1-9-2014

   Good Morning to All,

    Luke 4: 18-19; “The Spirit of the Lord is with me.  He has anointed me to tell the Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to announce forgiveness to the prisoners of sin and the restoring of sight to the blind, to forgive those who have been shattered by sin, to announce the year of the Lord’s favor.”

    This was part of the reading from Isaiah that Jesus read to the people in Nazareth when he first began his ministry.  That would be quite the announcement.  That is the kind of announcement that I would like to make in church one Sunday:  “He has anointed me to tell the Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to announce forgiveness to the prisoners of sin and the restoring of sight to the blind, to forgive those who have been shattered by sin, to announce the year of the Lord’s favor.”

    That should really make people sit up.  They might even adjust the radio.  I wonder how some would react to me saying that.  I bet some would get pretty offended if I said that.  I am sure some would figure that it wasn’t really my place to say this.  It would take a lot of nerve to make a statement like that.  I could probably get away with in Stratford but at Mansfield it would be over the radio and someone would hear it.  Then there would be trouble.  I know someone would not like it.  The ironic thing is that the people of Nazareth didn’t like it when Jesus said this either.  They thought he was being a little “out of his league.”  He was just the carpenter’s son; he has no authority to say this.

    Yet we know that Jesus is the Son of God and this message definitely applied to him.  He came to the world in order to make this announcement.  His coming made a dramatic and climatic change in human history.  His death, resurrection and ascension gives him the power and the authority to say this; but what about me?  I’m just a farm boy from South Dakota.

    What gives me, and you, the power and authority to say this?  Jesus does!!  He tells us to announce the grace of God to everyone.  We are to announce the Good News, especially to the poor in spirit.  Those who know of their failures of their lack of goodness; those who know that they have not kept God’s law and feel the pain of it.  To those people, we announce the forgiveness to the prisoners of sin.  Those to whom the weight of sin brutally pushes them down, we offer relief; we offer hope.  To those whose lives have been shattered and destroyed by sin, to those who have had the very depths of their soul scourged by the pain of sin; we announce the year of the Lord’s favor.  We announce it to the world because Jesus announced it to us.

    So we share this Good News!!  You are forgiven and freed from the bondage of sin.  We are rejuvenated by His grace and mercy.  It is truly the year of the Lord’s favor- you are redeemed!

Father of all grace, in you we have favor.  In you we have salvation and hope.  Help us to proclaim that favor and that hope.  Help us to reach the poor and those imprisoned by the weight of sin.  Help them to know your forgiveness; help them to experience your grace.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret