Untitled Sermon (6)

After his baptism and temptation in the desert, after his first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee, Jesus headed home to Nazareth. While there, he did what a lot of us do when we go home; he went to his “home church,” although in this case it was his “home synagogue.” But Jesus didn’t just sit in the pew and greet old friends; he actually led some of the service. As the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was unrolled, Jesus read these words, “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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” For Jesus, these words are not just a reading, but also a declaration of his purpose, of God’s vision for all people. For Jesus these words are a description of who he is and what he is about. When Jesus reads in the synagogue in Nazareth, he is declaring that his ministry as Messiah calls him to be an agent of mercy to the down-trodden in this world. He will be good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight for the blind, freedom for all the oppressed, and new beginnings for all who have failed. And if that is Christ’s vision and purpose, then so it should be for each of us who claims to follow this Messiah.

Sadly, though, we modern Christians have managed to lose sight of this central aspect of Jesus’ ministry, and so what was definitive to the work that Jesus did in his time on earth, means very little to us and the work that we do today. A fellow preacher notes that “ is one of the most ignored, watered down, spiritualized, or glossed-over texts in many [Christian churches], evading or emptying Jesus’ first statement of his [vision and purpose].” He goes on to say, “Jesus said the gospel was for the poor and oppressed, speaking to those at the margins of society.

Jesus was announcing that he came to liberate from real oppressive structures the marginalized—the impoverished, the war captives, the poor in health, the political prisoners.Jesus came to turn the economic structures upside down, beginning the year of Jubilee when crushing debts were forgiven and slaves were freed.”Really, it’s no wonder we have lost touch with the importance of this scene from Luke.

All of this is very challenging for those of us who are not among the poor, marginalized, oppressed, or imprisoned of our society. We are threatened by the idea of the turning upside down of economic and power structures that currently work for our benefit. We are scared by the thought that prisoners might walk free. And at its very root, we just don’t like change, which is exactly what Jesus is talking about here. This is truly radical stuff. In Jesus’ day, these words called for a new righteousness—no longer is it strict adherence to the law that matters, it’s how you treat others. In our day, these words mean a turn from the self-righteousness that is so pervasive in our culture to a genuine concern for our neighbor.

Jesus

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

English Standard Version Chapter 35

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

6  then shall the lame man leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

6  then shall the lame man leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

().

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr will forever hold a place in the hearts of millions of people around the world. The immediate need for freedom from racism, discrimination and flat out brutality toward African Americans will forever be King’s message. However, Dr. King also used his platform to shed light on global poverty.He expressed the need for poverty to be abolished and the need for nations to come together to combat this growing problem. Here are excerpts of Dr. King’s written documents concerning the dire need to end poverty.Excerpts from Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize address in 1964: “A second evil which plagues the modern world is that of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, it projects it’s nagging, prehensile tentacles in lands and villages all over the world. Almost two thirds of the peoples of the world go to bed hungry at night. They are undernourished, ill-housed, and shabbily clad. Many of them have no houses or beds to sleep in. Their only beds are the sidewalks of the cities and the dusty roads of the villages. Most of these poverty-stricken children of God have never seen a physician or a dentist.”“So it is obvious that if a man is to redeem his spiritual and moral ‘lag,’ he must go all out to bridge the social and economic gulf between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s’ of the world. Poverty is one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life.”“There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”“The time has come for an all- out world war against poverty.”“The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for ‘the least of these.'”Excerpts from Dr. King’s “Let My People Go” speech. Human Rights Day December 10, 1965: “Africa does have spectacular savages and brutes today, but they are not black. They are the sophisticated white rulers of South Africa who profess to be cultured, religious and civilized, but whose conduct and philosophy stamp them unmistakably as modern-day barbarians.We are in an era in which the issue of human rights is the central question confronting all nations. In this complex struggle an obvious but little appreciated fact has gained attention-the large majority of the human race is non-white-yet it is that large majority which lives in hideous poverty. While millions enjoy an unexampled opulence in developed nations, ten thousand people die of hunger each and every day of the year in the undeveloped world.”An excerpt from “Where do we go from Here: Chaos or Community” written in 1967: Sadly this is Dr. King’s last book before he was tragically assassinated.“I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective – the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed matter: the guaranteed income.”

(). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

So what is our obligation?

Its to proclaim (PREACH) good news to the poor. The poor does not need to hear disparaging remarks that the neighbor they grew up is all bad. or the country they come from is considered a S-HOLE country. Its needs to hear a message of hope like what on the inscription of the statue of liberty Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Proclaim liberty to the captives

Recovering the sight of the blind

Set at Liberty those who are free

to proclaim the year of the Lords Favor