I am a fan of “Good News/Bad News” jokes, so imagine my joy
when I came across this genre of about ministers:
The
Good News: You baptized seven people today in the river. The Bad News:
You lost two of them in the strong current.
The
Good News: The Women’s Guild voted to send you a get-well card. The Bad News:
The vote passed by 31-30.
The Good News: The Vestry accepted your job description
the way you wrote it. The Bad News: They were so inspired by it they formed
a search committee to find somebody capable of filling the position.
The Good News: Church attendance rose dramatically the
last three weeks. The Bad News: You were on vacation.
The Good News: The Vestry voted to pay your airfare for an
oversea mission trip. The Bad News: They are stalling with the payment until war
breaks out in the country.
The
Good News: Your women’s softball team finally won a game. The Bad News:
They beat your men’s softball team.
John Brandon is a contributing editor for
Inc.com. He wrote an article for Inc about how people react to bad news. In it he describes these scenarios:
The client just called. He is not
going to renew.
At a tech conference, your boss tells everyone in the group you are not
pulling your weight.
You come back to your desk to find a pink slip.
What do you do when you receive bad
news?
I know many of you have sat in your
doctor’s office and heard her say, “The tests came back and I have some bad
news…” I remember in 2007 and 2008 how
common it was to turn on the TV and hear “There is more bad news today about
the stock market.” We got some bad news
at St. Paul’s two weeks ago and it came in the form of a broken pipe and water
cascading down from the kitchen ceiling.
What do you do when you get bad news?
In the Gospel of Mark, before Jesus
begins his public ministry he hears some bad news. He learns John the Baptist has been
imprisoned by Herod Antipas, the Roman tetrarch of Galilee. John publically rebuked Herod for his many
faults and moral failings; a lengthy list to be sure, which includes marring
his brother’s wife. John’s scathing
criticism lands him in prison and Jesus must know it will not end well.
Just a few verses earlier in Mark’s
gospel Jesus makes a long pilgrimage from Nazareth to the Jordon River to be
baptized by John. After this the text
tells us he goes into the wilderness for forty days. Then Mark says, “After John was
arrested…” He doesn’t tell us how much
time has passed, only what Jesus does next is in response to this bad
news.
Mark says, “After John was arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee.” So Jesus returns
to his home region, to an area ruled by the very person who has John imprisoned. If this does not seem wise to you neither
will what Jesus does next. Jesus himself
begins to speak publically. Mark tells
us that in response to the bad news of John’s arrest, Jesus proclaims “the good
news of God.”
Perhaps you battle a natural urge to
shutdown in the face of bad news. It is
easy to feel overwhelmed and overmatched.
When the kitchen pipe broke and gallons upon gallons of water was
falling from multiple places in the church’s newly remodeled kitchen and pantry
I was aware I was not dealing with it well.
I was also aware of six or seven people around me who were. They captured water in trashcans, called the
fire department to get the water shut off, and, once the water stopped, began
to clear off counters and shelves in order to dry off every wet thing and
surface. For the most part, I stood by
in a fog contemplating the disaster at hand and wondering how much havoc is was
going to wreak on the schedule of events involving the kitchen.
What do you do when you receive bad news…
give up or get going?
John Brandon, the Inc editor, faced this very question. He writes:
One of the worst days of my life was when I was ousted
from a corporate job. I drove home that
night and my wife came up with the idea of being a writer. I jumped into action. I’m not saying I was all that confident at the
time, but it was a lesson for me. I
pounded the pavement for weeks and months. I reacted [to bad news] with action. It’s a good thing, because I’ve been writing
ever since.
I am consistently impressed with how
members of this parish refuse to take bad health news laying down. You educate yourself about various diagnoses,
treatment options, community resources, and all the things you can do to put
yourself in the best position to be healthy and cured. And once you are healthy and cured you find
ways to reach out and support others who are just beginning the journey after
receiving their bad news.
A team of psychologists studied why some
people react to bad news with confidence while others do not. They determined people quit when they are
uncertain about their own ability to produce a desired result or when they are
uncertain their actions with will lead to a desired effect. They offer two definitions that, while
technical, are insightful. The first is world-certainty and uncertainty:
We define
world-certainty as the feeling that desirable outcomes can be achieved and
undesirable ones avoided because the path connecting means and ends is clearly
predictable and stable.
The more you understand the situation the
more confident you are taking action.
The second term is self-certainty:
We define
self-certainty as the feeling that one can learn and follow the steps
associated with achieving one’s goals, and self-uncertainty as feeling doubtful
that one can learn and follow the steps associated with such goals.
The more you believe in yourself the more
likely you will initiate an effort to make a situation better.
We people of faith might add to these God-certainty. We believe God is engaged with us and at work
in this world to create a community where God’s dream for all people and all
creation is normative. This is what we
call the good news. And we people of
faith are certain God’s good news may be challenged by the world’s bad news,
but it is never overcome by it.
The comedian Tracy
Morgan observes “Bad news travels at the speed of light; good news travels like
molasses.” For Jesus, bad news sparks
the opportunity to proclaim good news.
He launches a ministry to preach and teach God is good and gracious and
God is with us and for us. Jesus invites
others to follow him, people who find his vision of life so compelling they
drop everything they are doing to learn more about it. Eventually they make it their personal
mission to proclaim this good news as far and wide as humanly possible.
We are a people of good
news. For some time I have struggled
with the image of the kingdom of God because (1) we don’t live in the kingdom
so it is difficult to connect with this idea and (2) kingdom seems to imply
everyone is a part of it and clearly there are many disinterested in God’s
sovereign reign in this world and claim on their lives. More and more I am warming up to the image of
community as a better way to envision God’s presence in the world. We at St. Paul’s are a community of God’s
people who proclaim the good news through what we say and what we do. We live it with and for one another and as a
witness to the world. And we invite and
welcome everyone to be a part of our fellowship of God’s good news.