Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Something Ancient, Something New Mark 1:21-28; Deuteronomy 18:15-20

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1 Jakob Topper 11:00 service Dallas, Texas 28 January 2018 Fourth Sunday after The Epiphany Wilshire Baptist Church Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Something Ancient, Something New Mark 1:21-28; Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Released in 1973, it was the first horror movie ever nominated for an Academy Award for best picture. If adjusted for inflation, it grossed more than two billion dollars worldwide, making it one of the highest grossing films of all time, still to this day. Can you name that movie? That s right, The Exorcist. With special effect scenes some of us will never forget, it riled up an America struggling with its own demons in a still racially unsettled nation near the end of the Vietnam War. The movie paved the way for many of its kind like the more recent Paranormal Activity franchise. All of which create a serious challenge for preachers and thoughtful Christians everywhere. It s one thing to read a text about Jesus casting out an unclean spirit. It seems to be another thing entirely to watch Hollywood interpret the event in fantastical ways on screen. Are we to hear the man talk to Jesus in low, guttural tones while his head twists and turns in unnatural ways? Surely not. What do we tell our friends when they ask us if this is what we learn about at church? Any thoughtful person should know those movies are fictitious, despite their box-office boosting claims. Right?... Demon possession is a farce, we say, The product of a much simpler time, before people knew all that we now know about physical and mental health. Merely the product of unenlightened minds but it sure would be nice if Jesus were as enlightened as we are. Instead, Jesus marches from village to village healing the sick, delivering people from unclean spirits. And then he does it again. And then again. One of Mark s favorite adverbs to show us the urgency of Jesus work is euthys. We translate it immediately, at once, right away but it s always the same word. It s a repetitive punch, a drum beat that Mark uses over and over again. And for those of us who would rather close our eyes to this particular

2 example of an unenlightened Jesus, Mark won t allow it. Again and again the drum beats, and immediately we are assaulted with another barrage of scenes where the demonic is cast out time and time again. As hard as we try to squeeze our eyes shut, to ignore these embarrassing scenes, Mark works harder to force our eyes open to a reality we ve ignored for too long. In the Gospel of Mark, there can be no mistaking it. Whether we call it the demonic, evil, or simply darkness, by any of its many names it is a palpable force in the world, and Jesus s eyes are wide open, confronting it at each and every turn, within each and every person. Rationally I can t seem to believe in demonic forces. But I see them at work when another school shooting claims the lives of children in Kentucky, yet it isn t even a headliner on my news app. The safety of my rationalism is breaking down. I may one day have to admit to my brain what my eyes see and my heart feels when I survey the world around me. In those precious moments when I m completely honest with myself, I have to admit that there s something deep down inside of me that intuitively knows a truth my rational mind refuses to accept. There are powerful, dark forces at work in the world, and they re hurting people. It s a truth I cannot explain, nor shall I try to, but suddenly I m no longer ashamed of a demon defeating Jesus. In fact, I m pretty proud of it. This twothousand-year old story liberates me from my hyper rational mind. It takes my selfimposed shackles off, and gives me the tools to embrace the mystery that is these dark forces hell-bent on destroying the world my God loves. But it doesn t stop there. It also arms us and charges us to join the struggle. One of the ways the lectionary helps arm us for the struggle, is by reaching back into Israel s holy history, reminding the modern reader how faithful God has been in the past in order to give strength in the present. One fun way that a family gives strength to the bride at her wedding is by giving her something borrowed, something blue, something old and something new. Something is borrowed to remind the bride she is connected to a community 2

3 ready to lend their support in times of trouble. Something old is given to remind the couple of the rich history from which they ve come. Something new is to show them that despite having roots in the past and being planted in community, this relationship is still entirely new and beautiful. And as best I can tell, we give something blue because it rhymes. Today, our lectionary gives us something old and something new when it pairs this Mark text with our Deuteronomy text. During the season of Epiphany, we pay special attention to the revelations of God in our lives and in our world. For the Christian, we believe one of those revelations is that Jesus is the prophet like Moses foretold in our Deuteronomy text. We are to see the work of Jesus as a new thing God is doing with ancient roots. A new Moses. When the Hebrew people were captives in Egypt, God saw their pain, heard their anguished cries and called a prophet unlike any the world had ever seen. Moses was sent into enemy territory to liberate the people from their suffering and slavery. He confronted those oppressive forces, the unnamed Pharaoh, and by the power of God, led them through the long and difficult journey to freedom and promise. We are intended to see that same spirit of liberation at work in Jesus ministry, setting captives free. Like the bride on her wedding day, gathering strength from her own history for the beautiful, but difficult task of marriage ahead, we, the Bride of Christ, find strength for the difficult task of confronting the forces of darkness in our world by looking back at the mighty works of God through Moses and through Jesus in order to see the new thing with ancient roots that God is doing today. And this is why it s so important for us to acknowledge the dark forces we see Jesus confronting. Because if we refuse to acknowledge demonic forces, we will certainly demonize other people--eople made in the image of God. And no matter how cracked or corroded that image is, they still carry within them inherent beauty and divine worth. Our greatest temptation in fighting evil, is that we become the very thing we are fighting 3

4 against. Dehumanizing and demonizing the very people we oppose because they themselves demonize and dehumanize. This can even take a comical form. I m a tolerant person of most everyone. My greatest exception: intolerant people. I am intolerant of intolerant people. I become the very thing I despise. When it comes to Westboro Baptist church, many otherwise kind and loving Christians could probably admit to some degree of hatred if they were honest and free from the judgment of self and others. Westboro Baptist Church--hated for being hateful. This is the insidious nature of evil. It infects and twists us. Even our righteous anger, when directed at people instead of the dark forces behind the people, enslaves us to those same dark forces without ever telling us it s doing so. Both us and the people we oppose become captive and captivated by the same forces, and I call that demonic. Some Christians once used the phrase, hate the sin, love the sinner, but it has since gone the way of the buffalo in congregations like ours. It was a term I myself used in the past to try to love my LGBTQ friends who I didn t yet affirm at the time. These friends helped me see that they didn t feel very loved though. And I can hear that, yet I think the phrase can still help us in another way. Would it hurt each Democrat to begin their day by saying to themselves: hate the sin, love the Republican? Or each Republican to put a sticky note on their remote control so that before they turn on the evening news each day they ll read, hate the sin, love the Democrat? Jesus said to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. And that s exactly how he confronted the powers in his world. And that s exactly how God empowers us to confront them in ours. Jesus didn t destroy people controlled and influenced by what biblical writers called unclean spirits, he liberated them. Jesus knew those possessed by darkness are also oppressed by it. Christian Picciolini is an exwhite supremacist who Kevin pointed me toward in preparing for this sermon. Picciolini now helps people get out of that lifestyle. In a recent interview, he 4

5 explained, in shocking terms, why he does what he does. As hard as it is for most of us to believe, these are not bad people, he said. These are just people who, in a vulnerable time in their lives, were swayed by bad ideas The interviewer asked him how he goes about getting people out. I don t tell them they are wrong. I don t debate them or argue with them. I listen. I listen for the potholes, what sent you down this path in the first place. And I become a pothole filler. I get them job training, tattoo removal, mental health support. When they become more resilient. When they are confident with themselves, then they don t have to blame the other anymore. That s when I start to challenge their ideas. That s when I introduce them to the people they think they hate. The prejudice cracks. They start to humanize the other, but I needed to humanize them first. After the Charlottesville riots by white supremacist groups this summer, I did a Saturday night rewrite, and I stood in this pulpit and condemned white supremacy and white nationalism for the force of evil it is. And I will again and again with each breath because it s the right thing to do. But if I want to be Christian, and not just right, then I also have to say love the white supremacist. He too is enslaved and in need of liberation. In our fight against the powers of darkness in our world, we fight evil with love by learning to do things like hate the oppression, but love the oppressor. It s not either/or; the long-term liberation of both the oppressor and the oppressed is fused together. And enemy love is the only force protecting us from becoming and perpetuating the evil we oppose. I must confess, I m embarrassed to preach that. What if the oppressed and the abused hear me? I have no defense. Lest I lose the courage to preach it, I have to remind myself that I didn t come up with it. I could never come up with something like that. In fact, I certainly don t think I could ever live it out either. Not without a lot of help. Thus, something borrowed. As the bridal tradition implies, something 5

6 borrowed reminds the bride of the community around them, supporting them. They don t have to do it on their own. They have the support, wisdom, and accountability of the community to rely upon. And neither are we, the Bride of Christ, asked to struggle against the forces of darkness alone. That s way too much pressure. We live in community, and we do it together. When the going gets tough, we borrow strength and courage from each other to be faithful where we never could have been alone. What person could ever both oppose evil and love the evil-doer without the support and accountability of a community? Not I, but with your help, we can. Trusting that if we will only be faithful, God can and will make all things right in this world or the next. Christian Picciolini ends his interview by saying, Find someone that is undeserving of your compassion and give it to them. They are the ones that need it the most. 6