GOOD NEWS, NOT JUST GOOD ADVICE

Our oldest grandson, Zachary, will be graduating from high school this coming June. For quite a while now he has been given tons of advice about what he should be doing with the rest of his life, or at least the next part of his life. His grandmother and I have put in our two-cent’s worth for him to ponder. What Zach does with this advice is up to him. He can take none, some or all of it as he so chooses.

Good advice, however, is not the same as good news. The good news for Zachary is that he is about to complete a very important cycle in his life and is about to enter the next cycle. As with all of us as we pass through the various cycles of our lives, we can use all the good advice others who have been there will pass on to us. Again, good advice is simple that: good advice. What remains and what is often overlooked is the good news.

Bishop N. T. Wright, in his latest book, Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good, addresses this issue head on. He asserts that for most of us, when we read the Gospels, we come away with the belief that they are full of good advice on how to live this life so that we can get to heaven when we die. That was not and is not Jesus’ message. Yes, if we follow Jesus’ “advice”, we will lead a good life. But leading a good and even blessed life in order to get to heaven when we die was not, is not, Jesus’ message.

Jesus’ message, the good news, is that the life we are looking forward to begins right here in this life in this world. The Kingdom of Heaven Jesus spoke about is in the here and now. The fact that when we look around and see what is happening the world over, even in our own lives, looks nothing like heaven on earth, all that is beside the point but is also the point. This world looks nothing like anyone’s vision of heaven.

Yet, the truth remains that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection brought in the Kingdom in this life in this world. The “old order”, as St. Paul would have it, has passed away. The “new order” is now here to stay. Jesus has taken away the need to do good in order to get to heaven and replaced it with the need to do good to bring in the Kingdom into its fullest here and now. The fact that we Christians have failed to do what needs to be done to make this happen does not negate the good news that the Kingdom is already here.

When we focus our attention on the future rather than on the here-and-now, we can easily lose sight of what the present is all about. If Zachary focuses his sights on some distant dream but neglects to do what needs to be done now to make those dreams come true, they will never come true. His future is already in the present whether he realizes it or not. But if he does so, both the present and the future will be alive in the present.

The good advice we find in the Gospels, which means “good news”, is only good if we follow that advice in the present to make this life what it is supposed to be, what we pray for each time we say the prayer Jesus taught us: the beginning of the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.