World Relief Chapel

Good morning. My name is Jason Worf. I’m the pastor of the Pasco Seventh-day Adventist church in the Riverview community beside 395. We have an active church with about 175 people attending. Our church runs one of the three main foodbanks in the tri cities area serving over 1,200 families a week. We also have a homeless ministry that partners with several groups to provide a hot meal for homeless people in the area. I have been a pastor here for just shy of one year.

Shortly after arriving in the tri-cities I was invited to consider the plight of the refugees in our community. As a result of that invitation I had a long get-to-know-the-situation meeting with Rob Rennix and he introduced me to World Relief.

From what I understand, World Relief’s mission is to boldly engage the world’s greatest crises in partnership with the church. I think that’s a fabulous mission for an organization. It’s honestly a scary mission. It feels impossible. The worlds “greatest crises” include extremely significant challenges. I love that you as individuals and as an organization boldly take on these superhuman challenges.

I want to recognize the reality that your staff come from varied religious backgrounds. I respect your faith and I want to be sensitive as I share something that is on my heart. I hope that what I share will be a blessing no matter what your background might be. Keep in mind, I come from a Christian background, so I can’t help but share from the perspective of my own worldview.

The historicity of Jesus is no longer questioned by most scholars. The amount of evidence supporting a Jesus of Nazareth that was crucified sometime in the early 30’s CE is a well document fact in both religious texts and secular histories from that time period. One of those religious histories is the book of Luke in the Bible. In it you can read the story of Jesus going into the wilderness for a little over a month. He then came back to the region around the Sea of Galilee where he talked to the people every chance he had. The writer of Luke says that “a report about him went out through all the surrounding country and he taught in their synagogues…” (Luke 4:14-15)

After a few weeks of traveling he ended up in his home town of Nazareth. Luke says,

Luke 4:16–17 (ESV)

…as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.

Whatever your faith background is, I’m sure you can understand this moment. All religions have some sort of sacred text, and all religions have services and traditions. In Israel, at the time of Jesus, the tradition was to gather in the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and read the Torah. The writer of Luke doesn’t say whether Isaiah was the scroll that was scheduled to be read that day or if Jesus asked for that scroll in particular. Either way the actual scroll wasn’t necessary because Jesus didn’t read the text—he quoted it from memory. We know he quoted it because he said it in a different order than it was written. And not just a different order, he included things that Isaiah said in a previous section of the scroll. Here’s what He said:

Luke 4:17–19 (ESV)

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

After reading these words he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

That was it. He was done.

You have to imagine that scene to make sense of it. Imagine that you were there in the crowd. Maybe Jesus was just a little older than you when you were growing up, or maybe your kids played with him. He was just an ordinary guy that grew up in your town, except that a bunch of people had been talking about him recently. So, he gets up to read the scroll of Isaiah… so what? He didn’t read much. He didn’t talk long. Any day that the preacher’s sermon is three sentences long is a good day! But its a little strange that he read so little, so everyone kind of stairs at him with a pregnant pause. Is that all? Isn’t there something else? They’d been hearing such wonderful things about his little sermons in the towns along the way to Nazareth, but here, he just reads a few sentences and sits down? Surely there was more.

As they stared at him, Jesus broke the silence with a statement that was guaranteed to make people mad.

Luke 4:21 (ESV)

“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Boom. That was one of those mic-drop moments.

If you weren’t from that area of the world or from that time frame than you can be forgiven for not knowing why that would be a mic drop moment. Let me fill you in on the cultural context.

Before I do, it’s important to understand someone’s cultural context, isn’t it? When we look at someone, white, latino, arabic, native, asian, Indian or black we find ourselves making assumptions. We bring our cultural context to interpret what they’re saying or going through. People rarely seek to understand the context through which someone else sees the world. We have to get to know the story of their life and the culture they filter things through if we’re going to have any hope of understanding them.

Jesus knew exactly the cultural moment he was living in, and saying these words was guaranteed to be a big deal.

The passage he read from in Isaiah was a prediction about the Anointed one. When someone says the name and title, Jesus Christ, they are saying, Jesus, the anointed one. But in Nazareth Jesus wasn’t the anointed one. He was at best a neighborhood kid, and at worst, the subject of a scandal because of the questions around his birth. When he said, “today these words have been fulfilled” he was saying, “i’m the anointed one; I’m the Christ.”

Everyone’s mouth fell open. They couldn’t believe what he was saying. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” everyone was asking each other. And more than that, he quoted from a passage that wasn’t usually associated with the anointed one. You see, the people of Israel were looking for a deliverer, not an aid worker. They were looking for a political and military leader. They thought the anointed one would be a charismatic, powerful warlord. And then Jesus said the anointed one will bring good news to the poor and liberty to the oppressed. So when he said, “today this scripture has been fulfilled” he was shattering their cultural expectations and describing himself as this new kind of anointed one.

As their mouths fell open Jesus continued:

Luke 4:23–27 CEV

Jesus answered: You will certainly want to tell me this saying, “Doctor, first make yourself well.” You will tell me to do the same things here in my own hometown that you heard I did in Capernaum. But you can be sure that no prophets are liked by the people of their own hometown. Once during the time of Elijah there was no rain for three and a half years, and people everywhere were starving. There were many widows in Israel, but Elijah was sent only to a widow in the town of Zarephath near the city of Sidon. During the time of the prophet Elisha, many men in Israel had leprosy. But no one was healed, except Naaman who lived in Syria.

When the townspeople heard him say this they were filled with wrath. They rose up and drove him out of town to the edge of hill and they would have pushed him off a cliff but he passed through the crowd and went on his way.

Notice the subject of Isaiah that Jesus read that day—it was focused on supporting and helping people in need and the oppressed. He said that God had anointed Him to give good news to the poor. To bind up the brokenhearted. To say, “set the captive free!” To give liberty to the oppressed. And then he connected two stories of the generosity and blessing of God going to the whole world — a leper from Syria healed, food provided for a widow in Lebanon. It’s unfortunate, but understandable why the people in Nazareth got so angry with Jesus. Many cultures today would do the same thing. In fact, many people who claim to be followers of Christ—the anointed one—want to marginalize the poor and handicapped, and expel the immigrants who come from other countries.

At the heart of the story of the Christian religion is Christ—the one anointed to bring good news to the poor and help to the oppressed. If you are a muslim then you believe in the prophet Isa, who claimed to be anointed to help the poor and oppressed. If you are Jewish then you believe in Isaiah who said that the anointed one, the messiah, would bring good news to the poor and help to the oppressed. This story I’m telling you today is universally applicable to three of the most influential religions in world today, representing more than half of the world’s population.

Now I want to bring one more thought into this conversation. It comes from the prophet Hosea. God was talking to His followers and he said this:

Hosea 6:6 NLT

I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.

People around the world through all time and from all religions are going through the motions of religious service. They offer prayers, light candles, pay offerings, do penance, burn incense, sing songs or whatever it is their particular religion does. There’s a regular round of religious activities—”sacrifices”—that people do. But this statement puts it all into focus—I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.”

Long before Jesus walked into that synagogue and said, “God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor and help the oppressed” God said to the world, “I want you to show love.” But its a whole lot easier to do some religious activity than it is to show love. Showing love requires generosity and selflessness. It demands that we set aside our own preferences and rights and bless others, even those we are at odds with.

Some people may not like that kind of generosity. It cuts accross the political and social culture of our day. It challenges people’s theology and makes people feel uncomfortable.

My church’s weekly food bank ministry is giving boxes of food to thousands of families, most of whom will never walk through the door of our church. We call it “disinterested benevolence” because we give benevolently without having any potential benefit from the giving. No one in that group gives money to our church. No one attends our church, and we don’t ask them to. We give because God said, “I want you to show love.” Honestly, it’s a small assistance in a sea of need. We contribute so little to the significant problems in our community. And that’s one of the reasons that I’ve come here to share with you today. I want our church to make an impact. I want us to be able to say that God has anointed us to proclaim good news to the poor. *Someone once said that if its not good news to the poor, then it isn’t good news.* I want us to be part of the group that is able to proclaim liberty to the captive and oppressed. I recognize that as a church family we need to understand the needs of our community better, and find ways to having a lasting and meaningful impact in our world.

You are a piece of the fulfillment of what Jesus said in the Nazareth Synagogue so long ago. You are making an impact with your hearts of kindness and love.

I don’t know what purpose you have in life, but I know that when you contribute in any way to World Relief’s mission to engage the World’s greatest crises, you are showing love. You are practicing the highest form of religion. In some way you represent God’s hands and feet and lips. He is demonstrated in your kindnesses, your words of encouragement, your hours of service. Thank you for showing love to our world.