Anointed with the Spirit!

                                                            4th Sunday after the Epiphany!       

 

Focus Statement:      In this scripture, Jesus is filled with the Spirit and takes a scroll and reads from Isaiah

that he is anointed to bring good news to the poor, release of the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the captives go free.

 

Function Statement: Because of this sermon, the congregation will see that we too are filled with the Spirit

to reach the down and out, to even reach those who are a little rough around the edges.

 

Prayer

Luke 4:14-24

Watch clip: (dramatic reinactment of scripture)

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrChtUM4Qm8

 

Sermon manuscript:

Movement 1: 

When I was a kid, my parents didn=t do too much with me that had anything to do with sports.  I worked with my dad out in the yard and things like that, but we weren=t raised on basketball or baseball.  Dad did put up a basketball goal for me, and mom played Horse or Pony with me sometimes.  When I got into elementary school and they would pick teams, I was always one of the last ones to be picked!  If we ever formed groups in Science or other classes, everyone wanted to be in my group, but when it came to ball, I was one of the last to be picked.  It was like you take him and I=ll take him or her.  It was like deciding who was going to be stuck with me.  Before long, I was pretty well convinced that I couldn=t do it.  I mean, I did play catch with my neighbor across the fence in our backyard.  I could throw well playing with him, I could catch fly balls, line drives, and just about anything he threw, and he did play on a team, but when I was playing at school and the ball would come to me, you could just about bet I would miss it!  Every time we picked teams, it was reinforced that I was not the one to have on your team because I couldn=t play.  I don=t remember a coach ever giving me the time of day; that reinforced to me that I was not even worth teaching.  I was stereotyped that I couldn=t play.   I was just put on a team and given the position where I would hurt them the least!   By the time I got to Junior High and Senior High, I was convinced and never did go out for any kind of sports!  I fulfilled what they expected of me.

 

Movement 2:

Our scripture today is about. Jesus being filled with the Spirit, going to Nazareth, taking a scroll, and reading from the prophet Isaiah.  He says, AThe 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 the Lord=s favor.@  Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of that prophecy.  He said in essence, I have come to receive and minister to those who are outcasts!  He said the Spirit has empowered me to do this!  The Spirit is upon me! 

There are probably several reasons that this statement did not go over too well!  First, he wasn’t what they expected the Messiah to be.  He didn’t in their opinion come from royal blood but instead from a peasant family.  They had watched him grow up.  He didn’t seem that much different from any of them. They judged that he could not be the Messiah!  That is probably the reason for this initial reaction of surprise that he would claim to be the Messiah. 

As time went on, he continued to run into issues with them over what it meant to be “anointed to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  They felt they were the oppressed.  They felt like the Messiah should be for them, the Messiah should confirm what they already thought, but Jesus continued to reach out to the outcasts of society, like the woman at the well we talked about last week, who was a woman and a Samaritan.  He seemed to want to include those gentiles who they felt were the scum of the earth.  He ate with sinners which was a sign of acceptance in that day!  He even accepted in his inner circle a tax collector, who was known for stealing from them!  Yes, his idea of what he was anointed to do probably led to his later final rejection by them and crucifixion!  

 

Movement 3:

What about for us?   Sometimes, we do people the same way that I was done in school.  Sometimes, we look at people and decide whether we think they will receive our message.  We stereotype who will receive.  I remember, when I worked in a retail lumber and hardware store for a little while after graduating from high school, there was this particular carpenter team who was, to put it mildly, a little rough around the edges.  They talked and acted to me like they didn=t want anything to do with church.  They were hard to deal with! I didn=t even like to wait on them!  It seemed like they made it their goal to make it hard on us, and because they caused a lot of money to come through the store, we had to put up with them.  I was usually pretty good about witnessing to people or at least inviting them to church, but with this couple of guys, I am not sure I did that very well.  I was pretty convinced that they would reject what I had to say!  I pretty well judged them like I was judged that I could never be good at playing ball, and I made up my mind they were not worth my time, just like the coaches did with me.   I have since learned that sometimes the people who seem to be the most unreceptive are the ones who are struggling the most with the gospel message and may be the closest to making a change!  Jesus made it his mission to reach out to those who the religious leaders of the day didn’t feel like were worth their time!  The Church that Christ started was at least in part made up of people who the religious leaders would not have felt were worth their time, and they were very active in the early church and some even in the writing of the New Testament Scriptures!

 

As followers of the Christ, Jesus= mission becomes our mission.  We are the ones who are anointed with the Spirit Ato bring good news to the poor,@ Aproclaim release to the captives,@ Arecovery of sight to the blind,@ and Ato let the oppressed go free.@  Who are the outcasts today?  Who are the oppressed who need to be set free?  We are the ones anointed with the Spirit to reach out to those who are outcasts and a little rough around the edges with the gospel that gives them good news, release, sight, and freedom!  We are the ones to share the Love of God with them!  There are those people who are different then us all around; there are those people who are a little rough around the edges (at least to us) all around us.  Will we pre-judge them as not willing to receive our message before we try, or will we offer them the love of God?  Will we require them to be “just like us” or “clean up their act” before we will offer them the love of God?  Or will we throw the doors of our hearts and our church open to receive them?  We are anointed with the Spirit to do it!  That means we are not alone and God will help us to do it!  The Spirit will give us the words to say!  Are we willing to let God use us?  We do not go forth with this task of being the bearers of the good news alone, we are anointed with the Spirit of God!  We do not go forth alone!  That is the significance of the flame being carried out at the end of the service.  The flame represents Christ/God.  Jesus is the light of the world!  Christ goes out with us!  If you want to let God use you, as we encounter Christ at the table this morning, say to God, let your mission be my mission; use me!  Then go forth and share the Good News that God loves those you come in contact with and wants a relationship with them, and let God do the rest!  Amen!

 

Prayer of Confession

Service of Communion!