Walter White, Mary and Relentless Goodness

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.  From this day all generations will call me blessed:  the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. Luke 1:46-47

Evil, despair, depression, violence, anxiety, fear and darkness are pretty compelling and they all get lots of airtime.  I am watching  Breaking Bad - a case study in how evil and

bitterness can twist a vulnerable human being into doing horrible  things. Great story and acting on the show kept me interested for an entire afternoon of binge-watching on a much-needed “hibernation day” on Monday.  Evil holds our attention quite well.  Yet, Breaking Bad is just as fantastic as a show where nothing bad ever happens and people are perfect. 

As people of faith, we are empowered to engage in the practice of looking out for good.  As people who believe in Jesus as the incarnate word of God on Earth, we are called to look for and point out  God at work among us. Goodness is, in fact, happening all around us in huge and small ways, and we believe that God is a part of all goodness. Witness: someone let us into traffic this morning or  held a door open when our arms were full, we brought clothes for needy children to church or tutored refugees, we stood in front of a painting by Monet, we had Eucharist, we were granted a sense of great peace in the midst of uncertainty… and so on….  Good happens. 

Mary, mother of Jesus, sings  “The Magnificat” (see quoted above) in reaction to hearing the good news of her impending birth of Jesus. Mary lived in a world full of hazards and dangers and evils none of us can imagine. Violence was all around in the form of an oppressive Roman government that had occupied her homeland, and her position as a “nobody” in her culture (a young, pregnant, unmarried woman) should have had her trapped in despair. Yet, Mary notices the good, and she sings. She gives “airtime” to God’s goodness.

Good is relentless, and as witnesses of God among us, “Emmanuel” we are called to be relentless in spreading God's love  in a world fascinated with brokenness and evil. Evil may be a powerful force, but we follow a risen God who overcame death and the grave. In the end, the reality of evil is our "unreality" because we live in the care and presence of a God who loves us infinitely - so much so that she became one of us. Faith is lived out by giving this reality airtime in how we treat others and ourselves and the words, energy and presence we put out into the world.

Tim