The World Needs Good News – Niki Vella-Power 12/12/2021
Well who would have guessed
it! The snake had legs!
Often we might use the expression,
“it has legs” to explain that an idea has some substance to it, but in the case
of the snake… it literally had legs!
Now, I don’t’ generally like to get
into those arguments about whether things are literal, but if you do a quick google
search, “did snakes originally have legs”, you will find many articles and one
from national geographic which explains that snakes still have the genes to
grow legs. Now, that would be a very
scary creature! Our Gospel message
begins right back here with that rather scary snake…
If I was to ask you to explain the
Gospel to someone, how would you do it?
What would you say?
In 1918, Just after the first world war, an army Chaplain, Eric Milner-White, aware of the fragile state of his community, used the lessons and carols to tell the story of the Gospel. “Gospel” means Good News. They might have won the war, but there were plenty suffering grief and loss. The world needed direction and purpose… a sense of re-building and encouragement that they weren’t striving in vain. The world needed the direction, purpose and comfort that only God can bring – the world needed Good News… the Gospel.
In December 2021 the world is
globally grieving loss. Our lives
changed in 2020. Who would have ever
guessed that the whole world would go into various forms of lock downs over the
next year? Since then every public hug
is done with feelings of guilt and wondering of passing on disease. Since then our loud opinions and judgements
range from sad submission to angry rebellion and everything in between. The hurt caused by the judgements of people
are creating stress and grief and loss. The
world needs direction, purpose and the comfort that only God can bring. The world needs Good News. The world needs the Gospel.
Right now we are in the season of
Christmas. It has always been a season
of hope, a season of love and joy…. Of children’s laughter and delight…. And also…great
pain. Yes, we can’t hide the fact that
when we celebrate hope, love and joy, it highlights those who feel that hope,
love and joy have rejected them. Many at
this time feel that rejection and grief acutely. They need Good News. They need the Gospel.
The truth is Good News. The truth is Gospel. The truth of the Gospel is that no one has
been rejected, but that God is especially concerned with those
who feel rejected, hopeless, joyless and loveless – and we, as
God’s hands and feet, should be too.
To tell the story of the Gospel we
need to start with something less popular – Sin. Yes that SNAKE had LEGS!
Now, in these civilized days, none
of us are sinners are we?…. We all have, like the snake, evolved beyond that,
haven’t we? None of us ever does
anything wrong? We are all perfect… our
community is perfect and our world is all good and lovely! And like the current state of the snake,
these statements actually have “no legs”… And now, hopefully, you will see that
I am being sarcastic to make my point.
It is easy to see that our world is
a long way from perfect. It isn’t so easy to see that maybe
we are the ones in the wrong at times.
Let me make it easier for you. So
that you know that I’m not pointing the finger at anyone in particular…. And that
God isn’t pointing the finger at anyone in particular…. The Bible tells us that
ALL have sinned and have fallen
short of the glory of God. Therefore,
the finger is being pointed at every single one of us. Even my darling little grand-daughter who I
know is just so, so perfect and I love so much…. The finger is pointed at us
all.
Let me explain a little further….
It isn’t about one person being right and another being wrong…. It is about our
lack of love.
Jesus made it super simple and put
the commandments into just 2 simple commands.
LOVE GOD, with all our heart,
mind and strength and love
others. Love and love….but our love is
imperfect.
That snake it certainly had legs
when it told Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit.
The snake appealed to the desires of Eve for knowledge and it wasn’t seemingly
such a big thing….. hmmm…. Or was it… At the heart of this story, is a lady who
wanted to be her own God. She wanted to
understand like God and not have to rely on him. She put herself above God by trusting in the
Serpent (putting him above God also) and she decided that she wanted the
knowledge of a God. She could have
trusted God …. Loved him and honoured him by asking him about the forbidden tree
and trusted God by obeying, but instead she listened to the serpent and Adam
followed her lead and then blamed her when God asked about the situation. He did not show love to God, nor love to
others.
We fast forward to the story of
Abraham. Abraham did trust God and
obeyed him fully… it was a test and a way that God was to show that God himself
would provide a sacrifice to bring us back into full relationship with himself.
Throughout the Old Testament there
are prophets who proclaimed the message of God and that He would send the Messiah…
the Christ… the anointed one. Though
they didn’t fully understand what it all meant, they lived in hope for the
coming of the promised messiah.
The Gospel is this; We have all
fallen short of the glory of God. We
don’t love God as fully as we should and we don’t love others as fully as we
should. The outward sign of this is that
our world is in disharmony. We put our
own intelligence as our God, we put ourselves above God by not fully trusting
him… and disobeying his ways. Most of
the time we don’t even consider God, until our world comes crashing down.
How can we put things right? Even when we try, we find ourselves powerless
to control even the simplest things…. We can’t even control a tiny virus.
The Messiah came. A young lady said yes to the will of God in
her life…. She risked death by stoning and so much shame to do so, but she
trusted and obeyed. She gave birth and
in obedience they called him Jesus, but people still didn’t fully understand.
The Magi, known as the wise men,
following an unusual star, came bringing gifts of Gold, Frankincense and
Myrr. The Magi were non-Jews… showing
that this Messiah was for all the nations.
The song, We Three Kings, explains that these people – non Jews,
understood that this baby was for the redemption of the whole world. Their gifts also were a statement about the
baby… Gold I bring to crown him again… stating that he is King… regardless of
that humble stable birth. Frankincense –
incense owns a deity neigh – They recognised the divinity – God incarnate. Myrr – used for embalming, signifying that
Jesus’ death would be significant.
It is the Gospel of John, our last
reading that explains fully who Jesus really is, The word became
flesh….
In the beginning was the word. Jesus was the word. When the Godhead spoke, “Let there be light”,
it was God the Son. The Messiah was not just a man. No man could do for us, what needed to be
done. What we needed was God himself and
that is who came that very first Christmas.
The birth of Christ is the birth of God incarnate…. God in flesh.
I have a favourite poet, Steve
Turner, who wrote a sarcastic poem, “Christmas is really for the
Children”. The poem goes on to say,
Easter is not suitable for children as it has whips, nails and allegations of
body snatching. The poem ends by saying
that those of a nervous disposition should wait for a re-run of Christmas
without asking too many questions about what Jesus did when he grew up. Yes, Christmas is for the children. We are the children, and Christmas means
nothing without the crown of thorns and the empty grave.
At Christmas we celebrate that God
came in fragile human flesh. We worship
because we, who generally put ourselves and our own intelligence and desires
above God, recognise that God came in fragile human flesh. He became the humble servant fully obedient
to God and even to death on the cross where he was immersed into the sins of us
all. God himself took the spiritual
punishment that was due to us because we certainly couldn’t do it ourselves.
Love, acceptance, hope and Joy are
ours because of Jesus. We are
accepted. We are not rejected, but
incredibly loved by God. Love, hope and
joy for each and everyone who chooses to accept that Jesus is our Saviour. That is the only condition – to admit we need
a saviour and accept him.
Let us not forget the other key
word we hear at Christmas; Peace. This
is a peace between us and God… it is SHALOM - a peace that means we are in a
right relationship with God. With this
shalom, we can say, “If God is for us, who can be against”. We have the king of the universe on our
side. We have God’s love, Joy, hope and
peace. This is the Good News that the
world needs today. This is the Gospel.
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