Good News for the Poor

The call came to me on a Sunday night. “I think you need to know you position at the college is being eliminated.” The caller was the faculty member of the budget committee. I had served for eleven years as professor religion and dean of the chapel. But it was another financial crunch, and I was one of 15 people to lose my job. Has that ever happened to you? Three times I have lost my job, but this time I was rescued by two generous people. Here is what happened. Seven days before my tenure at the college was to end, I sat in the office of the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis. I knew the two men facing me across the table. I wrote them about an idea: The Meetinghouse, a Center for Religion and American Life. I had in front of me a big black notebook full of information, ideas, interviews, and resources to buttress my vision for this new initiative. All I needed was a little money, and the Lilly Endowment has a lot of money. “How are things at Georgetown College?” the vice president asked; and I answered: “I don’t know. I am not there anymore.” “What are you going to do?” he asked again. And I said, “I don’t know. I am like a person going fishing. I am throwing my poles into the water and will see what bites.” He then said one of the wisest things anybody has ever said to me: “Tell me about these poles.”  So, I did, intentionally keeping the big pole, that big black notebook with its brilliant proposal for last, like batting cleanup in the baseball game. I started with the obvious, returning to the pastorate. After all, I was 58, unemployed, and a Baptist preacher. Not the cards you want in your hand. Then I mentioned launching a coaching business for ministers, and they were interested. Next, I mentioned an organization for young preachers. I said, “I am involved in the student ministerial program at the college. We had many ministerial students but not many who want to preach.” They asked a couple of questions, then another and another; and I sought to answer these questions all the while eager to get to the big black notebook. After more than 30 minutes they asked his question, “What can we do to make this happen?” The man asking me this question is the number one benefactor of religion in the United States. Each year, the vice president for religion at the Lilly Endowment gives away between two and three hundred million dollars to organizations and institutions all over the country. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of North Carolina just received one in their Thriving Congregations program. I received an email this week from the CBF of NC asking us, Providence, if we want to participate. “What can we do to make this happen?” was his question, and you would think I would know what to say. But I did not, I was caught so off guard. “I don’t know,” I said; and he responded. “Here is what we are going to do. We are going to give you the money and let you do it.” And they did, beginning six months later, giving me a small piece of the interest off of their $16 billion dollar endowment. Now it is probably $25 billion. For ten years, they gave me money from the Endowment, and I spent all of it launching and leading the Academy of Preachers. He was generous with me, because 70 years earlier three very rich men gave much of their stock in the Lilly Pharmaceutical Company, also of Indianapolis, to a new endowment, dedicated to community development in the state of Indiana, to education in the state of Indiana, and to religion all over the country. It was generosity on top of generosity that rescued me that summer and gave me a job with an income. This week offers another example: Melinda Gates announced one billion dollars in gift to organizations that serve women. She was inspired by Mackenzie Scott. After Scott’s divorce from Jeff Bezos and flush with cash from the divorce settlement, she has been giving away billions of dollars. Warren Buffett has led a cohort of billionaires to pledged to give away most of their wealth. I. Generosity. This is part of what Jesus meant when he stood and said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed to bring good news to the poor.” The occasion was his inaugural sermon launching his public ministry, according to the gospel of Luke. He was in his hometown, Nazareth; they handed him a copy of the Hebrew Bible. He turned to the prophet Isaiah and read. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He also sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoner and the recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate all who are oppressed, and to declare the year of the Lord’s favor.” What a calling! What a Spirit-filled calling! We are accustomed to thinking the filling of the Spirit brings other things: like powerful preaching and singing, like speaking in tongues and words of knowledge, like emotional experiences and spiritual highs. That is, we think of the Spirit in terms of what happens in church! In the congregation! Or in private devotional time. And yes, some of that is true, but it is not what Jesus said. Jesus said the Holy Spirit of God in upon me, and within me, and around me and has empowered me to help the poor, release the captive, heal the sick, free the oppressed, and declare the year of the Lord’s favor, what is called in the Hebrew bible, the year of Jubilee. There are too many poor people, too many oppressed people, too many sick and suffering people, and too many people in jail (even if there is one particular person that needs to be in jail). I was arrested once and taken to jail. I will tell you about that sometime. But right now, I am telling you about Jesus. He began his ministry with these words, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to declare good news to the poor.” Many people spiritualize that calling. What Jesus meant, they say, is the salvation from sin and the promise of heaven. By which they mean, the poor don’t have much now but just wait, they will be in heaven, if they repent and trust Jesus. The good news Jesus was bringing was the spiritual message rather than a material message.  These people think Jesus was not concerned about their poverty, their search for food, their need for shelter. Jesus was not concerned for their material wellbeing, their physical wellbeing, they contend; he was called to attend to their spiritual health, their salvation, their eternal security. Every page of the gospel records contradicts that narrow reading of Jesus’ calling. At the very end of his short career, Jesus told a memorable parable. On the great judgment day, God will call all people and all nations to account for how they obeyed the words of Jesus: Did you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, water the thirsty, welcome the stranger, visit the sick, and tend to the prisoner. From beginning to end, Jesus was about these things. These are the things that mark the filling of the Spirit of Jesus. You want to be filled with the Spirit of Jesus? Welcome the stranger and the refugee and the immigrant and the outsider. You want to be filled with the Spirit of Jesus? Feed the poor, the hungry, the homeless, and the hurting.  You want to be filled with the Spirit of Jesus? Visit the lonely, the isolated, the incarcerated, and the sick. There are many examples of wealthy people bringing good news to the poor. This reveals a generosity of spirit that is at the heart of gospel living. Gospel people are generous people: generous with money, with time, with encouragement, with love, with laughter, with forgiveness. The Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus and that made him a generous person. Jesus poured out his time and his teaching, his love and his affirmation, his living and his life. Jesus laid down his very life for the wellbeing of us all. We are called to be generous people. Remember the song, “Freely, freely you have received, freely, freely give.” We celebrated this morning the generous giving of Jesus. As we take the bread and drink the cup, we take unto ourselves the Lord Jesus Christ. We are saying, “Thank you Jesus. Fill me Jesus. Fill me with your Spirit, a Spirit of generosity.” This sermon is not an appeal for you to give to this church. Your generosity of life must flow over into every area of your living: not just your money, but your spirit, your attitude, your being. It will not help you if you are generous on Sunday but stingy on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. If the Spirit of the Lord is upon you, you will be generous as a life practice: with everybody, every day, all the time. II. There is another sign of the spirit, and many wealthy people have not learned this way. It is called justice. Spirit living is about generosity; but it is also about justice. Starbucks just laid off 10,000 people, even though they made a profit last year of $28 billion. Why did they do this: to enhance dividends for stockholders. When companies make money, they pay dividends to people who own stock. Sometimes that stock in held by annuity boards and pension funds. Corporate leaders give more attention to stock value than human value, more attention to stockholders than stake holders. Here is an example very near to us, Mission Hospital in Asheville. For years, they were a non-profit hospital, serving everyone. But a few years ago, they were purchased by the Hospital Corporation of America. Their goal was to make money; healing people was a means to an end. Stockholders put pressure on corporate leader, especially through big collectives of stockholders called Hedge Funds. They pressured the executives to cut costs and services and employees in order to drive up stock value and pay big dividends. This has brought drastic changes to Mission Hospital. Many people were laid off; services declined; sick people were turned away, especially poor sick people. Things got so back that the federal government stepped in. Everything I am telling you from this pulpit has been published in public newspapers. The hospital is on probation with the federal government. They put profits over people! “Let just roll down like waters,” the Living God declares. “Do justice and love mercy,” the prophets preached in the name of God. Jesus said, “I am full of the Spirit of God because I bring good news to the poor, freedom to the captive, healing to the sick, welcome to the stranger, and release to the prisoner.” This is what it means to be full of the Spirit of God. I do not care how high you jump in ecstasy but how straight you walk when you come down. I do not care how thrilled you are with the power of a worship service if you do not throw yourself into the care of those who need: who need food, who need a job, who need a fair wage, who need a share of the wealth, show need a welcome, who need a place to rest in safety after fleeting danger and death in their home country. I want to be a bringer of good news, don’t you? I want to be full of the Spirit, don’t you? I want to be like Jesus, don’t you?  Bring good news to the poor, the homeless, and the jobless. Bring good news to the sick, the broken, and the lonely. Bring good news to the captive, the prisoner, the oppressed. The Spirit that was upon Jesus is the Spirit of generosity and the Spirit of justice. Pray today that God will make you a champion of generosity and a champion for justice. Open yourself today to the way of generosity and justice. When you pay a worker a livable wage, the Spirit of the lord is upon you. When you forgive a debt that a person cannot pay, the Spirit of the lord is upon you. When you share your good fortune or your wisdom or your opportunity with another person who also needs it, you are full of the Spirit. When you luck into a new job after you have been laid off, find somebody else to help with employment; you will be full of the Spirit of God. This is the last thing on my mind.