January 29, 2006 - Fourth Sunday After Epiphany - Father Andrew Green

FIRST READING: Deuteronomy 18: 15-20
PSALM: 111
SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13
GOSPEL: Mark 1: 21 - 28

(Audience participation will be noted in bold print and italics)

Before I get started and rolling in my sermon, I just want to take a moment to talk about a couple of little points - one of them being the reading from Deuteronomy, Chapter 18, verses 15 through 20. When we think of Jesus as the Messiah, our thoughts usually turn to things about King David, and that Jesus is in the line of King David and is going to be the one to save the people of Israel and to renew the Kingdom. But there is another tradition for the Messiah that comes out of Deuteronomy, and it is the idea that the Messiah is the one in the line of the prophets, like Moses. Moses was the prototypical prophet, and Moses' role was established when the people had the chance to experience God, and they blinked and decided, "We don't want to do that again!" So, Moses interceded, and Moses was the one that went between them. Jesus is the one who enables all of us to encounter God in person. So there is a little teaching moment!

Jesus is teaching in the Synagogue. He is teaching, and He startles them; because He is teaching as someone with authority. Now, I wonder what the teaching looked like, normally. For the most part, you didn't have to have a degree to teach in the Synagogue. You didn't have to have any Ordination to teach in the Synagogue. If you were well-studied in the Word - it was assumed that every adult male in Judaism would have some knowledge - the idea was that you would take a passage and say, "Well, you know, I read this one, but so-and-so thinks this about it", and they would be comparing things back and forth. Jesus came in, and it says that He taught with authority. Now, I don't know if it means that He didn't use what we call the Rabbinic Method, but we do have some examples of how Jesus would teach with authority. Do you remember this one? Jesus said, "You have heard it said, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but I tell you, if you have lusted after someone in your heart, you have committed adultery already". "You have heard it said, Thou shalt do no murder; but I tell you, if you have been angry with your brother, you are guilty of murder". That's authority! That's not just somebody saying, "Well, it could be this, or it could be that". It is somebody who says, "Here is what God has in mind for you". Jesus engaged these folks directly, and it was something that they had not experienced. Now, remember, this does not mean that the other teachers were doing bad stuff. It just meant that Jesus was bringing them something new, and the way that He dealt with the Scriptures, the Word of God, was exciting and sounded like it had more power to it than the way that others had taught.

And, if it isn't enough that the way that He speaks to them is different, He shows them by what authority His teaching comes. Someone wandered in with kind of a low-level demonic possession - because we have others, you know; we have the guy with the legions and there are bunches of demons; I think that was more high-level! - but this is somebody with just the average unclean spirit. We don't know what the unclean spirit was. It doesn't say anything about it, but it gives Jesus the opportunity to do something, other than to just say something.

One of the keys here is that somebody who is under a spirit, or is possessed by a spirit, or is overtaken by something - that person is not free, and Jesus went to that person and freed them from what was binding them. So, Jesus not only spoke to them as one with authority, but He showed them that the authority given to Him by God was an authority to release people from whatever captivity they were in and from whatever chains were binding them. And so, not only did He speak one way, but He also showed them the same kind of an example.

Now, Paul is engaged in an ongoing conversation, a written conversation, with the people in Corinth. Just before the verses that we are reading, Paul said, "Now, let's return to your questions", because, as I have said before, Paul is kind of responding to questions that they have asked him. So, clearly, one of the questions they asked him was, "Is it O.K. to eat meat sacrificed to idols?"

Now, you have been wondering about that, right? I mean, I have had calls! Our webpage is filling up with folks wondering, "Idols? No meat? No?", and then the vegetarians are trying to get in there, saying, "No meat! No meat!"

Paul is wrestling with them with this question, because, if you read between the lines, the question is really not about the meat, and it is really not even about the idols; but it is about their relationships with one another. Paul starts it out, "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up". Everything that Paul says from then on is based on those two things. People who have gained some maturity in faith have knowledge that doesn't necessarily help them engage and assist other people in faith, O.K.? So, here is the situation, more or less, of what Paul was encountering. Corinth, and perhaps almost every Greek city at that time, would have had a lot of temples, and they weren't Jewish Temples, particularly, and they weren't Christian temples. Christians were pretty new and on the outskirts, at that point. So, one of the things that you did is, if you were a devotee of one of those faiths - and everybody would have been of one of them - you offered your produce and things to the gods you worshiped, and then you would go out and sell it. So, if you were going to buy dinner in the marketplace, if you were going to buy some steaks to grill, you couldn't find a steak that hadn't already been sacrificed to an idol. For the mature Christian and for somebody like Paul, they knew these idols and other gods didn't exist, because they believed in one God. But, there were people who, let's say, had just converted. Maybe they had been followers of Aphrodite before, and they had become followers of Jesus now. So, they are going out in the marketplace, and they see this and suddenly say, "Oh my God! That is just what I used to do! I can't do that anymore!" And some of the Jewish Christians, who never got into that at all and did their own stuff separately, they would say, "Oh, it's no big deal! It's no big deal! It doesn't mean anything!" But, to those folks who most recently turned from that, it was a big deal.

So, Paul's issue is not about establishing a theological precedent. It is not about finding out who is right and who is wrong, it is about how we live together as a community and how we care for one another and support one another. How do the strong Christians help those who are currently weak to become stronger? Do you think they become stronger by pointing at them and saying, "You weak Christians! You should know better!" Do you think that's helpful? It works with the kids, right?! No, it doesn't work, does it? Never!

Someone, whom I quote quite often, Sarah Dylan Breuer, has, I think, a great image. She talks about Jesus like a standard washing machine, an upright washing machine - I have to try to remember that we now have side-loading washing machines, so this doesn't work in that case - but, in the regular washing machine, what have you got in the middle of the tank there?

An agitator!

You have an agitator, and the agitator takes what is in the middle and sends it to the edge; and it takes what is at the edge and brings it into the middle. Here is the idea: The strong are probably the people who are closest to the center right there. They have had experience; they have had time; they are more mature as Christians; and Paul is asking them to go out to the edge and take the weak, the new, the people who have less maturity, and to lift them up and to help meet their needs, and that way bring them into the center. But it means that those who are strong are always finding themselves going out to the edges, and the edges are places where there are people who are scary and unknown to us; and those are the places where we need to be engaged with folks. So, Jesus is the ultimate agitator, taking folks in the middle and sending them out to the margins; and taking the folks on the margins and bringing them in, where they can grow strong in Christ.

This is not the only place that you hear this kind of stuff. When Jesus is talking to His disciples, do you ever hear Jesus telling His disciples, "O.K., who got 100% on that quiz?" Do you? I don't know of Jesus giving them any quizzes of more than one question. "Who do you say that I am?" What was the way that Jesus ranked whether or not they were following Him well? In John's Gospel, it says, "They will know you are My disciples". How? Did they say, "because you got all the questions right?" Did they say, "because you came from the right town or the right race or the right orientation or anything else?" What did Jesus say? "They will know you are My disciples", how? By the way you care for one another.

That is the key. We are invited to care for one another as a sign of who we are as God's people; and real Christian maturity is not so much about having all the right answers and being able to expound at length on the nature of the liturgy and theology, but how we actually take and care for one another, particularly the weakest among us. So, that means that the folks who have the most experience as Christians are always figuring out ways to lift up and communicate things that will be helpful to the people who are the newest. The people who have already gone through some trials and have experienced how God has rescued them and set them free are invited to share that with people who are currently going through trials.

Now, this is the challenge to us, because, think about it - if the rich help the poor, then, eventually, the poor aren't so poor - right? But it also means that the rich maybe aren't quite so rich, right? So, the idea is that we are all working together. If it is strong and weak, those who are strong are lifting up the weak, and the weak are becoming strong. It is an understanding of mutuality. It is not the idea that I am always the one being strong, and that is my role in the life of the Church, that I am always the strong one! It is that, right now, you need my help, so I am going to try to figure out how I can do that so that you can be strong, too, and, when I need it, I am going to count on you. That is the nature of the community that Paul is trying to create with the Corinthians. It is the nature of the community that Jesus is demonstrating that caused people listening to him to say, "He is speaking with authority!"

Not only does He speak with authority, He seems to have the power of God to enable Him - to take those who are weak and bound and free them and strengthen them; and those who are on the outside get brought to the center, to the heart of God's life, and those who are nurtured and nourished at the center of God's life go out to the margins to seek out the lost, the least, and the last.

That is the nature of the community that we have been called to. Imagine how our lives would be if we saw ourselves as that big washing machine, with Jesus as the agitator, continually bringing us into that center and sending us out to the margins to be in touch and to bring them back with us.

That is how the Church will grow. The Church won't grow by us sitting around and thinking of all the people that we know who are just like us, and who are at the same spiritual place as us, and wouldn't this be a great place for them; but by encountering the people who are in need, encountering the people who are weak and might benefit from the love of God that we have received, and that we can see that they need.

So, I would invite each one of you to be in touch with that great Agitator in your heart and see where He is sending you out, and remember that He is going to bring you right back in to that nourishment.

AMEN