We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
From a biblical point of view, what is the good news?
READ THE BOOK - FIND THE RHYTHM
6 comments:
I'd love to hear more about this. Some definition... ;) Is there?
It is definitively linked to Jesus!
Lukas,
Thanks. Well, it seems there is lots of good and bad news in the Bible and each type of news has a number of contexts in mind. In respect to today's question, I was thinking of the NT writings that reference the good news - the gospel - the evangel.
I'd agree with you that whatever the good news is, it is linked to Jesus.
The good news is God's Kingdom coming to my
life today. Christ brought it, paid a price to bring
it to me. I must be attentive to where he calls me
to bring it today. Especially in moments. With
room-mate, with co-workers, random people, in
all I do. It's easy to screw it up, which keeps one's
pride in check.
This good news comes into a weary, parched,
yet beautiful world with a promise of completion
and hope beyond what we have known. It promises
restored relationship and community, justice, peace, a place where God reigns...difficult
at times to imagine.
In light of the good news of God's reign,
I'm thinking of this verse from Psalm 46
"There is a river whose streams make glad the
city of God, the holy place where the Most High
dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God
will help her at break of day."
I've been reading "Jesus for President" by Claiborne
and Haw. Just happened to read during breakfast
about the angel who said "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news (evangelion) of great joy that
will be for all the people. Today in the town of
David a Savior has been born to you; he is the
Messiah, the Lord" Luke 2:1, 9-11
The authors go on to say, "Ah, the good old
Christmas story. Conjures up warm feelings
of Christmas pageants, eggnog by the fire, and
that shimmering Christmas tree we have all grown
to love. The opening words of Luke's gospel have
become a fixture in the liturgy of American cultural
Christianity. Rather than shaking us to the core
(as it did to those poor shepherds), the story of
Jesus' birth has been tamed...(65-66)".
On the next page some terms are defined in
first the imperial language of the time and
then in Jesus' language:
"Gospel (evangelion: "good news"): An imperial
pronouncement, usually accompanied by flags and
political ceremony, that an heir to the empire's
throne had been born or that a distant battle had
been won."
"Gospel: Jesus' good news that the kingdom of God
is at hand"
These were helpful definitions for me and applicable for today's discussion.
Angela,
Thanks. I think these are excellent thoughts on the question. The arrival of God's kingdom as the good news. Jesus inaugurated God's kingdom and gave a foretaste of what God's reign looks like.
KOG is something like a tensive symbol that represents God's rule as the good news flowing into a myriad of contexts and lives.
Angela,
Yes, and thanks for this comment. The birth of the Messiah is that link to the KOG arriving and then being proclaimed.
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