GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

      How often do we sit for an hour or so watching the evening news, wishing for some “good” news? We pick up the newspaper, see the headlines, and wish for news that makes us feel good about the world around us. The reports of murders, abuse, violence, and conflicts are dumped onto our laps while we long to hear the stories of compassion for the poor and outcast, taking care of our neighbors, and showing love for those different from us. However, if we look hard enough and wait long enough the occasional “good” story will surface, renewing if for only a short while, confidence in our society.

      But what do we do with these “bad” news stories? Some of us watch each night, becoming desensitized to the violence and hate around us, shrugging off these immoral, inhumane behaviors, with the attitude “this is just the way things are.” Others want to fight back and do something about the moral decay in our out-of-control society. Still others refuse any contact with news reporting of any kind, totally cutting themselves off from both local and global events.

      While I believe that a steady, daily diet of violence, crimes, and injustices seen and read from various media can be unhealthy in many ways, it is almost an obligation for a Christian to be aware and informed of the events in the secular world. I cannot imagine Jesus walking the roads of Palestine unaware of the social and political climate of the Jewish and Roman world in which he lived. We find that his teachings reflect the social and political injustices and immoral conditions of his day, conditions that can still be seen and felt today.

      In his book “Reaching Out,” Henri Nouwen tells of a priest who cancelled his subscription to the New York Times because he felt that the endless stories about war, crimes, power games and political manipulation disturbed his mind and heart, preventing him from meditation and prayer.

      Nouwen writes, “That is a sad story because it suggests that by only denying the world can you live in it, that only by surrounding yourself by an artificial, self-induced quietude can you live in a spiritual life. A real spiritual life does exactly the opposite; it makes us so alert and aware of the world around us, that all that is and happens becomes part of our contemplation and meditation, inviting us to a free and fearless response.”

      By keeping up with the events and thinking of a secular world, we equip ourselves to better form relationships with others that can, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, lead to Christian discipleship. Jesus’ knowledge about Samaritan traditions played a major part in the transformation of the woman at the well. By knowing about the Greek gods and goddesses, Paul was able to introduce the real God to the Athenians.

      Therefore, only by seeing the hunger and the suffering of our brothers and sisters, are we better able to provide food and comfort. Only by hearing about the injustices and the prejudices in a world of inequality, can we work toward solutions. And only by sensing the spiritual emptiness of those who are lost in a world of darkness and hopelessness, can we offer hope and Jesus who brings transformation.

      May we keep watching and listening to a world that is in pain, no matter how unpleasant to us it may be, so that our response will be “free and fearless.”

Rev Tim McConnell, Long’s Chapel UMC, July 21, 2013