"The Healing Ministry"

Luke 4:14-21

Jesus is starting His ministry, and as he begins, he begins the same place where I began mine - in His own hometown, in His own home church. I remember what that was like, coming back after years of college and seminary, for my ordination, and seeing all the people who had helped my folks raise me. Believe me, it was a group effort! These were the people who knew everything I had ever done - it was like the Psalmist said, "my sin is ever before me." I thought I might preach on, "remember not the sins of my youth" but, unlike Jesus, I wasn't given the chance to address the congregation. I just had to sweat it out and hope no one said anything. Luckily, people tend to remember the good more than the bad, so it turned out all right.

Jesus, as He addresses the hometown crowd, lifts up His vision of ministry. It is a large vision, of a ministry centered on healing and hope. But it is also a disturbing vision, because it challenges the way we think about faith, and religion, and about our calling as God’s people. It challenges us. It challenged his family and friends so much, in fact, that the people of his hometown became incensed, and tried to kill him.

This is the vision He lifted up before them, quoted from Isaiah:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor.

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To preach deliverance to the captives

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed,

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

Now, we have to understand that this Isaiah text comes in the middle of some of the texts we usually remember at Christmas time. All of them are centered around a common theme - the Year of Jubilee. Jubilee was a kind of pre-figuring of the coming Kingdom of God. For the Jewish people of Jesus' time, Jubilee was a bit like Christmas. It was a time to remember all of God's promises, about them being a light to the Gentiles, about the lion lying down with the lamb, and all those things. It felt good to hear those things, sort of comforting. So, at first, the people were really happy to hear Jesus talk about these things.

But the text is not meant to be comforting. It's a lot like Mary's song. The poor have good news preached to them, but the rich are sent away empty. He has come to heal the brokenhearted, but to afflict the comfortable. He has come to preach deliverance to the captives, but to proclaim that the righteous are bound to their sin. He has come to give recovery of sight to the blind, but to close the eyes of those who see. He has come to set at liberty those who are oppressed, but to throw down those who oppress. He has come to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, but also to proclaim that, for many, that will be a day of darkness, not of light.

The people of Jesus' hometown wanted the promises, they wanted to hear that "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world." They wanted to hear that God wanted to bless them, that they were God's special people. But they didn't want to have their complacency challenged. They didn't want to have their parochialism challenged. They wanted an easy faith – just a "you and me, God" sort of faith, that didn’t require a lot from them. But God has a habit of pulling the pins out from under our life, of challenging our limited vision, of challenging our complacency.

Jesus draws out, for them, in very large print, the vision that God has for Him - and for them, and for us, as His people. God has called them to be light to the world, to be instruments of healing and reconciliation, to be agents of liberation. And he will not settle for less.

You know, I've been trying to get us to work on a Mission Statement here at St. Johns. It's important for the church to know what it's mission is. As the scriptures say, "without a vision, the people perish. We need to know in what direction we are headed, so we don't just drift. But there is also a danger in that. I don't know how many of you have ever tried the high jump. I tried it in gym class in high school and college – I wasn’t very good at it. But every congregation has to do a kind of high jump. Every church sets up its own bar for the jump. Some set them low. My first church had a sign that said, "the family church." Maybe in our day being a family church is a bit of a challenge. But saying that you are a church for families leaves a lot of people out; it's a pretty low bar to jump – maybe a foot or two. Others say, "We're a God-fearing church!" That's not too hard. You just have to hire someone who can preach a little fire and brimstone, and scare people a little with God. That hurdle is about one foot high. Others say, "We're the friendly church." O.k. Now you've hit about three feet. A few have trouble with that hurdle. Every congregation, though, sets a standard for themselves – some low, and some high.

In New Bern our church was right smack dab in the center of town, in the middle of all of the hurts and frustrations of life, that said, "We are the caring church." "We are going to care for you with the love of Jesus Christ." Now there’s a high bar! Man, that sounds great! Suddenly we have come in, and we've taken that bar, and we've lifted it way up, and set a new standard. It is way up there, higher than most can jump. And we looked at that, and we turned to the other churches in town and dared them to match it. That was a hurdle worth jumping! But then, just as we were feeling pretty good about it, God came and taped us on the shoulder, and said, "o.k. – now let’s see you jump it!"

We hadn't thought about that - that we'd actually have to jump it! It looked pretty good when we set it up there. It looked like we were really doing something. And, of course, we’d taken a couple of practice shots when it was a little lower, just to let the competition know that we were in the jumping business. But then, you know - the more you look at that bar, the higher it looked, and the more impossible the jump seemed. We start thinking to ourselves - "Wait a minute! No one can really jump that!" In fact, it would have been pretty easy to scare ourselves right out of trying. And the fact is that, sometimes we jumped it, and sometimes we fell short.

That's where Jesus' friends and neighbors were that day. That's why they ended up turning on Jesus. They liked it when God was telling them nice things about them – when He told them that they were jumpers, too. But when Jesus raised the bar, when He challenged them – they turned out to be all talk. And no one likes to be exposed. They looked at the bar, and said, "of course we can’t do it! No one can!" But, of course, when you start thinking that way, that's when it's most important to do just that - to jump the bar. You walk back to the end of the runway. You focus on doing it just the way you have been taught, the way you have rehearsed it so many times, the way you did it when the bar was lower. You make your approach. You go up. And suddenly you are sailing - up, up, over the bar! You are carried on wings of grace, and you clear it, with air to spare. Or, sometimes you fall flat on your face, and have to get up and try again.

Jesus has called us to the healing ministry to be a place of healing and wholeness, a place people can go to when they are hurting, or broken, or have sinned, or need help to make it through the day, and know that they will be accepted, and loved, and helped and healed. Frankly, a lot of times we are tempted to be less than that – to lower the standard to something that won’t inconvenience us so much. But I don’t think God is going to let us do that.

This congregation has placed the bar high – we are known in this community as a compassionate church. We are known for helping people - and not just our own people. We are known for the quality of people who attend here, for their love of the Lord and their love of others. Each time we engage in those kind of ministries, we set the bar a little higher. Because, after all, there is one mark at the top that we are striving to attain – the one that will give us the winners crown of victory. It is the mark that Jesus set, that has His name engraved in gold on it. That is the final standard by which we must judge ourselves – the one we strive to obtain – the image of Christ-likeness.

God’s Spirit is upon us. It rests upon us, it dwells here, among us, today. It calls us to ministry – to Jesus’ own healing ministry, to be His body - to set the bar high - to preach the good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim that this year - 2007 - is the acceptable year of the Lord, the time of healing, of release and liberation.