Lent 4: The Venom & The Antidote

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way.  ⁵ The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”  ⁶ Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.  ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.  ⁸ And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”  ⁹ So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. – Numbers 21:4-10

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And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  ¹⁷ “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  ¹⁸ Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  ¹⁹ And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.  ²⁰ For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.  ²¹ But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” – John 3:14-21

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Welcome to the fourth week of Lent and our theme for today: “The Venom and the Antidote”. It’s an odd title for a sermon, and it immediately raises questions. So I’ll start off by saying, yes, we actually are talking about real snake venom… and yes we are actually talking about a real cure. But these are obviously also meant to be metaphors, a way of describing the life of faith in Jesus.

So I’d like to start with Jesus today, and our reading from the Gospel of John.

This passage includes one of the most famous verses in the Bible: John 3:16.  Something many of us memorized in Sunday School. This verse has gained worldwide fame thanks to a man named Rollen Stewart, who spent amazing amounts of time and money attending sports events around the world – and buying seats where he knew the TV cameras would be (like behind home plate or behind the end zone) – and holding up a sign reading “John 3:16”. (Full disclosure: this guy is a bit nuts and is currently in prison) but during the latter part of the previous century he brought this verse to everyone’s attention…

… including some people I used to work with back in the early 1990s. One evening when a group of us were out having dinner at a local bar, a football game came on the TV, and this John 3:16 sign made an appearance. And one of my co-workers looked at me – as the one churchgoer at the table – and said, “what does that mean?”

I said, “it’s a Bible verse.”

“But you know what it is, right preacher-lady?” (mind you I had not even started seminary yet – but I had a reputation)

I said “Yes, I know what it is.”

And he said “Well??”

“You want me to actually say it right here in this bar?”

“Yeah!”

“OK then!”

So I did:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

And he thought that over for a second and he said “Cool!” And all his buddies at the table said “cool!” too. And they carried on with their conversations.

So John 3:16 is cool. I have it on good authority.

But this is not all there is to the passage. In fact John 3:16 is not even really the main point of Jesus’ conversation.

In this passage, we are listening in on a conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Nicodemus is one of my favorite people in the Bible because he’s an honest Pharisee. He is a member of the Sanhedrin, the body of religious rulers in Jerusalem; but he’s not a hypocrite.  Nicodemus thinks for himself; and where it comes to Jesus, he is honestly curious. He wants to know what Jesus is teaching, and he wants to ask questions.

Nicodemus is also, at this point in time, aware that many of his co-Pharisees are conspiring to kill Jesus – and he wants to give Jesus a heads-up about this. So he does something very risky: he comes to where the disciples are staying, in person, at night, and asks to have a word alone with Jesus.

Nicodemus starts the conversation by saying,

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do the signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”

This is a stunning confession! By saying “we” – as in, “we know” – Nicodemus makes clear the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The Pharisees know – they know! – that Jesus is from God; but this doesn’t stop them plotting and planning. They can’t face the truth of what Jesus teaches; but Nicodemus has decided to be different.

Jesus is very up-front with Nicodemus from the very start; but he takes the conversation in a direction that Nicodemus doesn’t expect.  Jesus says: “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” And the conversation continues for a while along the lines of what it means to be ‘born again’ or ‘born from above’ or ‘born of the Spirit’. Bottom line, Jesus says, salvation from God is not about keeping rules; salvation is a miracle by which God’s Spirit – the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity – comes into a person and lives in the heart of a person who is willing to worship and follow God.

This sounds like a new teaching to the people in Jesus’ time, but it’s actually a new presentation of ancient truths; and Nicodemus is a bit confused. Jesus scolds him gently saying, “you’re a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things?” Jesus goes on to explain that, while God loves the world and God loves the people in it, people love darkness because what they do is evil. But while this was all still going on, God sent the Son as a savior. Jesus says:

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” John 3:14-15

Why? Because God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not die but have eternal life. In fact, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world could be saved through him. BUT this is the judgement: the light of God came into the world but people loved darkness more, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:16-19, edited)

Nicodemus, being the well-educated Pharisee that he was, immediately recognized and remembered the story of the serpent in the wilderness that Jesus was talking about. His mind would have gone back to the book of Numbers and that last segment of Israel’s journey in the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land.

The people of Israel at that time had been traveling through the wilderness for almost forty years. Many of the people who had been freed from slavery in Egypt had grown old and passed away; others were elderly; and most likely the majority of the people in the tribe of Israel no longer remembered Egypt. All they had ever known was life on a journey – and the leadership of Moses.

At this point, the people of Israel were setting out from Mount Hor to go around the land of Edom. And it looked like they were going in the wrong direction: the Promised Land was to the north, but their path turned south to go around Edom. The people were impatient and they complained against both Moses and God; and their complaints were full of lies: they accused Moses of bringing them into the wilderness to die. They accused God of starving them to death; but then they say “…and we detest this miserable food” (so there actually is food – they are not starving – and in fact the food they have is manna, which has sometimes been called the ‘bread of angels’… wonderful stuff that tasted like wafers with honey.)

And they accused the Lord of Life of trying to starve them and kill them.

First, it is not wise for mere human beings to cop an attitude with God, the Creator of the Universe. Not a good idea.

Second, as one theologian writes, the accusations against God were serpentine in nature: poisonous, bitter, and self-contradictory.

God needs to confront this rebellion. If God does not confront the evil, it will grow and spread, and will result in the deaths of many people, perhaps the entire tribe of Israel. On this journey through the wilderness, the people still need God every step of the way. They need God’s direction and God’s insight; but the people think otherwise. So God sends poisonous snakes into the camp; and the snakes bite some of the people; and the people who are bitten die.

In reaction to this, the people say to Moses, “we have sinned; pray to God to take the snakes away.” Why it is that the people interpret the snakes as having been sent by God to confront them about their sins, I don’t fully understand; although it probably points to some guilty consciences. Apart from this, it seems like in the history of the human race people turn to God more quickly in times of trouble than when things are going well.

That’s what happens here. But God does not take the snakes away. Instead God says to Moses, “make a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and whoever looks at the bronze serpent will live.” This is not idol-worship: God does not say to bow down to the bronze serpent or to pray to the serpent. God only says “look at it” and you will be healed.

Side note: This symbol of a snake wrapped around a pole became the symbol of medicine and healing in the ancient world. The symbol has been found dating as far back as 400 BC in ancient Greece; and most likely the Greeks borrowed the story from Israel’s history, because they were aware of the history. [End of side note.]

Back to our story: God tells Moses to put the bronze serpent where everyone can see it; BUT people who are bitten must still be willing to look at it – to do what God said to do. The bronze serpent by itself does nothing. The fact that there’s a bronze serpent in the camp means nothing. If your brother or sister looks at the bronze serpent, it won’t help you if you’re the one who’s been bitten. And in fact the bronze serpent means nothing at all to people who haven’t been bitten. But for those who have been bitten, looking at the bronze serpent will heal them and they will live.

Notice the double conditional: If you aren’t sick, the bronze serpent means nothing to you. But if you are sick, only looking at the bronze serpent would heal you. Believing that a bronze serpent might heal you is not enough; you actually had to look at it. Head knowledge was not enough; the belief had to be acted on.

The snake bite represents sin. And Jesus says to Nicodemus: the same thing is happening here and now. Just like that bronze snake in the wilderness, Jesus is about to be lifted up on the Cross. Anyone who thinks they’ve never sinned doesn’t need the cross. But anyone who has been bitten by sin and rebellion of this world can look at Jesus on the Cross and be healed.

Notice there are no go-betweens. In Jesus, God is reaching out to each individual person. Each person needs to have the faith to look at the Cross. There is no priest or rabbi or pastor, not even Moses, who can look at the Cross for someone else, on someone else’s behalf. Each person must trust God for themselves in order to be healed, and each person must look to Jesus for that healing.

One other side note: I think this kind of trust is very difficult for people who have come from rough backgrounds: people who have been abused or neglected or kept down or prejudiced against; or people who suffer from PTSD.  People like the Israelites who had suffered from generations of slavery and pain and hardship. It is difficult for people who have experienced these things to trust. I think that’s where a lot of the griping came from in ancient Israel; I think that’s why it was so hard for many of them to look at the snake and believe. And I think that’s why it’s so hard for many people in our world today, who have suffered through trauma and tragedy, homelessness or hunger, to look on the Cross and believe and trust God.

On the other hand, the God we are asked to trust knows our pain.  The Cross makes that very clear. When we suffer we are not alone. God does not leave us alone. God has entered into our pain; and all we have to do is look at the Son of God on the Cross… and trust.

The Bible doesn’t tell us whether Nicodemus walked home that night as a believing Christian. But Jesus gave him the truth, and gave him a lot to think about. Nicodemus ended up being one of two men who stood by Jesus on the day Jesus died. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were the two men who had the courage to ask Pilate for the body of Jesus in order to give him a proper burial. Somewhere in between that nighttime conversation and Jesus’ crucifixion, Nicodemus became a believer. And he did for Jesus what no-one else could have done.

For us today, just like back then, our health and our well-being depends on the man on the Cross: the Son of God, lifted up for us.  We have all been bitten by sin, and we all need to look to Jesus for our healing. Just like God said “look at the snake” to be cured, God says “look at the Cross” to be healed. And all of this is possible because God loves us, and because God is leading us to the Promised Land. AMEN.

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Of Service To Each Other

^“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?  ²² 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;  ²³ who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.  ²⁴ 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.  ²⁵ To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One.  ²⁶ 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.  ²⁷ 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”?  ²⁸ 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.  ²⁹ He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.  ³⁰ Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;  ³¹ 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.” – Isaiah 40:21-31

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“Praise the LORD! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.  ² The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.  ³ He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.  ⁴ He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.  ⁵ Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.  ⁶ The LORD lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground.  ⁷ Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre.  ⁸ He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills.  ⁹ He gives to the animals their food, and to the young ravens when they cry.  ¹⁰ His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;  ¹¹ but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.”  – Psalm 147:1-11

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^“As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.  ³⁰ Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.  ³¹ He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

³² That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.  ³³ And the whole city was gathered around the door.  ³⁴ 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.

³⁵ In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.  ³⁶ And Simon and his companions hunted for him.  ³⁷ When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.”  ³⁸ 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.”  ³⁹ And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.” – Mark 1:29-39

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This week, as our bulletin cover shows, we are entering into Black History Month; and today happens to be the birthday of Rosa Parks, who was born on this day in Tuskegee AL in 1913. When she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, she was arrested, launching a case that eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court – who ruled that “separate is not equal” and segregation had to end.

Asked about it later, Mrs. Parks said that her decision to not get up was largely motivated by the acquittal of the murderers of Emmett Till. In the words of poet Nikki Giovanni, “it was Mrs. Rosa Parks who could not stand that death. And in not being able to stand it. She sat back down.”

Her ability to think clearly and act decisively under immense pressure changed the world we live in. May God bless her memory.

Today we are also still working our way through Epiphany: that time of year when God and our scriptures “show forth” and “make known” the Messiah, Jesus. Last week – to recap Mark’s gospel – we saw Jesus in a battle between good and evil when a man with an unclean spirit interrupted Jesus as he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. And all the people in Capernaum remarked how Jesus taught with authority and not like the scribes.

In his teaching, and in his dismissal of the demon, Jesus demonstrated the reality and the power of spiritual gifts. A couple weeks ago in our Wednesday Bible study, we were talking about spiritual gifts – things like healing and speaking in tongues and prophecy. And we mentioned how it seems like in some churches these things happen all the time but in other churches (like the one I grew up in) the spiritual gifts were rarely if ever seen, and seemed a bit of a mystery. I wanted first off to assure you that the spiritual gifts are real, and in this passage we see Jesus using some of them. That is why the people sensed Jesus had ‘authority not like the scribes’ – which is a very accurate perception!

The spiritual gifts Jesus used on that day included teaching, word of knowledge, and healing. We don’t often think of teaching as a spiritual gift, because a lot of people teach… but teaching in the Spirit is very powerful and it goes deep into the listeners – that’s why the people felt that “he teaches with authority”. And word of knowledge, which is sometimes called prophecy, is being able to speak a truth that a person could not know unless God revealed it to them. When Jesus identified the man as having an evil spirit (as opposed to maybe being drunk or having a really bad day) this was a prophetic understanding – this was knowledge given by God. And then Jesus used the spiritual gift of healing to tell the evil spirit to leave. And the spirit left, and the man was healed.

The spiritual gifts all have the same goals: to give glory to God; to teach God’s people about God’s love and power; and to heal the things that are wrong in this world. And this is how we can tell real spiritual gifts from people who are trying to fake them: God’s Spirit accomplishes God’s will.

So that’s a quick summary of last week – which gives us our launching point for this week.

This week Jesus continues to minister in God’s power, making God known to God’s people.

Psalm 147 says: “Great is our Lord and abundant in power.”

And the psalm says God uses this power to “lift up the downtrodden, and cast the wicked to the ground.” The psalmist says God also uses God’s power to make clouds and rain and grass and animals and ravens (although I’m not quite so sure about Baltimore…). Above all, God does good for the people God loves.

Isaiah then talks about this in more detail.  Isaiah reminds us that rich and poor alike share the same end; that life is very short… but God gives power. Isaiah says:

“²⁸ 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.  ²⁹ He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.”

Some of us might remember the movie Chariots of Fire from a few years back – the story of Scottish missionary Eric Liddell who was also a champion runner in the Olympics. In that movie, Eric Liddell preached a sermon on this passage in Isaiah, and I can almost hear his Scottish accent:

“[The Lord] does not faint or grow weary… ²⁹ He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.  ³⁰ Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;  ³¹ 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.”

(Here’s a link to the video clip:)

Just in those few short sentences the words “faint”, “weary”, “exhausted”, “powerless” appear nine times! And how often do we find ourselves feeling that way? How often we find ourselves running in a thousand different directions, barely keeping up with everything that has to be done? But in these same verses the words “power”, “strength”, and “run” and “walk” are repeated as well. God is never tired; God is never weary – and those who wait for God “will renew their strength” – if we wait with expectation, looking in God’s direction, and trusting that God’s word is true.

Then we come to our gospel reading from Mark. This passage takes place immediately after last week’s reading. In last week’s reading, Jesus was teaching in synagogue in the morning. In this week’s reading, it’s later the same day. The worship service is now over, and Jesus – along with James and John – goes to the home of Simon Peter and Andrew, which is a short walk from the synagogue – just a few blocks away. It’s kind of like what people used to do after church back in the day: they’d say, “hey, let’s grab a bite to eat!” and then go to somebody’s house. It feels natural to do this; and rightfully so, because the Sabbath day is a day made for rest, and fellowship, and enjoying friends and family.

But as they arrive at Peter’s house, they find that Peter’s mother-in-law is in bed with a fever.  So Jesus goes to her, and “raises her up” – and heals her – not just in the sense that ‘the fever’s gone’ (which it was) but in the sense of she feels GREAT! She feels reunited with her family, and she feels healthy and strong, and she can’t wait to start serving lunch!

As the Sabbath day progresses, the mother-in-law and the disciples all eat and relax and enjoy each other’s company. And the rest of the village of Capernaum is pretty much doing the same thing – because it’s the Sabbath, and people relax on the Sabbath.

BUT! All over town, people are still talking about what Jesus did that morning. And as soon as the sun goes down – as soon as the Sabbath is over – the entire town shows up outside the front door!  (And these houses are packed really close together – I don’t know how they got that many people in that street!)  And they’ve brought with them the sick and the demon-possessed for Jesus to heal.

Side note on demon-possession: We here in the 21^st century don’t usually put much stock in devils or demons. We look at the movie The Exorcist more like entertainment than fact.

But many of our Christian brothers and sisters over in Africa see things differently. And the more I think about it, the more I think it’s because they have witnessed far more in the way of in-your-face evil than we have. They have seen, with their own eyes, the violence in Darfur, the burning of villages in South Sudan, the genocide in Rwanda, the decades-long civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They know that pure evil exists; and they know that sometimes people give in to it.

Whatever we may believe about the powers of darkness, I think the important thing to know is to stay away from them, as much as it’s within our power.

James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” The opposite is true as well: anyone who goes looking for trouble will most likely find it.

And let’s face it – even if we don’t believe in evil spirits, there are death-dealing forces in our world: addiction, racism, xenophobia, uncontrollable anger, envy, pollution of our air and water, and so many more. One scholar writes that these things “move through the world as though by a kind of cunning. They resist, sidestep, or co-opt our best attempts to overcome them. [Trying to solve these problems is] (he says, is) less like figuring out a puzzle and more like wrestling with a beast.”^[1]

But getting back to Capernaum: the whole neighborhood, it seems, has come to Jesus looking for healing, looking for deliverance from the powers of evil. And Jesus heals them all.

 The apostle Paul writes:

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons . . . will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39)

Jesus has both the love and the power to take away all sickness, and to remove the forces of evil. That night, every person who came to Jesus was healed!

After everyone had been cared for, Mark tells us, Jesus slipped away. It was in the wee hours of the morning. I imagine many of the people were still sort of hanging around, kind of having an impromptu block party, but Jesus disappeared. Mark says he “went to a deserted place” – which would not have been nearby, as the area around Capernaum was fairly populated.

Why would Jesus do this? Mark doesn’t say, other than to say Jesus went away to pray. Was Jesus recharging his batteries, so to speak? Probably. Was he sharing joy with God his father – the joy of seeing people healed and set free and made whole? I’m certain of it. And Jesus was also listening to God – asking: what do we do next? Where do we go next? And Jesus was setting an example for us – because we also need to be with God in prayer, on a regular basis, to recharge and regroup and reconnect.

Some time later, Peter and the disciples realized Jesus was gone, and went looking for him. And after a good long search they found him, and they said, “Jesus, everybody’s looking for you!” – hinting that he should still be with the crowd. Their message is: “Let’s go back!” Jesus, OTOH, says, “Let’s go on!” It’s almost like a foretaste of the Mount of Transfiguration: on that day Peter said “let’s stay here and put up tents” but Jesus said, “Let’s go on!”

It’s a very human moment; because there is something in all of us that wants to put down roots, that likes to find a place to call home. And there’s nothing wrong with that – I think that’s how we’re designed. But Jesus leads in another direction. He says:

“Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Matt 8:20)

As God’s people, much as we try, we will never have permanent roots in this world. For the time being we may have a sense of rootedness in our families and in our church and in our communities… but it’s only for a time. And knowing this sheds doubt on the line of reasoning that says “well this is how things have always been.” Because they actually haven’t… always been… and even if they have ‘always been’ they’re not meant to stay that way. As the old hymn says, “This world is not our home, we’re just a-passin’ through.”

Jesus says, “Let’s go on!” And we need to be ready to move on with Jesus. We need to know that staying put is not an option. In order to share God’s good news and God’s gifts with others, we need to not stay where we are.

So what can we pull together out of these passages?

First, the call to service is very clear. Jesus serves first: he teaches in the synagogue, he heals a demon-possessed man, he heals Peter’s mother-in-law. But there’s also a call to mutual service: Jesus serves the mother-in-law and then the mother-in-law serves Jesus. Serving goes back and forth, and we are all, each one of us, called to do our part.

Second, Jesus focused his teaching ministry, at least at first, in the synagogues. Mark says, “he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.” The word ‘synagogue’ is a word that means “to bring together”. Just like the word ‘symphony’ means ‘to sound together’, synagogue is ‘to bring together’.

Our culture, in our world today, is badly in need of places for people to come together. A sense of community has been all but lost in our younger generations. When I ask my husband’s kids “where do you turn in times of trouble?” they can’t answer; they don’t know. Historically, the church has been the place to turn; it’s been the center of the community. Rosa Parks herself, when she had her experience on the bus, immediately turned to her church for support and fellowship; and she found it there.

We need to find ways to reawaken a sense of community. We need to find ways to be community for our world today. The fact that we have seniors meeting here in this building, and community meetings being held here – these are good things – these are a good start. How else might we be a ‘gathering place’ for our community? How else might we follow in Jesus’ footsteps to confront things that harm our people – and to bind up wounds, and to lead to faith and freedom?

May God lead us to discover answers to these questions – for the good of God’s people and to the glory of God. AMEN.

(photo of Synagogue at Capernaum)

[1] SALT

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Jesus Confronts Evil

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.  ¹⁶ This is what you requested of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.”  ¹⁷ Then the LORD replied to me: “They are right in what they have said – Deuteronomy 18:15-20

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Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.  ² Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.  ³ Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.  ⁴ He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the LORD is gracious and merciful.  ⁵ He provides food for those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant.  ⁶ He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.  ⁷ The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.  ⁸ They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.  ⁹ He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.  ¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever. – Psalm 111:1-10

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They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught.  ²² They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.  ²³ Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit,  ²⁴ 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.”  ²⁵ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”  ²⁶ And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.  ²⁷ 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.”  ²⁸ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. – Mark 1:21-28

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Our readings today focus on a battle we’re all involved in: the battle between good and evil.

There are some people in the world who believe that ‘good’ and ‘evil’ depends on how you define them, that it’s a matter of opinion.  This is NOT what the Bible teaches. And when we get down to it, it’s not really what any of us believes. We may disagree over which things are right and wrong, but we all believe that there is such a thing as right and wrong. When we look at the world around us, we can see so many things that are wrong: over 100 million people homeless right now, displaced by war or famine; in many parts of the world it is difficult to find drinkable water, and yet in other parts of the world people are recovering from floods; in many parts of the world, rape has become a weapon of war – while in other parts of the world men are proclaiming themselves ‘appointed by God’ while they organize the deaths of millions… I could go on. There is no denying there is evil in this world.

In fact, when non-religious people are asked why they don’t believe in God, the most frequently-given answer is because there’s evil in the world and God isn’t stopping it. People say, “I can’t believe in a God who would let such things happen.”

What our scriptures tell us today is that God IS doing something about it. They also tell us God is including human beings in the work of setting things right.

Scripture tells us that evil came into the world when the first human beings were deceived into thinking they knew better than God what was right and what was wrong. From that point on we see people trying to do things their own way, committing murder and robbery and violence. But there were also people who loved God and wanted to live in a world where God’s love was the gold standard.

It’s not long before the Bible introduces us to Moses. Moses was a man who talked with God face-to-face. We all know his story: how he was saved from the Nile River by Pharoah’s daughter, and raised in the palace, but was then called by God to lead Israel out of slavery and into the Promised Land.

Now, as today’s scripture reading from Deuteronomy begins, the people of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land; but Moses won’t be going with them. It’s time now for Moses to rest – to go home and be with God, to be “gathered to his people” as it says in the scriptures.

The people of Israel were terrified at the thought of losing Moses. Forty years Moses has been leading them: two generations. Most of the people can’t remember a time when Moses wasn’t there for them.

I imagine it’s kind of how people in England felt when Queen Elizabeth passed. Most Brits can’t remember a time when Elizabeth wasn’t queen, and they’re almost feeling like “King who?”  But it was also clear, for those of us who watched, that Queen Elizabeth planned her own funeral down to the last detail. She even picked the hymns that were sung.

In a similar way, Moses needs to get God’s people ready to move on without him. He needs to plan those final details. He tells the people that he’s going to be dying. He tells them that God will still be there and will be faithful to them, and that God will support them along the way.

Most importantly, Moses tells them there will be another – another leader like Moses. God will provide someone who will be a “shepherd of the people”. He will be one of the people, and he will be a prophet who will teach God’s word faithfully, and the people will be accountable to follow his teachings.

In a way, God fulfilled this promise through Joshua, Moses’ successor. But God will also fulfill this promise a second time, in a much broader context, when the Messiah comes. This Messiah would be someone who:

• Is from the Jewish people
• Is a good shepherd
• Is a redeemer
• Is a miracle worker
• Is a teacher of the Law
• Who challenges the kings of the earth
• Who is mediator between God and human beings

As it happens, the name Joshua and the name Jesus mean the same thing in Hebrew: “God is our deliverer” – or to put it more succinctly, “Saviour”.

This reading from Deuteronomy is not only a comfort to the people of Israel: it is also a prophecy of someone else who is coming, whose arrival will signal the beginning of a new age – which leads us directly into today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark.

Let me set the scene:

We find ourselves in the synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath Day. It is a breathtakingly beautiful location: warm and sunny, at the top of a gentle hill, with the village of Capernaum surrounding on three sides. As we sit in the synagogue, we can hear the waves of the Sea of Galilee lapping on the shore. The scent of flowers drifts in between the pillars of the synagogue. As we look around at those pillars, we are reminded of what our neighbors have told us: that the local Roman centurion built this synagogue for us, for our town. The local centurion is a Gentile believer in God, and this synagogue is here because of him.  (The people don’t know it yet, but that same centurion will one day ask Jesus to heal his servant, and he will say, “Lord I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but say the word and my servant will be healed…” And Jesus will answer he has not found such faith even among the people of Israel. But that day is still in the future…)

Today, in the synagogue, the local rabbi gets up and leads us in prayer. Then he motions to any young men who would like to share a thought, and Jesus gets up and comes to the front. Mark doesn’t say which scripture Jesus was teaching on that morning, but he says the people were captivated, because Jesus taught them with authority “and not like the scribes”. (I don’t think that Mark meant to slam the scribes; I think what he was meant was that, in Jesus’ day, Jewish scribes and teachers frequently taught by quoting other teachers – a technique still used today.)

But Jesus didn’t need this. Jesus teaches God’s word directly. He had no need to quote anyone else because he was the authority. And the people are enjoying his teaching immensely! They’re loving every moment of listening to him.

Suddenly a deranged man, who Mark tells us ‘had an unclean spirit’ breaks in to Jesus’ teaching. The gentle voice of the Savior is interrupted by a man with a harsher voice, and an attitude that has none of God’s love in it. And he says:

“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.”

Imagine how troubling this would have been to Jesus’ listeners – first, for Jesus to be interrupted; and second to hear Jesus accused of wrongdoing – in a voice that is so sure of the accusation.

I’d like us to step back for a moment and notice how clever this accusation is. It’s in three parts. Part one: a rude and accusatory question: “What do you have to do with us?” There is no right way to respond to a question like that, because it’s not really a question; it’s an accusation.

Part two: “Have you come to destroy us?” Why would this question even make sense? Anybody who’s listening to Jesus can feel the life that’s in his words. Listening to Jesus speaks to something deep within each person and brings life. The question is posed to cast doubt on a man who is not only innocent of the charge but is in fact working to do exactly the opposite of destroying life – he is bringing life.

So we have a rude and accusatory question, followed by an outright lie. Then part three: a truth: “I know who you are – the Holy One of God.” God’s enemies know exactly who Jesus is, and they will even admit it if it works to their advantage.

So again the progression is: accusatory question – outright lie – absolute truth. The intended result is confusion, disarray, and questioning on the part of the listeners… and eventually, if people listen long enough, a loss of faith; a loss of trust. It’s impossible to mix truth with lies and be faithful to God.

This same progression can be seen in the temptation of God’s first people in the Garden of Eden. The snake leads off with an accusatory question: “Did God say ‘you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” Followed by an outright lie: “you will not die”. Followed by an absolute truth: “you will be like God, knowing good and evil”.

Same progression, same technique!  Watch for this pattern – accusation, lie, truth – in conversations, at work, in politics, watching the news, you name it. Watch for this.

Back to the synagogue in Capernaum… Mark tells us this man who is speaking ‘had an evil spirit’.  We in the 21^st century in America don’t usually put much stock in talk about evil spirits and things like that. We see movies like The Exorcist as entertainment, as fantasy – not as fact. And there are a lot of good reasons for that.

But I can also tell you that our Christian brothers and sisters in Africa often see things differently. I suspect that’s because they’ve been eyewitnesses to more in-your-face evil than we have. They have seen, some of them, with their own eyes, the violence in Darfur, the burning of villages in South Sudan, the genocide in Rwanda, the decades-long civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They know that pure evil exists; and they know that sometimes people give in to it.

Not that I recommend going and reading up on evil spirits – I do not! – but there might be something more to the subject than we are typically led to believe. And let’s face it – even without evil spirits there are plenty of death-dealing forces in our world: addiction, racism, xenophobia, uncontrollable anger, envy, pollution of our air and water, and so much more. One scholar writes that these things:

“move through the world as though by a kind of cunning. They resist, sidestep, or co-opt our best attempts to overcome them. [Trying to solve these problems is] less like figuring out a puzzle and more like wrestling with a beast.”[1]

It would be too easy to throw up our hands and say “What can we do?” But we follow a God who is greater than all of that. And God calls us to share in the daunting task of restoring this world – bit by bit, acre by acre, neighborhood by neighborhood.

Going back to that morning in the synagogue… notice how Jesus handles the situation. He doesn’t argue with this man. He doesn’t try to reason with him, or make him feel better about the situation. He doesn’t try to find some middle ground. There are times when listening and asking questions are the right things to do – but not when evil is right up in your face.

Instead, Jesus says: “Be silent and come out of him!”

Jesus isn’t even speaking to the man; he’s speaking to the spirit inside the man. What we are witnessing here is a healing. The evil spirit is gone and the man is free! And the people in the synagogue have just witnessed Jesus’ first healing miracle.

We were talking at Bible study this past week about the gifts of the Holy Spirit – the miraculous ones, that is – things like speaking in tongues, or healing, or prophecy. There are some churches where these things seem to happen all the time, like everyday occurrences. But in other churches, like the one I was raised in, people don’t quite know what to make of the gifts of the Spirit. Are they really for real? Do miracles really happen? Have you ever seen one?

For me the answers to these questions are: yes, yes, and I’ve seen evidence of it. Yes, the gifts of the Spirit are real. Yes, miracles really happen. And I’ve never actually witnessed one (that I know of) but I know a woman whose eyes were healed – after the healing she never wore glasses again. The spiritual world is real, and spiritual gifts are real.

As we read this passage in Mark, the first spiritual gift that Jesus uses on this day is teaching. A lot of people in the world teach – but teaching in the Spirit, as a spiritual gift, comes with a power and authority that is otherworldly. Mark comments that the people were: “astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority.” This is evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence.

The second gift of the Spirit Jesus displays is the gift of Discernment – sometimes called Prophecy. It’s ability to know something with absolute certainty, that you couldn’t possibly know unless God told you. Jesus uses this gift when he perceives that the man is being held captive by an evil spirit. He does not see the man as evil; he sees the man being held captive by something stronger than himself. Jesus perceives the evil spirit, and he speaks to it directly.

The third gift of the Spirit Jesus displays is Healing – which in this case might also be called Exorcism. He commands the evil spirit to leave; and the man is free. He is healed, forgiven, and no longer enslaved by evil.

The people who were there that day, as Jesus said these things, would have felt deep within themselves a sense of both the rightness of his words, and the compassion in his words. They would have sensed within the synagogue a feeling of peace and well-being – shalom. And when this man interrupted the teaching, it would have been so jarring people would have immediately known something was wrong; but they see Jesus confront the evil spirit and dismiss it with just a few words. Jesus brings a new reality: a reality in which people who are deeply ill can be healed; in which people who are deeply sinful can be forgiven; in which people – all people – are deeply loved by God.

Ruins of the ancient great Jewish synagogue at Capernaum or Kfar Nahum at the shore of Galilee lake northern Israel

Needless to say, back in Capernaum, word got around. As Jesus once said, you can’t light a lamp and put it under a bushel. Jesus – just by being who he is – is fulfilling the promises Moses made all those years ago. By the next morning, all of Capernaum and the surrounding area had heard what Jesus had done.

For us today, to follow Jesus means to trust that he is who he said he is; and to join Jesus in confronting evil wherever we may find it. This is also why we pray: to bring Jesus’ healing power into those parts of the world that touch our lives. This is also why we worship: because it is impossible to witness what Jesus does, in love and in power, without talking about it! We worship a God who answers prayers, and who sets prisoners free.

Wherever we see needs in this world, we are called to bring them to Jesus; and listen to see if Jesus would like us to help set things right. But wherever we see evil in this world, whatever it may be, bring it to Jesus in prayer. As the people in Capernaum learned that morning, Jesus’ power is real and his love never ends. AMEN

[1] SALT

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On Faith

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.  ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  ³ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  ⁴ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.  ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan,  ⁶ Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.  ⁷ Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.  ⁸ From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD.  ⁹ And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb. – Genesis 12:1-9  

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         ⁹ As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

¹⁰ And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples.  ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”  ¹² But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  ¹³ Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

¹⁸ While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.”  ¹⁹ And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.  ²⁰ Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak,  ²¹ for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.”  ²² Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.  ²³ When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,  ²⁴ he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him.  ²⁵ But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.  ²⁶ And the report of this spread throughout that district. – Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

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I have to confess to a guilty pleasure. Whenever possible, I eat dinner in front of Wheel of Fortune. Don’t ask me why. Anyway, this past week on Wheel of Fortune they had a Star Wars week, and I am a HUGE fan of Star Wars. One of the puzzles – which I figured out before any of the contestants did – was “You don’t know the power of the dark side.” You can just hear Darth Vader saying it.

Our scripture readings on faith this week reminded me of a scene from Star Wars.  In the second Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda is teaching Luke Skywalker how to use ‘the force’. In the process of this training, Luke’s ship, his X-wing Starfighter, sinks into a nearby swamp. Luke tries to raise it using the force but he fails. Yoda, who is not even half Luke’s size, quietly raises it and sets it down on solid ground using the force. Luke is astonished and he says, “I don’t believe it.” And Yoda answers, “that is why you fail.”

This scene, this conversation between Luke and Yoda, has become part of our society on so many levels. We’ve heard the words in the blogosphere even if we haven’t seen the movies. Scenes like this from Star Wars have even sometimes been paralleled to faith; but ‘the force’ is exactly not how Christian faith works.

From time to time I have heard people say that, if something didn’t happen the way they thought it should, or the way they prayed it would – like a job offer, or a prayer for a friend – if these things didn’t work out the way we prayed for them, then the people praying didn’t have enough faith. This is exactly not what the Bible teaches. Faith is not a ‘force’ we can use to move things around and change things. Faith is not a ‘name it and claim it’ kind of deal.

The Bible tells us that when we have faith, God does the work. Jesus said if we have faith just the size of a mustard seed, that’s all we need to have. We do not need to work ourselves up into a state of emotion or a state of mind… or work up ‘the force’. Faith, from our side of the equation, is simply listening to God, and trusting God, that God will do what God said God will do. God is the one who has the power and the ability.

Quick side note: for those of us (probably most of us) who are still waiting for answers to some of our prayers – God sometimes answers prayer by saying ‘yes’, or ‘no’, or ‘not yet’, or ‘wait for it’.  And sometimes we don’t seem to hear any answer at all. Sometimes it’s years before we look back and see the answer God has given. God may do any number of things in response to prayer, and God certainly knows things we don’t know. Our part is to trust God and do the best we can in the time we’re given.

Given all this as a foundation, let’s take a look at some examples of faith from our scripture readings today. We basically have two scenarios today: the first in Genesis, where Abram talks to God; and the second in Matthew where we see Jesus responding to varying levels of faith in the people around him. I’ll take these in chronological order.

The story of Abram, the father of the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, begins in the 11^th chapter of Genesis. Up until this point, the book of Genesis has been basically giving us the story of the beginnings of the human race, with highlights on the Creation, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, the beginnings of formal religion, Noah and the Ark, and the Tower of Babel. Now the attention shifts to Abram and his family and their relationship with God; and most of the rest of Genesis will be about Abram and his descendants.

When Abram meets God, his name is Abram, which means “exalted father”. Later on, when God gives Abram the sign of circumcision, Abram is renamed ‘Abraham’ which means “father of a multitude”. I imagine these names were probably a bit awkward for a man with no children, especially in a society where names had meanings. How would Abram explain that he’s a father with no kids?

Meanwhile, God comes to Abram and tells him to pack up and move to Canaan. According to Jewish scholars, Abram lived in Mesopotamia – somewhere in or near present-day Iraq. He traveled roughly 700 miles to the border of Iraq, and then another 700 miles to Syria. When he arrived in the Promised Land, he found Canaanites already living there, so he traveled another 800 miles to Egypt… and then eventually back into Canaan.

Imagine this – especially for any of you who have ever moved any distance, maybe to college or for the military, or for a career. You know what it’s like to pack up a family and move hundreds of miles away. Abram did this with a wife, and servants, and herds of animals, and all the tents… all this on the word of God.

Imagine what it was like for them, on that journey of hundreds of miles, passing through countries they had never been in before, and cities and towns they had never seen before, and meeting people whose languages they didn’t speak. Imagine trying to do business in these places – buying food, or selling animals to get money – in places they knew nothing about, where they didn’t know the customs. It’s been said that refugees are people of great faith, and this is just one example of how and why that is. People who dare to take such risks know they are being led by God out of the safety of the familiar and into something new and potentially dangerous.

God tells Abram he will be the father of a great nation, and that nation will be blessed by God. God tells Abram his name will be great, and he will be a blessing to others. Jewish scholars agree: Abram was not chosen by God because he was any better than other people, or ‘more religious’ than other people; Abram was simply the person God chose. And Abram believed God and said ‘yes’.

Because of that ‘yes’, today, over 6000 years later, all Jewish people, all Muslim people, and all Christian people trace our physical and/or spiritual roots back to Abram. God’s word to Abram is still true today!

When Abram first arrived at Shechem, and found the Canaanites there, God repeated his promise that the land would belong to Abram and his descendants. In spite of what he saw around him, Abram trusted God’s promise. He built an altar to the Lord and worshiped God there. Then he headed to Egypt, and a few years later, at God’s leading and in God’s timing, he returned and settled in the Promised Land. By faith Abram became the father of a multitude, just as God had promised.

The apostle Paul, when he was teaching the new Christian believers about Abram’s adventures, pointed out that Abram was over 90 years old when God made this promise, and Sarah was well past child-bearing years. Paul says Sarah’s womb was technically dead, but God brought life from it. And he says Abraham’s faith is a model for us all – something we can aim for in our own lives – to trust God this deeply with our lives.

Moving on to our reading from Matthew for today, we see faith happening all over the place. First we meet Matthew the tax collector – a very unpopular guy – who is telling his own story in the gospel that bears his name. Let’s face it, even today people aren’t crazy about tax collectors! But back then it was worse: tax collectors worked for the Roman government, so they were collaborators; and on top of that they overcharged people and kept the difference, so they were highway robbers of the worst kind.

Jesus choose to call Matthew – and not only call him, but invite himself to dinner at Matthew’s house! Matthew – like Abram – left everything and acted on faith. He gathered together his tax collector buddies and they threw Jesus a banquet. Meanwhile the crowd and the Pharisees were shocked and horrified. How could Jesus – a Rabbi and a loyal Jewish citizen – hang out with sinners and traitors?

The thing is, when Jesus comes into contact with sin or uncleanness of any kind, Jesus doesn’t get dirty – the dirt gets clean. Like Armor All, dirt doesn’t stick to Jesus. Jesus keeps company with sinners, not so he can look cool, but in order to share his goodness with sinners. All it takes on the sinner’s part is faith.

Immediately after Jesus called Matthew – in fact maybe even at the banquet – a synagogue leader came and asked Jesus to come and touch his daughter who had just died. On the way to his house, Jesus is touched by a woman in the crowd who had had a flow of blood for twelve years.

Under Jewish law, being involved in either or both of these events would make Jesus ritually ‘unclean’. Touching someone with a flow of blood? Unclean. Touching a dead body? Unclean.  But where Jesus is involved, the unclean becomes clean. The woman with the flow of blood is healed.  And the dead girl is made alive.

In both cases it’s faith that makes the difference. Not the kind of faith that people work themselves up into – that’s not really faith. The woman with the flow of blood knew if she touched Jesus’ clothing she would be well, and that’s exactly what happened. The synagogue ruler knew that if Jesus touched his daughter, she would live, and that’s exactly what happened. Not because he believed it would, but because Jesus said so. Jesus told the mourners: “The girl isn’t dead” … and they laughed at him, because they’d seen dead bodies before and they knew what dead was. But the girl’s father trusted Jesus rather than the crowd, and she was restored to life.

Faith begins with God, not with us. Faith begins with God’s call – a call to leave behind what is familiar, to leave behind ‘the way things have always been’, and venture into the unknown with God.

God’s call always has a purpose – both for the person called, and for others, some of whom that person might never meet, some of whom may not even be born yet. God’s word to Abram was: “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Abram couldn’t have begun to imagine today, 6000 years later, when millions of people are his descendants (either physically or spiritually or both). But Abram sets an example we can follow: he trusted God, and God called that ‘righteous’.

The result of faith, in both of our passages today, is that God ‘counts in’ many people who society ‘counts out’. And Jesus calls us to do the same: to remove barriers, to take down walls, to erase the line between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, between ‘us’ and ‘them’, so that Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness and wholeness and healing can come to everyone.

Faith – real faith – has an element of audacity and daring about it. I want to encourage us, each one of us, to be audacious for Jesus. AMEN.

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Jesus Heals

“As [Jesus] walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.  ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  ³ Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.  ⁴ We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.  ⁵ As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  ⁶ When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes,  ⁷ saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.  ⁸ The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?”  ⁹ Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”  ¹⁰ But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”  ¹¹ He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.”  ¹² They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

^“They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind.  ¹⁴ Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.  ¹⁵ Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.”  ¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided.  ¹⁷ So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”

^“The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight  ¹⁹ and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”  ²⁰ His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;  ²¹ but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”  ²² His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.  ²³ Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

^“So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.”  ²⁵ He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”  ²⁶ They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”  ²⁷ He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”  ²⁸ Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.  ²⁹ We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”  ³⁰ The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes.  ³¹ We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will.  ³² Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.  ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”  ³⁴ They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

^“Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  ³⁶ He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.”  ³⁷ Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”  ³⁸ He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.  ³⁹ Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”  ⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”  ⁴¹ Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” – John 9:1-41

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Our reading from the gospel of John today is rich in detail, and is both a sad story and a very joyful story, and even though it happened 2000 years ago, we can relate to what’s going on here.

The story is relate-able in part because we all know what it’s like to suffer at the hands of bureaucrats. (Some things never change!) The Pharisees completely miss the point of the man being healed of blindness – and Jesus, as usual, goes straight to the heart of the matter. We also see in this story a huge difference between God’s will and human attempts at God’s will… between God’s mercy and human beliefs about right and wrong.

In this story, the man’s physical blindness in a way represents spiritual blindness. Every person on this planet is a sinner; every person on this planet is imperfect and stands in need of Jesus’ mercy and healing. And for each one of us, Jesus has come to offer healing.

But before we dig into the story, I want to back up and share some of the things the apostle John assumes we know about the Jewish religious scene. Throughout the gospels we hear about Pharisees, Sadducees, Jews, high priests, scribes, and the Sanhedrin – but who were all these people, and why were they interested in Jesus?

• The Sanhedrin met in Jerusalem and was a group of 70 judges directly reporting to the High Priest. Some were Sadducees, some were Pharisees and others were priests and clergy of various kinds.
• The Scribes started out as copyists, copying the scriptures by hand back in the days before the printing press. But over time they came to know God’s law really well and they became lawyers and also teachers.
• “The Jews” is a general term John uses in his gospel to refer to the leaders of the nation. He does not mean all Jewish people everywhere, and I want to be clear about that because he sometimes comes off sounding anti-Semitic – which he wasn’t. John was Jewish, and he loved his nation.
• The Pharisees and Sadducees were the two main parties of priestly teachers who sparred with each other constantly. (Splits within faith groups are nothing new, sadly.)
• The Sadducees roughly parallel the ‘progressives’ of the day. They rejected holy writings and prophecies except for the books of Moses (the first five books of the Bible). The Sadducees came from aristocracy; they were elite and well-educated, usually taught in Greece by Greek philosophers (who looked down on Judaism as a simple, rustic faith); they were secular in many ways even though they held power in the temple; and they did not believe in resurrection or the afterlife. (The Sadducees disappeared after the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70AD – they did not survive the overthrow of the nation of Israel.)
• The Pharisees, on the other hand, became the foundation for the system of temples and rabbis the Jewish people still have today. The Pharisees roughly parallel our modern-day evangelical movement before it became politically radicalized. (The radicals back in those days were called “Zealots”.) Pharisees usually came from working-class families, they were held in high esteem by the people because they were devoted to the faith, they believed in the Oral Law given by Moses – the Talmud – not just the written law. They believed in resurrection, and the afterlife, and in the coming Messiah, and in prayer, and in regular worship in synagogue. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? And some of the Pharisees liked Jesus: Nicodemus, and Gamaliel (the great teacher we meet in Acts chapter 5) whose star student became the apostle Paul (who was also a Pharisee).

So the Pharisees got a lot right. But if they got so much right, why were they always having arguments with Jesus? There were basically two issues, two sticking points – which then branched out into many other debates – but when you boil it down, basically two issues: the first was the Pharisees had an extremely literal and detailed interpretation of the Law of Moses; and the second was they had an unhealthy need to define and assert authority. Jesus once commented that the Pharisees “strained out gnats and swallowed camels” – that, for example, they would tithe 10% of everything they owned to the temple, right down to the spices in their kitchens, but overlooked important things like mercy and compassion.

And on the authority question, the Pharisees once asked Jesus where he got his authority, and Jesus replied by asking them: “where did John the Baptist get his authority?” The Pharisees then talked among themselves and said, if we say ‘from God’ he will ask ‘why didn’t you believe him?’ but if we say ‘from men’ the people will stone us because they believe John is from God.’ So they said to Jesus “we don’t know.” (Which was a totally bogus answer.)  And Jesus said “I won’t tell you where I get my authority either.”

Jesus would not play the Pharisees’ games or honor their rules. In fact Jesus taught that faith was about having a relationship with God, not memorizing a rule-book, and the Pharisees couldn’t handle that.

Which brings us to our story for today.

As John begins, we meet a man who was born blind. We don’t know his name (I wish we did). But Jesus and the disciples see this man by the side of the road as they’re walking, and Jesus points out that the man has been blind since birth – which is a miracle in itself: how did Jesus know this?

The disciples ask Jesus whose fault it is that this man was born blind? It was assumed in ancient Israel that birth defects like blindness were the result of sin. But Jesus said: no one sinned; this blindness happened so God could work through this man and show glory in the life of this man. The man was no worse a sinner than anyone else.

Jesus warns the disciples that we must work while we have the light of day, because there’s a darkness coming when no one will be able to work. This is both a metaphorical darkness, like a spiritual darkness; and it’s also quite literal darkness. We only have so many years on this planet, and when those years are gone, our work is over whether we’re done or not.  But Jesus adds, “as long as I’m here, I am the light of the world.”

Jesus then turns to the blind man, makes mud out of dirt and spit, and puts this mixture on the man’s eyes. The Greek word for what Jesus did is epicrisen which means ‘to christen’ – as in baptism. Jesus then sends him to a pool to wash off the mud, just as baptism washes the dirt off our souls.

While the blind man is washing, Jesus and the disciples continue on their way. Meanwhile the blind man’s friends have taken his hands and guided him to the pool, helped him get in, and watched as he washed the mud off.

Imagine what it would be like to be this man: having always depended on other people to guide you to places, and to help you find the things you need every day. Now he’s standing in the pool, washing his face, and as he does, he begins to see: first the water, and his hands, then maybe some trees nearby… and then he turns, and for the first time in his life, he looks into the faces of his friends. Imagine the joy and the tears and the celebration! Guys are pounding each other on the back and whooping and jumping up and down and crying out to everybody who passes by.

They go back to the place where the blind man used to sit – to pick up his stuff? – and the people passing by say “Hey! Isn’t that the blind man who used to sit here and beg?” And they start arguing among each other: “Yeah, it’s him!” “No, that’s impossible!” “It sure looks like him.” “No really it’s the guy!”

The formerly blind man says to them all: “a man named Jesus made mud, and put it on my eyes, and told me to wash, and I washed, and I received my sight.” And the crowd asks: “where is this Jesus?” but the man doesn’t know. (Keep in mind as this story moves forward this man has never seen Jesus. He has heard Jesus’ voice, but he doesn’t know what Jesus looks like.)

The crowd takes this man to the Pharisees – which was not an unusual thing to do. The Law of Moses said that people who were cured of certain incurable diseases (like leprosy for example) were supposed to show themselves to the priests to be declared healed, and as a testimony to them. Of course healing someone from blindness was not something anyone had ever done before! But they brought him to the priests anyway.

At this point we discover that the miracle took place on the Sabbath. The people hadn’t thought anything of it, but the Pharisees had a problem with this. First off, it was not the first time Jesus had healed someone on the Sabbath. In fact he was starting to do it with alarming frequency. On a previous Sabbath, Jesus had confronted some Pharisees in a synagogue about healing on the Sabbath. On that day there had been a man present with a withered hand. Jesus asked the Pharisees: “What is permitted on the Sabbath, to do evil or to do good, to harm or to heal?” And Jesus healed the man right in front of them. The Pharisees then went out and talked amongst themselves about how to kill Jesus (they had this conversation on the Sabbath!)

One of these days I would like to do a sermon series on the Sabbath because it really is important in the life of faith. The whole point of Sabbath is to rest: to escape the rat race, to get off the treadmill of life, and enjoy God and God’s creation and our families and friends. Sabbath is the day we are free to say “no” to the demands of the world – all the demands of the world. It’s a day God gave us for our benefit, to remind us of what freedom feels like.

But the way the Pharisees practiced it, Sabbath didn’t feel like freedom. It felt like one more demand from the world that the people had to obey. Jesus said “the Sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the Sabbath” but the Pharisees missed the point. They made the day that was supposed to be about freedom, into the most oppressive day of the week.

Jesus also taught it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. In this particular case the only thing Jesus did was make mud – but that qualified as work and was therefore forbidden in the eyes of the Pharisees. They decided to investigate and make an example of Jesus. (Notice the Pharisees didn’t stop to ask themselves “is it lawful to hold an investigation on the Sabbath?” But I digress…)

The Pharisees took this incredibly joyful occasion and made it into a day of pain and fear for the man and his family. They gathered together almost like a court of law and began to question the man. And at first the Pharisees are divided: some felt Jesus had broken the Sabbath; others felt no-one who is a sinner could do such a miracle.

They asked this man to repeat his story yet again: and we notice the story has gotten shorter this time. The man says: “he put clay on my eyes and I washed and I saw.” The shorter version eliminates the making of mud, so it no longer sounds like Jesus was working.

The Pharisees still don’t believe it, so they call in the man’s parents to question them: “Is this your son? Was he really born blind? How is it that he can see?”

And they answer yes, yes, and you’ll have to ask him.

They’re afraid to answer the questions because the Pharisees have said that anyone who believes in Jesus will be thrown out of the synagogue – and back then this was worse than being tossed out of church; it was essentially being banished from the community.

So they bring in the man again and say “give glory to God” (which was the ancient way of saying “put your hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”) They said, “we know this man is a sinner.”

The formerly blind man, who was now beyond exasperated, said, “I don’t know! All I know is that I was blind and now I see.”

~Side Note~

These words – “I was blind but now I see” – inspired the writing of the hymn Amazing Grace. This hymn was written because of a different kind of healing: a spiritual healing. The man who wrote it, John Newton, was an Englishman, and as a young man he was the captain of a slave ship that carried human cargo across the Atlantic. One day in 1748 he was on board ship off the coast of Ireland when the ship was caught in a storm and was about to sink. He prayed for God’s mercy, and the storm passed, and soon after he was converted to Christianity and became an abolitionist. He knew John Wesley personally, and he worked with John and other friends like William Wilberforce to fight against slavery. He lived just long enough to see slavery made illegal in England. Amazing Grace was written to tell the story of a man whose heart was completely changed by Jesus: “I once was lost, but now am found… was blind but now I see.”

~end of side note~

So our formerly blind man, who can now see, stands before the religious leaders and the Pharisees and speaks the truth: and it’s a truth they don’t want to hear. The Pharisees want to condemn Jesus. This man says, “He opened my eyes… and never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God he could do nothing.”

Which is still true today. With all of our medical advancements and technology, giving sight to someone who was born blind is something we still can’t do. But Jesus can.

The Pharisees accused this man of great sin and threw him out.

Jesus, meanwhile, has heard what happened, and Jesus goes and looks for the man and finds him. He asks: “do you believe in the son of man?”

The man answers, “Who is he, sir?” And Jesus says: “the person speaking to you now is the one.”

The man’s next word in Greek is “kyrie”– like in kyrie eleison – which means “Lord” – Lord, I believe. And he worships.

Jesus shares with him good news: “for judgement I have come into the world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

Some Pharisees overhear this and they say, “you talkin’ about us?”  And Jesus answers, “if you were blind you would be without sin, but since you say that you can see, your sin remains.”

And there the story ends.

So what does this story hold for us today?

First, doing God’s will isn’t always as clear-cut as we think. People today still quote Scripture to try to tell others what should and shouldn’t be done, and how people should and shouldn’t live. Yes, it’s important to know God’s word, and it’s important to do it – but we also need to have God’s heart of compassion: because without kindness, truth is a cold blade.

Secondly, today, as it was back then, we have the progressives and the conservatives battling things out in public, in politics, in the news; and both sides miss the mark where Jesus is concerned. Jesus does not violate Sabbath law; Jesus says “the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.”  God’s word is given for our benefit: not for harm, not to cause difficulty, not to lord over other people, not to decide who belongs and who doesn’t.

God’s law boils down to this: we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love others as ourselves. When we look at the issues, when we go to vote: are we loving others as we love ourselves? Are we loving the homeless as we love ourselves? Are we loving veterans as we love ourselves? Are we loving refugees as we love ourselves? God loves everyone, not just the people we feel comfortable with.

Faith in God is not, and never has been, about keeping rules. Faith in God makes us generous, caring, and compassionate. The Christian faith is about a relationship with the living God, through the Holy Spirit. With the presence of the Holy Spirit we are able to share in the joy of the man born blind.

And if and when we find ourselves in a jam like the one this young man was in, his story comforts us with the knowledge that Jesus knows where we are, and what’s going on in our lives; and Jesus cares; and Jesus will come looking for us; and Jesus will bring us to a place of worship – a place of peace and joy and fulfillment and rest, which is the true definition of Sabbath.

May God bless each of us here today with heavenly sight and heavenly healing. AMEN.

Preached at Fairhaven United Methodist Church and Spencer United Methodist Church, 3/27/23

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Epiphany – Unveiling Jesus

But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.  ² The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness– on them light has shined.  ³ You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder.  ⁴ For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.  – Isaiah 9:1-4

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The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  4 One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.  5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.  6 Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD.  7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!  8 “Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!” Your face, LORD, do I seek.  9 Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation! – Psalm 27:1, 4-9

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12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee.  13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali,  14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:  15 “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles–  16 the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”  17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea– for they were fishermen.  19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”  20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.  21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them.  22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.  23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. – Matthew 4:12-23

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Well, here we are, on the other side of Christmas: shopping all done for another year, decorations put away (maybe?)  We are now in the season of Epiphany, and we will be in Epiphany until Lent starts on February 22, which is only a month away!

So what exactly is Epiphany all about? The word epiphany comes from Greek – it means ‘unveiling’ or ‘revealing’ – and it’s that time of year when God makes Godself known to the world through Jesus. Jesus was born at Christmas, but we get to know him in Epiphany.

Epiphany begins with the baptism of Jesus, and then Jesus begins to travel and minister and call people to himself. And when people are called, they (and we) are also chosen by God for a reason. So in a sense the season of Epiphany reveals us too – reveals something of who we are, and what we are called to be in God’s kingdom.

This week we have three scripture passages to consider, all of which have something to say about this revealing of Jesus and of us.

Starting from a big-picture standpoint: what we have in today’s readings is King David setting the stage in his Psalm; Isaiah giving us a detailed prophecy of what is to come; and Matthew, telling us about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and showing us how Isaiah’s prophecy is being fulfilled.

The Psalm

King David sets the stage by saying “the Lord is my light, my salvation, and my stronghold.” This was true for David around 3000 years ago, and it was true for Jesus, and it’s true for us today. God is light, salvation, and stronghold. No matter what happens in our lives, no matter what we see around us, God protects and saves and sheds light on our path.

David continues with a prayer:“

One thing I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.”

This prayer is not just for this life but for the next life as well. In this life we come to God’s house, we worship, we pray, and it is beautiful. When we arrive in God’s kingdom, it will be even more beautiful: we will ‘live in God’s house forever’ as Jesus promised. Jesus said:

“In my Father’s house are many mansions… and I go to prepare a place for you…” (John 14:2)

If we are faithful to Jesus in this life, we will have a place in God’s house, forever, where we will be able to wake up every morning and open our eyes to the beauty of God the Father, surrounded by God’s love and God’s perfect creation, unharmed by human sin. We will be able to go into God’s temple, and ask questions, and learn, and experience things we can’t even begin to imagine right now. This is where we will spend eternity. This is our destiny. This is the one thing David asks of God. It’s our one request too, isn’t it – for us and our loved ones to be with God forever?

Isaiah’s Prophecy

The stage is set. Next comes the prophecy. Isaiah’s prophecy involves God’s answer to David’s prayer: God is making a way for us to live in God’s house and be with God forever.

Our passage from Isaiah takes us back to Advent for a moment. This passage is quoted in Advent scriptures, as well as in Handel’s Messiah.  But there’s more than just Advent here. First off, there’s a back story. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been captured by Assyria. The people were terrified and powerless, and many of them forced into slavery, and many more had had everything they owned taken away.

So Isaiah’s first message is to them. He says help is on the way. The “day of Midian” he refers to looks back to an unusual military victory in Israel’s past, when Gideon and a ragtag bunch of neighbors got together and, in God’s power, defeated the troops of Midian. Isaiah’s words hint that there’s a parallel between that victory over Midian and Israel’s current situation with Assyria. In other words, the tables are about to turn.

Isaiah’s second message has a double meaning: one for the Northern Kingdom back then, and one for us today. Isaiah talks about “the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali” who would witness “a great light”. These two tribes, Zebulun and Naphtali, were the least of Israel’s people. They had settled around the region of Galilee but never really conquered it; so the people of Israel and the Gentiles lived together. The region became known to the Southern Kingdom as “Galilee of the Gentiles.”  There was an intermixing of faiths, which got them into spiritual trouble, and which made the Northern Kingdom easy to defeat when Assyria came.

But there’s a side note to this Biblical history that will become very important during the lifetime of Jesus. Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah almost always talked about the Messiah coming from the Southern Kingdom: the Messiah would be descended from the line of King David, who ruled in Jerusalem in the South; the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, which was in the South. There was no doubt about these things – the prophecies were very clear.

So when Jesus appeared coming (so it seemed) from the region of Galilee, in the north, all the religious scholars said “No way. No major prophet comes from Galilee.”

But they were mistaken. Back in the law of Moses, in the book of Leviticus, in an obscure old regulation, the priests were told to offer their sacrifices “on the north side of the altar.” This led Jewish scholars (for many hundreds of years) to believe that God’s redeeming process would begin in the North. Isaiah confirms this by mentioning Zebulun and Naphtali in context of the Messiah’s coming.

By the time Jesus got here, most people had forgotten about all this; so when Jesus arrived, the Jewish leaders said ‘the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem’ – and in John chapter 7 we find them making fun of the idea that any spiritual leader could come from Galilee.

Looping back to Isaiah’s prophecy: Isaiah’s words give us that marvelous verse from the Advent/Christmas story that points us straight to Jesus:

“the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light: those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined.”

What we don’t hear again in today’s reading are the verses that come immediately after. This is one of my favorite verses in the Christmas season:

“For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire.”

Someday every war will be over. Someday every gun will be silenced. Someday there will be no more bombs, no more shootings, no more murders – all the instruments of violence will be burned. Don’t we long for that day? This is the promise of the Messiah. Why?

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Jesus will establish eternal peace.

This Messiah is a direct challenge to any and all earthly powers that keep people down or lock people into conflict. Jesus is a King above all other kings, above any president, dictator, czar, whatever. Jesus is not elected. He is born king.

Matthew’s Gospel

Which brings us to Matthew. In Matthew’s gospel we see Isaiah’s prophecies of the Messiah beginning to come true, one day at a time, one moment at a time, one person at a time.

Jesus waits until John the Baptist is arrested before starting his own public ministry. Matthew doesn’t say why; but God gave John a job to do, to prepare the people for the Messiah’s arrival, and John needed to finish that job before Jesus started his ministry. And in fact Jesus built on John’s ministry so much that many people thought Jesus was John reincarnated.

Matthew starts out by quoting our reading from Isaiah.

“[Jesus] left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles – the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” (Matt 4:13-16)

It was in this exact region that Jesus began teaching; and his message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Jesus was basically contrasting two kingdoms: the kingdom of Heaven, and the kingdoms of earth, and he was saying people need to make a choice: which are they going to be loyal to?

At that point in time the choice would have been between God’s kingdom or the Roman Empire.  For those of us in the 21^st century, it’s not quite as simple a question. The human race has had thousands of years of history, confusing and conflating the kingdom of God with the kingdoms of men. To give just a few examples, think of the Holy Roman Empire – which elevated both the Emperor and the Pope to positions of leadership, and didn’t teach much practical difference between the two. Or think of modern-day Britain, where the King is both the head of the government and the head of the Church. Or think of some of the political movements here in America in the past few years that run religion and politics together until you can’t quite separate the two.

Fusing secular leadership with religious leadership creates superpowers – which are never of God.  Jesus calls people everywhere to “repent” and give to God what belongs to God.

Sadly even the word ‘repent’ has become a triggering word in our time, so I need to give us a working definition. The word ‘repent’ in Greek is metanoieo. It means “to undergo a change in frame of mind or feeling”. It’s a combination of two Greek words: meta (meaning ‘with’) and noieo (meaning ‘to understand’). So it’s ‘with understanding’ – to come to a new way of thinking. Jesus is inviting people, including you and me, into new understandings and new insights.

Therefore the word ‘repent’ has absolutely nothing to do with fire and brimstone. It is not a threat; it is never meant to be spoken in anger. It is an invitation, given in love, to see and understand the world in a new way, and then move in a new direction.

I had a little bit of a metanoieo myself last summer when I was traveling overseas. Travel – especially outside the country – has a way of changing how we see things. We are exposed to different cultures and different people.  The traveler who comes home isn’t the same person who left. That’s really the definition of repentance – to perceive and understand differently, and to change how we live because of it.

The new understanding and the new direction that Jesus is giving, is in the direction of God’s kingdom. Once more we turn to the Greek: the word for kingdom is basileia, which can mean things like reigning, or ruling, or having great power. For those familiar with the Harry Potter series, it was no mistake that the great snake in the second Harry Potter movie is called a basilisk. Same root word, meaning something very powerful, and supposedly undefeatable.

One of the differences between human kingdoms and how they exercise power, and God’s kingdom and how it exercises power, is that human kingdoms assume the right to colonize. Think how our nation got started all those years ago: the kingdom of Britain made a colony, and they claimed rights to our land and our people. In God’s kingdom the purpose is not to colonize; it is to liberate, to set God’s people free. Total opposite purpose. Total different direction.

As Jesus preaches, he invites people to follow him. We don’t read about all the people he invited – in fact we don’t read about most of them, but we read about some. Jesus says to the fishermen, “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of people.”

Jesus does not start out by saying “believe what I believe” or “come sign on to the cause”. He simply says “follow Me”. No platform, no list of rules, just a call to companionship: to live together, to walk in God’s kingdom together.

When Jesus and the disciples do start to preach God’s Kingdom, there are a few things to notice about that.  The message is for all of Israel, not just Galilee; and Jesus is not interested in being governor or emperor, because God’s kingdom is not of this world. And along with this teaching comes power to heal: diseases, sicknesses, weaknesses, physical infirmities.

So where does all this prophecy and history lead us today? Four things to consider:

First and most important: God is still working.  God is working to make Jesus known to the people of this world; to bring truth to those who are lost in lies; to bring freedom to those who are imprisoned; to bring vision to those who can’t see; to bring healing and wholeness to those who are sick and in pain. Just as in the days of the disciples, Jesus invites us to be part of this ministry, as he leads.

Second, God is still breaking into human history. God is unmasking the world’s powers, bringing light into darkness.

Think for a moment what it’s like to be in a room when the power goes out. We can’t see, we may become tense or frightened. We stop what we’re doing and carefully try to find some light.

The spiritual darkness in our world is similar. People can’t see what’s ahead. They feel tense and maybe even hopeless, and they’re not sure where they left the candles and matches. Jesus invites us to share His light. Jesus said, “no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel basket. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” The glory goes to God because the light is God’s – we let God shine through us, and we become the light-bearers.

Third, we are called to communicate the good news by the way we live. God’s kingdom brings freedom, joy, light, love, friendship, compassion – even while our world is lost in hatred, violence, war, greed, pain, and sorrow. “Jesus said: “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, by the love you have for each other.”  What an appropriate message this is for the week in which we remembered Martin Luther King Jr! The arc of history is indeed long, but it bends towards justice. We share good news in and by our life together in Jesus.

Last but not least: Just as Jesus called the disciples into partnership with himself, Jesus also calls us. What is it, then, that Jesus is calling us to do and be… as individuals? as a congregation? Do we need a bit of an epiphany ourselves, an unveiling of God’s plan for us?

I hope the small group ministry starting this year will lead to answers to some of these questions, both on a faith level and on a ministry level.

For now I’ll just leave us with this: God’s call on our lives is not a one-time thing; it is an ongoing adventure. Wherever God leads, God has created us and prepared us for this time and place. And I believe this church is already on the path, we just need to continue to discern and follow.

So when we hear Jesus call: “Follow me” – like the fishermen, let’s drop our nets and follow! AMEN.

Preached at Carnegie United Methodist Church and Hill Top United Methodist Church, 1/22/23

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Jesus and the Gentiles

“From there [Jesus] set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice,  ²⁵ but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.  ²⁶ Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.  ²⁷ He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”  ²⁸ But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  ²⁹ Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go — the demon has left your daughter.”  ³⁰ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

          ³¹ Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.  ³² They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.  ³³ He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.  ³⁴ Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”  ³⁵ And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.  ³⁶ Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.  ³⁷ They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” – Mark 7:24-37

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our scripture reading from Mark today is a little unusual, and likewise will the sermon be. The working title for our sermon today is:

Jesus and the Gentiles
==OR==
An Adventure In Which Jesus Crosses International Borders
Without Proper Paperwork or Vetting

The entire scripture reading today takes place outside the borders of Israel; and while Jesus is not a refugee, he might have been mistaken for one – if he wasn’t already famous.

Jesus came to Tyre needing of a break. At the beginning of Mark chapter seven Jesus got into a heated debate with the Pharisees over the subject of purity. Specifically, the Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of sin and impurity because they didn’t wash their hands before they ate. (Have you ever felt like you were being nitpicked to death? I think that’s how the disciples felt!)

Nowhere in the Law of Moses does it say people have to wash their hands before they eat; but around the time of King Solomon the priests in the temple were commanded by God to wash their hands before eating any gifts of oil, wine, or wheat. These gifts would have been brought by the worshipers, and it made sense to wash hands before eating things of unknown origin.

But the Pharisees extended this law to ALL people everywhere at ALL times, and wrote the law into the Talmud (the teachings of the rabbis). So people were now obeying religious ‘laws’ that God never commanded in the first place.

Jesus answered the Pharisees by quoting the prophet Isaiah:  “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me… their teachings are merely human rules.” (Isaiah 29:13)  Jesus then used this confrontation to teach the people crowding in around them what it really means to be ‘unclean’. Jesus says:

“Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them” – things like “adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly” and so on. (Mark 7:14-15, 21-23)

Having said this, Jesus illustrates the point by going away from the people who claim to be ‘clean’ (that is, the Pharisees) and going to visit people the Pharisees considered to be ‘unclean’ (that is, the Gentiles).

So all of this sets the stage for our reading today. Jesus and the disciples walk around 200 miles to get away from the Pharisees (and also from King Herod who was looking to stir up some trouble).

Modern-day Tyre

As our reading opens, we see Jesus and the disciples entering a city called Tyre, which today is in the country of Lebanon. Tyre was – and still is – a beautiful port city on the Mediterranean Sea, with gorgeous coastlines and legendary hospitality. It’s a great place to get away to for a long weekend, and Jesus seems to be looking forward to doing just that.

It’s important to acknowledge that Jesus needed time off now and then. To be human is to need rest, and that includes all of us.

Jesus tells the disciples “don’t tell anyone where I’m going, and don’t tell anyone where I am.” When you’re famous it can be hard to travel secretly (remember the Beatles).

So Jesus and the disciples slip quietly into Tyre: a city big enough and busy enough to get lost in. They find a quiet house where they can stay and not be bothered, and they quietly settle in.

Except somebody has been tracking them: somebody ready to make the most of the first opportunity. That somebody was a local woman whose daughter was suffering from demon possession.

This woman knew she was taking a big risk. Back in those days, approaching Jesus directly was a gutsy move. From the disciples’ point of view this woman had three strikes against her already: she was a Gentile; she was a foreigner (to Jesus, anyway – mind, they were in her country); and she was an unaccompanied woman approaching a man. Just like today in Afghanistan, a woman alone approaching a man was in a very vulnerable position.

But this woman was driven by love for her demon-possessed daughter. (By the way, we aren’t sure exactly what was meant by ‘demon possession’ in this case. It could have been mental illness, or addiction, or a chemical imbalance, or indeed something to do with the occult; we really don’t know.) The bottom line was, only Jesus could heal her. And based on what the woman had heard about Jesus, she knew he was a kind man and a powerful miracle-worker.

So she found her way to where Jesus and the disciples are staying. And she approaches Jesus, falls at his feet, and begs him to heal her daughter.

Jesus answers her with one of the most troubling quotes in scripture. He says:

“Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” (Mark 7:27)

Why on earth would Jesus say this? We don’t really know. People have made some guesses, and I’ll offer some of the more popular ones here for you to choose from:

First possibility: Jesus might be reminding her that he is sent to the people of Israel. He is Israel’s Messiah, and his mission is to them.

…which is true as far as it goes. Jesus once told the disciples that he was “the true vine” and the people of Israel are “the branches”, and that the Gentiles are “wild grapes that have been grafted in” (that includes you and me BTW).

Theologian Elisabeth Johnson points out: “For those of us who are used to having a place at the table, perhaps we need to be reminded that none of us has any right or privilege whatsoever… with God. We all come as beggars to the table, and it is solely by God’s grace that we are fed.”

So that’s the first possibility.

Second possibility: Jesus is making fun of the attitude of the Pharisees, and his comment is meant to be satire. (I tend to favor this one myself.)

Third possibility: Jesus is giving this woman the ‘textbook’ cultural Old Testament reply, complete with standard cultural prejudices, to see what she will do with it – how she will reply.

Whatever Jesus’ reasons were, the woman gives a brilliant comeback. She doesn’t disrespect him, and she disagrees so gently we almost miss it. She says: “Yes Lord; but even the dogs under the table eat children’s crumbs.”

Translation: I’ve heard about you, Jesus. I’ve heard about how you love people. I’ve heard about your miracles. I know you can do what I’m asking. And what I’m asking for is just crumbs to you, but it would mean all the world to me.

Can’t you just see the smile on Jesus’ face when he hears this?

And he answers simply, “Go home. The demon has left your daughter.” (In Matthew’s version of the story, Jesus says a little bit more: he says, “How great your faith is! Your request is granted.”)

Jesus came to Tyre looking for refreshment, and he finds it in this conversation with a Gentile woman. Jesus is now rested – because this is his kind of rest. (Remember John chapter 4.) Bringing the kingdom of God to people who need it, and bringing people into the kingdom, is exactly the refreshment Jesus needs.

And in the strength of that joy, Jesus and the disciples travel to the Decapolis.

The Decapolis is on the far side of the Sea of Galilee from Tyre: on the southeast corner, in the region we would think of today as sort of Israel/Palestine/ Jordan. It was (and is) a debated area, and Jesus is still in Gentile territory.

Again, Jesus is approached and asked to heal someone: another Gentile, this time a deaf man with a speech impediment. This time Jesus doesn’t bring up his being a Gentile. He takes man aside, probably to avoid attracting a crowd. He sighs deeply, in empathy with the man’s years of suffering. And then he speaks one word: “Ephphatha!” – “Be opened!”

This single word sounds a lot like Genesis chapter one, when God says “light, be made!” and light is made. Whatever God says is done; whatever Jesus says happens! God’s word is active. With one word the man is healed. Welcome to life in the Kingdom!

Then Jesus says to the witnesses: “tell no one about this”. (Theologians call this the “messianic secret”, this keeping a lid on the truth of Jesus’ messiahship.) This isn’t the only place in the gospels where Jesus says “don’t tell anyone.” Most likely the time just wasn’t right yet.

The final words of this passage, spoken by the witnesses, read like the chorus of a song. They say:

“He has done everything well;
he even makes the deaf to hear
and the mute to speak.”

Contrast these words of the Gentiles with the complaints of the Pharisees a few verses back, and we begin to understand how the last will be first and the first will be last.

I always like to leave us with a few thoughts to take home and mull over. Today there are four:

1. Recalling the Pharisees and the way they twisted God’s law to mean something it was never meant to mean: watch out for theologians and preachers who do this even today. There are still Pharisees in this world, and Jesus’ warning to avoid their teaching still applies. Always test what you hear against the scriptures, and see that it agrees with the Word of God.
2. Jesus loved foreigners. We see this as he visits people of other nations and ministers to them. Jesus also loved the people who were on the fringes of society – which in his day included Gentiles, women, and handicapped people. And Jesus calls all of us, as his disciples, to do the same.
3. The time to stay silent about Jesus’ miracles is over! When Jesus said “don’t tell anyone” that was a temporary thing. Today – tell everyone! Any prayer that is answered, any miracle that you witness – share it! Let people know what the King can do.
4. Give praise to God. Like the people in the Decapolis, say it out loud: “He has done everything well!”

God bless this word to our understanding and our living. AMEN.

Preached at Carnegie United Methodist Church and Hill Top United Methodist Church, 9/5/2021

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