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January 29, 2006 - Epiphany 4, Year B

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah. . .

It's not the way we expect the story to begin.
There's no introduction, no background, no history,
just the announcement by a crazy man in the desert, quoting from a long dead prophet, and suddenly there's Jesus, wandering around, calling people to follow him,
healing them, preaching good news.
The gospel of Mark
is kind of an odd book, as far as books in the bible go, and especially compared to the other gospels.
They all begin
one way or another
with the birth of Jesus: the gospel of Luke with the angelic messenger Gabriel, and then shepherds and angels and a baby in a manger, Matthew with wise men coming to worship the baby, John with his wonderfully poetic description of the word of God
made flesh in Jesus Christ. And they all end the same way, not with birth this time, but with rebirth, the wonderful stories of the resurrection.

But Mark, well he misses all that. No birth stories, and even the resurrection
seems to be only tacked on as an afterthought. On the other hand, he takes a good third of his book
telling the story of the last week of Jesus's life, and especially his death;
the rest
is about the things he does
that make real
the kingdom of God.

And so when he begins, we're thrown right into the middle of it all. John the Baptist announces him, he has a quick trip into the wilderness to get ready, he calls together a few people to be his disciples
and from then on it's a roller coaster of healings and teaching, going from one town to the next
to reach out to people
with the good news
of the Kingdom of God.

I'm not sure why Mark does it. As far as the scholars can work out, Mark was probably the first one of the gospel writers
to put the story of Jesus down on parchment. His is the shortest of the four gospels; a lot of what he says
is repeated in the other gospels,
and that suggests
that they had a copy of Mark's version right beside them
as they wrote.
It might just be
that Mark is writing the first one of these kind of records, these gospel things, and he's just not sure what to put in. So he sticks with the essentials, the things this Jesus says and does.

But maybe it's also
because Mark knows
that we will get too caught up
in those wonderful stories of angels and shepherds and wise men from the east,
of resurrection and hope and joy,
that those stories
wonderful as they are
will never get forgotten.
But maybe he also knows
that there are other stories about Jesus, stories that aren't quite as nice, not as straightforward,
stories that make us just a little bit uncomfortable
and that we'd like to forget.
So he makes sure
that it's those sort of stories
that get written down, so no one will forget them, no one can ignore them.

And so it's day 1 of Jesus' ministry, and we get one of those stories
we'd rather not remember.
Jesus
is in the town of Capernaum. It's a smallish place, about the same size as the town of Swedesboro, and it sits right on the sea of Galilee. It's where Jesus's first disciples come from, Simon and Andrew, James and John, the fishermen,
and on day one
that's all the disciples he has. The other eight
haven't appeared on the scene yet.
So there they are, the five of them, and because it's a Saturday, the Sabbath, they go to the synagogue to worship.
And while they are there, Jesus gets up, as any adult male had the right to do,
and begins to teach. People are surprised — even though he's got a country accent
he speaks with more authority
that the teachers they're used to;
what he has to say
is worth hearing.

But then he does something more troublesome. A crazy man
comes up to him and starts yelling. "I know who you are, Jesus of Nazareth! What are you doing here? Are you going to destroy us? I know
who you are, Holy One of God!"

Everyone starts looking uncomfortable. Simon and Andrew, James and Jphn, they move a bit closer to Jesus, ready to protect him if the crazy man gets violent. A couple of strong local guys
push through the congregation
ready to haul the troublemaker away.

But Jesus stops them, and turns to the man. "Be silent; come out of him." After a final shout, the man goes quiet. He's no threat
to anyone now. And the whole congregation breaks into chatter. "Who is this?," they ask. "He teaches so well, and now he even tells unclean spirits
what to do."

It's a scene
we can almost imagine being in. The gifted speaker, the unexpected disruption, the people ready to haul him away. But what we have trouble with
is the idea
that the troublemaker
has an evil spirit. Crazy, yes, but possessed? Im mean, we're not watching The Exorcist here.

I'm on an email list
with a bunch of clergy where we talk about what we are preaching each week. This week, perhaps predictably
a bunch of guys started to talk about today's gospel reading, and got really hung up on this reference to an unclean spirit.

One said,
"Well, we've got all the benefits of modern psychology. We know now
that what the early Christians thought
was demon possession
was really just mental illness, psychiatric problems and things like that. There are no demons."

Another one said, "Hang on then. Does that mean
that we should throw out all the other miraculous events in Scripture? I mean, if science just explains them away, then maybe it can explain away
all the other things we find difficult. If we can't believe in this, how can we believe in anything the Bible says?"

Another one
started in on the problem of evil.
"This talk of demons is just a sign
of the evil that is present in human existence."

But you know what? All of them missed the point. Because what happened that day, regardless of whether the crazy man was sick, possessed or evil, what happened
was that he was healed.
Jesus had power
over whatever was going on in him, Jesus had the power
to make him healthy and whole again.

But it wasn't even that Jesus had power. If you read the story carefully, what's interesting is that there are hardly any details at all about the miracle. The man comes in; Jesus speaks; it's over. It's not like most of the other miracles we read about in the New Testament, where we get descriptions of what is wring in gory detail, and most times hear not just what happens in the healing, but what happens afterwards to the person who was healed. This time
we get none of that.
What we get
is the reaction of the people in the synagogue that day. And they have the same reaction
to the healing
as they hd to Jesus's teaching. It's not amazement at magic being done. It's amazement that this man
has authority. In what he says,
in what he does.
And it's authority like no one they've ever seen before.
Not just the authority
of religious leaders
as great as they may be. But authority
that means maybe, maybe
he is someone greater.
And authority that means maybe,
maybe
they too have to obey.

This story
is the beginning
of a whole series of stories in the gospel of Mark.
And they all point
to the same question. It will be asked time after time after time in the weeks and months ahead
as we read our way through the gospel according to St Mark.
Who is this man?

And it's a question that gets an answer
that final day
as Jesus
hanging on the cross,
breathed
his last breath.
The centurion looked up:
"Truly
this man
was God's Son."

God's son. The same thing
the angel said to Mary
back when he was conceived.
But God's Son
in the gospel of Mark
is not just a baby in a manger;
God's son
is someone with authority,
authority to teach,
to heal the sick,
to calm the waves,
even
to forgive sins.

And the question doesn't end
with the centurion's answer.
Mark is asking us too.
Who do you think
this Jesus is? Who do you believe
he is?
Is he the Son of God?
Does he have authority?
How are you
going to respond?

Sermon ©Raewynne J. Whiteley 2006