I have been struck by a paragraph in the Lent course some of us did this year. The writer of the material talked about the Early Church, and how the first Christians started the rumour of a loving God revealed in Jesus Christ by the way they were, often counter cultural to society around them. To a world which prized brute strength and exploitation, they offered love and service. And he says “Before we can pass on the good news, we must live the good news, by responding to each day with gratitude and generosity. If the church on the corner is to communicate good news, it must first BE good news.”
I know in my churches some people are worried that people aren’t coming to church anymore. I know some people are worried that we don’t
seem to be attracting new people to church. But I believe Christians have and need to be good news where they are, every day. Being good news can make a difference, perhaps to just one person today as
Jesus was to a weeping, desolate Mary in the Easter Gospel.
A man on the radio on Friday lunchtime as I was driving home
from my service said he believes we are living in an age of unrest and deep
spiritual questions. People are weeping because life is hard and they are
searching for answers, and for God – they just aren’t looking for him inside
the church, some through bad experiences inside church, but others frightened
by us, and others needing us to go to them where they are. That’s why so many
of our ministers are now in chaplaincy posts, at work, in places of
leisure, that’s why part of my time each week is spent having conversations
with people nowhere near a church building, but still doing the work of our church. How sad
people don’t think people who are Christians or go to church will have anything
to say to their world. We need to BE good news.
I’ve always been
drawn to a quote of Gerard Manley Hopkins who uses Easter as a verb, something
to do. “Let him Easter in us” he once wrote. See good news and then be good
news. If there is no good news in our local church community, and all we do is moan, and wallow
that nothing is good, like it used to be, life won’t be much fun and we won’t
be attractive.
I have been sitting here thinking about Mary. It is not wrong
to weep. It is not wrong to say life stinks. It is not wrong to question where
God might be. Mary stayed in the discomfort of that
place. If we do the
same, in his time, and often unexpectedly a God we cannot imagine comes and
introduces us to new possibilities. Because he knows us, names us, calls us to
see that we live a valued life he also gives us power to see that what we are
is linked into the centre of his reality, that nothing can separate us from his
love.
When you’re
tired, and you lack inspiration for the sermon and you desparately want it
finished on Good Friday afternoon so you can have Saturday off, it is always a
wonder to me that God points me when I’m struggling to the good news of a
resource. Somehow I was led into my files and an Easter letter from Rev John
Walker in a church magazine from ages ago. John was my Superintendent at home
from 1988 to 1994 and I worked with him as his lay worker for three years. He
was a deeply honest preacher, his sermons were often raw and real. He had a gift to say to his congregation listening to
him it is okay to tell God how you feel. I’m going to let him end my thoughts
on transforming weeping into laughter, and desparation and bad news into good
and us struggling into being good news around us right here:
“If we were each
to draw a graph to depict the course of our lives to date, the line would have
peaks at when we felt confident and happy, and low points when we felt in the
depths. Some people mistakenly associate God with the high spots only. Really
he is with us at every point and turn, even when our depression makes it difficult
for us to believe in him or feel him to be present. His power at work inside us
can help us turn the corner. Belief in the resurrection makes us expect and
look for turning points in our lives, but they sometimes come after what seemed
to be the point of no return.”
On Easter Sunday we declare that ‘Christ has risen!’ We celebrate joyfully that the God who created us knows us, and meets us.It is like that old "Footprints" poem, Jesus was always there in the walk on the sand. 
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