Luke 4:16-21 / 1 Corinthians 15:55-58
Are you an activist? Asking that question at different points in history would bring different things to your mind. An activist might be someone who is fighting for the right of women to vote. Or maybe it was someone who is arranging marches to show the white power structure that black people deserve dignity and equality and won’t give up fighting. An activist might mean someone who wants to remove the use of oil from our world. Are you an activist? You might have been involved with things like that; you might be today. But I wonder if we might broaden the term activist for a bit and think how in one sense it is the calling of all of us here to become activists. An activist is someone who is driven by a dream or a set of principles. They long to see the world become a different place. And I hope that describes you and me.
In our reading today we’ve met Jesus the activist. He’s just come back from his trial in the wilderness and now he’s ready to get to work. Going to his hometown synagogue, he is invited to read a portion of scripture from Isaiah. So he finds his favourite passage and reads it. But what he reads isn’t just some nice words from Isaiah; no, he lets them all know that these words are the impulse that is driving him to act. Those ancient words of Isaiah, written long before Jesus was born, had become for Jesus the prompt that made him do something, the image that set his imagination racing, the thing that made the blood pump faster through his veins.
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 the Lord’s favour.
When the Spirit rests on a person, something is about to happen. And for Jesus that something was all about abundant life: abundant life was about to break forth. Read on in the Gospel and you’ll see it happening. The outcasts and rejected are told they are welcome. The hurting are made whole again. Those kept locked up in fear are suddenly liberated and given a new purpose in life. He speaks of God’s favour on the most unlikely people. Because Jesus isn’t all that interested in quoting some old words. He isn’t like the scholars who love to debate fine points of theology, asking questions about punctuation marks. No, he is an activist, someone who has been inspired by scripture, led by the Spirit, to go out into the world and cause a holy scene, stir up divine chaos, shaking the foundations of the world.
As we read these words again today, and as we watch Jesus’ reaction to them, we are invited to ask the question of ourselves: what are we going to do with them? Are we going to leave them in the past, back there a few thousand years? Or are we going to realise that the same Spirit who brought Jesus from the wilderness to the city, is bringing us from our places of wrestling and worship to a place of action and activism? Because that is the last of our four core values: we seek to become an active community.
An active community is a people who are compelled by the power of the Spirit of God. And a people who are compelled by God’s Spirit start to do and say things that Jesus did and said. We become a people who reach out to the poor, the hurting, the oppressed, those left behind by society. And we have good news to tell them: abundant life is yours in Jesus. An active community finds ways of meeting the needs of those around us, opening our doors to welcome people in, then going through those same doors to reach out. An active community lives to be a place where healing and restoration can be found, where truth will be spoken about you, where you can belong and find a home. An active community looks for ways of being a blessing to its neighbourhood, offering time and space, giving money for projects, sending people to help, and praying for their needs. An active community is one that builds each other up on the inside, working to help those who are already part of our community to grow and flourish in their lives. I could go on. But as we’ve already discovered, speaking about it isn’t enough. We must find ways of putting our speech and thoughts into action. Because everything we do matters.
That’s why I chose that reading from 1 Corinthians 15. That whole chapter of Paul’s letter is a complicated argument about the idea of resurrection. You can read it in your own time. But at the end of all this complicated theology, Paul offers these very simple words:
Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.
Keep doing things, Paul says, because everything you do is worth something. Sometimes we might wonder what good we are contributing to the world. I sometimes think that anyway. Am I making a difference? Is the world really different because I’m doing things? Paul’s answer is a resounding ‘yes.’ Whatever you do, on behalf of God, you are making a difference. You are putting things in place that God will use to create something breathtakingly beautiful. That is why Paul puts these words at the end of a chapter about resurrection. Resurrection is when God takes the raw material of creation, our bodies, our lives, our dreams, our hopes, our relationships, our work in the world, and brings it alive in glorious harmonies. Our action in this world is the material that God is using to bring all things together in Christ. So every kindness you give to someone, every coffee you buy for the homeless person, every muscle you help repair, every spreadsheet you create, every cake you sell for fundraising, every tear you wipe away from a child’s cheek, every story you listen to attentively with love: it all is part of what God is making of God’s creation. It all matters, everything you do. So do it! Be active! And do it with courage and determination.
So are we a community of activists? Yes and I hope even more so as we journey on together. Let’s reach out to our community with the good news of abundant life and love in Jesus. Let’s offer our time and energy to make life better for our neighbours. Let’s play our part in bringing peace and hope to Leytonstone and beyond. Let’s continue to care about each other, doing small things and big things to build each other up. And let’s always remember that we are working as partners of the Spirit of God who has anointed us all to be good news to the world, freeing captives, offering healing, and speaking of the favour of our God. Amen.
Comments