Wednesday, September 2, 2020
The Rev. Richard Greenleaf
Bear Good News
I was driving the other day and instead of listening to the news, which is my wont, was listening to an online jazz station when on popped a song by the neo-beatnik singer/songwriter Tom Waits, “Step Right Up,” a tongue-in-cheek commentary on our commercial culture. It was the last line of the song, however, that caught my attention: “You got it buddy: the large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.” Truly, we live in a culture and at a time when large print comes at us from all sides bearing supposedly good news that promises to “giveth” us much. Unfortunately, much of that large print good news bears with it small print that all too often “taketh away” much more than it “giveth,” making it the bearer of decidedly “bad news.” And then there is the small print bad news that only masquerades as large print good news, of which we are currently seeing far too much.
The good news that God bears to us, though, is first and always large print good news. “In the beginning . . . God said, ‘Let there be . . . and God saw that it was good.’” Later, in the prophets, God bears good news by condemning solely that which “taketh away” from the original large print goodness that only “giveth.” Finally, God bears good news to us most fully in the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, a large print Word with no small print, a Word that only “giveth. It is this large print word that bears good news to us today, cutting through the large print fake good news and cutting off the small print bad news that only “taketh away.” It’s as if God is saying to us, “You got it buddy: the large print giveth and giveth and giveth. No exceptions!” And that, to us, bears decidedly large print good news.
Reflector Bio
Richard Greenleaf is a relatively new member of St. John’s, having retired to Kittery last summer after 31 year as a chaplain and member of faculty at St. Paul’s School in Concord.