A People of Compassion

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18-19) The Spirit calls all members to embrace God's mission in their neighborhoods and in the world: to feed the hungry, bring water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and free the prisoner. (OWBTG 41)   Our theme this week is the mission of God's people, which begins, of course, with God's own mission.  We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others.  We are loved by God in Christ and commanded to both return that love and offer it to our neighbours and selves.  We are forgiven and told to forgive.  But we are also equipped for more specific bits of mission, and we catch a glimpse of those particularities in Jesus' statement of his own mission in Luke 4. He is a Messiah who not only preaches and teaches a spiritual word of salvation for souls (though he does do that!): he is a Messiah who is anointed to carry out real action in the world: setting the oppressed free.  That's good news indeed for the financially oppressed poor, for the physically oppressed blind and imprisoned, and really for any person oppressed by anything.  The church is called to follow its Lord into his mission, which means we are called to both the spiritual acts of enacting freedom—like forgiveness—but also the very practical acts of enacting freedom: like addressing poverty, racial injustice, homelessness, health care, and so much more. We cannot so easily divide the spiritual bits of our faith from the lived bits.  Jesus lived, healed, taught, freed, died, rose, and ascended quite really and truly in this world.  It enacted spiritual freedom from sin and death, but also began to effect freedom from very real physical, fiscal, and practical bonds of oppression.  The blind saw, the lame walked, the dead were raised to life.  This was his mission. Sin has broken not only the spiritual relationship between God and the souls of humankind, but also the operations of every business, bank, school, government, church, and family.  So, salvation in Christ plays on every plane, both spiritual and concrete.  This is the salvation we receive in Christ: not just from sin, but also from the real-world impacts and effects of sin.  In turn, this is the very real freedom that we then proclaim and seek to bring into this world and into the lives of our neighbours.  Take time to intercede in prayer for those people and situations who may have come to mind in this devotion today, and then see how you might participate with God in answer to those very same prayers because that is God's mission.