Deuteronomy 18:15-20
Psalm 111
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1: 21-28
Grace and Peace to you from God our Creator, and our ever-present Teacher, Jesus Christ; Amen.
“He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” Teachers. How many teachers are out there this morning? How many of you are able to command unclean spirits out from your students? How many of you SMELL something unclean ON your students? In the Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus is teaching in the temple, when he gets interrupted by this unclean spirit-filled man screaming at him. Jesus stops what he’s doing, yells at the spirit, and exorcises the spirit right out of the man. Oh, what authority this Jesus has! He just plucked the spirit right out of the man. Jesus probably went right back to teaching too… As if nothing happened… Perhaps some of you have authority to stop kids from yelling in your classes…
Mark is the shortest Gospel of the four. If you’ll notice, this comes from the first chapter. There’s no Christmas story in Mark, only his baptism and BAM! Jesus begins calling disciples and just gets to work. Epiphany is the season of showing folks what God does in the world; what Jesus’ ministry is like. In the last couple weeks’ Gospel lessons, Jesus was calling disciples to, “Come and See”. Today’s Gospel is Jesus teaching and exorcising. We know that Jesus did much more than these, and continues to do much more in our world. Yet, we must not overlook how powerful such an act as teaching can be.
Teaching, for many, is a calling; a vocation; an act of God that tells us deep inside, that we are made to teach. We were born to teach. Teaching feels so right for us, that it’s second nature. I just taught those of you who didn’t know before, that Mark is the shortest and Earliest Gospel. Okay, so I added the ‘Earliest’ part just now, but like I said, some of us cannot help teaching people. Whether it comes out of intuition or it just feels right; we teach because God taught us. We teach because someone taught us. We teach… because we feel we have the AUTHORITY to... to impart knowledge that we’ve learned to the rest of the world – because we feel that it will be useful to them someday.
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| Teachers be like... |
We don’t know what Jesus was teaching that day in the temple. It probably wasn’t nuclear physics or the intricacies of how Minnesota’s strange weather patterns affect crop yields… but Jesus was teaching in the temple; because Jesus, the newly baptized; had the AUTHORITY to teach. Jesus was ordained by God, baptized in the Jordan River by God, and yet, was completely and undeniably God.
In the reading from Deuteronomy this morning, the author writes, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.” (Deut. 18:18 NRSV) Teachers, especially the good ones, are today’s modern prophets. From among their own people. How many of you like hearing someone talk, sing, preach, teach… that is able to speak to you, personally, living similar experiences – they speak as if they have AUTHORITY on the subject, because it’s the same authority you have. You have personal authority over your own life, and when people speak to that authority, and have similar AUTHORSHIP – you can understand what they’re saying, and you feel good about what they’re saying. You may not agree with them, but you can certainly understand where they’re coming from; because they come from where you come from.
I grew up about 10 miles from here. My brothers and I used to ride our bikes on County Road 9 to the ‘Alberta Tar’ – and turn around. At school, I feel like I have AUTHORITY on rural life; because I grew up a block from these farm fields and my father drove tractors and combines most of my life. I took my gun safety in the Alberta school. The open fields and sparse trees are my home.
I never thought that rural ministry would be what I feel called to; but it turns out that I love coming back to the prairie, to share God’s message of Grace, Love, and Mercy to people I grew up with. I love when people at school talk about rural issues, because I feel that they have the AUTHORITY to talk with us about it, because they grew up like I did. When people try to speak about rural issues not having experienced life in a rural community – I get annoyed that they don’t have enough authority to speak about it.
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| What I feel like saying... too often... |
When Jesus was teaching in the temple, he was speaking to his people. Jesus grew up with these people, and having authority to teach in the temple was hard to get. The fact that Jesus was teaching in the temple showed that he was given high authority to do so. This was a big deal for Jesus to do. In all of Church history, women for instance, were not given this authority; to speak in a religious service; until the 1800s. That’s at least 1500 years when half of the Christian population was prevented from speaking openly in worship. There are still many groups of Christians that don’t give this AUTHORITY to women. Many groups of people in churches today are not given AUTHORITY to preach, teach, or even worship… the God that freely bestows Grace, Love, and Mercy to all, no matter what.
The God that gave us a child, born long ago, to save us all… from our sin in this world. That child, Jesus the Christ, was baptized in the Jordan River, and lived among the people of his mother. Jesus was given the authority to teach, exorcise unclean spirits, heal the sick, feed the poor, and calm the storms. And you know what? You’ve been given this authority too. Not only have you been given this authority, but God calls us to go and do likewise.
But Jon, you say, we can’t calm storms or feed thousands with a couple fish and a loaf of bread or exorcise unclean spirits; and I say to you, you’re right. WE can’t perform miracles. But God can, through us.
We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. God’s Work, Our Hands folks. God calls us to teach one another, feed one another, live with one another, be there for one another, heal one another and LOVE one another. We have been given this AUTHORITY, for we are all beloved Children of God. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians that we read this morning, “…for us there is one God… from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” (1 Corinthians 8:6 NRSV)
On this day of bowls that are sometimes less than super; with deflated pigskins and scandals aplenty plaguing the league with more problems left unresolved than the United States Congress… With our nation’s authority figures constantly under investigation; causing us to DOUBT their authority… to whom do we still give authority?
Jesus had authority that day in the temple. That authority followed him the rest of his life, and the rest of his follower’s lives. His disciples were given the authority to spread the Good News, and over the nearly 2000 years since, those that put their faith in Christ have become the number one religion in the world; putting Jesus right at the top with the world’s most followers. According to most reports, a full third of the world is a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. A full third of the world gives Authority to the faith we call Christianity. Many experience it differently, and everyone interprets their faith uniquely. We Christians all follow the one Triune God, of which Jesus is of that Holy Trinity; yet we differ on how, why, or when one follows the teachings of this Christ. Yet, we all acknowledge that he taught, and he continues to live in our lives and teach us throughout our lives.
Each of us has a story to tell. Each of us has Authority; or authorship in our own life’s story. Yes, the God upstairs has the copyright, and we’re still writing the pages of our story. That doesn’t mean however, that the story has to continue as it has been. All the news happening these days, may look very familiar. The same stories always appear on the news every night. Another day, another school shooting, political scandal, house fire, plane crash, child missing… the list goes on and on… There are nights when you don’t even want to turn on the news… The pages are still being written folks. Another page is waiting to be filled… Another bad chapter awaits another good one… just waiting to be written. Another night of breaking news; awaits another dawn… breaking just over the horizon of those frozen fields…
I remember riding the bus to school; early in the morning on a frosty morning such as this… scraping the frost off the frozen windows with my fingernails… so I could see that sun peak over the tree lines… On a clear frosty morning, it seemed like no matter what homework I had neglected to do; how many kids had pushed me or called me names the day before… That sun; that light would pierce the darkness of whatever pain I felt… And I could go through that day, remembering that moment, knowing that the sun would rise again tomorrow. There’s always another tomorrow.
For us Christians, God is that yesterday, today and tomorrow. God’s son Jesus is that light in the darkness. Jesus is that Teacher; that Healer; that Savior that saves us from our unclean spirits. “He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” There are some days, in our darkest times, where we are filled with our own personal unclean spirits. Christ died on a hill called Calvary so those unclean spirits couldn’t take authority over us; so our sin didn’t define us. For no matter what unclean spirits ail us; whatever sin; whatever pain; whatever darkness we find ourselves in… God’s unquenching and unwavering Grace, Love and Mercy for us all; each and every one of us; is more than enough for us. All of us. It’s time to share that God-given Grace, Love and Mercy to our friends, neighbors, coworkers; and yes, even those spirits we deem unclean. For as Paul writes, “…for us there is one God… from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” Go. Teach the Good News. Be the author you want to be, and claim that authority to do so, because That’s what Jesus would do… Amen
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