What Have You To Do With Us, Jesus of Nazareth? A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Sean Lanigan Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany~February 4, 2018 Isaiah 40:21-31 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Psalm 147:1-12, 21c 1 Alleluia! How good it is to sing praises to you, O God! * how pleasant it is to honor you with praise! 2 For you rebuild Jerusalem; * and gather the exiles of Israel. 3 You heal the brokenhearted * and bind up their wounds. 4 You count the number of the stars * and call them all by their names. 5 Great are you and mighty in power; * there is no limit to your wisdom. 6 You lift up the lowly, * but cast the wicked to the ground. 7 We sing to you, Most High with thanksgiving; * we make music to you upon the harp. 8 For you cover the heavens with clouds * and prepare rain for the earth; 9 You make grass to grow upon the mountains * and green plants to serve mankind. 10 You provide food for flocks and herds * and for the young ravens when they cry. 11 You are not impressed by the might of a horse; * You have no pleasure human strength; 12 But you have pleasure in those who fear you, * in those who await your gracious favor. 21 Alleluia! Corinthians 9:16-23 If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel. For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God s law but am under Christ s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. Copyright 2018, The Rev. Claire Nevin-Field. Recent sermons delivered by the clergy of St. Peter s Church, 313 Pine Street, Philadelphia, PA, are available in church on the following Sunday, on the Web at www.stpetersphila.org.
Mark 1:21-39 Jesus and his disciples went into Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent, and come out of him! And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. When Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, Everyone is searching for you. He answered, Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do. And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
The Gospel of Mark is fast and furious. We re still near the very beginning, Chapter 1, and things are already revving up to fever pitch. Just a few verses back, Jesus called his first disciples. And now he s traveled to Capernaum where he s heading into the local synagogue. Upon arrival, Jesus doesn t waste any time.he doesn t sit down and wait for the elders or scribes to invite him to speak. He just gets up, takes the mic, and starts teaching straightaway. And he teaches in the most surprising way. He teaches as one who has authority one who has authority. As we quickly discover, Jesus knows about far more than just scriptural interpretation. Indeed, Jesus authority extends far and wide, even into the realm of unclean spirits the demonic. Nothing, it seems, is beyond Jesus reach or Jesus authority. You see, just after Jesus starts teaching, a man with an unclean spirit, possessed by demons, appears in the synagogue. And the demons possessing the man speaks to Jesus directly: What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? Now, many of us stumble here. Because we live in a world cleansed of demons. We are people of the Enlightenment. Rational people who know that demons aren t real. People who know that those for whom demons seem very real, are likely struggling with a mental illness, most commonly schizophrenia... and need the help of physicians and psychologists, not exorcists. But here is Jesus, silencing demons and casting them out. Jesus boldly commands the demons: Be silent, and come out of him! Jesus isn t about to put up with any back-talk from demons. He s got places to go and people to set free. I imagine Jesus, hands on his hips, asserting: I m reclaiming my time! - Now, it can be quite challenging for us to engage with this Jesus... this Jesus who is so intimately involved in healing people s bodies and psyches, in the supernatural and paranormal. We might have a desire to just gloss over this passage and find our way back to Jesus more digestible teachings his ethical precepts and social statements while leaving the complexity of exorcisms and healings behind. Because these phenomena are, I would guess, outside of most of our lived experiences. These phenomena seem suspiciously irrational, and can, therefore, make us anxious about the content of our received faith tradition. How can we be disciples of a man who did things that we don t believe are possible? Or, if within the realm of possibility, certainly extremely rare and unusual. So how do we reconcile this piece of Jesus that seems so foreign to us even embarrassing and uncomfortable. -- Consider with me for a moment: what the arrival of Jesus on the ancient Jewish scene would have been like. You see: in Jesus time...there were religious teachers galore. A multitude of competing interpreters of Scripture. Even an abundance of messianic hopefuls. But here s the thing, then, just as now, people were hungry...hungry for more than just good ideas, more than just powerful words. Then, just as now, people had all kinds of irresolvable physical and emotional needs: things that stood between them and the fullness of life. People needed more than a fresh take on religion. More than better ways to read Scripture. People needed a God who could heal. A God who could make a difference. A God stronger than pain, stronger than evil, stronger than hopelessness. And I think that many of us still need that kind of God, still show up to church hoping for some kind of personal
healing and transformation...still show up hoping and praying that SOMETHING is more powerful than all the pain and suffering in the world around us and within ourselves. And maybe this is wishful thinking.or...maybe it isn t. Either way, a primary reason that it s so difficult to wrap our minds around demons and exorcisms is that as we ve progressively demythologized the cosmos, we ve left ourselves in a conundrum about evil. The notion of Satan, of some sort of concentrated personification of evil, no longer makes sense within our rational worldview. But in lieu of Satan, most of us have little in the way of explanation for how and why things so often go so terribly wrong, for why the world so often rebels against the ways of God. We place an awful lot of the weight of evil on individual actors on bad eggs, as it were. But we tend to have a much weaker account of collective evil, of the kind of evil that seems able to self-propagate, without much conscious participation by those involved. And yet, we can easily acknowledge that much of what is evil in our world, seems bigger and badder than the work of individuals. There is a kind of evil, it seems, for which we don t have much of a story. We never managed to replace Satan, which means that evil lurks among us unnamed, doubly terrifying in its newfound anonymity. But things weren t quite as confusing in Jesus Jewish context. As one scholar explains this worldview, for Jesus and the Gospel writers: Evil and hostility to God was perceived as unified and deliberate and demons were only one way of understanding or picturing the malicious effects of that single will opposed to God. Jesus and his disciples were clearly conscious not only of the world as imperfect and flawed, but also of an organized and unified centre of evil manifesting itself both in the partial incapacities of some and in the total domination of others. These manifestations were often referred to as demon-possession. Importantly, all of this is not to say that those suffering from demon possession were personally guilty of evil. Demon possession was not a punishment. Rather, demon possession was a graphic demonstration that collective evil was running amok, disproportionately accumulating in the lives of certain groups and individuals. Demon possession was, effectively, oppression made visible. Indeed, many scholars think that demon possession increased dramatically among those most impacted by Roman colonial occupation the weak, the poor, and the marginalized...jesus friends. Consider, as well, a contemporary example. In our culture, people who struggle with ongoing sadness are often diagnosed with clinical depression. Medication and therapy often help, but depression still tends to be seen mostly as a personal problem. And if it doesn t go away via ordinary measures, one can even end up being labeled as treatment resistant. It somehow becomes the individual s fault, rather than an indication of inadequate or inappropriate treatment. As such, depression can end up feeling like a very personal failing. To help ameliorate this, many people depersonalize depression by focusing on its biochemical underpinnings. But what is less often considered is that many people s depression can also be closely linked with injustice...with oppressive systems and structures that are set up for anything but their flourishing. In my own life, the pervasive impact of homophobia in my family, in my schooling, in my church made it very difficult for me to experience myself as worthy, whole, and loveable as a child and teenager. I was told constantly in my younger years that being gay was dirty, gross, disordered, and the most severe of offenses against God. Yet, try as I might, I couldn t seem to become un-gay. So, of course, I inevitably became depressed. And even when my circumstances changed and I found myself surrounded by more accepting people, the negative impacts of my formative years did not immediately or easily dissipate. I worked for years in therapy to overcome the early deficits of love in my life. But the process was often isolating. It s still not acceptable to talk about depression in many social and professional contexts. I often felt the need to avoid airing my dirty laundry, so that I wouldn t come off as unprofessional or unhinged. And sadly, the
compunction to hide my depression only compounded and prolonged my struggle. Throughout my development, it would have been enormously helpful for me to hear from others, loudly and clearly, that I was not suffering primarily because of poor coping skills, but because forces of evil had acted upon me, over and over again. Acted upon me in and through homophobic individuals and institutions, many of whom claimed that they were trying to help me, many of whom I believed were acting in my best interest. Hearing what I experienced called evil, called demonic, would have been profoundly liberating. Because not hearing this meant that the homophobia eventually came to live within me, where no one else had to perpetrate it any longer. Internalized homophobia took on a life of its own. I was...demon-possessed. So I needed someone, anyone, to call my demon by its name. Instead, they called it: low self-esteem, depression, anxiety. And in and through this clinical labeling, I came to believe that maybe something really was wrong with me. I badly needed someone, anyone to witness the demonic scourge of internalized homophobia within me and to bellow fiercely Be silent, and come out of him! I needed the demon inside me to be named, and to be called evil, in order to undo the strength of my own selfblame. MY difficulty with MY depression and MY anxiety. Perhaps more than anything, I needed a church that could clearly call evil, evil...a church that would, in Jesus name, proclaim my freedom from captivity to the evil of homophobia. I needed a church that believed it was called to set captives free. A church that would do more than say all are welcome but also ask: from what demon are you suffering? How can we help you get free? And, what gifts do you have to help set others free? Church: we have limited our imagination for healing most severely. Other people s suffering is our business. Our suffering is other people s business. Jesus made us a church so that we could provoke one another to love and good deeds. So that we could practice telling the truth, and calling things what they are. So that we could busy ourselves with loosing the bonds of injustice and helping the oppressed go free. So I worry, sometimes, that we ve lost the capacity to hope for something more from God and from one another...that we ve lost the taste for liberation. Like in our Gospel today, when everyone was looking for Jesus. Can you imagine? Everyone wanted to find him! Because they knew he could help them. They knew he was about freedom and healing. And maybe he can help us, too. You now know the demon I ve fought. What is yours? How have you suffered? How are you suffering? Tell me, and together, let s go searching for Jesus the healer. Amen.