Luke 4:14-21, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Growing a Community in Christ...Sharing Christ's Love with the World. Sound familiar? I hope it does. It’s Church of Our Saviour’s mission statement. We certainly talk about it and you’ll find it on almost anything we put in print. For example, glance down at your bulletin and you’ll see it towards the top of the page. Now I wasn’t serving here when it was developed, but kudos to those who were a part of its creation because it really does an excellent job at communicating why COOS exists. We are here to grow a community in Christ and to share Christ’s love with the world. Everything else we do, gather for worship, give food from our food pantry, listen to beautiful music, meet and enjoy friends - all of that flows out from our mission statement.
But, as you know, we aren’t the only church to have one. Mission statements came into vogue back in the mid 1980’s and since that time businesses, churches, non-profits, even some families have adopted one. But that’s not to say that they didn’t exist before then. In our reading from the gospel of Luke, Jesus lays out his own mission statement in his first act of public ministry. Following his river baptism and wilderness fast and temptation, Jesus returns to his home country, Galilee. Reports about him have been spreading throughout the land. So when he comes back to Nazareth, you can imagine that it’s quite a big day in the synagogue. Everyone is excited to hear the local boy who’s making such a name for himself. Naturally, he’s given the honor of doing the reading as he’s handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Now remember, there’s no lectionary to consult. There’s nothing to say which part of Isaiah should be read. The choice is entirely up to him. So Jesus unrolls the scroll, scans for just the right text, and finds it near the end. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Now those words were not new. They weren’t even unfamiliar. Likely everyone gathered had heard them before on multiple occasions. But it’s what happens next that transforms them.
Following the reading, Jesus sits down and then does the unexpected, the unimaginable, really. He takes the ancient words from the prophet Isaiah and claims them as his own in real time. Today, he says, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. This is Jesus’ mission statement. The whole purpose for his being, the reason he came to this earth is to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, and announce the Jubilee Year when God’s justice will reshape society. From here on out everything that Jesus says and does flows from this prophecy, this mission statement…this good news.
Good News, that is to those who identify as poor or captive or blind or oppressed. But to those who don’t see themselves as fitting into one of those categories, to those who are doing pretty much ok as is, the ones who may even benefit from the status quo, Jesus’ mission statement doesn't sound like good news at all. It sounds more like a threat. In fact, just a few moments later in the story, beyond our reading today, many of those in the synagogue end up getting so offended by Jesus’ words, particularly when he highlights that this good news is not just for a special few, but for everyone, that they run him out of town and seek to throw him off a cliff.
They react this way because these folks really get it. Jesus isn’t meek and mild. He’s on a mission - a radical mission to shake things up. To turn things upside down. To change the world as we know it. Which can initially sound like pretty bad news to those of us who are doing relatively well in the world as it currently exists until Jesus addresses our blindness and helps us to see that we can’t really live and thrive until all of God’s beloved are able to live and thrive too. Although the attempt on his life failed on that particular day in Nazareth, the way that Jesus relentlessly challenges the status quo by healing the “undeserving” sick, forgiving the “really bad” sinners, and valuing those whom society deems as worthless, eventually this type of behavior becomes so intolerable that he is put to death in hopes that this mission will die with him.
But, of course, that was not to be so. Jesus rises, alive from the dead and continues today to do what he talked about in that synagogue long ago. But the way that he works is through his mystical body, the Church, as we heard about in our reading from 1 Corinthians. When reflecting upon how we, the Church, literally embodies Jesus in our world, St. Theresa of Avila puts it best:
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Being Christ’s body in the world is quite a weighty responsibility, but we don’t do it on our own. We can’t do it on our own. And neither could Jesus. Even he needed to be empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. His whole mission begins there with, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. With those words Jesus recognizes that his mission depends on the working of God’s Spirit through him. Today, as Christ’s body the Spirit of the Lord is upon us and we depend on the Holy Spirit to guide us and grace us and gift us so that we might do the work that we are given to do.
So as you make plans for this coming week keep in mind this mission that you share with Christ. Be open to the empowering work of the Holy Spirit in your daily life. For yours are the eyes that Jesus will use to look with compassion on someone this week. Yours are the feet that he will walk in to do good in the world. Yours are the hands that he will use to touch and bless others with God’s love. Together we are Jesus’ body - so let us continue his mission as we grow a community in Christ and share Christ’s love with the world.
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