The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, January 31st, was based on the manuscript below. The text for the day was Mark 1.21-28.
Last week we heard the key to Mark’s gospel.
The written gospels’ purpose,
this gospel’s purpose,
is ‘to make of its faithful readers
faithful disciples of Jesus Christ,
and the fundamental quality
of faithful discipleship is to be found [in the phrase]:
“Follow me.”’[1]
Today Jesus has found and called some disciples
so it’s time to start his public ministry.
Reasonably, for a rabbi,
he starts it on the Sabbath
at a synagogue.
Jesus, a rabbi, a teacher,
teaches.
He teaches with an authority
that astounds, astonishes, and amazes
those who hear it.
At the synagogue,
where everyone expects to find order,
disorder is present.
Jesus,
the wandering rabbi,
is supposed to be at the synagogue.
You expect that.
What you don’t expect
is a man with an unclean spirit,
a man with a demon.
Even with his upset state,
he cries out
and names Jesus
as the Holy One of God.
Jesus casts the demons out
and again the people are
astounded, astonished, and amazed
at his teaching.
We expect Jesus and his disciples
in the synagogue.
We don’t expect the man with a demon
stirring up trouble
right after the sermon!
We don’t expect a man with a demon
there at all.
But perhaps we should.
Don’t we all have our own demons?
Those things that
alienate us from God and our neighbor?
Perhaps he’s come in search of help.
When catechumens are enrolled
we’ll do that again! for real
they’re asked “What do you seek?”
Their response is
“New life in Christ.”
Candidates for baptism are asked
Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces
of wickedness that rebel against God?
Do you renounce the evil powers of this world
which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you
from the love of God?
I’m no sooner to blame
every malady in the world
on demons
than I am to call
every minor inconvenience
a cross to bear.
But what if we were to see
that there are powers
that seek to corrupt and destroy
the creatures of God?
I think we may well only
be able to answer Jesus’ call
and believe in his authority
if we believe in his authority
over something.
Although we are drawn,
perhaps by the strangeness of it
from our 21st century
educated protestant perspective or
perhaps from a section header in our Bibles,
this exorcism is not the focus
of this passage.
Rather, with its repetition,
this passage is about Jesus’ authority.
He teaches with an authority
that astounds, astonishes, and amazes
those who hear it.
After the exorcism,
everyone there keeps asking,
“What is this? A new teaching—with authority!”
The man with the unclean spirit,
and those who surrounded Jesus in the synagogue
do nothing on their own.
The man cries out,
but doesn’t ask for
what Mark describes as a healing
with convulsions.
He’s healed nonetheless.
Those who went to the synagogue
on that Sabbath morning
weren’t expecting
a paradigm shift of teaching.
They got one nonetheless.
God’s acts of goodness for us
and all creation
aren’t anything we’ve earned or can earn.
God’s healing
and defeat of Satan and all his works
at Jesus’ resurrection
isn’t something we did on our own.
Lamar Williamson says,
“The basic issue
raised by this text
is whether today’s reader
is prepared to recognize,
with the original observers
and with the evangelist,
that Jesus of Nazareth
must be who the troubled man
said he was:
the Holy One of God.”[2]
Do we believe that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Holy One of God?
Are we willing
to shelter under Jesus’ authority,
the authority that astounds
those who hear him teach
the authority to cleanse unclean spirits
and restore someone to relationship
with God and community?
Paul tells the Church at Ephesus
“For our struggle is not against
enemies of blood and flesh,
but against the rulers,
against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers
of this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces
of evil in the heavenly places.”
In renouncing
Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness
that rebel against God;
the evil powers of this world
which corrupt and destroy
the creatures of God
all sinful desires that draw us
from the love of God
we’ve had our exorcisms.
And we’ve witnessed them,
baptism after baptism.
In those renunciations,
we put our trust in Jesus’ authority
and we answer the call
“Follow me.”
We keep watching, working, and waiting
for the reign of Christ,
which Jesus assures us is at hand.
Do we believe him?
Are we willing to
follow him?
May be we astounded at Jesus’ teaching,
for he teaches as one having authority.
Amen.
[1] Williamson Jr., Lamar. Mark: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (p. 46). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
[2] Williamson Jr., Lamar. Mark: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (p. 53). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.