Epiphany and the Season After - Year B -- 2021
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Epiphany Year B
January 7, 2024 - Baptism of Jesus
Genesis 1: 1-5
Psalm 29
Mark 1: 4-11
Over time, a number of children have had some interesting and even inappropriate reactions to baptism
When I was a theology student, a member of the Conference Staff was making a presentation to the United Church students at my school. After he completed his presentation, he began to reminisce about baptisms from his own past. Many years before, in the small rural church he served, the elders had gotten things ready the night before for the baptism of a pre-schooler to happen the next morning. One of them had brought water from home, as I assume the church had no running water. It was wintertime, and the church was warm by the time of the service, BUT when the top of the font was lifted there was a skim of ice on the water. The minister poked his fingers through the ice to get enough water to put on the child’s head, and as he said the age old words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, they were drowned out by the child’s LOUD reaction, “Yikes that’s cold!” Except he didn’t say “yikes.” I’ll leave what he actually said, to your imagination!
In the United Church, people are often baptized as babies during public worship and usually there are many other children in attendance. For this next story, you have to know the child who commented on the baptism was seated in the pews, beside his parents who ran a pig farm. He helped his dad in the barn every chance he could. I would say he was about age 4 at the time, and had long since been baptized. In that church, there is a glass bowl that sits inside the brass one and is lifted from the font and held by an elder, to be within easier reach of the minister. The child was watching everything and thought the situation looked familiar. He just had to ask, a question and he did so in the kind of loud whisper only a child can pull off, “Mom, (shhh) Mom (shhh) Mom, are they going to castrate that baby?” I gather that the pews behind and ahead of the family were literally shaking because everyone within earshot were stifling their fits of laughter! They knew the family! The minister, heard nothing.
A colleague was serving in Newfoundland where the sacrament is often called “christening” - and one child, also not the one being baptized, asked his mom, in that same kind of loud whisper, “Mom, are they going to crucify that baby.” It was near Easter time. Crucify and Christen sounded alike, to a child, I suppose.
There was the one where I was baptizing a number of children, when the youngest of two brothers ran back to sit with his grandmother. She told me later that the only reason he came back to the front was that this was the only way he would receive a candle.
Then there was the disabled boy who had many physical and intellectual challenges and was, and always will be, non-verbal. Instead of the usual Family Story Bible, I gave to other families, I gave him a much simpler one with a bright red button on the front cover. When pressed, that button played a tune. Periodically, throughout the rest of the service, I heard this faint music - and at first I could not isolate it, but when I realized that the boy was pressing the button so he would hear the music, I just had to smile. It was a moment of pure grace.
Baptism stories are the best, no matter what happens, because they are family stories - stories of a family related by adoption, blood or marriage - and of a local loving Christian community. In each, no matter how trying and fraught they are with nervous parents or siblings who have acted out, or even the minister almost setting the prayer shawl on fire, they are part of who we are because everyone is welcomed and loved. They are part of who we are because in baptism we welcome, a new member of our chosen family. In baptism we all become siblings!
One of my favourite TV shows, is “Call the Midwife”. In this British TV show, we usually meet a woman in the pre (or ante) natal stage and when her water breaks we know we will see the labour and delivery. Before we were born, we all lived in an environment of amniotic fluid. The internet tells me that the amniotic fluid supplies proteins, electrolytes, immunoglobulins, and vitamins to the growing foetus and acts like a cushion, preventing injury and allowing for growth and movement. Even though we were immersed in a liquid, we did not drown and our oxygen and other necessary nutrients were supplied by the umbilical cord. Yet, after we are born and our lungs spring into action, we cannot go back.
The biblical story begins, well, at the beginning! It begins with water - in a mysterious dark expanse and void. In this story filled with mystery, it is as if, life is drawn out of “the deep”. Our bodies are comprised of about 60% water and we need water in order to live. 71% of the earth’s surface is covered with water. It is essential to our lives and to our planet.
Baptism was not invented by the Christian church, but the sacrament we know as Baptism evolved out of the practices of other cultures and religions and has similar meanings of dying to the old self and being reborn to a new way of being, a new path, a new name and identity.
However, baptism is not the time where the baby is named - a baby with a name given by the family comes to me and, on behalf of the community of faith, I give a new name, “Christian;” Christening, as it is sometimes called, is not bestowing a so-called “Christian name” but the name of Christ.
When we become members of the church we “renew those vows made on our behalf, at our baptism.” Profession of Faith, as we usually call it, is a specific and intentional renewal of those promises made at our own baptisms.
We participate in a similar renewal every time we are present at a baptism. When Merrick was baptized a few weeks ago those of you who were present at the service in Nipawin affirmed your own faith AND made promises to support Merrick and her parents in their Christian journey. In Baptism, the child’s parents promise to support and encourage their child in the Christian journey and to grow with that chid in faith. Community of faith support is essential to the rite of baptism; we provide Christian nurture and a place of welcome for that child.
But today we take that one step further. While this action may be “new” to us it is not at all new. If you come from a Methodist heritage you may know that John Wesley introduced an annual covenanting service in 1775 - which was not yesterday! By the end of his life the service was generally celebrated on the Sunday closest to January 1. It was heavily confessional and it provided a opportunity for the congregation to renew their commitment to the way of Jesus.
So here we are, close to January 1 - the secular new year, but near to the observance of Jesus' baptism. We are celebrating Jesus' conscious entry into his ministry. We are remembering our own Baptism, our acceptance of the grace of God which surrounds us, washes us clean and makes us whole. We are embracing a journey in which our baptism is not just a "one and done," that we put to the back of our minds like our health department recommended vaccines, but something upon which we look and reflect as we continue our lifelong journey of discipleship.
May we be renewed and strengthened this day.
Amen.
January 14, 2024 - 2nd After Epiphany
1 Samuel 3: 1-10
Psalm 139
John 1: 43-51
Last Friday morning, I heard a radio interview with someone from Big Brothers/Big Sisters; they are looking for volunteers or mentors. I think they used to call these adults, “Bigs.” A number of years ago, the organization advertised itself as providing a same gender mentor for a boy without a dad or a girl without a mom. Adults with some time to give and a wish to help a young person can volunteer. They have a long waiting list of children waiting for a match! Many people with extended families and a strong social network forget that some young people feel lost and have no one to turn to for support, or to be a sounding board, or for a different opinion - or they do not have positive role models and the remaining parent is looking for a positive influence. .
All young people need mentors – someone who is not a parent or grandparent to be that sounding board; an adult who gives support and wise guidance. Many workplaces have also realized that younger employees also need mentors, not only to teach them the ropes, but to encourage and support as the new employee grows into the job. Mentors can help bridge the gap between real life and book learning, between the ideal and the workable!
In my journey to ministry I count several people as mentors. Most of these were clergy, long since retired but some where lay-people, saints of the church who helped me to discern my own path.
As clergy, we have the privilege of being a mentor to others, especially young people. After I moved here, I received a card, from a former parishioner, thanking me for my positive role in her granddaughter’s life.
One of my previous congregations became a mentor to a young person who became involved in the Sunday school at our invitation. She and her brother asked to be baptized when they were children. Our worship committee kept them coming by giving them things to do in every worship service. She was on the church board before she was a teenager and the congregation funded her attendance at various youth events. She became a member of a Conference Committee during her university years and a few years ago she was Ordained. She credits the support of that small rural congregation in getting her started on her journey.
As I looked at the passages from Samuel and the Gospel of John, set out for today and looked for a common theme, both seemed to speaking about mentoring others, in faith and in life.
Long ago, I heard a very simple, yet intriguing definition of evangelism, “evangelism is nothing more than one beggar telling another where to find bread.” Mentoring is nothing more than showing the way or helping others to find their own way.
Let’s take a look at both passages.
The story told in 1 Samuel begins in sadness, longing and irony. Speaking personally, I first met Samuel when I was a child in Sunday school. We often had “take home” papers of biblical stories with colour pictures; little Samuel was always so cute with his curly black hair, a little coat and bare feet. Samuel’s parents had no children and one day when his mother was at Shiloh, a place of worship, praying for a baby, Eli, the priest, saw her sorrow and her faith. He promised that she and her husband would have a son. The woman, in turn, promised that she would dedicate him to God’s service. In due course, they had a baby and when he was weaned, she brought him to the temple. She returned every year with a new set of clothes.
When I was a child, reading the story in those “take home papers”, I thought that this yearly visit was small comfort for having been abandoned at the church. For what it’s worth, I never really liked this part of Samuel’s story. But that’s just MY opinion!
Today we meet her son, Samuel, growing but still a boy, living and serving in the place of worship and developing his understanding of faith and life.
In terms of life at the temple in Shiloh, things were not good. As some people might say, “the wheels had come off of the bus.” Eli’s sons had followed him into the priesthood, as they were expected to, but as we are told, they dishonoured their profession at every turn. They abused their privilege and blasphemed God. God decided that change was in order. Eli’s had done nothing to stop them from bringing dishonour on their sacred role and their faith.
Yet, this is not a story without hope. While we are told that the word of the Lord was rare and visions were not widespread, in this night time story, we are also told that the lamp had not gone out. Holding all of those phrases and images together we see despair but we can also see hope. While Eli and his sons had lost favour with God, Samuel was the new hope. Still, Eli, was able to guide Samuel in the basics of , “listening to God, 101.” Without Eli, who would normally have been the one to receive any message from God, Samuel would not have known how to listen for God’s message. Eli had to suck up his disappointment and give Samuel “listening instructions.”
I’ve read more than a few biblical stories and I have found that when a biblical story begins in sadness, there is almost always a reversal. Our God is a God of Good News, of liberation, of freedom and of hope. As we meet Samuel, as he is growing to adulthood, we are given the sense that visions will happen again and God’s word will be proclaimed.
Let’s go to the Gospel. In this passage from John’s gospel we hear of the calling of the disciple Philip, who was from the same place as Simon Peter and Andrew. I don’t know how much time passed between Philip being called and him going to get his friend Nathaniel to join them. There had to be at least some time because, because by the time Philip went and found his friend, he had already decided that Jesus was THE ONE prophets had been speaking of, for generations. Nathaniel questioned this because he knew that “nothing good” could come from Nazareth.
It reminds me a little of the town rivalry that is part of life in the tv series, “Corner Gas”. The residents of the fictional community of Dog River dislike the people of Wullerton so much that they spit every-time they hear the name. I’m told it is a spoof on two real-life Saskatchewan towns, but in case I get it wrong, I’ll say no more.
The other night, I was watching the latest episode of Murdoch Mysteries and there was a “highland games” being held in Toronto. Early in the episode someone is murdered and Detective Murdoch suspects that centuries old clan rivalries between the Campbells and the MacDonalds are behind the murder.
Sometimes it’s hard to explain a dislike or even an attraction to someone. Sometimes, your mind is all made up and you refuse to believe that someone who falls into the category of “those people” could have anything good to say. IN many cases, though, the easiest way to change people’s mind or to get them to see something wonderful is an invitation to “see for themselves.” I believe that a positive experience will change their mind more than any amount of persuasion will!
I don’t know a great deal about AA and Al-Anon but it does seem to be to be about mentoring. People who have a problem with alcohol, or people whose lives have been affected by someone else’s drinking, get together and share with others what has been helpful for them. I’m told they don’t give advice as much as they share the story of where help was found or insights discovered. They host regular “birthday meetings” where members can stand up and say how long it has been since their last drink, and, from my limited experience, these announcements are always applauded. Then there are the significant anniversaries or “birthdays,” where there is a cake and a special engraved medallion, and families are invited (and if the meeting is in a church, the minister can attend). I visited a parishioner who had struggled with alcoholism for years and his many medallions were framed and displayed on his living room wall. Yet, for him it was still a day at a time. They call it aq birthday because when an alcoholic decides to break free of the power of alcohol in their lives, it is as if they are “reborn.” I forget how many years were celebrated at this particular man’s birthday but it was significant.
We have all heard the expression, “it takes a village to raise a child.” Sometimes the modern view of the nuclear family builds walls around a family and many can feel isolated. One f the most difficult things about the COVID restrictions were the rules about “bubbles”. Grandparents were cut off from grandchildren and best friends from one another. The community support that often happens naturally was impossible to maintain. No late night discussions over copious cups of tea or a bottle of wine could happen so moms could share their joys and challenges with one another.
In the life of faith we are called onto communities which from the very beginning were called churches. One of the changes in the United Church structure was a change in the naming of congregations - introducing the formal term, “community of faith.” I think it is a beautiful term for a congregation and will not soon be confused with a place of gathering, or a mere building, referred to as a church.
The community of faith is a village or a family or a group of caring people united in a desire to follow in God’s way, a desire to follow Jesus of Nazareth. May we tell others about Jesus; may we tell others how to listen and may we listen for the message of the Spirit.
Amen.
January 21, 2024 - 3rd After Epiphany
Jonah 3: 1-5, 10
Psalm 62
Mark 1: 14-20
One of the more difficult things I had to learn, when I learned to drive, was how to merge into traffic from an on ramp. When I took “Drivers Education,” when I was 16, it was a skill we were not really taught, because there was only one intersection on the entire Island where it was needed. I quickly had to learn this skill though, once I moved off-Island because divided highways in the other Maritime provinces require you to know how to do this. 10 years ago, when I moved to the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia and was taking the most direct route to and from Halifax, I found one of the many exits on the return trip, to be really tricky, because of the configuration of the exit and the amount of traffic already on the highway, especially at rush hour. It seemed to be my luck, every time I took this route, that I would be trying to merge onto a highway occupuied by two lanes full of tractor-trailers, seemingly bumper to bumper, and going at least the posted 110! I would not last ten minutes on much busier multi-lane highways such as the infamous 401 near Toronto; they scare me even when I am a passenger!
To merge successfully you have to get up to highway speed in the merge lane and then, before the merge lane becomes someone else’s off ramp, do a lane change onto the highway, into the space between two vehicles.
I’m not much of a sports fan but one of the races I find intriguing is the relay race. The first runner passes a baton to the second and the second to a third, as so on. To be successful, the second runner has to be going at top speed when she grabs the baton from the first and so on!
The metaphor of the relay race was what came to mind when I read today’s passages from both Jonah and the Gospel According to Mark. The story of Jonah is actually a parable, told to shock the people into the spiritual truth that THEIR GOD ALSO, LOVED THEIR ENEMIES. He is portrayed as a reluctant prophet in the tradition of a long line of those who spoke for God in the world of what we call the Old Testament. His message is seen as a balance to the prophets who called for an “us first” theology.
As the Newer Testament begins, many CENTURIES later, we meet John the Baptizer, a very odd prophet, but a man also firmly in the prophetic tradition. He has picked up that baton and proclaimed his message of preparing for the messiah; the saviour who had been longed for, for generations. Like many of his predecessors, John did what we call, “SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER”. And as our story begins, he is in prison for daring to criticize the king and he will soon lose his life for it.
So to continue the metaphor, and make reference to another biblical metaphor, John has run his race, he has finished his ministry. The last thing we saw him do was to baptize Jesus, effectively offering him the baton. Jesus immediately went to the wilderness to pray and reflect on his own upcoming ministry. Today, it is as if, Jesus is picking up John’s baton, to continue what John started. While there may be a lag, or even a few snags, in the transition between John and Jesus (and you can only stretch a metaphor so far, after all.) Jesus hits the ground running and he is now the one with the mission, to proclaim God’s Good News.
Jesus, said to be a carpenter, more likely what we would understand as a bricklayer or a mason, begins recruiting his helpers, his disciples, by using the metaphor of fishing, as his “baton”. Obviously, these first four already knew how to fish; they knew about bait and nets, properly equipped boats and fishing at the right time of day (or night) and at the right spot. They knew the disappointment of fishing all night and catching nothing and of having a catch so bountiful that they needed help hauling it to shore! Once they followed, they would have to merge into the new life of catching people. At the end of today’s passage, he had Simon, Andrew, James and John. Later on, Jesus will branch out and call people involved in other professions.
Continuing with our metaphor, we need to see ourselves as part of this long relay-race of faith. Jesus did not cross the finish line before the baton was handed to his disciples and others. They passed it on to others who carried it for a while and then handed it to still others and so on, and so on, until it has come down to us.
For better or worse, those who were the earlier carriers of the baton, soon formed themselves into communities that came to be known as churches. Here we are, (sitting in Codette) (sitting in Nipawin) some 2 thousand years later, one of many denominations who call ourselves followers of Jesus. I can only speak of the last 100 years in what we know as the United Church of Canada, or to be more precise, 98 ½ years. We are a Protestant church, closely tied to the history and ethos of the Canada in which we developed and grew. In the latter years of our first century, we are trying to right at least some of the wrongs of our past, and enter our 2nd century with renewed strength and a clearer vision. A few years ago we made a commitment to being an inter-cultural church because we are no longer just the white anglo-saxon folks, or French speaking people, that we used to be, we have changed along wit our contry as a whole. If the remit currently under discussion passes we will begin to walk with our aboriginal brothers and sisters as equals and no longer in a relationship of a parent and child, where the parents never allow their child to grow up and spread their wings. It will be an important next step in the changed relationship we spoke of in 1986 when we first officially apologized to our First Nations sisters and brothers. This Remit, in effect, hands them their own baton!
The United Church was were among the first to ordain women and to accept into our membership and ministry those whose sexuality varied from the straight norm. Over time, we changed from the idea of missionaries as experts in Christianity going overseas to impart our great spiritual and social wisdom to our Partners in Mission going only when asked and as partners in a mission with established churches who knew what help they wanted and needed. We have connections with churches the world over who worship God in a myriad of languages and some of us who are white and English speaking, are learning to sing in those languages, using the gifts found in the Hymn resource, More Voices. I’ve told stories in other sermons about how this music has united Canadian Christians from very different cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
In the United Church, we seek to make use of a variety of images for the divine, based on scripture passage, we had not really heard before, but were there from the start.
United Church history has involved a lot of baton passing, a lot of going faster than perhaps we wanted to or laging back just a little till enough people caught up.
Most of the churches I have served have been generations old; these two churches are probably the youngest! Very few people have the opportunity to start a new church from scratch! I have visited a few church buildings where there was a “Charter Members” list framed and prominently affixed to the wall in the hall, or parlour, or some other room. Most of them are “baby boom churches”. On one occasion I saw a name of a presbyter I knew, on one such list, and I asked how she got to be a charter member, at her young age. She said, “well we used to go to the bigger church in the downtown, but they kicked us out!” True. In that city, the baby boomers multiplied like rabbits and flocked to new developments on the suburbs but they kept going to their family church; it was the only one in the city. The people still living in the city proper told the people who had moved to the suburbs that they needed to start their own church because there was no room. So they picked up that baton and did.
I was talking with another congregation who had outgrown their building, but were looking for something somewhat different than what they had been doing for several generations. They had noticed that other denominations were building worship centres within sight of the nearby highway and thought they could move out there with lots of room for parking and expansion and all those things. They thought they would have the advantage of already having a core congregation to start with. In the end, I think their biggest problem was not being able to sell their building for what they needed to be able to make a new build possible. So they stayed put and their ministry went in other directions.
When we are talking about communities of faith that are established congregations, the ability of new people to merge into their life (or in turn accepting new people) it’s not always as easy as it sounds.
I know lots of churches that want new people; indeed, they are crying for new people, but the catch is that they want these new people to be clones of their younger selves. New people bring new ideas and long-term members offer stability. New ideas need to merge with old to have a successful ministry going in more or less the same direction without church members crashing into one another.
On the same day, I saw two church web-sites while doing a search. One proclaimed “We sing the old hymns” while the other proclaimed that all of their music was written this century! I’m not sure I would want to regularly attend either; some new hymns I love and some I loathe; and it’s the same for the oldies! We are called to be like Jonah and open to the new things God is doing in the world. We are called to be like the disciples, using our talents to follow Jesus and promote the good news. The baton is being held out, if we reach out and grasp it, we will be given the strength we need to be able to carry it until our race is finished.
Amen!
January 28, 2024 - 4th After Epiphany
Deuteronomy 18: 15-20
Psalm 111
Mark 1: 21-28
In the TV series 24, Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland portrays Special Agent Jack Bauer, an American Counter Terrorism agent, whose job it is to thwart attempts to assassinate a presidential candidate. That was the first season and in the second, Bauer’s job is to stop the detonation of a nuclear bomb in a populated US city. In every season there are exactly 24 real-time hours; that’s all the time Agent Jack Bauer has for that particular case. While it takes an entire season to resolve the issue, it takes place over one single 24 hour day. I guess it’s a sleepless day too! It would be boring to watch anyone sleeping!
In another TV crime show, the First 48, we are told that detectives know that the first 48 hours after a murder are the most critical in solving a case. In both of these shows there is a visible timer, counting down the time left or the extra time needed. It adds to the suspense as we watch the “good people” attempt to apprehend the “criminals.” 24 is pure fiction, including fictional world leaders and even made up countries, while the First 48 reports on real cases.
One of the current fund-raisers going on in this area is for a proper helicopter landing pad for the STARS helicopter. The fundraising literature informs us that sometimes minutes count and being able to land and take off from a point as near as possible to the hospital saves lives. We all know that when STARS is involved, someone is seriously ill and the clock is ticking.
I received a call, one winter evening, to come to the nursing home and pray with the family of a resident who was dying. The call had begun with, “Beth, this is Mary at the Manor, can you get out of your driveway? Can you come and visit a resident. She is Catholic but I called Fr A and he is snowed in and Fr B must have gotten snowed in somewhere else, because he isn’t home.” I assured her that my driveway had just been cleared and said that I would come. I asked her if she thought I could take the time to eat. She replied, “I think you should come right away.” So I put the meat I had planned to cook in the microwave, to keep it away from the cat, and I left for the nursing home.”
Many employees live with deadlines; reports have to be turned in by a certain time, a client is coming at a certain time and the paperwork has to be ready, a worker called in sick and has to be replaced before your regular work can commence. And so it goes. I have a sermon deadline: Friday at 9:am so it can be included in the copy of the bulletin delivered to the home bound. So my personal deadline is Thursday at bedtime. But if I feel the need to revise the sermon after that, the deadline is the time I actually preach!
Sometimes we make deadlines for ourselves that leave too little time for a proper job, sometimes what we have to do, is not all that critical, but should be done as quickly as possible and then taken off the to-do list.
When I was in theological school an older minister talked to our class about “Time Management” and one of the things he said was that we needed to be able to tell the difference between the urgent and the important. Urgent matters may require a timely response but do not need to taka great deal of effort or thought. Do them and get them over with. Some tasks are so important, on the other hand, that they require prayerful reflection and more than one attempt at getting it “right”.
Mark’s Gospel is the shortest of the four gospels. It seems to have a certain kind of urgency about Jesus and his mission. He has a mission - and time is always about to run out. Tick. Tick. Tick.
According to Mark’s Gospel, from the very beginning, Jesus seemed to be a different kind of preacher; he had authority. He was different from the ones they knew?
(We must be careful here not to draw a contrast between Jesus and ALL Jewish leaders. Mark’s Gospel was written in a time of great conflict and it was through this lens they viewed their past, present and future. Of course there were thoughtful and faithful Jewish leaders back then, as there always has been.)
Many of you will remember the TV show, “All in the Family.” In most episodes it was Archie Bunker the bluest of blue collar workers and WW 2 veteran vs Michael Stivic, the Polish American college student who happened to be Archie’s son-in-law. Caught in the middle are their wives, Edith and Gloria. Often Archie says something outrageous and Michael cannot help but comment and, of course, ARGUE with him. Neither can ever concede that the other is right. Archie believes himself to be “the authority on everything,” but Michael sees most of these opinions as SO very “off the mark.”
Many years ago one of my older parishioners was working in his shop with his grandson who was 4 or 5. In the midst of some carpentry task or other, the older man hit his thumb with the hammer. Immediately, he swore. The little boy, his eyes wide, went over to his grandfather, and put his hand firmly on the back of his grandfather’s hand and said, “Grampie. GRAMPIE. We don’t say those words in this house.” You can’t argue with that! THERE is authority.
Jesus, especially in Mark’s gospel, does not seem to have time to argue with his opponents except that he frequently challenges them to live with integrity. He basically tells them he is not teaching anything new but instead he is reviving some of the basic tenets that have been a part of their lives since Moses and the prophets. He challenges them with their own teachings and their lack of integrity with those standards. When they complain about him, and his especially his seeming disregard for propriety, and adherence to the rules, he frequently ends up putting them on the spot by working them into a corner and forcing them to condemn themselves.
As Epiphany begins we learn who Jesus is, at his baptism. Mark seems to have so little time to prove that to his readers. One of the tests of Jesus’ identity, if you want to put it that way, is that evil spirits recognize his power and authority; they do not hesitate to call out this truth. Even when the religious leaders don’t want to admit that Jesus’ power or authority is “God Given”, these spirits do. Ironically, it is in their voices that the Gospel is proclaimed in this passage. In this case Jesus takes the time that is needed to heal the person’s ailment; perhaps the quicker he acts, the less the demon can say!
We don’t tend to believe in demon possession. While there seems to be a great deal of it in the New Testament, in many cases I believe that something else was going on. Just like leprosy seems to be a catch-all diagnosis for various skin ailments, the diagnosis of “demon possession” may have encompassed a variety of mental illnesses, or cognitive disabilities. There was no other way to describe what disease had taken over that person so they blamed a demon!
What seems to be the bottom line to me is that Jesus sought to bring the person to fullness of life and to banish those forces which made them less than the humans they were created to be. I think that, this approach is the one our society needs to take. Medical professionals may be able to diagnose and treat an ear infection or a broken wrist, or remove an inflamed appendix with a minimum of time, and effort, but that is not the case with all conditions. I’ve seen doctor shows where a whole group of doctors plan out a complex surgery, even before operating rooms are prepared! I imagine that these shows are at least half-true in this regared!
Where healing and fullness of life are concerned, some things require the whole community. These days, I have seen the right medication or treatment program work wonders for people who struggle with many “ailments”. But in most cases community support is part of the equation.
I have friends with a child recently diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. In his case, helping him to achieve his potential involves a careful and intentional understanding of the way he relates to the world. He cannot be forced into a normal mould. It involves his parents, his doctor, his teachers, his teacher aides, his babysitters, and those who might encounter him in a social setting - in ways that non-autistic children do not need this help. I believe that in all such cases, early intervention is the key. It is something that should not wait till later.
Public education used to be a one-size fits all - but that only worked when those children who did not fit into the prescribed norm were removed from the regular classrooms.
When I was in grade 1 there was a set of twins in the class. By grade two, one of them, who had obvious learning disabilities, was no longer in the school. He required a special program. These days it is very different, but often there is not enough help for the teacher to meet these diverse needs.
I have heard it said that the true strength of a society lies in how it treats its most vulnerable members. In Jesus’ day, in many cases, the people who came to him to ask for healing, had to force their way through the crowd to be close enough to Jesus to ask for help. Normally, they were shunned and expected to be neither seen nor heard. People with leprosy were sent to live outside the city because the condition was thought to be contagious.
In his short article on this passage, Mike Graves, a theology professor in Kansas City, writes, “Jesus preaching does not give information, but transformation.” (Feasting on the Word, B1) p. 313. Jesus attention to these things, given his very tight time line, shows us that the needs of others should always figure into our world view. It seems to me that one of the results of Jesus encounters with these folks involved a restoration to their community. They were no longer on the edges but now able to take their proper place in the centre with everyone else.
I once talked with a mother who had an older so- called, normal child and a younger, so-called special needs child. She struggled to find time to give the older one the attention he deserved as he coped with the problems of a normal adolescent boy. All of her energy, and more, was spent on the younger child.
A number of years ago now a radio host expressed derision on air, with the phrase, “our thoughts and prayers are with you.” Im not sure about other people, but when people of faith say it, when church people say it, it should mean what it says. How many times do we offer words that become empty when we do not give it a second thought and forget do do what we said we would?
One of the popular people in the area I grew up was a Catholic priest who was a chaplain at the local University for many years and a part time parish priest and he he knew just about everybody. My parents knew him and when my dad died, my mom wanted him to read scripture at the funeral, which he did. I encountered him at a hockey game a few years later and he told me, “I pray for your father, every day.” I’m not exactly what a priest would include in regular prayers for the deceased, assumed that it was a good thing Dad was being prayeed for, and realized he must have a list of dozens, so I thanked Fr Charlie because their friendship had been important to him as well.
Our words must be backed up by our actions
Healing is not just curing an illness, but offers an acceptance of the sick without having to be second place or second rate.
Our faith is an urgent call to spread the love of God as shown in the life of Jesus. It may well be the most important thing we do and the most important of callings.
Amen.
February 4, 2024 - 5th After Epiphany
Isaiah 40: 21-31
Psalm 147
Mark 1: 29-39