2018-01-28 – Rev. Dr. Ryan Sato
REBUKED, RESTORED
Mark 1:21-28
Last week we sought to renew our call to follow Jesus… and part of that renewal included an exhortation to be a people who brought to life the Kingdom/Dream of God…
“Our lives, flowing in the same direction as God’s life.”*
Q1: When our lives, flow in the same direction as God’s life…the kingdom comes…the kingdom is here and near…
What words express this “flow in the same direction as God’s life”…
Here’s some of my ideas that I might add to the mix: healing / freedom / communion /
restoration
Goodness / truth / non-violence / love / compassion / sound mind
Justice / mercy / fruit of spirit
—But there’s stuff that gets in the way…right?
Q2: What are the powers or systems that stand in the way, or get in the way of this “flow”? What structures/group-think shout “NO!” to the way that we are seeking in Q1?
Let me name a few: religious supremacy / the way of the scribes /
Racism — revenge — nationalism —
Political affiliations — greed — fear — accusing voices — deceit
>>>>>>>
I want to lay these tensions in front of us as we enter into today’s story…
We’re not in the business of training to be exorcists ok?…but we are seeking to form in us a will and a way of following Jesus where we knowingly/willingly enter into the conflict of this world, seeking to be a people whose lives flow in the same direction as God’s life…
We will encounter evil. Will it be in the form of a human possessed by an evil spirit? Unlikely…and as we seek to find good news in today’s story, it’s not to philophise or analyze the phenomenom of demon-possession…. there’s something bigger going on…and the gospel writer wants to highlight an “all-points bulletin”… Mark presents Jesus’ first public act of ministry as a church exorcism as a way of declaring…
“take note principalities…you’ve been warned!”
— JESUS and his first few followers come to the rural town of Capernaum and show up for synagogue worship day. It’s Sabbath…a day set aside for worship, rest and hearing the Psalms and Torah read and interpreted by the local scribes and religious leaders.
But today, Jesus breaks up the normal routine… he begins teaching… “You know these scriptures that you hear and read of today? They are speaking of a coming one… the Holy one of God… today, these psalms and scriptures are fulfilled!”
“The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near…believe in the good news!”
Many amongst the 100 in the synagogue are astounded at Jesus’ teaching.
“He teaches as one with authority!”
The religious leaders are unmoved… they attempt to bring the service back to a controlled and manageable order and are about to call security so that Jesus and his rural, uneducated, fishermen might be gently ushered out the door…
But the call to order is interrupted by a shriek.
A disheveled worshipper cries out to Jesus…
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”
The chorus of layered voices shriek again…but then a singular voice continues:
“I know who you are, the Holy One of God!”
Jesus, with a tone of rebuke, says to the man:
“BE Silent, and come out of him!”
The unclean spirit, writhes and contorts the man’s body, but then it vanishes…
The man stands up…falls and worships at Jesus’ feet…weeping, but in his right mind.
>>>>>>>>
What’s going on here?
I think our response might echo the response of the crowd.
They ask, “What is this?”
Some in the congregation totally nail it…
“A new teaching… with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits
and they obey him!”
–And I think that’s how we live this story today…
We are emboldened to claim Jesus’ authority…to believe that he will be with us,
leading us….commanding unclean spirits…speaking to the powers and the systems that seek to threaten, destroy & undo…
and commanding these spirits to obey the way of the Spirit,
the way of life, the way of new creation.
>>>>> The good news of today’s story is a shot in the arm for us…
The world is on the alert….Let it be known that Jesus and those who follow him,
are to be known as a people who silence and tear down the systems of the evil one.
In a world where evil wreaks HELL on human bodies, we will follow Jesus and be co-conspirators, co-liberators, and co-redeemers. The last word is not left to those who shame and threaten…the last word belongs to Jesus, who speaks with authority and silences the voices of mockery and disdain.
Mark wants his people to know (in 60 CE) and us hearers (in 2018) to know that we can be assured that a new day has dawned…evil is on its way to destruction and new life and new existence is to come through Jesus and those who follow him…as we allow Jesus to take residence in our bodies, no matter how unfit or unworthy we might feel.
This is NOT a “Christians fist-punch the world” (new age of Christian colonialism)… but it is an invitation and an exhortation for us to look for the places that align with God’s work and God’s way…and be a people who seek to sustain this work and way…
Can we have eyes to see it?…to see where the inbreaking of God’s wholeness is making things new?
Can we see & name the dead places that are being given new life, where imprisoned imaginations are being set free, where decades of oppression are seeing a way out and way forward….where layers of silence and injustice are being uncovered, set-right and reformed?
[ perhaps we saw it this week…in the way that a “righteous judge” stood up for the oppressed and gave us a glimpse of how the world might be “righted” in the midst of one person’s evil intentions and deeds ]
** Let’s look at the list of those things we named as “flowing in the same direction as God’s life,” and reflect on what resonates with our gift mix right now***
**Pause and think….of a place where you/we can be provoked, challenged, or disturbed into action** As we join the Spirit in the ongoing mission of Jesus, where can we “overcome evil with good”? (Romans 12:1)
And know that today, in this place of worship, this synagogue…that Jesus stands with us…and by the presence of the Spirit, Jesus dwells in us!
We daily enter (by intention or ignorance) into the conflict of Jesus VS the evil empires/systems/structures…but we are not alone…
Jesus is at our sides, Jesus seeks to move through us…
And we, as the body of Christ, have the opportunity and call to work together for freedom, hope and a different way of ordering the world.
We’ve sung a phrase already today that helps orient us… “I want to walk as a Child of the Light…I want to follow Jesus.”
And we can continue to pray as the Lord taught us: Jesus, may your kingdom come, may your will be done IN US ALL…and THROUGH US ALL…Amen.