Luke 4:14-21
January 27, 2013
I had a conversation this week with a
few folks in our congregation about evangelism.
It was a short conversation, but a well timed one as I looked at this
text. You may or may not know this, but
our church – unlike many out there – has no evangelism committee. We might have in the past, we might in the
future, but right now, we have no evangelism committee. I suspect this is because many of us are
uncomfortable with the word “evangelism.”
It’s too much like “televangelist.”
It’s going out and telling people what they should believe, or what
church they should go to – ours. This is
generally not our corporate personality.
But, I couldn’t help thinking more about
this congregation and evangelism as I read this text from Luke.
These are the first public words of
Jesus in the gospel of Luke – and he talks about evangelism. The version Gail read says “the spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the
poor.” The Greek word for “bring good
news,” is “evanggelizo.” This word is
where Christians throughout the centuries have gotten the idea that the task of
Christians is to evangelize.
So, I thought I would muse a little bit
about what it means for our church – First Presbyterian – to evangelize. Namely:
Should we be evangelizing, and if so, how?
Should we be evangelizing? Well, if we listen to Luke, yes. This is not the only time he uses the word to
describe Jesus’ ministry; and he doesn’t only use it to talk about Jesus’ ministry…he uses it when talking about
what the disciples are doing after Jesus’ death and resurrection. For Luke, evangelism is Jesus’ ministry, and
it is ours to carry it on. Evanggilzo. Evangelize.
We might not agree with Luke that this
is what our ministry is supposed to be about.
That’s fair. But, if we at least
want to entertain him for a bit, we should look at what evangelism meant to
him…why he understood Jesus’ ministry as evangelism.
Neither Luke nor Jesus comes up with
this idea of evangelism all by themselves.
The passage Jesus is reading comes from the Hebrew bible. At first, no one listening would know he
might be talking about himself – much less us.
He was simply the liturgist that week.
He was just reading Isaiah – people would no more assume that when he
read “the spirit of the lord is upon me,” he was talking about himself than you
all assumed that of Gail when she read it.
It was the custom in the synagogue for
someone to go up front, be handed the scroll of the text for that day, stand
while reading it, roll it up, hand it back, and then sit down. That’s what Jesus is doing. It’s only after he reads from Isaiah and sits
down that we find out Jesus applies that passage to what he does and why.
It’s important to remember this because
it helps us relate to the story. Many
things have changed in the 3,000 years since the scriptures were written. We know that sometimes, no matter how hard we
try, we just can’t put ourselves in the shoes of the people in our
scriptures. The leap of context is too
big.
But one thing that seems to have never
changed: people gather to hear the
scriptures read and think about what that meant for them. This is what we do. And what we do – what we’re doing today – is directly
connected to what was happening that day in Nazareth. And that day – the day that kicks off
everything for Jesus, the scripture was about evangelism.
Now Isaiah’s version of evangelism that
Jesus reads about had nothing to do with getting more people to become Jewish
or to come to the synagogue.
Nothing. It was to take good news to the poor. The spirit sends out to proclaim release to the captives. Evangelism is letting the oppressed go free.
Evangelism is not about bringing people
in: It’s about being filled with the
spirit of God, being anointed by the spirit of God, and then living the good
news for the poor, captive, oppressed, wounded.
That’s the good news we share...the good news that comes from living out
the scriptures we hear every Sunday…that’s evangelism.
That’s what Isaiah thought of evangelism
– that’s the scripture Jesus read. But of
course, he doesn’t just stop with reading the scripture…and neither do we. Jesus quotes scripture, then gives a sermon:
maybe the shortest sermon ever: “Today,
this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” I don’t give short sermons – his whole sermon
is just the title of mine – but in my defense, I have learned over the years
that only the most impressive, intelligent, insightful people can do this –
give short sermons and speeches with incredible meaning. And those folks come along rarely in
history: compare the length of recent
inaugural speeches with that of Lincoln’s 2nd inaugural. And then, just for kicks and giggles, compare
which one – the short speech or the long – is more substantive…more profound. I, folks, am no Jesus.
But the point of the sermon – the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, is that
Jesus lives the scripture with his life – he fulfills them….with who he is, how
he lives, loves, heals, cares for, frees, and reconciles. When he preaches the sermon, now we find out
that he means that the spirit of the Lord has anointed him, and he lives good news to the poor…he is evangelism.
Evangelism is making the scriptures come
to life – embodying them with who you are.
The scriptures are not just to hear – they are to live…they are to be
evangelized.
We are doing exactly what happens in
this passage. People gathering together
to hear scripture read and then a sermon.
And today, we read that we are to evangelize. And my sermon this morning – though much more
lengthy – is in fact, when summed up in a sentance “today, the scriptures have
been fulfilled in your hearing.”
I can, with confidence preach the same
sermon today. The Spirit of the Lord is
upon us; we are anointed to evangelize – to bring good news to the poor. There are people in this church that drive
folks to medical appointments when they don’t have a car. Our church offers emergency financial aid to
people who are facing eviction. There
are people sitting here that cook and serve meals, raise money for Mica and
Heifer, and spend a lot of time thinking about who is in need and how to help
them.
We are anointed to bring good news to
the poor: Today, the scripture has been
fulfilled even as you hear it.
The spirit of the lord is upon us; we are sent to proclaim release to the
captives. There are people in our
congregation who go into our prisons and teach…people in our midst – students,
family, staff – who work to bring what’s offered to students at Grinnell
college to those mostly forgotten by everyone – certainly those who most
wouldn’t think deserve a top level, elite college education. It releases them from being “inmate” –
captive – to being “student” alongside some of the other most talented students
in the country being taught by the best and the brightest.
We are sent to proclaim release to the
captives: Today, the scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing.
The spirit of the lord is upon us; we are sent us to proclaim recovery of sight
to the blind. There are people sitting
here this morning who seek out those who wander lost – who can’t see their way
to hope, or see those who love and care about them. There are people here who sit with those who
are depressed and offer hope through loving presence. There are people who open the eyes of the
lonely, visiting them regularly, so they can see how loved and valued they
are. There are people who, every time
they sit with someone, talk to someone, listen to someone, show the face of God
through kindness and compassion – they let people see God.
We are sent to proclaim recovery of
sight to the blind: Today the scripture
has been fulfilled in your hearing.
The spirit of the lord is upon us; we
are to let the oppressed go free. There
are people in this room who have sat on living room floors with men and women
and children weighted down – oppressed – by the enormity of raising children without
enough resources. There are teachers and
counselors who work with kids in schools – schools oppressed by ever decreasing
resources and ever increasing challenges.
There are people in our midst who work
tirelessly to change systems that continually keep the same people down while
raising up the privileged: school systems, mental health systems, economic
systems. People who speak truth to
power, who never stop communicating with those who make laws and decisions that
oppress.
There are people who every day make
their work place more just, more compassionate, more humane through the
decisions they make, the way they conduct themselves, and the values they bring
to what they do – making these spaces free of oppression.
We are to let the oppressed go
free: Today the scripture has been
fulfilled in your hearing.
The spirit of the lord is upon us; we
are sent to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. There are people here who pray for
others. There are people here who,
during our prayer time, write down everything that’s said and then pray over
and over and over, day after day, the prayers that have been requested, not to
win favor for themselves, but because they know of God’s favor for those who
are hurting.
We are sent to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favor: Today the scripture has
been fulfilled in your hearing.
We are evangelists. We are evangelizing.
Today we were to ordain and install
officers in our church. These people are
entrusted with an awesome responsibility.
They are entrusted with discerning where the spirit of the Lord is,
where the spirit is moving, and then figuring out how we, as a church, can join
that movement. They come to church and
hear the scriptures and then seek to find ways for the whole church – not just
them – to make the scriptures live here, today…how to fulfill them.
Just like today, Jesus’ context was
mixed. The scripture was fulfilled, and
not. It was moving and living through
the work of the spirit, but not everywhere…changing everything. The same is true for us.
Sometimes we do no better than muddle
along. We – the session, the deacons,
me, you – are always making our best guess about where the spirit is moving and
sending us. We want that guess to be as
good, informed, faithful, deliberate, thoughtful as we can. But in the end, it is always just a
guess. We don’t have a light behind us
that lights up – the word “spirit” in neon letters or something – every time we
get it perfect.
But one of the ways we try to make our
best possible guess is by electing people from among us that we trust to spend
some time thinking about these things…people we trust to stop their lives as
usual to think about whether what we do is spirit filled or not – is evangelism
or not. They wonder together whether the
spirit might be leading us in surprising directions. They seek to find ways to give us all greater
opportunities to listen for the spirit as well.
We invite them to help us evangelize.
To make evangelism central to what we do. And we know the sign of successful evangelism
in not the number of members – in our church it’s how much we shift dynamics of
poverty, tear down things that oppress and enslave, that make captives, bring
favor to those least noticed and least liked.
We don’t have an evangelism committee at
our church – many, many others do. Or
maybe we do…it’s just that that particular committee is made of 100 people who
gather week after week to hear the scriptures then preach them with their very
lives. A pretty powerful and active
committee if you ask me. Amen.
