I wonder how many people were here when we first sat down to work on a Parish Plan. I don’t think there were many of you around back then, though most were when we reviewed that plan a few years ago. But for those who weren’t it was one of the first things we did after I started here. But then that was only a first step. We then had to implement it and then assess whether we’d achieved what we set out to achieve and then revise it after the first five years were up. But it was a necessary start.
One of the things the management experts recommend is that everyone clarifies where they’re going. What is it you’re aiming for? What are your career goals? This is the time of year when lots of people ask that sort of question. When they sit down and reassess their lives, think about their career goals and that sort of thing. It’s the sort of thing that I find I often do when I’m on holidays, when I’ve got time to think without the normal pressures of life. So, how many of us have sat down over the last few weeks and thought about what our aims in life are? What is it that we’re setting out to achieve this year? What are the major and minor objectives we’ve set for ourselves, in our business, our personal, and our church life? Or are you one of those people who just don’t think about life like that. Perhaps you just take life as it comes: one day at a time.
Well, there’s something to be said for both approaches. There’s certainly no point getting tied up in a knot about what troubles might lie ahead. Time enough to worry about trouble when it comes. But on the other hand it doesn’t hurt to be prepared, to look ahead and think about what we might do with our life, or to think about how God might be able to use us in the coming months or years. In that sense it mightn’t hurt for us to have career goals for our Christian life.
I’m sure Jesus didn’t think in this very twentieth century way about his future, but he did think about where he was going, and what he was on about, and in today’s Gospel reading we find what’s sometimes called his Nazareth Manifesto. That is, his statement of policy, of what he was on about: his mission statement, if you like, made at the very start of his earthly mission. In fact his mission statement comes from far earlier than the first century. He takes it from Isaiah 61. Having read it he immediately says "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." In a couple of verses he’s summed up what his career goals are. But of course they’re not your standard garden variety career goals, are they? I’m not sure that they’d be a good thing to include in your resumé, unless you’re applying for a job as a missionary or in an aid agency perhaps. But for Jesus they sum up what it is that he’s on about.
Let’s look at what he says. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." ’He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.’ Jesus had come with a message that would be good news to all people, but especially to the poor. Why was that? I imagine the poor didn’t get good news any more often in Jesus’ day than they do today. But in God’s Kingdom there’s to be no favouritism, no prejudice against those who are uneducated or poor. In fact if you read the Old Testament you find time and time again the prophets railing against oppression and injustice. It seems as though God is on the side of the poor and oppressed. That’s because God wants justice for all. And now Jesus has come with a message of hope for all people both rich and poor. Jesus’ death and resurrection means that anyone can become part of God’s people: all can have an equal relationship with God. It’s one of the sad things about the church, I think, that we give such power to those who are our ministers. That we simply reflect the structures of preference and power of our secular society. Now it’s true bishops and archbishops and some clergy need certain degrees of power and influence to do their job. But even then, they’re meant to be ministers, servants who’s role it is to serve people. The church is the one place where there should be no elevation of people on the basis of their job, or their education, or wealth. Otherwise we deny that the gospel is good news to the poor.
But then Jesus goes on to expand on this. "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners." In Isaiah the idea was of those who were in exile, who were stopped from joining in the life of God’s people because of continuing imprisonment in a foreign land. Here in Jesus’ context, it refers to those who are excluded from the people of God, not because of some physical imprisonment or exile, but because of a spiritual imprisonment. Jesus has come to release people from their bondage to sin, from their bondage to the past. The world is full of people who are held captive by the things that have happened to them in the past, by hurts and hates. And of course all of us are subject to the bondage of bad habits and unhelpful behaviour that we’d like to be rid of. All of us are under bondage to sin, totally unable to rid ourselves of those things that drag us down time after time. But Jesus has come to bring us release. To proclaim to those in bondage that God has bought their freedom. One of the bible’s favourite words for what Jesus has done is redemption, that is, the buying back or paying a ransom for those who are slaves. Jesus himself says "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." We no longer need to be in bondage to those forces that would hold us captive. Perhaps more importantly, we no longer need to fear death, because Jesus has paid the ransom that sin demanded. We’ve now been freed and are part of God’s people, free to love him and to enjoy him forever.
Along the same lines he says he’s come to proclaim recovery of sight for the blind. These are those who are blind not through lack of physical sight but because they live in darkness. As Isaiah says "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-- on them light has shone." The coming of the Messiah means the coming of light into a dark world. But how does that help us?
Well, it means that those who previously stumbled in trying to follow the ways of God, can now see clearly. Why? Because Jesus gives us a clear model to follow. In what he says and what he does, he shows us how we can and should live under God’s rule. Through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, God opens our blind eyes to see the world as he sees it, so we can see the poverty and oppression that Jesus came to release people from, so we can get things in perspective, so we can see through the lies and spin and subterfuge that lie behind so much of what we’re told in advertising and the media; so we can see one another and even ourselves, the way God sees us.
Finally, Jesus says he’s come to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. The law of Moses provided for a jubilee year every 50 years: a year in which all slaves were to be released. And Jesus has come to announce that that year has come, not literally the 50th year, but a symbolic Jubilee in which God will free all those who are oppressed in any way. Just as Jesus had come to proclaim release to those in exile, so here he proclaims the year of Jubilee, of release from slavery, for all who live in God’s Kingdom.
It’s no surprise, is it, that these verses are taken up by Christians in parts of the world where oppression is widespread, as the foundation of their theology of liberation. Because the gospel is all about our freedom before God. But it’s a message that could equally be taken up in our culture, where people are in bondage to so many things. Think about the bondage that people find themselves in. How many people suffer from a sense of futility and loneliness? Why does the suicide rate continue to rise? How many people feel imprisoned in bodies that are wearing out or that simply don’t match their expectations. Have you noticed that selfishness is the order of the day and yet even if they can see it people feel trapped by this attitude, because it’s so widespread. Because if you don’t look after No 1 who will? But what does the message of the gospel say? It proclaims freedom from futility, freedom from loneliness, from the fear of sickness and death, from selfishness. In its place the gospel brings purpose to life. It points us outside ourselves. It brings us into a community of mutual support where we look after each other; where No 2 is just as important as No 1. What’s more it promises us eternal life, with bodies that will never wear out. It provides a focus outside ourselves, a focus on God and his will for the world.
And this is a message that Jesus has left for us to pass on. If these verses form a manifesto for Jesus’ life and mission, they equally provide a framework for our task in spreading the gospel.
Now in case you still think that evangelism isn’t for you, let’s consider what it means to be part of God’s people. In 1 Corinthians 12, our first reading today, Paul talks about the church. That’s you and me! And he likens us to a body. He says that even though the body is made up of lots of different parts, they’re all part of the one body. And likewise even though there are many different people with different gifts in the church, we’re all part of the one church. Why? Because we’ve all been baptised into the one body, and we’ve all been given the one Spirit to drink. So the task that was Jesus’ has now passed on to those who make up his body. And just as he said "the Spirit of Lord is upon me", so now the same Spirit has been poured out on us. But then Paul goes on to talk about how there are a variety of gifts and tasks in the body. And he’s at particular pains to speak to those who see themselves as of little importance to the life of the church. He says it’d be ludicrous for a foot to say, "Because I’m not a hand, I’m not part of the body", or for an ear to say, "Because I’m not an eye I’m not part of the body". So in the same way its silly for us to say, "because I’m not doing some particular job, or because I don’t have some particular gift, or because I’m too old, or too young, I’m not an important part of the church." If we think in terms of the church’s mission to the world, there’s a whole range of gifts and tasks that we each might have that are equally valid. Few of us will be stand up evangelists. Not many of us, I imagine, have the gifts needed to start talking to a complete stranger about the gospel, though some do. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have a role to play, or that we’re less important. Paul reminds us that in the body, those parts that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable parts are treated with greater respect.
If you think about something like Theo’s Crew, where we’re hoping to share the gospel with those young children, there are a whole range of people who come to help; some work as leaders, telling stories or taking games, others come in a support role, to help cook a meal, to clean up afterwards. Some are young, some are older. Some of those people may think they have a fairly minor role to play, but let me tell you, if they weren’t all there doing those things, then Theo’s Crew wouldn’t work, or it’d be such a hassle that no-one would be able to keep it up.
Now that’s just a small example of one of our organised outreach activities, but the same goes for our everyday evangelism. Everyone can contribute something. We can all be examples of what the gospel can do for people. We can all live lives that recommend the gospel - lives that shine as light in a darkened world. We can all work at being people who are selfless rather than selfish. Who are always ready to lend a helping hand to our neighbours and friends, both Christian and non-Christian. Perhaps more importantly, we can be ready with a word of comfort or encouragement when they need it. We can get to know our neighbours, or at least try to, so that we bring back some of that sense of community that seems to have been lost in our modern, self absorbed, world and that the gospel is all about providing. We can let people know in a natural way that we go to St Theodore’s, that we’re part of a great community here. We can even invite them to some of our outreach activities. We might also work at being ready to give an answer for the faith that’s within us, not in any deeply theological way necessarily, but as a natural expression of what’s most important to us in life.
On a wider front, we can financially support those who are working around the world to bring the good news to the poor, to help the oppressed, to bring light into parts of the world that seem to be subject to more than the usual degree of darkness. Lots of us did that over Christmas through the Tear Useful Gifts we bought.
And let’s not forget the power of prayer. Everyone of us can be praying for the work of the gospel on a regular basis, praying that God’s word might be received by those who hear it and that people might come to faith in Jesus Christ. Remember that the prayer of the righteous person is powerful and effective.
Whether or not you’re the sort of person who sets yourself goals for the year doesn’t really matter. Here is a goal that everyone of us is called to work towards as a part of Christ’s body here on earth: to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Or to put it in Jesus’ own words: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matt 28:19,20) Let’s pray that God would help us to carry on Jesus’ work wherever we may be, to take the gospel to all nations.
For more sermons from this source go to http://www.sttheos.org.au
