wife. Scandal rocks the north country.”  

“Emperor raising taxes to build better roads.” 

“More Roman soldiers occupy Jerusalem.”

 “Poverty rate increases in Palestine. Children are worse affected.”

“Temple reconstruction at its height.  New baths rivaling the roman style are installed for out-of-town guests.”

“ Religious leaders seek to cool zealous radicals.”

Some of these headlines may sound familiar. The news doesn't change much.  Power, wealth, suffering, violence.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a different headline?
   

John does not become a headline, until his political beheading and death. I'm sure it made page two or three.  First, however, John is a self-imposed exile, living outside the hustle and bustle of city life.  He flies below the radar, deliberately. He is not out there to draw attention to himself.  Can you even imagine?  In a Kardashian culture like ours, can you even imagine someone becoming popular and interesting who is not seeking to draw attention to himself? John is not there to draw attention to himself.  He is there to draw people’s attention away from the other headlines of the day, in order to make an announcement.  In the wilderness, John emerges with a public announcement. It’s an announcement people want to hear.  It’s an announcement we need to hear too. It's an announcement that did not get front page coverage then, it doesn't get it now. It goes something like this. 

The beginning of the Good News concerning King Jesus the Son of GOD.  (Hear this: This is a social message and a religious one and a political one.  It is a Big new story about a new ruler coming to town). 

The time has come for you to get your heads on straight.  Wake up.  Do you not see what has been done to you?  You robots. You lemmings.  You who think you are so free and yet you live behind walls, in prisons, you yourselves have constructed.  You let in, only the people you know and love in order to protect yourselves. You isolate yourselves from your self-identified enemies. You live for comfort and convenience.  And you rob others of comfort and you inconvenience others to get them.  You care more about your own livelihood than that of your neighbors.  You hoard possessions.  You ignore God’s commandments. You believe the lies you are being told everyday—that your value is tied to the work you do, the money you make.  That everyone’s value is tied to those things.  You have been desensitized to misery, violence, and indecency.  They are common place to you.  And yet you want more out of life.  You are afraid to die.   

Here is the good news:  YOU do not need to continue living the way you are living.  You do not have to accept as gospel what the powerful, the wealthy, or the violent are telling you is the only way to resolve the situation we are in.  You do not have to live robotically, as part of the technological, consumeristic machine. Blindly spending on yourselves and those you love.   You do not have to accept as truth that self-interest and self-preservation are the primary drivers of your behavior toward others. You do not have to be dull to the pain and misery of others.  You must wake up to the presence and goodness of God.  The time has come to wake up and see the world from God’s point-of-view.  If you need someone to show you, someone will be provided.                

"The one who is coming is more powerful than I.  I am unworthy to untie his shoes."  John announces a person.  He is the good news.  He is the reason why change is possible and necessary and good.  You cannot accomplish the revolutionary change that is needed to reverse the course of this world and set us all on a pathway to truth and life.  It is not a matter of self-enlightenment or increased personal wellness. But it is a matter of power; God's power to overcome darkness, sin, and death. It is found in Jesus, God’s fullest self-expression in human form.  Jesus, the true King and ruler is coming to us. What makes this news worthy is that the one who is coming never runs for office, never owns a car or a house, never travels more than 100 miles from his place of birth, never accomplishes a military victory.  But his title, "the king of the Jews", will be announced: At his execution. Ever since then, however, this news has captured the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world. I am one of them.  The story that John announced must've been true.  Maybe that's why it alone is called "the good news".  Because it was... and still is.