Mission, Vision, PlanJanuary 24, 2016

Luke 4:14-21Grace and peace to you from God

our Father and from the One anointed by the spirit of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

It’s a hard thing to go back to your home church to preach. I know that because I did it several years ago. I was invited to preach at Abiding Christ in Fairborn several years ago when I was fresh out of seminary. I admit I was a nervous wreck preparing for that worship service. Pastor Craig Fourman had gotten special permission from Bishop Holloway for me to preside over the Holy Communion for the day since I was so new I hadn’t even been ordained yet both Pastor Craig and Pastor Sue Nelson were out of town. I wanted everything to be perfect. I had the sermon written a good two weeks before the big day and I spent hours practicing the Pastor’s chanting parts for our beloved Setting one of the Green hymnal. As we started the celebration of Communion I looked to the rear of the Sanctuary and the music director gave me the starting pitch. You have to realize that the music director is a total music perfectionist. She used to get so frustrated with the choir she would

actually pull her hair. I must have been empowered by the Holy Spirit because my knees were knocking and my voice quivering so badly I felt I could barely stand or speak let alone sing. Afterwards I made my way over to the music director to get her feedback. All she could say was, “at least I didn’t stop in the middle.” When I hit the off key or flat notes I just kept on going. Funny thing was that I didn’t even know I missed any notes and I’m pretty sure no one else in the congregation did either.

After that experience I can relate to Jesus returning to the town where He was raised, Nazareth. He had already built up somewhat of a reputation and the home town crowd expected to hear great things from the hometown boy made good. Jesus didn’t disappoint. It’s interesting the contrast in preaching styles between different preachers. Take Ezra from our Old Testament lesson for example. He must have been one inspired on fire preacher. The text says he read and interpreted the scriptures from early morning until midday. That’s like a 5 or 6 hour sermon! Contrast that, possibly the longest sermon in the Bible, with the sermon Jesus delivered in Nazareth. Jesus reads from the scroll sits down and says these scriptures are fulfilled today in your hearing of them. Wow! That has to be the shortest sermon in the Bible! There used to be a commercial on television where the voice over announcer said in a very soft tone, “If you want people to hear you, just whisper.” That reminds me of what Jesus was up to in today’s Gospel. I don’t know if he whispered or not, but he sure was a man of few words. His sermon

was an outline of the mission God established for him. He read from the Isaiah scroll that he had been anointed to do five things. His mission includes preaching the good news to the poor, release to the captives, giving sight to the blind, letting the oppressed go free, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor. I wonder if Jesus sat down with God when He was still in heaven, back in the day when Isaiah was receiving his word from God. I wonder how that conversation might have gone. Do you think they brainstormed lots of ideas for Jesus’ Mission Statement? I wonder what ideas they put on the white board, but discarded… Each of the individual missions they settled on are worthy of being an entire mission on their own and Jesus has five of them to accomplish!

Good news to the poor, well, that shouldn’t be too hard. By the poor Luke means people who are literally poor, but also something more. I’ve heard the phrase, and I hope I’ve never said it, “so and so is a poor excuse for a human being…” This phrase refers to someone who is beyond the boundaries of some socially acceptable behavior or standard. This phrase has nothing to do with the economic status of the person, but to the fact that they are social outcasts. It is to these people Jesus directs the Good News. Good news isn’t just talk either. Bringing good news means offering a sandwich to a hungry person, but it also means questioning and changing the structures of the society or culture that allow people to become poor. Then there’s release for the captives. Captives aren’t people in jail or prison for committing some crime.

We’re talking about people who are unjustly in prisons, those who are political prisoners. It also includes all people held captive by sin, by fear, or by death and the devil. Jesus is all about giving sight to the blind. He physically healed blind people and he also opened scripture in ways that allowed people to see God’s character through the eyes of faith without going through the distorted filters of the scribes, Pharisees, or the Sadducees. Because of this mission of Jesus, people are no longer blind to the spiritual truths about God. Freeing the oppressed means Jesus was against the oppression of slavery, discrimination, and every other temptation and burden of life that weighs people down. Finally Jesus proclaims the “Year of the Lord’s Favor.”

All these parts of the Mission are tied together in the "year of the Lord's favor." Scholars are divided on what this means. Some say it refers to the Jubilee Year, which was supposed occurred every fifty years in Israel when the land was to lay fallow, all debts forgiven, and all slaves freed. Scholars say the practice was never truly instituted. Yet, the Jubilee Year has influenced such practices as the statute of limitations on certain crimes in our day and even our bankruptcy laws.

One of the first things I got involved with here at Trinity was helping to develop our Mission Statement. Out of curiosity, and be honest, raise your hand if you think you either know the Mission Statement or could do a pretty good job of paraphrasing it in your own words… I’m not going to call on anyone so don’t be afraid to raise your hand… Not bad, it appears we have been

successful in getting most people to know why we’re here, but we still have some ways to go before everyone not only knows the mission of this Church, but lives it each day of our lives. For those who don’t know, our Mission Statement is:“In Christ’s love we seek, welcome, and serve all”

This is a pretty good Mission. It’s a good thing to start out be recognizing we are first loved by Christ and that’s what enables us then to go out seeking, welcoming, and serving all. It’s a pretty good Mission, but how do we get from seeking, welcoming, and serving to bringing good news to the poor, setting captives free, giving sight to the blind, letting the oppressed go free, and inaugurating the Year of our Lord with all the implications such as forgiveness of all debts and giving the land back to the original owners? I admit these are tough questions and some may say, but Pastor, you helped us create that mission statement, are you now saying it’s not good enough? No, I think it’s a great statement, but the really big question is how are we doing in equipping all of our members to internalize the values contained in our mission statement?

We’ve tested out on Mission Statement for well over a year now and even included it as part of our liturgy as the dismissal at the end of the worship service. It’s time now to look at the rest of the process of figuring out who we are and why God still has us here in Pitsburg Ohio after 150 years. Along with the Mission Statement there are two other documents all churches need in order to be more effective and deliberate in the way they go about

accomplishing their mission. As we faithfully try to follow our Mission Statement there are two other tools that will help us in our planning. These are a Vision Statement and a Strategic Plan. A Vision Statement is a longer narrative; sort of like a story describing all the major ministries of our Church at a point five or ten years in the future. This allows us to apply our creativity to the Mission and imagine where we might be some years from now. Once we’re happy with the Mission and Vision Statements the third and final document is the Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan lays out in broad steps what we’re going to do over the next five to ten years to arrive at our Vision. Churches without a Mission, Vision, and Strategic Plan are rudderless ships at the mercy of the wind and currents. Without these documents in place and used, growth, numerically or spiritually, is nonexistent or spotty and random at best.

Today we got a glimpse of Jesus’ Mission Statement. Come back next week to find out what Jesus’ Vision Statement looks like. May we come to understand that our mission is the same one Jesus began and handed on to his disciples. May we be guided by God’s Holy Spirit as we figure out how that mission might play out here among us. May the hand of God lead us to discover that future, which God prefers for us, so that we can become better servants and more effective disciples leading others to Jesus. May God continue to bless this congregation in every ministry and good work that we do in the name of Jesus. Amen.