Delivering difficult news is no picnic if you happen to care
for the recipient. A priest is leaving a parish, that can be painful. Why the
decision to leave? A child or other loved one has found real trouble and you are the first to
know. How will you handle sharing that with those who care? Health news is
that of deterioration, who wants to know it? Who will assist in the time to
come?
The reading for Daniel was not good news. The King has again
had a troubling dream. Daniel is viewed as wise and a dream interpreter. His
first interpretation of the King's dream won him favor. It was not so
unflattering a dream. This time is different. The king's dream portends
disaster of a personal nature. The King will face destruction and wilderness
wandering. What words of comfort can be offered?
Daniel concludes,"Therefore, O king, may my counsel be
acceptable to you: atone for your sins with righteousness, and your iniquities
with mercy to the oppressed, so that your prosperity may be prolonged." Daniel
4:27
The powerful do not often like to hear that they must deeply
change, admit wrong, see anew. Ordinary people do not like to hear that we must change if what we desire is
greater wholeness, or survival, or fuller life, or Godly life. It is seldom easy
to be the one who must speak truth. Yet few of us get through life without this
role being ours. One never knows if one will be heard, or accepted or
rejected.
It seems good news when Jesus returns home and reads the Sabbath lesson, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release
to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go
free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." The eyes of all in the
synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, "Today this
scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and
were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. Luke
4:18-22
This seems like good news, an ancient prophecy fulfilled. But
doubt sets in. "Is this not Joseph's son?"
But he goes on. "You will ask for miracles as were done in
Capernaum. They will not be done here."
"Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's
hometown. (Prophet's words always have a note of judgement.) But the
truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the
heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine
over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at
Zarephath in Sidon. (A gentile no less.) There were also many lepers in
Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except
Naaman the Syrian." (Another gentile.)
Luke 4:24-27
What he seems to say here is that no one here will want to see
how God shows mercy. It will involve God's choice of the outsider. It will
involve real care for the poor, not a few extras thrown in their direction.
Those who see themselves as inside God's grace and care often will not want to be
called to change and to the deeper work of mercy, especially when the mercy goes to those
you judge unworthy.
Yet sometimes hearing "bad news" is a gift. It is honest and
therefore hopeful. Change can be an atonement, a making new decisions based on
real information, not our fantasy of what might be.
A community of faith embracing the future with new eyes of
leadership may find deeper vocation, if perhaps a changed focus of care. The child in trouble needs to change.
Often we who care need to change our interplay as well. Ill health may call
us to changed habits or to use wisely of what is left to us. Those who handle
corporate, political or family power may awaken to real possibilities to effect
larger change.
Real good news can be the response to what seems bad news.
What is not easy to hear can make our lives spiritually real and full of growth. In
it our reliance on God can find new depth. Often this will be a kind of repentence, atonemement, deeper mercy.
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