Millions

One day I was

with you know who, Jesus.


                   

And he went up into the mountains

and thousands of people followed him.

  

                   

The police said five thousand,

five thousand.
  

                   

Everybody knows this story.
  

                   

Loaves and fishes.



  

                   

See, I knew you'd say that.

That's what everybody says.

                   

Anyway, this kid comes up to us,

about your size,
  

                   

His name was...

no I have forgotten.
  

                   

I still see him sometimes.
  

                   

Anyway he comes up

with these loaves and fishes.
  

                   

Sardines.


                   

And Jesus blesses them

and passes the plate round.
  

                   

Now the first person

he passes it to, passes it on.
  

                   

He doesn't take anything.
  

                   

He just passes it on.

Do you know why?
  

                   

Because he had a piece

of lamb hidden in his pocket.
  

                   

And as he is passing the fish,

he sneaks a bit of meat out
  

                   

and pretends he's taken

it off the plate.
  

                   

Do you see what I'm saying?
  

                   

And the next person

exactly the same story.
  

                   

Every single bastard one

of them has their own food.
  

                   

And every one of them

is keeping it quiet.
  

                   

Looking after number one.
  

                   

But as that plate went round

with the sardines on
  

                   

They all got their own food

out and started to share.
  

                   

And then that plate went

all the way round
  

                   

And back to Jesus
  

                   

and it'd still got the fish

and the loaves on it.


                   

I think Jesus was a bit taken aback.
  

                   

He says, 'what happened? '
  

                   

And I just said 'miracle'.
  

                   

And at first

I thought I'd fooled him.
   

                   

But now I see it was a miracle,

one of his best.
   

                   

But this little kid

had stood up and...
   

                   

Everybody there just got bigger.
   

                   

Do you understand

what I'm talking about?



   

                   

Not really.

                   

I'm talking about you.



   

                   

Now I'm really lost.

                   

You're trying too hard.

                   

That kid he wasn't planning

on doing a miracle.

                   

He wasn't planning anything,

except lunch.

             

Something that looks like a miracle

turns out to be dead simple.

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/millions-script-transcript-danny-boyle.html

Jesus’ Mission Statement

Rev. Dr. Kathryn A. Morse, Vashon United Methodist Church

http://vashonmethodist.org/userFiles/2010/windjammer_february_2013.pdf

In Luke’s gospel we find Jesus’ mission statement:  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he has anointed me:

 to bring good news to the poor
 to proclaim release to the captives
 recovery of sight to the blind
 to let the oppressed go free
 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor

     Jesus is reading from the prophet Isaiah 58:6-7.  “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them.”
     Isaiah’s message was for the people of his time, a call to just living, and not a description of the work of a future messiah.  The call of God through Isaiah extends to all people through all time.  Truth be told, it calls for creative and sacrificial thinking and bold action.  Imagine the day that Jesus read this scripture in the synagogue and said in effect, “Today is the day that I begin living this.  I am joining God in God’s vision and mission.  It starts here, with me, right now!”

     The apostle Paul writes that we are Christ’s body living in the present day.  You and me together as the church are Christ’s living, breathing body, empowered by the Holy Spirit.  We don’t need to write mission statements, we have one—the same mission statement that Jesus lived.  We are anointed in our baptism:

 to bring good news to the poor
 to proclaim release to the captives
 recovery of sight to the blind
 to let the oppressed go free
 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor

     It is so much easier to think that being a Christian is about my own personal salvation, or that church is about fellowship or a style of worship or being family.  There is only one reason we exist and that is described in Jesus’ mission statement.
<...>
I’ve sat with a lot of churches trying to create compelling mission and vision statements and none are worthy of Isaiah’s vision and Jesus’ declaration, “Today this has been fulfilled in your hearing,” like the Church of the Resurrection’s vision to address the root causes of poverty in their city so that their city looks more like the Kingdom of God that Jesus so passionately preached.  I know you all worked hard on your mission statement, just like all the other churches I have worked with.  The bottom line is that we already have a mission statement:

The Spirit of the Lord has anointed us
to bring good news to the poor
to proclaim release to the captives
recovery of sight to the blind
to let the oppressed go free
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor

The only question is whether we will make it our own and live it.