Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University, shares a lovely anecdote about his encounter with the late Queen Mother of England who remarked on how excellent a sermon had been. " 'Don't you agree?' she asked me, which is a difficult question for an honest clergyman to answer, so I did what anyone would do under the circumstances: I agreed. Then, with that world-class twinkle in her eye, the Queen Mother remarked, 'I do like a bit of good news on Sunday, don't you?' "

It's been a big challenge down through the centuries for the Christian community to spread the good news of the Gospels. It's been much easier to emphasize doom and gloom and a world drenched with sin. In this positive work, Gomes wants Christians to keep their attention on Jesus as one who "came into the world not as a Bible teacher directing us back into a text, but as one who proclaimed a realm beyond the Bible. He proclaimed his good news against the conventional wisdom of the day, taking up with unacceptable people and advocating dangerous, even revolutionary, ideas, nearly all of which remain to be discovered and acted upon."

Gomes encourages preachers to disturb the comfortable in the pews and to emphasize that the Christian faith requires following the words and deeds of Jesus in everyday life. This is not an easy path. It involves being tolerant of people we don't like and praying for our enemies. It means finding inner strength in compassion and not giving into our fears in this scary world. Gomes laments the fearfulness of many Americans who hate homosexuals and baptize torture in the name of the war on terrorism. Following Jesus means putting less emphasis on the future and thoughts of Heaven and putting ourselves in the hands of a God whose kindness, love, and generosity boggles our puny minds.

Gomes is optimistic about the new social gospel that is uniting certain evangelicals with members of liberal mainline denominations. He ends with a plea for Christians to acknowledge and embody "an inclusive gospel," and to live a muscular hope. Of the latter, he writes:

"Dietrich Bonhoeffer once warned against cheap grace, and I warn now against cheap hope. Hope is not merely the optimistic view that somehow everything will turn out all right in the end if everyone just does as we do. Hope is the more rugged, the more muscular view that even if things don't turn out all right and aren't all right, we endure through and beyond the times that disappoint or threaten to destroy us."