GOOD NEWS

On Sunday mornings at St Peter's one of the regular features of the 10.30 service is what's become known as “the good news spot”. It's a time when we invite anyone to share something good that's happened in the past week or few weeks.

I have to admit that when I'm leading worship and introduce the 'spot' I often feel a small sense of trepidation: what if there's just a resounding silence because no one has anything to share? Most weeks, however, we hear all kinds of good news including, from time to time, wonderful stories of people experiencing God's faithful love in the ordinary and extraordinary things of life.

And what is shared is never some kind of pious triumphalism, but an acknowledgement that in the all the mess and difficulty and, sometimes, pain and confusion of this life, God is not far away and unconcerned. Rather, the living God is the one revealed in Jesus Christ – a God passionately committed to this world and the people he has made.

This practice of “testimony” goes back to the very first followers of Jesus. I'm reading a fascinating book at the moment by a biblical, historical scholar, Richard Bauckham - Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Bauckham draws attention to the fact that in many of the accounts of Jesus' healing or speaking with people, those who encounter Jesus remain anonymous. However, in some specific instances – such as that of Bartimaeus, the man healed from blindness, or Zacchaeus the tax-collector who climbed a tree – they are named by the gospel writers. The reason for that, he suggests, is that it was very likely they were known members of the early church. What is more, he argues, it is also likely that the stories in which they feature are based on their own testimony – their eyewitness account of what happened when they met Jesus, whose followers they subsequently became.

Bauckham's book also provides strong historical and literary evidence to show that the gospels were not written down so long after the event as some people assume – that they are tied very closely to and based upon the experience of those who lived through the events themselves.

We read the gospels now and can only imagine what it must have been like to hear these eyewitnesses at first hand, to hear Zacchaeus or Bartimaeus or Mary Magdalene telling the story of how meeting Jesus had transformed their lives forever.

But the Lord is still active in his world and the good news continues. Hearing stories from our church on a Sunday morning is a real boost to my faith – it encourages me, as I know it encourages others. We should never underestimate the power of sharing good news with one another. Or of expecting to know God's power and presence in our own, everyday lives.