Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Bekkah and I were talking with some friends of our who came to visit a while back and we were sitting up in the evening after the kids had gone to bed and we were talking about work and life and bouncing around from topic to topic as people do. As we were talking the wife began to speak about her childhood because we had been talking about her family’s cabin. We knew that she was one of 6 children in the family, but she began to tell us how she would get hand-me-down clothes, or homemade clothes. She told us about how they always had enough to eat but that with that large of a family there wasn’t always leftovers after meals. And she shared with us how they never went on big vacations like you hear about today or had big birthday parties.

As she was sharing her stories of her growing up, she also made it abundantly clear that she never once considered herself or her family poor. There may not have been leftovers but there was always food on the table and her clothes may not have always been new to her, but she always had clothes to wear no matter what. She was able to go to school and get an education, she was able to get a job and was married and lives a blessed life.

Honestly, as I listened to her story I was thankful for her sharing, but I didn’t think too much about it until I started to read today’s scripture reading. When Jesus returns to his home town and read from the scroll of Isaiah he quotes what we now know as . Isaiah talks about bringing good news to the poor, release of the captives, helping the blind, setting the oppressed free, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor. As I read that reading the word poor stuck out to me and for some reason that conversation we had that night came flooding back.

As that conversation with our friends came flooding back into my memory I began to think about other conversations that I have had with people throughout my life who have had similar experiences and people who were poor by most definitions and yet they never felt they were and felt that they had enough in this life. So I began to really think about and wonder what it means to be poor, especially in terms of the Bible. Does poor just have to mean that a person does not have material wealth or possessions? Certainly we can talk in terms of materials and in a consumer society that what we have helps determine whether we are rich, middle class, poor, or anywhere in-between these designations.

If we think of poor in the common definition of the word, and we look up the definitions of poor in Bible dictionaries then we can see that the word poor is defined as those who are completely dependent upon the monetary support or goods that other people provide for them. So when we see the poor blind man begging on the side of the road in scripture we are then lead to believe that if this man is poor then his sole survival is based on the kindness of those who see him and provide for him. We definitely want to take this idea of poor seriously as we see poor in our own community and try to find ways to help them through community programs as well as our own Thursday Outreach Lunch program that helps to feed the underemployed and unemployed of our community. We help through giving to programs like Cornerstone and helping at the food bank.

There is another definition of poor as well that has nothing to do with physical possessions, but has everything to do with spiritual possessions. This definition can be seen most clearly in and . What is interesting here is that Luke simply mentions those who are poor leaving us to interpret what kind of poor Jesus is talking about, but Matthew clearly sates that it is the poor in spirit that are blessed and that they are the ones that receive the kingdom of heaven. I could be wrong, but I have sense that we talk about and focus a great deal on the material poor in this world, and we should because all people should have access to food and water and shelter, but I think we focus on and talk less about the spiritual poorness of people.

Are we not just as responsible and called to care for the spiritual wellness of people as we are for their physical wellness? Could not the rest of the list be interpreted the same way? Could we not bring good news of Jesus Christ to those who are poor in spirit? Those who are struggling with their faith, but also those who have no faith and can understand what it means to have spiritual wealth in this life and the next. To release those who are captive to sin and guilt and not just those who find themselves in a physical prison? To bring sight to those who for some reason have been blinded to God’s love for them? How often do we hear stories of people who have been hurt by a church or a Christian and are now blinded to the love of Christ or to a church community? And not only do we oppress people with laws in our society and in societies in the world, but there are times and places when we don’t let people in our worship or in our ministries participate because of one reason or another? How instead can we free all people in all situations to experience the love of God in Christ Jesus through all that we say and do?

Jesus lists all of these things from quoting Isaiah as things that Isaiah has said that need to be done in the name of God and what Jesus tells those gathered in Nazareth and us today is that TODAY this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. In Jesus everything has been fulfilled and we see that happen as he goes through his ministry feeding thousands, healing the blind, and curing people from all parts of Israel. But what I have always tried to point out when I talk about people who are widows and poor, those who are blind and and oppressed is that not only does Jesus meet their physical needs, but he also restores them to their faith. A blind person who can see again and a leper who is cured is both cured of their physical ailments, but also returned to their faith because they are no longer considered unclean.

The interesting part of the wording is that not only has the Scripture of curing and providing all those things to those people has been fulfilled, but it also means that it is ongoing. This is not something complete, but something that is still happening TODAY. Jesus began the ministry of restoring people to their physical, but more importantly to their spiritual. Jesus does that for us and invites us to do the same for others. We are co-workers with Christ to bring about the good news that the poor both in physical and in spirit are cared and loved for by us. May we open ourselves to listen to the Spirit’s calling to live out and continue the ministry of bringing the good news to all who are in need of hearing it.

Amen.