One of our achievements as a parish last year was to create a Parish Plan. Of course that was only the first step in the process. The real test will be this year as we seek to carry it out. But it was a good start.
	One of the things the management experts recommend is that everyone clarifies where they're going. What is it they're aiming for? What are their career goals? Of course this is the time of year when lots of people ask that sort of question. When they sit down and reassess their lives, think about their career goals and that sort of thing. It's the sort of thing that I find I often do when I'm on holidays, when I've got time to think without the normal pressures of life. Well, I wonder how many of us have sat down over the last few weeks and thought about what our aims in life are. What is it that we're setting out to achieve this year? What are the major and minor objectives we've set ourselves for the year, in our business, our personal, and our church life? Or perhaps you don't think about life like that. Perhaps you just take life as it comes: one day at a time. Well, there's something to say for both approaches. There's certainly no point getting tied up in a knot about what might lie ahead. Time enough to worry about it when it comes. But on the other hand it doesn't hurt to be prepared, nor to look ahead and plan out what we might do with our life, or to think about how God might be able to use us in the coming months or years. In that sense it mightn't hurt for us to have career goals for our Christian life and that's certainly why we now have a Parish Plan.
	I'm sure Jesus didn't think in this very twentieth century way about his future, but he did think about where he was going, and what he was on about, and in today's Gospel reading we find what's sometimes called his Nazareth Manifesto. That is, his statement of policy, of what he was on about: his mission statement, if you like, made at the very start of his earthly mission. He quotes from Isaiah 61 and immediately says "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." In a couple of verses he's summed up what his career goals are. But of course they're not your standard garden variety career goals. I'm not sure that they'd be a good thing to include in your resumé, unless of course you're applying for a job in an aid agency or as a missionary. But for Jesus they sum up what it is that he's about.
	Let's look at what he says. "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." // He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. Jesus had come with a message that would be good news to all people, but especially to the poor. Why was that? I imagine the poor didn't get good news any more often in Jesus' day than they do today. But in God's Kingdom there's to be no favouritism, no prejudice against those who are uneducated or poor. In fact if you read the Old Testament you find time and time again the prophets railing against oppression and injustice. Why? Because God is on the side of the poor and oppressed. And now Jesus has come with a message of hope for all people both rich and poor. Jesus' death and resurrection means that anyone can become part of God's people: all can have an equal relationship with God. It's one of the sad things about the church, I think, that we give such power to those who are our ministers. That we simply reflect the structures of preference and power of our secular society. Just look at the excitement engendered by the Pope's impending visit to Havana. There was a report in yesterday's paper about lay people taking the communion service, and our own Archbishop was reported to have spoken in terms of the lay people being elevated by such a move, as though bishops, priests and deacons were in some way greater than lay people. True bishops and archbishops and some clergy wield enormous power. Yet they're just ministers, servants who's role it is to serve the church. The church is the one place where there should be no elevation of people on the basis of their job, or their education, or wealth. Otherwise we deny that the gospel is good news to the poor.
	But then Jesus goes on to expand on this. "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners." In Isaiah the idea was of those who were in exile, who were stopped from joining in the life of God's people because of continuing imprisonment. So too, here in Jesus' context, it refers to those who are excluded from the people of God, not because of some physical imprisonment, but because of a spiritual imprisonment. Jesus has come to release people from their bondage to sin, from their bondage to the past. The world is full of people who are held captive by the things that have happened to them in the past, by hurts and hates. And of course all of us are subject to the bondage of bad habits and unhelpful behaviour that we'd like to be rid of. All of us are under bondage to sin, totally unable to rid ourselves of those things that drag us down time after time. But Jesus has come to bring us release. To proclaim to those in bondage that God has bought their freedom. One of the bible's favourite words for what Jesus has done is redemption, that is, the buying back or paying a ransom for those who are slaves. Jesus himself says "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." We no longer need to be in bondage to those forces that would hold us captive. Perhaps more importantly, we no longer need to fear death, because Jesus has paid the ransom that sin demanded. We've now been freed and are part of God's people, free to love him and to enjoy him forever.
	Along the same lines he says he has come to proclaim recovery of sight for the blind. These are those who are blind not through lack of sight but because they live in darkness. As Isaiah says "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-- on them light has shone." The coming of the Messiah means the coming of light into a dark world. It means that those who previously stumbled in trying to follow the ways of God, can now see clearly. Jesus gives us a clear model to follow. In what he says and what he does, he shows us how we can and should live under God's rule. And through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, God opens our blind eyes to see the world as he sees it, so we can see the poverty and oppression that Jesus came to release people from, so we can get things in perspective, so we can see through the lies and subterfuge that lie behind so much of what we're told in advertising and the media, so we can see one another and even ourselves, the way God sees us.
	Finally, Jesus says he's come to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. The law of Moses provided for a Jubilee year every 50 years in which all slaves were to be released. And Jesus has come to announce that that year has come, not literally the 50th year, but a symbolic Jubilee in which God will free all those who are oppressed in any way. Just as Jesus had come to proclaim release to those in exile, so here he proclaims the year of Jubilee, of release from slavery, for all who live in God's Kingdom.
	It's no surprise, is it, that these verses are taken up by Christians, in parts of the world where oppression is widespread, as the foundation of their theology of liberation. Because the gospel is all about our freedom before God. But it's a message that could equally be taken up in our culture, where people are in bondage to so many things. Where people suffer from a sense of futility, and loneliness. Where the suicide rate is on the rise. Where people feel imprisoned in bodies that are wearing out. Where selfishness is the order of the day and yet people feel trapped by this attitude, because it's so widespread. Because if they don't look after No 1 who will? But the gospel proclaims freedom from futility, and loneliness, and the fear of sickness and death, and selfishness. The gospel brings a purpose to life, it brings us into a community of mutual support, it promises us eternal life, and bodies that will never wear out, it provides a focus outside ourselves, a focus on God and his will for the world.
	And this is a message that Jesus has left for us to pass on.// If these verses form a manifesto for Jesus' life and mission, they equally provide a framework for our task in spreading the gospel. // Now in case you still think that evangelism isn't for you, let's consider what it means to be part of God's people. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul talks about the church, that's you and me!, and he likens us to a body. He says that even though the body is made up of lots of different parts, they're all part of the one body. And likewise even though there are many different people with different gifts in the church, we're all part of the one church. Why? Because we've all been baptised into the one body, and we've all been given the one Spirit to drink. So the task that was Jesus' has now passed on to those who make up his body. And just as he said "the Spirit of Lord is upon me", so now the same Spirit has been poured out on us. But then Paul goes on to talk about how there are a variety of gifts and tasks in the body. And he's at particular pains to speak to those who see themselves as of little importance to the life of the church. He says it'd be ludicrous for a foot to say, "Because I'm not a hand, I'm not part of the body", or for an ear to say, "Because I'm not an eye I'm not part of the body". So in the same way its silly for us to say, "because I'm not doing some particular job, or because I don't have some particular gift I'm not an important part of the church." If we think in terms of the church's mission to the world, there's a whole range of gifts and tasks that we each might have that are equally valid. Few of us will be stand up evangelists. Not many of us I imagine have the gifts needed to start talking to a complete stranger about the gospel. But that doesn't mean we don't have a role to play, or that we're less important. Paul reminds us that in the body, those parts that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable parts are treated with greater respect.
	If you think about something like Theo's Crew, where we're hoping to share the gospel with those young children, there are a whole range of people who come to help; some work as leaders, telling stories or taking games, others come in a support role, to register the kids, cook a meal, help with craft; others provide us with bits and pieces for craft or for costumes for plays. Some of those people may think they have a fairly minor role to play, but let me tell you, if they weren't all there doing those things, then Theo's Crew wouldn't work, or it'd be such a hassle that no-one would be able to keep it up.
	Now that's just an example of one of our organised outreach activities, but the same goes for the everyday evangelism of the church. Everyone can contribute something. We can all be examples of what the gospel can do for people. We can all live lives that recommend the gospel - lives that shine as light in a darkened world. For example, we can work at being people who are selfless rather than selfish. Who are always ready to lend a helping hand to our neighbours and friends, both Christian and non-Christian. Perhaps more importantly, ready with a word of comfort or encouragement when they need it. We can get to know our neighbours, or at least try to, so that we bring back some of that sense of community that seems to have been lost, and that the gospel is all about providing. We can let people know in a natural way that we go to St Theodore's. We can invite them to some of our outreach activities. We can be ready to give an answer for the faith that's within us, not in any deeply theological way necessarily, but as a natural expression of what's most important to us in life.
	On a wider front, we can financially support those who are working around the world to bring the good news to the poor, to help the oppressed, to bring light into parts of the world that seem to be subject to more than the usual degree of darkness. And lets not forget the power of prayer. Everyone of us can be praying for the work of the gospel on a regular basis, praying that God's word might be received by those who hear and that people might come to faith in Jesus. Remember that the prayer of the righteous person is powerful and effective.
	Whether or not you're the sort of person who sets yourself goals for the year doesn't really matter. Here is a goal that everyone of us is called to work towards as a part of Christ's body here on earth: to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. "Go therefore and make disciples all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always , to the end of the age." (Matt 28:19,20) Let's pray that God would help us to carry on Jesus work wherever we may be, to take the gospel to all nations.

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