A More Light Congregation

Bethany Presbyterian Church

Sermon

Presbyterians aren't known for their demonstrative worship style.  We don't tend to move much during our services. We might sway a little for hymns.  Sometimes we sing out.  In general though, we preachers don't get the kind of support that those in other denominations might get, by way of an “Amen!” “Preach it Sister!” Our sermons don't usually get people riled up enough for that!  Once when I was a guest preacher at a tiny congregation in the city, someone raised their hand during the sermon to ask a question. My automatic response was to call on them.  Another church in the city had a sermon format they liked – they liked a little “think about it” section in the middle where they could talk amongst themselves, and then return to the sermon.  Another time, I was with a group of people of different ages in an orientation, getting a tour of a building and one of us started shouting profanities at the top of her lungs.  She had a form of Tourette Syndrome, “a nervous system disorder involving repetitive movements or unwanted sounds, sometimes including blurting out offensive words.”


Never though, has anyone cried out “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”


What image or scene was in your head during the scripture reading this morning?  Were you able to follow your imagination and set a stage?  Did anyone picture anything modern?  I didn't.  I went right to something I've probably seen in a movie or a book, with ancient buildings or a sandy garden space, and brown people dressed in scribes' robes, and an audience of about 10 men wearing tunics.  I pictured Jesus the same, dressed in a tunic, not robes.  I pictured the man who cried out as someone like the others, except his clothes were torn and stained from long days and nights on the streets, unkempt because he was un-cared for and alone.  I could even invent some reasons why he was in the synagogue or the place where the scribes were teaching – maybe it was protection from the cold and wind of outdoors and he was sleeping there; maybe he was hungry and thought there would be food; maybe he was looking for someone to understand him; or maybe he was looking to pick a fight.  What did you come up with?


Each Gospel book presents a unique first scene representing the beginning of Jesus' public ministry.  That context sets the stage for the aspect of Jesus that each gospel writer wishes to portray.  In Luke, the nature and scope of the compassionate Jesus is laid out with promises to “bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and freedom for the oppressed.”1 In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus the teacher makes his public ministry premier with the Sermon on the Mount, a broad statement of all of Jesus' teachings.  John's Jesus makes his public ministry debut at a wedding in Cana where he turns water into wine.  Each of these inaugural events “sets the tone for the ministry that unfolds, and for our own ministries in Jesus' name.”1

Today, in the gospel of Mark, Jesus' inaugural event begins with a fight in church. It's not looking good for Mark's Gospel message then.


This is not just a man yelling at the preacher, either out of frustration or illness or anger.  This is about Jesus, not a scribe, coming in to the place where the usual is happening – scribes who have studied the law and scripture are teaching others and discussing traditions – and doing something very un-usual.


Jesus' teaching was very different.  The disciples who have just left their nets are with Jesus and they notice right away that Jesus teaches with authority.  The scribes had knowledge and tradition but their teaching didn't include the authority Jesus had, to teach the law and scripture and teach about these things being fulfilled.  The disciples were astounded first by his teaching.


I've read several interpretations of what happens next. The man shouting was a scribe and felt threatened by Jesus' authority and wanted to intimidate Jesus. The man shouting was possessed with demons and Jesus was possessed with God's spirit.  The evil spirits challenged God's spirit to a duel as it were and God's spirit prevailed.  Or, the man had a mental illness and this event is Jesus' first healing miracle.  I think saddling the man with a mental illness is too easy and gives a bad name to those who truly struggle with mental illnesses of all kinds.  Once the spirit left the man the disciples and the scribes were amazed.  As you might expect talk of this event spread.


What we can say for sure, is that this text for today signals that a real change is coming.  The synagogue held a special place in the Roman hierarchy, but that was going to change. There was something new that was going to challenge everything people thought they knew, and big changes were going to happen.  Jesus' challenge to authority started here for the gospel of Mark, and that authority is finally what convicted Jesus and he was sentenced to death.


And so it is that the entire gospel of Mark is about fighting for change from what is to what should be. Not just in the synagogue and not just in his lifetime.  Commentator Rev. Roger Gench writes, “So, note well: Jesus begins his public ministry in Mark by throwing himself into cosmic battle with all the demonic forces that oppress and disfigure human life.”1


Here are some of those forces that oppress and disfigure human life, this from Osvaldo Vena, Professor of New Testament at Garret-Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, IL:  He writes,

“We start with the big one, Unbelief: losing one's faith in God in life as a sacred force, and in our fellow human beings.  It is the feeling that nothing can be done to solve our problems.  Then springing from this one, come the others in fearful company: homophobia, racism, sexism, classism, religious and ideological intolerance, violence at home and at school [and in the streets], poverty, militarism, terrorism, war, greed, extreme individualism, globalization, out-of-control capitalism, media-infused fear that leads to paranoia, and governmental manipulation of information.  To name just a few.”2


It's an overwhelming list.  We have our own individual demons, that aren't –isms; anxiety, depression, isolation, sadness, loneliness, illness, pessimism, or rage.


I don't believe that today's text is telling us that you or I can exorcise demons in the name of Jesus and the demons of another will leave them.  I wouldn't want to limit the power of prayer though, and say that it's impossible.  But it is not a text with which to argue the truth of some Hollywood portrayals and the imaginations of the entertainment industry.  Ridding oneself of our own sabotage methods takes a lot of our own work and we can congratulate ourselves for having done all that we could including and maybe first asking God to help us.  But it can't be done if today's text is read superficially with something like magic in mind.  I don't think we can rid our society of all of those –isms without also ridding ourselves of our own demons and the power they have over us.  None of which happens in isolation.  


And yet, here we are in days of COVID-19 living exactly that.  Isolation.  A friend of mine posted a beautiful sunrise over the building in downtown San Francisco, and it looked gorgeous, but also as if it was shiny, or had some kind of filter on the camera.  She said that the photo didn't do justice to the actual beauty of the experience.  We have probably all had the same experience.  I have several rolls of film of the Swiss Alps that all look exactly the same in the photo.  My actual experience though included the depth, the smell, the brightness, etc.


We know from the love/hate relationship we have with Facebook Live and Zoom, that a two-dimensional experience will never properly convey or express, and certainly will never replace a three-dimensional experience.


Isolation is not a normal human experience.  Those that are dying of COVID-19 are even isolated in death as friends and family are not able to be present.  People properly quarantining even from their own families if needed are isolated even in the midst of their loved ones.  Church members who count on physical contact, a real smile, the ability to be fully held in prayer, are isolated even as we broadcast this service today.  We have a lot of hope today though that this isolation will not continue.  We have a new administration, we have new people in charge of new goals and processes, there are vaccinations in our futures as better systems are put in place to manage the avalanche of this pandemic, we have not quite fallen off the edge as a country, and it feels like a second chance of sorts.  As James and John and Andrew and Simon discovered when they left their nets, a new thing is in our midst.  Jesus showed them and is constantly showing us that when Jesus walks in the room, things change.  People notice. Even demons notice.  Whatever might do us harm will take notice as soon as we let Jesus in because Jesus doesn't have much patience for old harmful things.


As we put one foot in front of the other today and in the days and months ahead, I invite us to be mindful of our thoughts, create opportunities for prayer, notice something new, recognize the places where the spirit of Christ is already alive.  


Let us pray,


1 Rev. Robert Gench wrote a commentary or sermon that I would like to steal and use for my own today, but I haven't.  However, as a kind of two-for-one-sale today, you can a link to his sermon in the Presbyterian Outlook here


2 Vena, Osvaldo, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Interpretation / Profesor de Nuevo Testamento, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill., USA, commentary for Working Preacher, “Silence: Naming the Demons”






What Have We Begun?

Reverend Debra McGuire

January 31, 2021


Mark 1:21-28