Have you ever been reading the Bible when you felt like a particular passage must have been written just for you?  Sometimes I hear a sermon that has that same effect on me!  That preacher must know all about me because he is preaching just to me!  Roberta Flack (and later the Fugees) sang about this feeling: “[He was] Strumming my pain with his fingers, singing my life with his words, killing me softy with his song, killing me softly with his song, telling my whole life

with his words, killing me softly with his song.”  Often when this happens, it is the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts that we are feeling.  Jesus said that the Spirit would repeat to us that which He hears from God, and this is one way this happens.

This must have happened to Jesus when He was a young boy growing up.  Some time in his youth, He had come across the words of Isaiah which foretold of the work of the Messiah: “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, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  As He read that passage, it spoke to Him of His life’s work.

Now we find Jesus in the synagogue in His hometown of Nazareth at the beginning of His ministry.  A gathering in the synagogue was more like an informal Sabbath School Class than a formal worship service.  It was a common that one of the men would be asked to read a selection from the scripture and then to make comments on the passage, and since Jesus was beginning to get some notoriety by now, the person in charge handed Jesus the rolled up scroll containing the writings of the prophet Isaiah.  Jesus stood up as He found the passage that He felt had been written just for Him.  After reading the passage, Jesus sat back down and began his commentary: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  That was Jesus’ way of saying, “I will fulfill that with my life.”  In fulfilling this scripture, Jesus found fulfillment for His life.

Finding fulfillment in life is one of our major goals, isn’t it?  Abraham Maslow theorized that it is only after we have our basic needs met, needs of food, clothing, security, and shelter, do we begin looking at our higher needs in life – things like love and fulfillment.  Civilization gave human beings an easier time of finding their basic needs, and religion and philosophy came into existence when people had time to seek meaning and fulfillment.  Finding fulfillment has to do with discovering your unique talents and abilities and how God wants you to use these things.

Where do you find your fulfillment?  What is your mandate for living?  A life cannot find fulfillment outside of the will of God, and so the place to begin when you are seeking meaning is to ask God about His will for your life. Certainly it is God’s will for you to know Him as Father, Savior, and Holy Spirit.  Surely God wants us all to give ourselves to Christ and His cause.  Certainly God wants us to discover our gifts and talents and how they can be used in His work.  He wants us to read the Bible so that the Holy Spirit can speak to our hearts like He spoke to Jesus’ heart that day.  I am certain that God expects us to try to strengthen His church, making it stronger than we found it, and work to make the world a better place than we found it.  Like Jesus said, “I’ll fulfill these things,” and I hope you will say that, too.

In that passage from Isaiah that Jesus read and Luke quotes, we discover the things that Jesus found fulfilling, the things that were God’s will for His life.  First, He felt fulfilled when He was caring for the unloved, the poor, the captives and prisoners, the blind, the oppressed, and the lost.  At age 30, Jesus was already way ahead of most of us at that age.  Most of us at age 30 are concerned with career advances and beginning a family, as we should be.  By age 50, we begin to discover that some of our goals are pretty shallow and that what really matters is whether or not our lives have been helpful to another human being.  Have we assisted the less fortunate?

One of my pastor-friends was very concerned with getting to the top appointments in the South Carolina Conference.  After he almost died, he came to a new realization.  In one hundred years from now when we are looking back on our lives from that eternal shore, nobody is really going to care who got to the most prestigious appointment and who got to be a district superintendent or a bishop.  He said that he discovered that what will really matter then is whose life on earth was better and who is in heaven now because of something he did.  Did he ease someone’s suffering or help someone experience God’s grace?  That is what is going to be considered important then.  Since in heaven the last will be first and the first will be last, nothing else will matter.

I heard about a preacher who thought that his sermons were better than anybody else’s.  Fortunately he had a wife who kept his feet on solid ground.  One day he was going on and on about how wonderful his sermon had been that day:  “Wasn’t that a masterful message!  What eloquent elocution!” Then he added, “I wonder how many truly great preachers there are?”  His wife looked up from her sewing and answered, “One less than you think.”  Nobody remembers sermons!  But they do remember whether or not you were there for them in times of crisis and death.  Nobody remembers what you thought of to say to them when you dropped by to comfort a mourning friend; but they will always remember that you came.

Jesus knew this already by age 30.  He knew earthly successes didn’t endure but spiritual successes do.  Spiritual successes last into eternity.  So Jesus turned away from seeking earthly fame and fortune and turned his sights on the needy and the castaways of society, especially those who felt they had no place in the community of faith after their mistakes. To them he gave true riches, and He gave them hope.  He proclaimed God’s love and mercy to those who were captives of sin and sickness and to those oppressed by life, to those lacking sight and insight, and to those who just felt lost.  Jesus fulfilled that scripture and was filled with meaning when He cared for the unloved.

Jesus was fulfilled by discovering God’s will for His life.  He was fulfilled by doing God’s will of caring for people.  Thirdly, Jesus is fulfilled today in the Church – His body on earth – when we are carrying on His work in our world today.  The work of the church and the charitable organizations we inspire is what keeps reminding our world that people who are weak, sick, and defeated are nevertheless important.  Who would care for the poor, the blind, those in prisons, the uneducated, and the lost if not us?  Primitive societies simply got rid of the weak ones in their midst.  They abandoned the weak, leaving them to die.  Left to their own devices, societies in today’s world would be just as harsh on the weak.  Someone has said that how we treat the least among us is the one and only truly reliable assessment of the genuine humanity of our society.  The Church is here to be the world’s conscience, to remind people that a poor person is as valuable in God’s eyes as anyone on the Fortune 500 list.

It is a sad thing but a wonderful testimony that among the dead in Haiti were missionaries from America, representatives from the United Methodist Committee on Relief, and even young people who were on short-term mission trips to help the people of Haiti.  And we are going back!  UMCOR will begin sending repair teams to Haiti this Spring.  What we rebuild may be hit by another earthquake or hurricane, but we are still going back because Jesus and His church will always be near those who are suffering and hurting.  If you have been searching and you are thinking that you will never find Jesus, just go where He can be found!  He hangs out with His children who are in pain! The Spirit of the Lord is upon the Church, because he has anointed the Church to preach good news to the poor. He has sent us to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

It is interesting that this story in Luke ends with the people becoming infuriated by Jesus’ words.  They drove him out of town.  Some vigilantes had it mind to cast Him over a cliff, but they were stopped, perhaps by the power of Jesus’ courage, and He walked right through the crowd and continued on His way.  It was His work with sinners that got Jesus in trouble with the saints in the Temple.  Jesus ate with sinners.  He declared sinners to be forgiven by God.  The religious leaders of His day came to a place where they hated Jesus and all that He stood for.  That is why they plotted to have Jesus crucified.

Our work in the world isn’t always well-received either, and anyone who is serious about following Jesus had better learn this early.  The very people and institutions that ought to encourage us will be the ones who fight us the hardest.  I’ve seen young men ridiculed by their parents when they answered God’s call to preach instead of pursuing the family business or the preferred career.  And if we really had great success in reaching out to Greer’s poor and forgotten folks, if a great revival broke out in Greer and our pews became filled by some folks who have never used Right Guard or Secret deodorant, some of us here wouldn’t be very happy either.

John Wesley had a passion for the poor.  When they wouldn’t come to church, he went to them.  At coal mines and in open fields, Wesley proclaimed the love of God, and midweek meetings of Methodist Societies broke out all over England.  Called on the carpet by his denomination’s hierarchy for preaching outside the boundaries of his assigned parish, Wesley replied, “The world is my parish.”  But the people Wesley filled up churches with were not always welcome.

A young Methodist pastor named William Booth went out to the lost in London, to those who were considered the dregs of society.  He also was accused of wandering outside the confines of his parish and spending too much time with the poor, bringing those folks back with him to his church.  His Annual Conference tried to reel him in at their conference of 1861 in Liverpool, but Booth’s wife Catherine shouted “Never!”  William and Catherine Booth continued preaching to outcasts, founding the Salvation Army which carries on their passion to this day.

Finding fulfillment in all about finding God’s will for your life and fulfilling that.  It is about being a part of the Body of Christ in ministry to the world.  But don’t except that you will always receive pats on the back when you are doing God’s will!  Sometimes you will be given a cross.  May we find fulfillment as we fulfill God’s will for our lives!  Amen.

Arthur H. Holt