What Are We Doing For God? A SERMON

What Are We Doing For God?
Nehemiah 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10/ 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31/ Luke 4: 14-21
Third Sunday after Epiphany/ January 24, 2010/ Year C

I have, as most of you have done, been watching and listening to the reports of the relief efforts that have been undertaken in Haiti since the earthquakes struck that tiny country 11 days ago. I have been amazed by the stories of heroic measures that have been done to save hundreds of lives, and brought to tears by the images that have been broadcast around the globe by the journalists and reporters on the ground there. I have cheered when stars like Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, Bono and Rhianna, Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris, Mary J. Blige and George Clooney and so many others have given their time and their money to ensure that help is given to the hurting people of Haiti.
And yet I keep wondering how people can criticize doctors and journalists for assisting people who are injured, hungry, and homeless.
Sanjay Gupta the Doctor/ Journalist has been roundly criticized by the news community for helping care for the injured ( he is one of the few trained doctors in neurosurgery currently present in Haiti) when there is such a huge shortage of doctors and nurses to care for the victims of the quake. Anderson Cooper, the silver-haired Journalist from CNN ( Who was one of the first one the scene) has been cricified because he joined in the rescue efforts and got his hands dirty helping to dig a little girl trapped in the rubble. They have been criticized because they have crossed the line of what it means to be a neutral observer in the face of overwhelming destruction, grief, and despair. What has happened to compasssion and mercy, not to mention justice?
Jesus came to Nazareth his hometown to visit. It was the Sabbath. As was his custom, he went the Synagogue to worship and pray. He was there with family and friends that had known him since he was a child. On this particular Sunday, Jesus volunteers to read the sacred texts, choosing the section from Isaiah that describes the role of the one who had been promised, the Anointed one, the Messiah. He stands to read on a special platform before the whole congregation. Can you image how he felt to stand before family and friends and read these words aloud? It must have taken great courage. His voice rings out across the room:

“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 God’s favor.

In that moment, the Spirit came upon him once again and filled him with the knowledge that he was doing and proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom. He is living out the call to carry out the mission for which he had been sent. When he reads Isaiah 62: 1-2, in the synagogue he is declaring that his ministry in the Spirit as Messiah of God calls him to be an agent of mercy to the downtrodden in this world: he will be good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and new beginnings for all those who have failed. It is as some have said the defining moment of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is saying to the crowd gathered, family and friends, stranger and foe alike, that is his life work will be to heal the broken hearted; announce release to the prisoners of war; recover sight for the blind; to heal the wounded, and to proclaim the acceptable Year of the Lord. Jesus’ announcement that day says to the gathered community that they can no longer see him simply as a village carpenter or as Mary and Joseph’s boy. He is the one they have been waiting to come all their lives, and their grandparent’s lives and the generations before them. The carpenter’s son is the Messiah.
The Holy Spirit now fills him with the will and the resolve to become for the people the Messiah. As the Rev. Joan Grey, Moderator of the 217th General Assembly of the PCUSA has commented, “When you really think about, this “dunamis”, (this power) of the Spirit is the only thing the early church had going for it. It had no buildings, no budget, no paid staff, and very few members.” (Feasting on the Word Vol. 1 Year c, p.286) The opposite is true today: we have buildings, budgets, staff and members, but do we have the power of the Spirit? It is the Holy Spirit that gives us something to do.
Everyone wants to know how we are doing as a church. The real question we must ask is “What are we doing for God? Jesus steps forward in the Synagogue that day and lays out his mission statement, the mission statement of the Church, our Mission statement as followers of the Anointed One. He was filled with the power of the Spirit to bring good news to the poor. To know our mission in life and understand what God has given us to do are as important to us as they were to Jesus.
If we are the body of Christ, as Paul says in 1Corinthians 12, we are called to live out this calling of Christ to live in the power of the Spirit, to reach out to the lives around us, to poor, the powerless, the hungry, the hurt, those who live under the oppressive structures of this world; the impoverished, the war captives, the poor in health, those who have lost their homes, their families and the little income that they had.
All of this is very threatening and challenging to those of us who are not among the poor, marginalized, oppressed or imprisoned of our society to hear. It is threatening to contemplate the turning upside down of economic structures from which we benefit; but we need to have the moral courage to listen to the intention that God has for humanity ad Jesus proclaims it in Luke 4.
In John Kennedy’s inaugural Speech in 1961, he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” I would like to rephrase that statement saying: “Ask not what God can do for you, but what you can do for God. “

What can we do for God? Jesus gives us the answer:
“Come, then, you that are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing, and when I was sick or in prison and your visited me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when was it we saw you hungry and gave you food, o thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? When was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you? And the king will answer them “Truly I tell you when you have done it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25)

How can we know that we have the power of the Spirit? We know because the Holy Spirit gives us something to do for God and a time to do it. There is a sense of urgency in this message from Jesus that day in Nazareth, and there is still a sense of urgency in the message to us today. We cannot sit idly by, casting judgment on people because they are poor, or disabled, or suffering. We become true followers of Christ when we act on behalf of others rescue, feed, care for and support those who are the least of these the members of God’s family. So say thank you to those men and women who by the power of the Spirit, against odds so great they are staggering, are attempting to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, healing to the brokenhearted, sight to those who refuse to see God at work in the midst of suffering and pain, setting those who are oppressed by grief, destruction and pain free. When we act on behalf of God then “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your Presence” becomes reality. Amen.