"What Is This?" A Sermon on Mark 1:21-28 from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

"What Is This?"

Mark 1:21-28

What an exciting day it was at the Capernaum synagogue!  Mark tells us that the people were astounded at Jesus’ teaching, for he taught them as one with authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he 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.”

            But Jesus rebuked him, commanding the unclean spirit to be silent and come out of him. The unclean spirit came out of the man, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice.

            The people were amazed, and kept asking, “What is this? A new teaching--with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

            Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never witnessed a dramatic exorcism like the ones we read about in the Bible. Talk about evil and demons and unclean spirits sounds strange to us. But when we pay attention to the daily news, it’s hard to deny that evil is pervasive. Many of us long for God to intervene, to bring light and wholeness.

            Where do you find yourself in the gospel story today? With the people who are ready to be astounded and amazed at what new things God is doing in the world?  Or with the people who are comfortable with the status quo…or who are afraid of change and want Jesus to leave the neighborhood?

            What happens in the Capernaum synagogue develops into the conflict that’s a major theme throughout Mark’s gospel.  In the 11^th chapter of Mark—and also Matthew 21-- the religious establishment-- the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders come to Jesus after he cleanses the Temple, demand to know:  "By what authority are you doing these things?  Who gave you this authority to do them?" What we have here is a matter of authority, in Jesus' time and, I believe, in our own time as well.  

            There has always been a danger that we will use the scriptures to confirm what we already think...  and that we will hear only what we want to hear.   

            Many Germans once found in the Bible justification for slaughtering millions of Jews or at least justification not to resist the Nazi regime’s actions.  Because they wanted to keep their human property, many American Christians once argued from the Bible that it is right to buy and sell human beings as if they were animals. 

            Mean-spirited people tend to find a mean God in the Bible.  Comfortable, privileged people usually find that the Bible supports social and political conservatism that won’t interfere with their power and privilege.  Poor, exploited people may find that the Bible supports social and political reform or revolution.

            So, what is to keep us from simply using the Bible to give authority to our own agendas and prejudices?  What is to prevent us from using the Bible as a pious excuse for refusing to face the radical claims the living God makes on every area of our lives, here and now?

            In our Reformed tradition, one of the essential beliefs of our faith is a recognition of the human tendency to make idols and to oppress those who have less power than we do.  The positive part of that belief is our belief that we are called by God to work to transform society by seeking justice and living in obedience to the Word of God.

            This is a time of great turmoil in the world and in Christ's church.   During another time of turmoil, Martin Luther and John Calvin and other reformers challenged the religious establishment of their times and brought about the Protestant Reformation.   Later, abolitionists challenged the status quo in a church that tolerated or actively supported the institution of slavery.  The traditional view of women's role in the church was challenged when we were permitted to be ordained as elders, deacons, and ministers of the word and sacrament.

            None of these changes were comfortable.   Change is hard...  and painful.  Sometimes it's hard to discern God's will for us, as individuals or as the church, in the midst of complex, divisive issues.   People who advocated for the changes were seen as “fanatical"...   "immoral"... "subversive"… or heretical.

            The God we worship is not a tame God.  If we aren’t continually astounded and amazed by Jesus’ authority, we may be missing something important. We need to be praying about this.

            Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, came proclaiming the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent--change-- and believe in the good news.

            The scribes and others we hear about in the gospel who resisted Jesus and his message weren't bad people.  But they didn't know what to do with Jesus when he came proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, telling people to repent-- to change-- and trust in the good news.  They couldn’t imagine another way of living faithfully in the world. They had a hard time trusting in what Jesus said about how he came to bring us a life of abundance, where everyone can have enough if we all share. So, whenever Jesus challenged the status quo, they questioned his authority.  Some wanted him to go away and leave things the way they were.

             

            As followers of Jesus Christ, we confess that Jesus is Lord of our life.   We're called to trust in Jesus.  We're invited to continually be amazed at the truth and grace and freedom we find in his teaching...  and his power to even cast out unclean spirits.

              Over the past 2,000 plus years Christians have continually needed to ask in every new time, place, and situation, “What is the living Lord saying and doing, here and now?  What do we need to say and do in order to be faithful and obedient in our time and place?"

           

One of the reasons the church exists is to speak and act consistently with God’s character and purpose—like Jesus did. In today’s lesson about Jesus and the unclean spirit, Jesus doesn’t make compromises with evil.  He acts to defeat evil so people can be set free for new life.  He sets them free from what possesses them. He heals them of what ails them.

Jesus’ authority did not come from military power or wealth or social standing.  His authority is from God, who has the ability to deliver and to heal, to convict and to forgive, to cleanse and to raise from the dead.

There’s an urgency in Mark’s gospel to recognize that Jesus makes a claim on our lives. Christ calls us to work together, in partnership with him, to confront and overcome the harmful and destructive forces in our lives and in the world around us.

As you may know, our Engage Book Group read the Rev. William Barber’s book, The Third Reconstruction,[1] a while ago and were challenged by it.  Some of us have gone to hear Rev. Barber speak, and some of us have been praying about how we might be part of the new Poor Peoples Campaign, which will be forty days of action from Mother’s Day to the Summer Solstice.

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s death and of the Poor People’s Campaign, through which Dr. King was working to unite diverse groups impacted by poverty and injustice. The campaign was carried out that spring and summer after Dr. King’s death.[2]

            Fifty years later, the work is not done.  The four evils that the new Poor Peoples Campaign is taking on are four interlocking issues: systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, and ecological devastation. This national movement is working to bring together interfaith clergy, community leaders, and faith-based and community groups.

Can we say we believe in the in-breaking of God’s kingdom in the world if we don’t commit ourselves to bringing it to the people for whom God’s kingdom has been denied- so far-- people who lack basics like safe water to drink, adequate shelter, good education, health care, and a chance to have a place at the table in our society?

As the people of God, we are called to share the good news of God’s love with all the people God loves. We’re called to help the world recognize the miracle of grace and abundance that is offered to all people in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We don’t have to do it alone.

            The good news is that in this broken and fearful world, the Spirit gives us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.

            In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to Christ in our daily lives, even as we watch for God’s new heaven and new earth, praying, “Come, Lord Jesus!”[3]

            May it be so!

            Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

January 28, 2018

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[1] Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and William Barber II, The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement Is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear (Beacon Press, 2016).

[2] For more information, please see: https://poorpeoplescampaign.org/

[3] “A Brief Statement of Faith” of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1990.

"The End of a Season". A sermon on Amos 8, preached on July 17.

"The End of a Season"

Amos 8:1-12

           

The prophet Amos could not have known, thousands of years ago when he was delivering his prophetic oracles, that they would someday appear in the lectionary at this particular moment in American history.  Certainly he didn’t speak his oracles with us in mind. But this passage from the prophet Amos comes at an especially fraught and difficult time in our national life, and it provides us with an opportunity to talk about our life together.

My heart aches each time there’s another shooting or terrorist attack.  In recent weeks, Philando Castile, a school lunchroom supervisor, was shot in Minnesota by a police officer, with his fiancé and 4-year-old daughter in the ca, and Alton Sterling was fatally shot by police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Then 5 Dallas police officers were killed and 9 officers and 2 civilians were injured by a military veteran who was apparently angry about African-Americans being killed by police.  Officer Lorne Ahrens… Officer Michael Smith… Officer Michael Krol… Officer Patrick Zamarripa… and Dallas Transit Police Officer Brent Thompson were the officers who lost their lives.  All of those killed were precious lives. 

We were still reeling from these deaths when in Nice, France, a terrorist used a 19-ton truck to massacre 84 people and injured more than 200 by driving through the crowds gathered to watch fireworks on Bastille Day.

The Republican National Convention is scheduled to begin tomorrow, and the Democratic National Convention will be held next week. 

This is an intense and troubling time in our nation. So it seems like a good time to take stock of our nation and our society, and to ponder what God might have Amos or some other prophet say to us today.

Amos was an “outside agitator” from Judah—a southerner who was called to speak to a northern audience in a time of national security and material affluence.  The wealth was enjoyed by the few at the expense of the many.  His words may be as difficult for us to bear as they were for Israel and its political ruler and those who were wealthy and privileged.

In last week’s Hebrew scripture lesson, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, went to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel.  The land is not able to bear all his words.  For this Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’”

Then Amaziah told Amos to get out of Israel and go back to Judah. “Earn your bread there, and prophesy there.  But never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’”[1]

When I was in seminary, one of my assigned papers in an Old Testament class was about distinguishing true prophets from false prophets.  What I discovered was that there were those who claimed to be prophets, who would tell the king what he wanted to hear.  As Jeremiah said, “They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.  'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace.’”[2] 

Ezekiel criticized the false prophets:  “Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace—and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered mortar…”  Ezekiel brought a word from the Lord about “the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace….’”[3]

            One of the events I attended at the Wild Goose Festival last week was a Town Hall on Racial Justice, with Jim Wallis and other panelists.  Near the end, there was a time for questions and response, and someone asked, “When I go home, how can I talk to my congregation about racial justice without upsetting somebody?”   Can you guess what the response was?   “You can’t.”  For a lot of people, it isn’t easy to hear or think about it.  But it’s necessary and important.

            Whether people in Israel heard Amos’ message as good news or bad news would have depended on where they found themselves in the story.  If they were comfortable with the status quo, they probably heard it as bad news.  But if they were poor or marginalized or oppressed, they would have been glad to hear that there were consequences for those who act unjustly and that God would be bringing an end to this wickedness. 

            This week’s Hebrew scripture lesson began with a vision that the prophet received:

            This is what the Lord GOD showed me—a basket of summer fruit.  He said, “Amos, what do you see?”  And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.  “Then the LORD said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” says the Lord GOD; “the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!”

            In my study this week, I was reminded that puns are common in biblical prophetic literature.  When you get the pun in this passage, it’s jarring.  The Hebrew word used for “summer fruit”—qayits-- sounds similar to qets-- the word for “end”.   Some of the translations try to re-create the word play in English, saying something like “The time is ripe for my people Israel.”[4]

            Phillando Castile, Alton Sterling, police officers in Dallas, mass shootings in schools and night clubs and malls, the state sanctioned executions of those on death row, kids who are hungry in our own extended neighborhoods—everywhere we look, we find suffering,  injustice and death.  There are cycles of violence and retribution, oppression and marginalization that play out over and over again. 

            These things are painful to see and hear.   People who are privileged may get through life without seeing or hearing some of them at all.  But God calls us to be quiet and listen, and to see things through God’s eyes, to see the pain of God’s beloved children.

            Now that nearly everybody has a video camera in their phone, violence and injustice is being documented and shared over the internet.  So, unless we refuse to see it and hear it, we are more aware of it. 

I think—I hope and pray—that we have finally reached a tipping point, that we are heartbroken enough now that we are ready to recognize the end of a season in the life of our society and that we are ready to do the hard work of listening and learning, and to commit ourselves to God’s way of justice for all God’s people. 

            I think the time is ripe.  We can do better in our society, in this new time.  We can be better—with God’s help.

At the Wild Goose Festival, Jim Wallis reminded us that 75 percent of white Americans have entirely white social networks.  The lack of direct, regular, and personal connection makes it very difficult to get beyond the racial biases and stereotypes that are still so strong in white American society. [5]   

Fifty years after the great victories of the civil rights movement, and Dr. King’s reminder that Sunday morning at eleven o’clock was the nation’s most segregated hour, most Americans still live most of their lives segregated from other races.  In many parts of our nation, we live in different neighborhoods, and most of us are not together in our schools and churches.  So most people don’t have opportunities to talk more deeply together and develop the empathy and meaningful relationships that bring understanding, friendships, common citizenship, and even spiritual fellowship—unless you work at it intentionally.

When you’re not with other people, you simply don’t know what their lives are like, what they’re most concerned about, what their core values or top priorities are, what they’ve been going through, and what they desire for their children.  You learn about other people when they’re your neighbors, or parents of your children’s classmates or teammates, or members of your religious congregation….[6] 

You learn a lot about people if you did, as a pastor in Atlanta started to do a few days ago, on his daily commute on public transit, where he is surrounded by persons of color.  He usually focuses on reading on the train, which isolates him.  But after all the shootings recently, he decided to push past his comfort zone and engage with people. 

In his blog, Presbyterian pastor Greg Allen-Pickett wrote:  “Last week, our country convulsed from the untimely deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, both precious children of God. I have been wracked with many emotions. But as I made my morning commute, I realized that what I am feeling must pale in comparison to what my black sisters and brothers are feeling. So for the past week, I wore my clerical collar on my train ride and I asked my fellow riders how they were feeling; this is what I learned….”[7]

I hope you’ll read his post.  In summary, he heard people of color saying that they’re sad, they’re scared, they’re fearful, and they’re angry. He was surprised to hear that they’re hopeful. The people on the train expressed hope that things will get better.  They expressed “hope that God is present, even the midst of all of this injustice, and that God is actively at work, redeeming and reconciling.”

So what did he learn from this experience?  He says most days when he gets on the train, he keeps his head down, and he usually reads a book.  But with his nose in a book, he wasn’t connecting with the people around him.  He learned that to be an ally, he needs to close his mouth and listen—really listen—and pay attention to the world around him.  He learned that it isn’t about him, that he can strive to live with empathy and compassion, and to be humble about his inability to fully understand the experience of being black in this country.  He learned that he needs to push out of his comfort zone, to make eye contact and interact with people who are different, to ask authentic questions and be prepared for authentic answers—answers that may challenge him and make him uncomfortable. 

As he writes, it is in that discomfort that we begin to grow.  And this Presbyterian pastor learned from this experience about the power of prayer. He learned how to pray from his sisters and brothers on the train that he prayed with.  He learned that “even in the midst of profound darkness, there can be hope and light.”

I think we need to hear peoples’ stories and acknowledge their pain and fears.  So I’m grateful for the courage of a number of people—mothers of black children, elected officials, and others—who have shared some of their experiences and posted them online, and I’ve been sharing some of them on Facebook, for those who “have ears to hear.”

When you trample those on the margins, Amos tells us, things will not go well for you. The end of injustice is coming, whether or not you have eyes to see.  

The good news is that God loves every one of us and wants us all to live in beloved community together.  God wants all God’s children to  enjoy freedom and justice and joy. 

Do we believe this?  Can we trust that God loves us and all God’s children, and that God has a plan for us that is good for all of us?  Is anything too wonderful for God?

The time is ripe.  It’s up to us.  How will we respond?

Will we join God in heralding the arrival of justice for all?  Or will we stand in the way?

I pray that we will all respond faithfully. 

May it be so.  Amen.

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[1] Amos 7:10-17

[2] Jeremiah 6:14

[3] Ezekiel 13:10, 16.

[5] http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/08/self-segregation-why-its-hard-for-whites-to-understand-ferguson/378928/

[6] Jim Wallis, America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America.  Brazos Press, 2016. 

[7] Greg Allen-Pickett, at   https://pres-outlook.org/2016/07/reflections-train-racism-ally/