SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B

December 9-10, 2023

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Warwick, R.I.

 

Isaiah 40:1-11

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Mark 1:1-8

 

Last Sunday, we began a new liturgical year. Up until the Feast of Christ the King two weeks ago, we were in Year A of the three-year lectionary cycle, and the Gospel readings were taken mainly from Matthew. We’ve now begun Year B, when the Gospel readings are taken mainly from Mark and John.

 

And the first line of today’s Gospel reading is none other than the first line of Mark’s Gospel: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” In older translations, the words “the good news” are rendered as “the Gospel.” So far as I’m aware, this is the only place where one of the four Evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—describes the book he’s writing as a “Gospel.”

 

Let’s reflect on the meaning of this word, “Gospel.” Sometimes in the English language we use it to describe information that is absolutely accurate and reliable, as in “Gospel truth”. But that’s not really the word’s primary meaning in the biblical languages.

 

The Greek word here translated as “good news” or “Gospel” is evangelion, from which we get the words “evangelism,” “evangelist,” and “evangelical”. These words remind us of another way the word “Gospel” is often used, as in “Gospel preaching” or “Gospel music” – suggesting certain styles of enthusiastic worship and music emphasizing subjective experiences of conversion and a personal relationship with Jesus. But that’s not really the primary meaning of the word “Gospel” in the original Greek, either.

 

In the ordinary, everyday language of the ancient world, the word evangelion indeed meant something like “good news” or “glad tidings”. It typically described an official public pronouncement by a messenger or herald in the town square concerning a joyous event, such as a military victory, the coronation of a king, or perhaps a royal birth.

 

The word’s Hebrew equivalent is used in today’s Old Testament reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah: “Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings …” In this, one of the most beautiful and moving passages in the whole Bible, the prophet announces the Good News that the Exile in Babylon is almost over and that God will soon bring his people home to Zion.

 

And in the New Testament, the Greek verb that gets translated as “preach the Gospel” when talking about the John the Baptist, Jesus, or the apostles and evangelists, is exactly the same verb that gets translated in other contexts as “bring glad tidings” or “proclaim good news”—for example in the Nativity story when the angel appears to the shepherds and tells them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people …”

 

Think for a moment about what good news can be like. Over twenty years ago, the TV series Band of Brothers came out tracing the experiences of a group of American paratroopers in Europe during World War II. From D Day on, they fight their way through Normandy, Belgium, Holland, and finally Germany. At length, with Hitler dead and the Third Reich defeated, they start gearing up to ship out to the Pacific for the final assault on Japan. 

 

But then, one day, their commanding officer makes an unexpected announcement: the Japanese government has unconditionally surrendered. The camera scans each face as the men slowly absorb this information and realize that instead of further combat, injury, and death in the Far East, they’ll soon be going home to be reunited with those they love and resume their civilian lives. Now that information was “gospel” in the biblical sense of the word: a public announcement that is welcome, joyous, life changing, and life giving.

 

Looking back over our own lives, my guess is that most of us can remember similar moments of good news: the announcement of a birth or an engagement; the letter informing us of our admission to a school or college; the telephone call to say that we’ve got the job.

 

So, the phrase “preach the Gospel” really means “bear glad tidings,” or “announce good news.” And therein lies a challenge for all of us. In a world so full of so much bad news every day, do we come to church expecting to hear good news? And when we get here, is good news what we get? (That’s the challenge for me!)

 

Today’s readings are shot through with good news. From Isaiah: “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.” From Psalm 85: “[God has] forgiven the iniquity of [his] people, and blotted out all their sins.” In the Epistle, Saint Peter writes of the Lord’s patience in delaying his return to give his people plenty of time to repent and get ready for him. And in the Gospel John the Baptist proclaims the One coming after him: “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” So much good news here if we just pause to listen and take it all in!

 

In my beginning homiletics class in seminary, we were each assigned to write a sermon for a different Sunday of the church year, and then in class we’d give our sermons, and listen to and critique one another’s efforts. It was occasionally painful, but ultimately very good training for future preachers. One of the questions we learned to ask ourselves as we listened was: “How is what I’m hearing good news?” After all, we were supposed to be preaching the Gospel. So, sometimes the critique would be, “Interesting sermon, you made some good points – but where was the Good News?”

 

From time to time, we clergy can fall into the trap of presenting the Christian life solely as a series of demands and challenges. And to be realistic, for those who follow Jesus Christ, demands and challenges there certainly will be—indeed, hardships and sacrifices. But these really only make sense, they really only become bearable, ultimately even joyful, in the wider context of the Gospel—the Good News of what God has done for us in Christ, and of what he promises to do for us in the future. “The Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God” is the Good News that we need to hear above all!

 

This Season of Advent is a time of waiting, preparation, anticipation, and hope. We long for good news. And this Advent can be the time when we develop the habit of waking up every morning in the expectation that this very day, we might very well receive Good News from God. Perhaps this Advent, then, we can learn to be a people constantly listening out for the Gospel.