[6 July 2008]

Luke 4:14-20

The passage we have just read from Luke’s gospel is Jesus’ first recorded public message. Having been away from home doing some religious stuff, he was asked on his return to read the scripture reading and offer a comment and the passage he chose was startling. From Isaiah 61 he read:

The Lord’s Spirit has come upon me, he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor.

The Lord has chosen me to announce freedom and pardon to prisoners, to give sight to those who are blind, to set the burdened and battered free, and to announce the year of the Lord’s favour.

He then sat down as was custom to give the sermon, but there was no long address that day. He simply says, ‘what I’ve just read has come true right now in this place.’ There was a stunned silence as everyone looked intently at Jesus. No-one quite knew what to say because Jesus clearly was meaning God had chosen him to do these things. The muttering began, ‘hey isn’t this lad Joe’s son. Hasn’t he been away in the desert for a while? Obviously the heat has got to him.’ Well you know the rest of the story as bad went to worse and the local congregation ran Jesus out of town.

People just didn’t get it did they? They just couldn’t see how Jesus could be God’s chosen one, the one who would bring good news to the poor, give freedom to the oppressed, sight to those who were blind, and radically bring about a whole new society where people were set free. I sometimes wonder if we are much different. Here was Jesus saying God wants to do something new and God has chosen me to make it happen and we cynically respond along with those Tui ads, “yeah right!”

Jesus clearly worked on a rather simple assumption. Yes the world was a wonderful place created by God, but it was also terribly screwed up. In his community poverty was rife with a small wealthy elite and a huge peasant class who struggled to survive. Human dignity was constantly trampled upon and religion instead of setting people free had often become sterile, impotent, and separated from the grace of God. Absolutely central to his message was the vision of a new kingdom or society that he called the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God. He taught his disciples to pray about this kingdom every time they prayed and he taught them to pray that this kingdom would come amongst them here on earth. Things in God’s Kingdom would be very different. People wouldn’t simply fit in with what everyone else did but they would be shaped by the truth, compassion, and justice of God. There were signs of this new kingdom in our lives, but like yeast these little pockets of heaven in our midst had yet to break forth and really give life to the dough.

I have no doubt that central to the Kingdom of God was the idea that each one of us as individuals participates in this kingdom when we act with kindness and honesty and grace towards one another. Every act of love, every word of truth, every delight in the beauty of creation, every deed that honours God is part of this kingdom. Each one of us as individuals plays a part. But there is more than this because in our world evil plays a much deeper part than in our own individual hearts. I don’t know of anyone who really thinks in their heart that it is good that so many children die of poverty and disease, but this is a reality of our world. I haven’t met anyone who says violence and war is a wonderful blessing of God, but there it is - a curse throughout our world.

The reality is that poverty, freedom, overcoming blindness and ignorance, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favour involves more than just changing the hearts of individuals. There are powers of evil that need to be confronted by communities and by nations. When the great Christian reformer William Wilberforce took on the issue of slavery in England he knew he had to take on the powerful elites and the blind masses that benefited from this terrible practice. He had to get his hands dirty with politics and he had to suffer as someone who said there has to be another way. He had to confront on what the apostle Paul called the powers at work in his society, and that required all his strength and the strength of God.

Jesus said he came as good news to the poor. According to figures from the World Bank about half the world’s population try to survive on less than $2 a day. 30,000 children die every day of hunger and preventable diseases. There is some good news for the percentage of chronically under nourished people has actually been falling slowly worldwide, and particularly in some Asian countries where their economies have developed there has been some real progress. Still however there is a prevailing attitude that the poor are lazy and that hard working people like ourselves get our just rewards. But let me remind you of this. The people who made most of the clothes and shoes you and I are wearing are young women many of whom are trying to be mothers. They are probably sitting at a sewing machine for working 18 hours a day 7 days a week and they are probably earning about a dollar an hour. They are often glad for these jobs, because the alternatives are not good, but their hard work enriches not them but those of us in the wealthy countries who pride ourselves on getting a bargain. The truth is it isn’t a just world. When the prophet Isaiah spoke of God’s Kingdom he said that in this kingdom people would be paid a fair wage and they would enjoy the benefits of their hard work. We are all caught up in these patterns of production but I feel a great sense of unease and something burns within me. This is not right, this is not how the Kingdom of God should be is it? I’m proud we have taken some steps to get involved with global poverty as a congregation with our mission project in education for poor people in Vanuatu, but more needs to be done.

Jesus said he came to set prisoners free. I’m not thinking so much of the prisoners that we visit month by month at Paparua and other places, but of the millions of slaves entrapped in our world today. Some of you saw the recent movie about William Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery in Britain, but we are slowly realizing that slavery in many forms is still very alive and well throughout the world. Wherever people are forcibly dehumanized Jesus weeps, for in the Kingdom every one is given the opportunity to participate and contribute freely to the community of which they are part.

Jesus said he came to overcome blindness and of course he was not primarily thinking of physical blindness but the blindness to truth we all suffer from. We thought there were endless riches like oil for us to consume at will but we are now realizing this is not so. Prices of petrol are I believe not going to come down significantly because suppliers now realize the supply is not limitless and demand is increasing. As the people of Easter Island and other civilizations have learned before us we can not strip the resources of the earth bare without thought of our fellow citizens of the world and the generations to follow us. We are going to have to open our eyes and seek another way that takes seriously the reality that 1.2 billion Chinese and more Indians will have automobiles, washing machines, and eat more meat. If Jesus is indeed a hero who can inspire us to take seriously our responsibility to others in the world and those yet to be born then surely this is the time to open our eyes and admit our blindness to the myth of ‘consume all you want’.

Jesus came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. This was the jubilee year when all debts were cancelled and people were given a fresh start. This amazing concept is found in our scriptures and has been recently adopted by some Christians who believe it has direct relevance to the situation today where many nations have absolutely no way of freeing themselves from the debt repayments which past leaders have landed them with. No-one doubts that corruption has been a major cause of debt, but to ask poverty ridden nations to pay debts back to rich western countries while their people literally starve and die of preventable diseases is simply immoral. In the year 2000 developed nations gave the developing nations 3% of their GDP in aid. But the developing nations paid over double this amount to the developed countries in debt repayment – more than twice what they received in aid. It is no surprise to us then that so many die needlessly from starvation and preventable illness, but this could be turned around with debt forgiveness and careful management of aid. Such is the life in the acceptable year of the Lord.

There are three things I want to simply state in closing. The first is that I we need to be careful where we put the blame for these things. Jesus was quite clear that in seeking the Kingdom of God we need to seek justice and truth. Too often I think people like us feel guilty about our position or our wealth. I don’t think that is particularly helpful. What we need is not guilt but a commitment to the justice and truth of God’s Kingdom. Secondly you have heard me rave on about the work of Dorothy Butler Bass and her research in looking at why mainline churches grow. Yes the seeking of justice is one of the spiritual practices she has isolated that is often present in churches that are growing. So, thirdly if you are interested in this spiritual practice, if you feel called by God to use your gifts in being part of the growth of God’s Kingdom through justice and truth please speak with me. I think this is a much neglected part of our life as a church and I know God has called me to work in this area.

return to Recent Sermons | home