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.
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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.