Good News

The Wood Duck, by Jim Bullas

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 favour
“…

Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 

—Luke 4:18-21

If God is love, and Jesus is the fullest revelation of God we can know, as well as the fullest revelation of what it means to be human, the true Via Positiva, then, when we look into the gospels we will glimpse what Divine Love looks like.

In the baptism, we witnessed how Divine Love in Jesus drew near and entered the waters with the people, sharing in their baptism of repentance. Now, in this passage, we see not only the movement of love, but the specificity of direction. Love draws near to the poor, the prisoner, the blind, and the oppressed. God is passionate about them. These are the ones who receive the full gaze of Divine Love’s attention. 

This is the energetic, liberating movement of Divine Love in Luke. This love, as we will see in the gospel of Luke, finds fullness of expression in Jesus. Jesus has been anointed, set apart and strengthened by the Spirit to draw near in love to those who are most vulnerable to bring them hope, liberation, and restoration. 

Ironically, when I was reading some online commentaries and interpretations of this text, I found some preachers who think these verses are dangerous, because they are being used by the “liberals” to preach a “social gospel”. But to the writer of Luke, and to the poor and the oppressed, this is “good news”.

The world witnessed yesterday the preferential option for the rich—the privileged oligarchy of tech giants, billionaires, far right foreign leaders, and religious conservatives all gathering in exultation around Trump, who declared himself divinely saved and appointed by God for such a time as this. After his election, he signed executive orders which released 1500 people imprisoned for storming the capital, declared a national energy emergency to roll back restrictions on oil drilling, withdrew the US from the Paris climate accord, removed the US from the WHO, renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, said he would take back Panama Canal, declared there are only two genders now in the US, removed the government website that helped women find reproductive information, and so on.

It is important to remind ourselves of the true Gospel: God’s preferential option for the poor, and God’s passion for those on the margins, for those who are oppressed. As painful as it is to watch this cadre of the powerful, we still have personal agency to place ourselves with Jesus in the flow of Divine Love, standing with those whom God loves. 

To practice this posture together, we will be making food snack bags for unhoused people and donating them to the warming centre in White Rock. Please bring an abundance of items for these snack packs— juice boxes, soft granola bars, fruit leather, homemade cookies in baggies, baby oranges, cheese strings, etc. Thank you!

Deep peace and blessing,

Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor, Southpoint Church

Worship Calendar

Location & Zoom. We meet on Sundays at 10:00 am, at 15639 24 Avenue, Surrey. Zoom is offered if you cannot attend in person. Zoom link. Meeting ID: 831 1690 9977 password: 753319

Listen to Sermons
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Blogs
Catch up on Anne’s recent blogs under “News” on our website, southpoint.ca

Sun Jan 26 ALL IN Intergenerational Service
Rev Anne Baxter Smith
Luke 4: 14-21

Sun Feb 2
Rev Anne Baxter Smith
Luke 4: 21-30

Sun Feb 9
Rev Anne Baxter Smith
Luke 5: 1-11

Sun Feb 16
Rev Anne Baxter Smith
Luke 6: 17-26

New to Southpoint?

At Southpoint, it all begins with God’s love. Just as a plant grows, it receives sunshine, so we grow as we receive God’s love. At Southpoint, we are growing in our capacity to love God, ourselves, one another, and Creation.

We seek to be a community of grace that is intentional yet organic, spacious yet authentic, grace-filled yet accountable. * We are fully welcoming. *

We encourage relationships rather than run programs, yet we recognize the importance of intentionality and structure as we nurture life together.

As a community, we seek to put our love in action. We value helping out on Sunday mornings, sharing food, and showing up in hard times. We keep our church life simple so folk have time to build relationships with family, friends, and neighbours. We encourage folk to serve in tangible ways within the wider community. We rent space rather than own a building, allowing us to do more with less, supporting missions at home and abroad.

Curious to know more?

These six slides express what motivates our ministry (best viewed on a monitor). Here’s the bio of our Pastor, Rev. Anne Baxter Smith.

If you’d like to really peek inside, sign up for our weekly Southpoint News (scroll to brown footer at bottom of page). The Southpoint News is a MailChimp distributed email—you can unsubscribe anytime and will not be added to our contacts list. Email us at office@southpoint.ca. Website: southpoint.ca.

Progress Pride Flag by Daniel Quasar (link)

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