WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
January
30, 2012
Rev.
Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
Mark
1:21-28
“Troubled
Voices”
When
I was in Israel
I had the opportunity to visit the town of Capernaum.
In that ancient city there is a synagogue. It was the same place where Jesus went in our
passage this morning. It is believed
that the worshiping community numbered close to one thousand. That seemed strange to me because we could
have fit that building inside our sanctuary two and a half times. Our tour guide had no information about the
people who worshiped in that place but we did get a great deal of information
about the architecture. You could see
the original foundation stone which was black stone. Built upon that was limestone which, we were
told, would have to have been brought from a great distance. I should have been awestruck standing in the
place where Jesus first became a troublemaker.
But all I could really see was the ruins of a religious community that
just could not accept the new thing that was happening in their midst.
We
have no record of the content of Jesus’ message on that day. Clearly, it was about the kingdom of God
being revealed in the sacred scriptures.
But whatever the content, what we do know is that his message stirred up
some powerful reaction. When faced with
passages with spirit possession we need to tread carefully. There are a number of ways to read this
passage. One is to see the conversation
about the man with an unclean spirit as the way these folks in antiquity understood
mental illness. What we now know and understand
as mental illness was often labeled as demon possession, uncleanliness or
worse. Even in our own time the stigma
for those living with mental illness continues.
And the church must walk carefully about appearing to teach people that
with enough faith it can be overcome or equating it with evil. The church, at its best can be a place of
support for medical professionals far more qualified at addressing these
needs.
The
text itself gives us a clue that this is most certainly NOT what is
happening. It is not another story of
Jesus healing a solitary individual. It
is meant to carry a deeper and possibly more troubling message. It is unlikely that a man with an unclean
spirit, whatever that spirit might be, would be in this place of worship. Being unclean, at that time, was an automatic
exclusion from the community of faith. Instead,
it is safer to see that the writer of Mark’s gospel is showing us the beginning
of Jesus’ struggle with the community of faith.
As soon as he starts teaching a spirit speaks these words, “we know who you are, have you come to
destroy us?!” This is just the
beginning of the struggle between Jesus, and the religious folks who are not
particularly excited about the change to come because of the Good News.
In
our passage from last week we have four people who drop everything they have to
follow in the Jesus movement. They hear
the good news and the invitation to follow and begin living transformed
lives. The life changing reality of the
Gospel is really the only work of the followers of Jesus. But when Jesus takes this message to the
official religious places he faces the most resistance. And the only thing left of the first place
Jesus encounters the resistance is the stones that were left behind. The good news first preached in that place
did not die there, like the community.
Instead, it continued on as Jesus moved throughout Galilee
and as those touched by his life shared with others.
Resistance
to change is a hallmark of the church.
Too often we take our personal preferences and desires and allow them to
take center stage in our faith communities.
This truth has recently been powerfully revealed but comedian Stephen
Colbert. Talking about issues of poverty
and the role of the Christian faith in our nation he said, with a sly smile,
"If this is going
to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend
that Jesus is just as selfish as we are or we’ve got to acknowledge that he
commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition. And then
admit that we just don’t want to do it."
These
words might make us laugh or even want to cry.
Some might want to argue about the premise of being a Christian
nation. But it is a good example of the
struggles Christians face when we forget about the heart of our faith and
create idols in the place of kingdom work.
Every generation of Christians has
struggled with how to change, and how to deal with new people and ideas. When Saint
Paul came along he began to push boundaries about
letting gentiles into the faith. The
faith community has always struggled with welcoming and affirming the gifts of
people who do things differently. And in
every age the church faced splits over it.
We have struggled to affirm the gifts of black folks, women, and gay and
lesbian folk. We have struggled with the
inclusion of children at communion and will always struggle over worship
style. For many, these issues were and
are central to the life of faith, but they are not. They are simply our human sinfulness which
turns our fears and prejudice into religious doctrine.
There is a growing movement in the
church in North America called the emerging
church movement. I am excited about this
movement but also recognize that it might just be another way to create
community of like-minded folks. While
they are reaching people most of our churches are not, they might simply be the
next generation of the church not to get what will come after them. Nadia Boltz-Weber is pastor of just such a
community. She recently wrote a rather
insightful blog entitled, “Are Gen Xers: the New Baby Boomers?” In it she mused on the fact that one day my
generation will be the ones the next generation will complain about hanging on
to power too long and needing to learn how to change. It happens to every generation. However, she isn’t wrong. I just hope we will have the wisdom to hear
and not simply say… “You are still young... you will learn...” And that is exactly what the writer of Mark’s
gospel is getting at with the literary use of the man with the unclean spirit.
What faces Westminster and the church in North America is unlike anything any of us have ever
seen. None of us has any more wisdom or
experience or education to face this new day.
But we do have the ability and the calling to go back to the
basics. We are being called to go back
to the essence of the Good News. Invite,
share what you have, live with authenticity and joy. In other words, we are called to live as if
our faith matters beyond the walls of the church. But, when we do that, when we open ourselves
up things will change and we might just find ourselves saying… are you trying
to destroy us but doing things that way?!
What will be the story told about us
when all that remains are stones? Will
people know that Westminster
was here? It really does not matter at
all. What matters is that we share and
live with authenticity and joy. And who
knows, what began here may be remembered, not simply for our beautiful
architecture but for the ways lives were changed. Amen.
