Clashing Authorities

Sermon for February 1, 2009 The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Mark 1:21-28 A.   For centuries people believed that Aristotle – perhaps history's most influential philosopher -- was right when he said that the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth.   Of course anyone could have taken two objects, one heavy and one light, and dropped them from a great height to see whether or not the heavier object landed first. But no one did until nearly 2,000 years after Aristotle's death.  Legend has it that in 1589 Galileo summoned learned professors to the base of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Then he went to the top and pushed off a ten-pound and a one-pound weight. Both landed on the ground at the same instant. They have to, because gravity pulls similar sized objects at the same rate.  But these learned professors who watched Galileo's experiment refused to believe the evidence of their own eyes.  They refused to believe that Aristotle could be wrong.  His authority was weighted more than that of the evidence right before them!  It took years before the authority of modern physics was accepted, and the authority of Classical Greece, though influential, was put in its proper place.   But that's the way authority is.  We tend to follow a concept or a person based upon how much authority we assign to it.  The more authoritative something or someone seems to be, the more we tend to believe it.  Lots of things can influence authority:  education, experience, and attitude, to name a few. The story is told of a missionary who got lost in the jungle with nothing around him but bush and a few cleared places.  He finally found a small village and asked one of the natives if he could lead him out back to the city. The native said he could.  They walked for hours through dense brush hacking their way through unmarked jungle. The missionary began to worry and said, "Are you quite sure this is the way? Where is the path?" The native said. "In this place, there is no path. I am the path." Now, who do you think the authority was in that situation?!  B.   This morning's passage of Scripture is all about authority; God's authority, the Devil's authority, and whose authority we choose to listen to.  Mark records that when Jesus came to Capernaum on that particular Sabbath day, He entered the synagogue and taught.   And the crowds were astounded!  Why?  Because He taught not as the scribes taught, but as one having authority.   But I'm beginning to get ahead of myself.  Capernaum was an important first-century city at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee.   It was the center of the Galilean fishing industry and the probable home of several of Jesus' formerly-fishermen disciples.  In 1981, excavations unearthed the foundations of a first-century synagogue, which gives historical weight to this scene in Mark. The service of the Jewish community of the first century consisted of praising and blessings, prayers, and the reading of the Law and the Prophets, accompanied by an exposition of the lesson, a "sermon" if you will.  Since there was no ordained clergy at that time, it would not have been unusual to invite an adult male to preach.  None of the Gospels offer any description of Jesus' formal training or background.   However, the fact that Jesus was allowed to speak in the synagogue indicates that he probably was invited to present a homily on the text, which in turn suggests that he was known in the area as a man skilled in interpretation of the Law.  If you recall, according to Luke, Jesus did have a reputation since age 12 for being quite the Biblical scholar.   In this scene in the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus is shown to teach with an authority that the religious leaders lack.  The Scribes were the doctors of the Law, the Biblical scholars of the day.  They knew the Law, and they lectured the faithful as one would a class.  But not Jesus.  He taught as one who had personal experience of exactly what the Scriptures were getting at (which, of course, He did!!).  There is no indication that the audience's amazement was due to what Jesus said, but rather, how He said it.  But beyond that, Jesus demonstrated that He had authority over the demonic spirit that tortured the poor man.   So you see, Mark is pointing out to us that Jesus has authority both in what He says and in what He does.  This act of controlling the demons is even more important than the teaching.  God's house was not a place for the demonic to dwell.  It's interesting to note that given how Jesus will battle with Scribes and Pharisees later on in His ministry, the Scribes belong in the sanctuary.  They are never told to leave.  Just the demons.  Evil has no place in God's house.  Jesus' act of exorcism is almost like a sermon illustration to what He had just said.  The Kingdom of God is coming into the world right now through the words and the actions of Jesus.  God has authority over the demons, and over anything demonic that might confront us.  The Kingdom has no place for evil.  With the coming of Jesus, the moment of the overthrow of the demonic has arrived.   The Kingdom transforms people when it encounters them through the words and the works of Jesus.   We can begin to see a point that I was making last week.  When we encounter Scripture, when we pray, when we hear a sermon, when we witness to how Jesus can make a difference in one's life, the transformational Kingdom of God encounters the hearers.  Christ enters the world at that moment through the power of the Spirit.  Then it becomes decision time – do I believe the Gospel, or don't I?  Do I accept Christ as Savior and Lord, or don't I?    Now it's understandably startling when someone comes into the sanctuary and disrupts the worship service!   But it's interesting that Jesus never did send away the possessed man.   Being unclean would certainly prohibit him from being part of the congregation in the first place.   But Jesus loved the man, and hated the demon that tortured him.  Christ welcomes the least, the last, and the lost.  Healing is a part of what we do.  We cannot turn away anyone who needs the healing presence of Christ.  We can minister to such an individual, showing this person the healing grace of Christ.  But we can't send anyone away because they are not like us. The unclean spirit recognizes who Jesus is ("the Holy One of God" v. 24).   It's interesting that in Mark, God identifies Jesus as His chosen Son -- both at Jesus' baptism and at the Transfiguration -- the demons know that Jesus is the Son of God.  But all the people, including and especially the disciples, are clueless as to who Jesus is.  They hear His teaching, they witness His miracles, but they still don't know who He is.  The first person to identify Jesus as the Son of God in Mark isn't even a disciple.  He is the centurion, a pagan, who witnesses the Crucifixion and sees Jesus die on the Cross.  He says, "This man was the Son of God!"  We can't know who Jesus is without seeing Him through the Cross.  When we see that God loves us enough to die for us, and to conquer death on Easter Sunday, thereby opening up eternity for those who believe, then we can begin to see who Jesus is.  As the demon said, He is the Holy Son of a grace-filled and forgiving God.   Now the unclean spirit understood immediately that Jesus' presence is of danger to them. Still, it fights back.  It was common in exorcism to name the spirit in order to control it. The unclean spirit seeks to control Jesus by naming him. However, the power of the Almighty is irresistible, and Jesus simply tells the demon to "shut up!"  Before Jesus casts out the unclean spirit, the question is asked by evil: "Have you come to destroy us?" (v. 24).  The use of the plural personal pronoun suggests either that the one demon is speaking for the entire world of unclean spirits, or the single entity has split into two or more.  No matter.  Jesus is mightier than any evil.  Jesus speaks and the demon obeys.  The Kingdom has entered into the world to take it back from evil, and to claim it for the God who made it. The news of this exorcism and the report of Jesus, the man with a new teaching and with unsurpassable power, spread though the countryside, and Jesus went forth to preach and to heal. The die had been cast on the demonic powers. The confrontations with the religious authorities had begun.   Mark's drama that will conclude with the empty tomb is now in full swing.   C.   So whether we like it or not, this text confronts us with a tough question.  Who or what is authoritative in our lives?  Let me deal with one thing before we answer this, because it may divert us from answering our main question the way we should.  That is the situation of exorcism.   Now I am certainly aware that many of the incidents that the Gospels call demon possession probably would be given a more medical explanation in the light of modern scientific knowledge.  Obviously, first century understanding of medical problems is far less scientific than twenty-first century understanding.  Some of the incidents in the NT can be explained away as epilepsy, just as some of the cases of leprosy in the NT are really just assorted skin ailments, such as psoriasis and eczema, irritating but hardly deadly.   Even so, the NT is clear that evil exists in the world to resist God's Will, and that demons can and do afflict both man and beast.   We are all used to speaking about "personal demons" that oppress the individual, such as drug and alcohol addiction, anger issues, and the like.  These are certainly real, and truly these personal conditions can control a person just like the man in the story.  But I have seen things and heard things that lead me to believe that there are also evil forces in the world that can afflict people and do oppose God's Will.  Call them demons if you like.  They are definitely demonic.   But even if one doesn't believe in demons, it doesn't alter the meaning that Mark is trying to get across.  Mark is telling us that through the words and the deeds of Jesus, God is doing a new thing.  God has come into the midst of humanity with power.  The Kingdom of God is not just near, it's here.  And through faith in Christ, personal transformation and new life is ours. In his penetrating book The First Circle, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the famous Russian author who defected to America, makes an interesting observation about how the Russian authorities handle the church. He writes: "No one stops them from ringing their bells; they can break communion bread anyway they please. They can have their processions with the cross. But they will in no way allow them to have any connection with social or civic affairs. The church was allowed to go through the motions; it could have a presence, but it dare not have an influence.  What bothered the scribes was not that Jesus prayed and preached. It was the fact that his prayers and his sermons were moving the people to action.   I wonder if the church still has that concept of authority. So often our problem is not that we do not have authority, it is that we do not use the authority that we have.   It is time that we quit defining the problems of the world and start applying the power of the church to the problems… The issue is one of authority.  Solzhenitsyn is making the point that if both we as Anglicans and the Church makes Jesus, His Will, and His Words authoritative in both our corporate and personal lives, then God's power to change will be channeled into and through us.  The question we obviously have to ask is 'Who's in charge of our lives'?  Is it Christ or the world?  Is it Jesus, or is it whatever personal demon has got hold of us.  For the Church, the question is whether Christ is in charge or the world.  The good news is that Jesus is in charge.  He is the authority over all evil.  And the Kingdom of God is here, repulsing evil, transforming lives, and freeing people from the demons in life that might possess us. How do we put Jesus in charge?  First, we have to identify the demon that we are fighting.  In this morning's Scripture lesson, the demon tries to gain control over Jesus by naming Him.  We have to name our particular demon, whether it be alcoholism, self-centeredness, anger, abusive behavior, unfaithfulness in relationship, or whatever.  Once named, we have to give it to God.  Let Jesus touch us and exorcise that demon.  God can get rid of it.  We may have to keep giving it to God, because we humans like to take habits back when we get used to them, even habits that hurt us.  It also helps to have a group of brothers or sisters who love us, support us, and to whom we can confess our sins and failings.  Allow these people to support us and chastise us when we go down the wrong path.  But be aware – Christ is stronger than whatever demon might haunt us. A certain Army man had been a heavy drinker for 35 years. For all those years he had been angry - angry at everyone and everything. Finally, he encountered Christ and his whole life changed.  He was speaking once before a group of medical people. He told them of his personality change, how he was now sober as he once had been drunk; considerate as he once had been severe; concerned for others as once he had been selfish and self-serving.  A psychiatrist, who believed that personalities are so firmly set in early life that no one can change, protested to the Colonel that at his age a person could not have such a radical transformation.  "Well," replied the Colonel, "that may be true. But I am under new management - I answer to another authority - the highest and truest there is." So again, who is in charge of our lives?  If it is Christ, nothing can possess us and ultimately destroy us.  If it is not, let us invite Him to be in charge of our hearts and our lives through prayer.  He will guide us down right paths, if we let Him.  Amen.     Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA  20177 703-344-3569 almond_keith@yahoo.com