Words, Agitation and New Life
Epiphany 4b, Mark 1:21-28 with I Corinthians 13:1-8 and Deuteronomy 18:15-20
February 1, 2009
One morning a number of years ago a woman walked into my office. I will call her Norma. When I first met her she wouldn't divulge her name. Nor would she volunteer anything about herself. At that point she said nothing about her military service, that she had both seen and participated in some terrible things. Over time a degree of trust developed between us. Eventually Norma invited me to her apartment. Over a number of years she eventually told me some of the horrible things that had been done to her: by a family member, by a Pastor, by military colleagues, by a teacher.
As a result Norma had many personal struggles. As more time passed her trust of me grew. Sometimes she would phone me late at night asking me to come over to help her. Sometimes she had cut her arms and wrists with knives. It's called self-flagellation. Then I would take her to emergency at the hospital. There she would concoct a story about a knife slipping, or about falling on broken glass. Eventually she agreed to see a psychologist. The first psychologist we visited had some skill. He was unable to uncover some of what he referred to as her multiple personalities. Many of these personalities were violent. But that particular psychologist did not have the experience or the wherewithal to influence these personalities in ways so that they didn't do either of us or Norma damage. It was all very frightening. In such a state Norma was anything but free. She refused to come out of her basement suite in the daylight. She was frequently consumed with anger, capable of only God knows what. I feared for her. I feared for others that she came into contact with. At times I feared for my own safety.
In today's Gospel we meet Jesus. He is at a synagogue on the Sabbath day. For him this wasn't unusual. Remember He is Jewish. For Jesus to go to synagogue was probably as ordinary as it is for many of us to come to Church on any given Sunday. But on this particular day Mark tells us that in that synagogue there is a man with an "unclean" spirit. Such a spirit is opposed to God, to God's work of bringing life and hope to people. As this man with the unclean spirit meets Jesus that spirit begins to cry out: "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?" Did you notice that although the man is only a single person, that the unclean spirit controlling him is more than one. That unclean spirit recognizes Jesus as He is. That spirit inquires, has Jesus come to destroy them? Not only that but this unclean spirit and all of his or her colleagues recognize very clearly just who Jesus is. They refer to Jesus as the Holy One of God.
At first glance all of this may seem extremely weird, like something out of a horror movie such as Friday the 13th or the Exorcist. It all seems so far removed from our post modern sensibilities. But is it?
Are any of us plagued with "unclean" spirits? Are we free to love unconditionally, to not think of others as less than us, to care for ourselves and beyond ourselves, to not indulge ourselves destructively with food, alcohol, or ongoing purchases of more and more stuff that we do not need? Or, do you ever find yourself dreaming, fantasizing about being almost anywhere else but here? Such fantasies take us away from the reality that is right in front of us, that may be filled with that endless wonder. Such spirits can drive us to harm ourselves and others in so many ways. Granted we may not need to take a trip to the emergency ward of the hospital right now. BUT the truth is, we are often not well, not free. Too often we are not free to live and love in the ways God calls us to.
See what Jesus does. He speaks a word to the man with the unclean spirit. Jesus' word is a word of confrontation. In one sense it seems to be only a word. We might ask, what good are words when confronting powers that enslave? But this word comes from Jesus who has authority. Jesus' authority emanates from the essence of who He is, the Holy One of God. Jesus is the One of God who actually loves the world. That world includes this man with the unclean spirit. So it is that Jesus as the Holy One of God confronts the powers of death and evil that are within and around that man and us! Jesus' words can cast these forces from within us, limit their ability to control us. Such casting out may not be easy or quiet. Indeed the unclean spirit in this man convulses him even as it leaves him. But then that man has the possibility of living in community peaceably, hopefully, knowing Jesus who frees him so to live.
This man through the word of Jesus is being transformed. He is being taken from outside of human community, from beyond knowing and trusting God, to the inside, to new life that is no longer destructive to him or for others. Who knows what this man might be and do now?
How about us? Many of us are blessed to come to our "synagogues" week after week. Many of us are being blessed to hear God's very Word, Jesus himself, being proclaimed in word and deed, in Word and Sacrament. Don't you see? Jesus' words are not merely words, such as our words so often are. Jesus' speech can never be limited to or contained by a book. Instead Jesus' words and life can bring us to new life here and now. We don't need to be beyond God, or withdrawn from each other. We can live, knowing and caring for each other and creation. Jesus' words and life can bring such new life to us and others! These words of Jesus are embodied in Himself, in His life, death and resurrection. As they work their miraculous changes in our lives we are sent out to share with others the realities of his words in our own lives. No one needs be excluded from the love and acceptance of God.
Sarah Dylan Breuer, an Episcopalian priest, says it beautifully. The kingdom, the rule and influence of God is like a washing machine, sending what's at the center out to the margins and bringing what's at the margins in toward the center, transforming all in its motion. While still employing that metaphor, she says that Jesus is the agitator.
Jesus speaks to us. By God's grace may we be open to his words either to be thrust out to the margins to freely share His love and self emptying with others who are also in need, OR, if we are so broken that we are seriously damaging ourselves and others, may the word of Jesus draw us closer to Him embracing us with new life.
Jesus is the One with authority, the strangest kind of authority that gives of Himself so that the whole world can live. The powers of evil, death and all that is opposed to God, cannot stand against Jesus' unique authority! Thanks be to God! Amen.