Deuteronomy 18:15-20
God will raise up a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” God said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them prophets like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in the prophet’s mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name; but a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”
Mark 1:21-28
They went to 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." 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.
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Two things I have in mind as I start thinking today: one is right at the beginning of the Harry Potter series, when Draco Malfoy says to Harry ‘You don’t want to be seen with the wrong sort, Potter. I can help you there.” and Harry responds “I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself, thanks.” This one tiny part defines the whole of the ground of the Potter books - a young man who isn’t afraid to get hurt for what he knows is right, and another young man who is afraid. Harry is the prophet in this story, the one who walks willingly to death for what he believes is right - the power of Love.
The other is the story of First United Church in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. In case you don’t know, the downtown east side of Vancouver is a centre of drug use and abuse, alcohol abuse, mental illness - and a life expectancy of about 32. First United Church has for many years run a centre where those people who struggle with demons can come for a meal, a place to sleep, connections to help, and unconditional love. First United never saw itself as a shelter, but rather a radical example of the Gospel in action. They became a shelter when the City of Vancouver asked them to do so, because there were not enough shelters for the many homeless. But their rdical living of the Gospel meant that they defied laws which restricted those who could come in to a particular number. They took in anyone who needed a place. They pushed the City to build more shelters. Local police complained they had to answer calls; ambulance attendants claimed they had to go in there to pick up people; there were a couple of assaults. In the end, the shelter will close at the end of March - at the direction of the Presbytery. The three staff who worked to live this radical and prophetic vision of Gospel were forced to resign.
Lots of people these days claim to be speaking on behalf of God. In the current election in the US, people of every stripe, every colour, every religious and political persuasion are all claiming *they* speak on behalf of God. And it’s interesting that much of what God says, according to them, is about hate.
In every denomination, at every level, people claim they speak on behalf of God. The staff at First United on the Downtown East Side said they spoke for God. The Prebsytery says it speaks for God. When we call our ministers, we write in our Joint Needs Assessments that we want strong, relevant preaching, current scholarship, and the word of God. We want prophets to to teach us - but what happens, of course, is that it’s the word of God, if it’s the word we personally agree with, and it isn’t the word of God if we don’t agree.
So the question is, how do we discern who really is speaking for God. Who really carries this authority? In the reading from Deuteronomy we get one idea. Moses is coming to the end of his time, and knows he will not enter the Promised Land. The Israelites want to know who will tell them what God wants, when Moses is gone. Moses tells them that “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.” But Moses isn’t talking about one prophet, but a new prophet for each generation - the phrase is “raising up prophets.” who will continue to speak on God’s behalf.
In today’s world our guide is not Moses, but Jesus. Anyone who says they are speaking for God must be held up to the ministry and teachings of Jesus. So today Mark takes us to Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry, and in today’s passage, Jesus begins with a sermon in the synagogue in Capernaum. He and the disciples walk in to the synagogue, the resident rabbi hands Jesus the first scroll, and he sits down to teach. So he reads the lesson, and then opens the service with the traditional berakah, or blessing. Probably not more than five minutes into his sermon, it happens. Just when the congregation is starting to notice that the sermon notes are not on an old yellow legal pad, just when they discover that the topic is not being put to them the way the traditional scribes would, just when they are starting to see that faith without action in the world is a dead faith, a raving man in the middle of church shouts vague threats at the young preacher who dared to say something radical.
"I know who you are," the man yells. “You’re God’s holy messenger, come here to destroy us.”
"Be muzzled, you evil spirit" Jesus yells back, jumping up from his chair, "Leave him alone! Stop hurting that man." The man falls to the synagogue floor, tears and shudders going through his body, wails coming from so deep inside they seem to touch a primordial chord in everyone there. Then he becomes calm. He picks himself up, now tranquil and calm, and finds a seat in the congregation.
How would you respond if that happened here? Most of us would be so shocked that we would just sit. Some of us would leave making disgusted faces at such behaviour in church. Maybe we would have called the ambulance and told them to bring the jacket and restraints.
Would you walk out of the church complimenting the preacher on a great sermon? If the teaching went contrary to what you had always been taught by the scribes and Pharisees, what would you do? Isn’t that the LAST thing you would compliment the preacher for? A wonderful teaching, with fresh insight? Yet, that is what happened in Capernaum. The congregation leaves the synangogue commenting about how wonderful the teaching was. What has teaching to do with expunging a demon?
And the crowd is “astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”(v. 22) This rabbi clearly is different – his teaching sets him apart from those who claim to be the successors of Moses, who claim to have authority from God. We don’t find out *what* Jesus taught, just that he did, and it made an impression.
The religious leaders who claim they speak for God have shunned a man who, according to them, has a “demon”. They have *talked* about the Realm of God on earth. They have used established procedures to interpret and debate the Law of Moses. Their interpretation might be intellectually demanding, but does not demand that they change the way they think, or change their lives.
Jesus is different, because he understands the scholarly interpretations, but he also knows that theory is useless unless it is put into practice. Jesus works to bring God’s realm right in the present situation. So when a man comes to the synagogue, clearly suffering social discrimination, Jesus acts to free the man, so that he has the courage to be who he truly is regardless of what the authorities claim is God’s law.
Jesus’ authority does not come from being born into the *right* family. His authority does not come from attending the right schools or studying with the right people and earning the right degrees. Jesus’ authority is granted by God, and is demonstrated through the many ways in which he works to make the Realm of God a reality throughout his ministry. Jesus is authoritative; but there is a difference between authoritative, and authoritarian.
Two words are crucial in this text; teaching, and authority. Mark wants us to see that in Jesus, God is among us to confront our own demons, the things which hold us back from Gospel of Love. When Jesus is the teacher, teaching is not a snore of a sermon! When Jesus is the teacher at Humber, we all are faced with a choice - to let the demons speak or let Jesus drive them from us so that we learn to live and love in the very same way Jesus did.
All churches tend to deal with issues through the rumor-mill, instead of honest inquiry and ensuring that there is truth. There is not a congregation in any denomination which is free of this behaviour. Talking behind, talking about, half-truth or incomplete information. Gossiping in front of others, putting down things or people. When this happens in a congregation, energies are turned inward, and commitment to the Gospel together is divided. The congregation is divided - the result often is people turn away, just not come because they expect more of us, and we let them down. And interestingly enough, mission and commitment to the world outside our doors begin to take a back seat. Martin Luther once said, "When the gospel is preached, devils are set loose and start to roam among us."
Rev. Thomas Hall, one of my favourite preachers, asks “Could it be that preachers have lost our nerve? Our voice?” I ask “Could it be that we don’t *want* anything transformative to happen at 11 o’clock on Sunday morning? That we don’t want to be disturbed by the Gospel?” Could it be that we preachers have lost our prophetic voice in the face of self-preservation? Could it be that we as a congregation of disciples have lost the sense of mission which brings us to God and then sends us out to Love in risk and sacrifice of ourselves? Could it be that this is a message we want to contain?
If we truly follow Jesus, the stark reality is that we are called to prophecy, even if it gets us hurt. That is the message of the Gospel; Love can get us hurt. Being church can get us hurt. Our task is to work tirelessly at being the “right sort”, so that we are recognisable; our task is to work together for the building up of the whole community of the Gospel.
May it be so.
Sources:
1. The Middle Generations, Joshua 24:1-24 January 27, 2012. A sermon by Rev Christina Berry, outgoing Moderator of the Synod of Lincoln Trails
2. Speaking on Behalf of God? a sermon based on Deuteronomy 18:15-20 & Mark 1:21-28
by Rev. Richard Gehring
3. A New Teaching a sermon based on Mark 1:21-28 by Rev. Thomas Hall
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