Monday, August 31, 2020
Elise Annunziata
Bear Good News
We are sentinels on the lookout for signs of God’s presence in the world, and we joyfully share the good news of Christ’s presence with the world. The light of Christ is here, dispelling all the world’s darkness. The light of Christ is here! ~ Vicar at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN
Is to bear good news like being “woke?” To see that God is here with all of us, this and every day. Yes, Christ is here in our church. And here in our schools. Here in hospitals. And here on our local playing fields and hockey rinks. Here on professional basketball courts and baseball and football fields. Here in Kenosha, Wisconsin. And here in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Here in our U.S. government. Here in China. Here in Italy. Here around the globe. Yes, Christ is Here.
We are woke to Christ’s light shining in many places. Like in volunteers sewing masks, youth organizing to get out the vote, students learning, teachers teaching, neighbors shopping and doing yard work for elderly and home bound, congregations singing hymns, families saying quiet prayers as they watch Sunday sermons, people sharing a Zoom meal with parents or grandparents at a distance, and us proclaiming our joyful and grateful Hallelujahs and Amens.
Christianity teaches us that no darkness or enemy is strong enough to defeat God. Out of ashes, we are the guardians continuing to rise up to bear good news of Christ’s resurrection. There is always God’s promise of return and rebuilding to a place of love, compassion, balance in nature and peace. Bearing the good news even in times of chaos and uncertainty, reminds us of God’s greatness:
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.“God’s Grandeur,” Gerard Manley Hopkins
Let us hold close the message and promise that God’s presence is everywhere, and let us ring out this good news.