"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor."

 

         A few days after Christmas, Kathy and I spent one night at a beach house on Camano Island, close to where we used to live. We got up the next morning and it was a beautiful day, clear and cold. The only thing we had to do that day was have lunch with some friends, and so with nothing to do, we realized we were accomplishing just that. A little breakfast would be nice, but not too much, now that the morning was slipping away.

         And then we were surprised to find our favorite Swedish bakery in town to be closed, empty, out of business. So we stopped along the highway at a large nursery, where we knew they had a little lunch counter hidden among the bedding plants, garden supplies, decorations and gift shop. But we soon discovered that we were the only customers in this large building filled with artificial Christmas trees and decorations. A few workers were slowly beginning the huge task of taking all that down.

The restaurant owners weren't really planning on customers that day, but they had some coffee and bread pudding for us. The owner told us there would be a lull in business from post-Christmas to whenever the spring plants came in.

         I thought about his choices during the lull in activity. I thought perhaps he could try harder to extend the Christmas rush into January, to do more of what had brought in so much business in the previous weeks. But the season had passed. It would be best if he waited until next year for that.

         I thought perhaps he could panic and get caught in anxiety. Perhaps the lack of customers on the day after Christmas was in fact indicative of the future. Maybe for the rest of their lives they would have to live on stray visitors buying bread pudding and coffee. That is not much of a living.

         Or perhaps, I thought, they might use the lull to anticipate the spring business, and get prepared for the crowds that will come with the tulips and daffodils. They might benefit by understanding the greater mission of the entire nursery operation and see that their small restaurant was really part of something much larger.

         Our church is much like that. We are located somewhere in the middle of the great Kingdom of God, where there is a great variety of activity going on. We have been given in that kingdom a commission to make disciples of Jesus Christ. One part of that commission is Evangelism.

         When we conducted a survey of 30 members of our church, the lowest-scoring of eight qualities of church life came up as "Need-Based Evangelism." We seem to be in a lull, a quiet time, as far as evangelism goes.

         Our choices are in many ways the same as that of the restaurant owner. We can try harder to make the past work again. We can do more of what was successful in another season.

         Our second option might be to panic, to live in anxiety about the future. Maybe things will never change. Maybe our present is the future.

         The third option is to anticipate the future and prepare for it. We can carry out the mission and purpose of the greater kingdom of God, taking our place alongside many others. In that sense we live in hope and anticipation. We give ourselves to the mission of God's kingdom. We trust in what God will provide.

         It is in this attitude of hope and anticipation that we look to Jesus as our example. He is the evangelist who guides us in our evangelism. He is the one who said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to evangelize the poor." How did he go about his ministry of evangelism? How did he understand his calling and task?

         First, we see in Luke that his identity led to his vocation. At his baptism, the voice from heaven said clearly, "This is my son." His identity as the Son of God led him to his vocation, that is, to a biblically defined mission to preach good news to the poor. Jesus lived by the Word of God. In his temptation in the wilderness, he countered every temptation of Satan by quoting Scripture. Jesus was clear that the Word of God would guide his life, would define his actions. Now in his ministry he upholds the same principle. He does not make up a mission statement. He quotes scripture and lives by it.

         The next thing we notice about Jesus is that he did not pick and choose from Scripture just what he wanted to do.

• He did not say, "I will preach, but I will not give sight to the blind."
• He did not say, "I will release the oppressed but I will not proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

He allowed the Scripture to define what he did.

         So whatever we do in the Lord ought to have an anchor in Scripture, and it ought to be guided by Scripture. We are to do what the Word tells us to do, and we are to do it in the manner that the Word instructs. The reading of the Word is to result in application of the Word.

         Finally, we see here that Jesus carried out his vocation by looking upon the heart. He was sent to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and yet we are not told in the Gospels of a time when he went to a prison and let people out. But in his ministry to people, we see one after another being freed from captivity of all sorts. Jesus did not narrowly or superficially interpret his scriptural vocation.

         A brief word study gives us some insight into the example of Jesus.

He says he is to preach good news to the poor. The word "poor" at its root meant "reduced to begging."

I know a few people who come to the church from time to time to ask for money or food or gas or a motel room. Their lives do not seem to change much month to month or year to year. Their need is always deeper than their request. I can give them a tank of gas, but I cannot seem to meet their need. Do you know any people who always seem to have a need deeper than what you can meet? There is a need in their lives for some good news that is more than a word of encouragement, more than a $20 bill. They need to be healed, to be saved, and to know the love and power of Christ in a practical, life-changing way. The poor need to hear and experience "Good News."

         Jesus says he is to proclaim freedom for prisoners, or captives. The first part of the Greek word "captive" is the word for "spear." Do you know anybody who is living as if at the point of a spear? Perhaps that describes people who are at the mercy of addictions of all types. Perhaps it is a good image for the consequences of habitual sin. They need to be set free, free from the "spear" that holds them captive.

         Jesus says that he is to bring recovery of sight for the blind, and indeed, he did miraculously give sight to people who were physically blind. Sometimes we think of blind people as ones who need guidance, who struggle to find their way.

When we were taking the ferry from Seattle across Puget Sound to Bremerton, where our son David lives, we saw a man who was blind. And unlike many blind people who negotiate their way with astonishing accuracy, this man was struggling. So Kathy helped him to the ticket window and then on to the ferry. He said he was going to see his parents and have Christmas with them. On the way off the boat, I saw an older woman walking the other way, against the flow of people, and I wondered if it might be this man's mother. So I turned and looked back, and sure enough, she had found him and had taken his arm, and was securely guiding him home.

         Do you know of people who need guidance in their lives, who seem to be lost, who can't quite find their way home?

         And then Jesus says he will release the oppressed. The word can be translated, "crushed ones." At its root is the word "ashes." Some people lose all they have in a fire, and their life is reduced to ashes. Some people lose their lives in other ways. Oppressed people have always lost a great deal in life. Do you know anyone who has experienced a great loss?

         These words give us a window to see people. All of them seem outwardly to have no future. Each of these word pictures invites our response, the response of those who follow Jesus.

         These words of Jesus' vocation also release us into a great variety of ministries. Jesus ministers to the heart of people. He does not work with narrow or rigid categories of ministry. He does not exclude his people from living as evangelists. Rather, he opens the opportunity for all who are willing, to see the people God has placed in their way, and respond with Good news from the Savior.

         Evangelism begins when we take to heart our identity in Christ.

         Who are you in Christ?

         Are you aware of God's grace in you, of the assurance and blessing that you have received from God?

         You are loved by God. Out of that identity, you can serve him.

         We always question our ability to be evangelists. But Paul calls us to seek the Holy Spirit and the gifts that the Spirit brings. We are to live in the gift of God, and not in our own strength.

         We all have received a calling, a vocation from God. We are to live by the Word of God. We are to read it and apply it and take it to heart. We are to do what it says. Our lives are to be formed by God's Word, in order to become doers of God's Word.

         We do have a message to bring to our world. There is a great variety of ministries that we can discover and give ourselves to, ministries that fit our lives and calling.

         Jesus frees us to live by gift and by word.

         So we live in anticipation and in preparation for what God will do in our future. We live so that we might be formed by Christ as bearers of Good News.

         Amen.