Mark 1:21-28
Jesus and his new disciples traveled to the town of Capernaum. When the Sabbath arrived, Jesus lost no time in getting to the synagogue. He spent the day there teaching a group of people who had gathered around him. They were very impressed by his knowledge and his wisdom. He taught differently from the Scribes. He really knew his stuff; he really knew his Scriptures. Other teachers would tell people "don't question", but not Jesus. With confidence and intelligence Jesus lead the group in scripture reading, commentary, and religious instruction. It was a very orderly and purposeful worship.
As you can image, worship led by Jesus was full of grace. The air was still. The people were so engrossed with what Jesus was saying that many did not realize how long they had been sitting there listening to him. They were fascinated, completely absorbed by his words. Children were cuddled up and quiet in their mother's arms. Even teenagers listened. It was an amazing, awesome moment of grace.
And then, and then chaos interrupted the peace. And the people were jolted back into reality by a man who was obviously deeply disturbed. -Obviously possessed by some sort of demon, he yelled to Jesus, "What business do you have here with us, Jesus of Nazareth. I know who you are! You're the Holy One of God, and you've come to destroy us!"
A small group of misfits gather for worship on Sunday mornings in the chapel of a large, prominent United Church in downtown Toronto. The people of First United Church are unlike any congregation I have ever met. The group is active in social justice issues and are of great support to one another. But they are also survivors of abuse, several members struggle with mental illness and one man has been living with HIV. People are scarred and bruised but they are quite open about their struggles and find support within the congregation. They come to First United looking for healing.
One Sunday morning during the order and peace of a meaningful worship, a man stood up and started screaming at a woman. "Why are you here?" he yelled at her. "You have come to kill me. You just threatened to kill me! I heard you, you murderer!" Chaos interrupted the peace. The people tried to calm the man down but he couldn't be soothed. Finally, he moved out of the chapel to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. The service came to an abrupt end. People were visibly shaken. Everyone was so concerned for the man that they forgot to comfort the woman he had yelled at.
While many people at First United are scarred and bruised, many are also beginning to heal. In general, many of the people of First United, first come to that church scared and fearful. Some feared of being judged as other Christians had judged them in the past. Some feared being persecuted as they had been persecuted in the past. But all come looking for something - looking to belong, looking to be loved, looking for meaning in their lives. (The same reasons, probably, you and I first came to church.)
A man with an unclean spirit interrupted Jesus and yelling out, "What business do you have here with us, Jesus of Nazareth. I know who you are! You're the Holy One of God, and you've come to destroy us!"
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
Jesus taught with uncommon authority. His words and his ways were above the common run of human instruction. Jesus was no average Joe of a teacher. There was a clear continuity between what Jesus said and what he did. He walked the walk and talked the talk. There was coherence and consistency between his teaching and his doing. His doing (his healing ministry) validated what he taught.
Not only did Jesus have intelligent, engaging teaching; he knew how to handle people. He knew what the situation called for. He confronted the man and forced the demon from his body. Jesus transformed that man's life.
Knowing about Jesus is not the same thing as experiencing his liberating power. Jesus' teaching becomes effective in the transformation of human life, not merely in being repeated and discussed but in experiencing Christ. Experiencing Jesus is life changing. Actually, its knowing and experiencing - its both - Jesus tells Thomas, "Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe."
I want to tell you about a man that I knew who was transformed by knowing and experiencing Christ. (Actually his story was published in the May 1998 Observer)
From the age of 13 until his mid 40's, Lawrence Goudge struggled with his identity and with depression. He was depressed because he was a celibate, gay man. He was depressed because after reading Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he believed that he was condemned and forbidden to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
The guilt he felt about who he was ate away at his insides; at 16 he was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer. For 20 years he struggled with substance abuse, alcoholism, clinical manic-depression and periodic madness. This darkest period in Lawrence's life ended when God spoke to him in a dream. And from there, Lawrence began to build a road to wellness. That road was built with the help of God's visions and dreams, with the support of his church community, and with intense Bible study and prayer.
First, Lawrence researched who Paul was. And he discovered that Paul fought with Jesus' brother, James and other apostles, and cursed angels in heaven who disagreed with him. This new found information about Paul was illuminating and freeing for Lawrence. His head now knew that this man who fought bitterly with Jesus' original disciples had no authority to rule on whether he could enter the kingdom of heaven or not. Only Jesus has such authority.
And then Lawrence looked closely at Jesus' life and teaching. Jesus hung around with tax collectors, sins, prostitutes and lepers -people who were like Lawrence, the rejects of society.
Lawrence prayed on Biblical passages. He often prayed on a passage from Luke, in which Jesus proclaims, 'The spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, release for the captives and deliverance for the oppress.' Who was more oppressed than Lawrence? He was ashamed of himself, ashamed of what he was, and fearful of being rejected if anyone ever found out what he was.
Prayer, Christian community, Bible study and visions from God - experiences that eventually transformed Lawrence from a broken, unhappy tense man who never felt right in his own skin to a man who is now at peace with himself (and who smiles a lot.)
Most of us are looking for healing and wholeness in our lives, a sense of being complete and content. Many seek purpose and meaning in life. That's probably why we're here, why you and I came to church this morning. The good news is that Jesus offers what we are looking for. We can learn about Jesus and in prayer and in community, in books, in nature, and in music - in those things that feed our spirit - we experience Jesus. When we experience Jesus, really experience Christ in our lives - in those moments - we are whole. This is Christ's gift to us, Christ's grace to us: wholeness where was brokenness, contentment where there was frustration and meaning where there was emptiness. Amen.
A terrible, terrible thing has happened. The Babylonians have invaded and destroyed Jerusalem. The Israelites have been ripped away from the Promised Land and sent into exile. This is the worst thing that could possibly happen. This is the land that God promised to Abraham and to Moses. This is the land where God lives. This is the land that assures them that God is with them and protecting them. But now this land is no longer theirs.
A terrible, terrible thing has happened. What have they done to anger God so? What great sin have they committed that God should punish them so? The angst that they feel for being stripped of the land is almost indescribable. They feel the kind of sadness and pain that plain words fall short to describe and only poetry will do.
And so Isaiah 40 begins a 14-chapter poem. It begins:
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
double for all her sins. (Is 40:1-2)
Up to this point in the book, the book of Isaiah tells of the prophet Isaiah who preached to a more prosperous people some 200 years before the exile. Chapter 40 marks a new section of the book. It was written to a desperate people during the exile shortly before they were re-established in the Promised Land. The idea is that the prophet Isaiah speaks to the people of Israel from heaven. This section of Isaiah is also called 2nd Isaiah.
The people of Israel are in a faith crisis. Exiled from God's land, they feel that they are completely separated from God. They believe they are in a place that God cannot find them. Second Isaiah writes: 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"? (Is 40:27)
('My right' meaning the covenant, God's promise of the land.) The people have great difficulty maintaining hope in God's ability to save them because God has not saved them from the exile. They feel forsaken. They are in a survival mentality. And they have been trying to survive, and not thrive, for 40-50 years.
Something happens to a people's vision of God when we try to survive rather than thrive. Daniel Buttry writes about survival mentality. According to Buttry, our vision of who God is shrinks when we are in survival mode. Daniel Buttry writes specifically about churches and religious organizations, which suffer from survival mentality. Buttry writes:
Survival mentality is a spiritual condition rooted in unbelief. There is no vision for the future, no vision for mission, no vision for the growth of a congregation because the vision of who God is has been stunted. Though the church may have many individuals with sincere and deep personal faith in Christ, when they gather together and act as a body, they lose the transcendent element. God is a living, dynamic, ever-creative Spirit. Yet, there is nothing dynamic and creative in the dying church. The despair and fear of the members reveal their loss of faith.
And that is what has happened to the Israelites. They have lost their faith and Second Isaiah tries to inspire people back to their life of faith.
There may be individuals within a dying church who have sincere and deep personal faith in Christ. But, when the individuals of a survivalist congregation gather together, there is seductive pull into unbelief. This unbelief can even happen to strong Christians.
The forces of decline can only be resisted by a deliberate choice of faith to turn their eyes toward Jesus as one body. Survival mentality offers no vision of God to cause people to lift up their eyes and break out of old patterns. As they see all their problems, they feel helpless and even abandoned by God, though no one would dare say it aloud." Their lack of faith is summed up in Isaiah 40: "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God"? (Is 40:27)
It is difficult to have vision when it feels as though God has abandoned you, as if God has moved into the city or to other churches like many former members. And with God goes the vision.
I am not naming this congregation as one that suffers from survivalist mentality, but there may have been times we were susceptible to that virus. There may have been times when we did suffer from survivalist mentality. The point is that our vision of God and our faith in God is a reflection of our strength as a community of faith. Who we see God to be and what kind of God lives among us is vital to us as a Christian community.
Vision is a word that you will hear quite often around St. Paul/Ashmont United. A small group of visionaries headed by Paul Carpenter is beginning to look for a process that will help us as a church develop our vision of God, the church and the future. (Last Tuesday at Ashmont boarding meeting there was talk about beginning a process that would help us develop our vision of God, the church and the future).
Of course, there are times as individuals and as a community that we doubt and we struggle with our faith. There are times when we feel hopeless, when we are the Israelites during the exile. Second Isaiah brings hope to the hopeless by describing God. Second Isaiah attempts to describe the infinite but, of course, our language is so limited the author uses poetry to make his point.
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.
He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;
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."
Second Isaiah beckons the listeners to lift up their eyes and break out of old patterns. We are invited to worship a strong God; we are invited to make a life with an everlasting God. "Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength."
Every time I get on an airplane I get nervous. First, I'm nervous because I'm afraid I'll miss my flight. And then I'm nervous during take off. I grab my seat and when we start going down the runway I watch to see if the flaps change their position. I know the pilot is going to adjust the flaps because that's the only way we're going to get in the air. But I'm sitting there looking, thinking, okay isn't it about time you do this. It's only after we're in the air two or three minutes that I finally settle down and it's okay. I realize it's completely out of my control. I settle down and get the smoothest incline every time.
I think that's how God takes us up on eagles' wings. In the midst of our turbulent life, if we release control, we can experience the smoothest incline. Those eagles' wings - sometimes it's not about us being in control. It's about allowing the Lord to be in control and offering us the smoothest ride that we could possibly ever imagine.
Our vision of God, our understanding of who God is a reflection of our faith. When we have a faith crisis, the crisis causes our vision of God to be stunted. But the scripture passages offer us hope to this crisis. The hope is in God who is all-powerful and all-knowing. In our weakest times, God strengthens us. With God we can sore like an eagle. We can run and not grow weary. We can walk and not faint. Amen.
The life of a leper in first century Palestine was a horrible existence. To be a leper meant that one had to wear torn clothes and yell, "Unclean, unclean!" whenever someone else came near. To be a leper meant that one could not live within the community but was forced to live outside the safety and security of the town in a leper colony. Lepers had nothing. They had no place in society, no family, no income.
He had heard about Jesus. Rumor had spread that some miracle worker was coming to the area and that there may be hope for him. And so he went searching for Jesus. And when he found him, he was desperate and so he got down on his knees and begged the good teacher to help him. "If you choose, you can make me clean," he said. He had faith in Jesus and believed it was possible for him to do anything.
Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the untouchable. "I do choose. " he said. "Be made clean."
Is there anything in the story of the leper to which you can relate? We don't have leper colonies on the outskirts of town. We don't have lepers yelling, "Unclean, unclean." Or do we? Who are the lepers in our time, in our culture? Who are the people in our culture who are often treated with distant and repulsion? Or have you ever had an experience when you felt like a leper?
Several years ago I was travelling with my family from northern New Brunswick back to Nova Scotia. We stopped in Moncton, NB for lunch at a fish restaurant. I had the lobster salad sandwich. My parents drove to Truro where I caught the bus south to Halifax and they continued on east to New Glasgow. Half way to Halifax I start to feel queasy. I am not a person who throws up so I wasn't too concerned. My stomach seemed to be settling down. We were almost into the Halifax bus station when, without enough warning, I lost my lunch. I tried to make it to the back of the bus where there was a washroom but instead I left a really gross trail from my seat to the back of the bus.
That was not the worst of my problems.
A small group of teenagers were smoking in the bathroom and had locked themselves in the small compartment for fun. So, I was stuck outside of the bathroom, unable to get in with my hands hold what, moments before, had been in my stomach. Their friend was yelling at them to come out. They didn't. Some adults including myself were yelling at them to come out but they wouldn't. I looked over to their friend who was sitting in the seat next to where I was humbly crouched on the floor. The young girl had a look of pure disgust on here face. Her feet, legs and arms were pulled up tight against her body and she leaned as far back into her seat as possible, so I wouldn't touch her. -So nothing about me would touch her. I felt like a leper.
Finally, I realized that the teens inside the washroom didn't know what all was happening and so I yelled, "I'm puking out here!" And that did it. The teenagers quickly surrendered the washroom and I was to the toilet and able to wash myself up.
I returned to my seat. The man who was sitting beside me happened to have only one leg. I so desperately wanted to say, "Do you ever get the feeling that people are staring at us?" But I didn't. Jesus was moved with pity, reached out and touched the untouchable. And then he made him clean. The leprosy left the man. And Jesus ordered him to show himself to the priest so that he could be let back into the community. With the priest's say so, the man could be full restored to his place in society.
In the passage before Jesus says, "Let us go onto the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do." But the man who was healed and restored by Jesus was ecstatic. He couldn't contain himself. Even though Jesus told him not to say anything, he couldn't keep it in. Well, can you blame him? No longer did he yell, "Unclean, Unclean!" Now he yelled, "I'm clean, I'm clean! I have been healed by Jesus of Nazareth! It's a miracle. The man is a prophet! - A very good and holy man! He is the answer to all your problems! You must go and see Jesus. You must meet him!"
Transformed by Jesus, the man went out and spread the word about our Lord and Savior. Now, I ask you again, is there anything in the story of the leper to which you can relate? The healed leper became the first Christian evangelist. His life radically changed for the better after experiencing Christ, he had to tell others. Have you been so touched by the presence of Jesus in your life that you just have to go out and spread the word?
In the United Church we aren't know for our evangelism, going out and spreading the Good News to those who haven't heard it. We have more a tradition of mission and social gospel - that is working in the world to help bring about the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. According to author Daniel Buttry, a thriving church is one with a vision of mission that is reborn. A thriving church is a missionary church.
A missionary church combines evangelism and social gospel together. A missionary church is a church that seeks to build bridges between the church and the surrounding society.
A missionary church requires the whole congregation, not just the minister, to engage in mission work. A missionary church requires us all to leave the safety of our sanctuaries and enter into the world to do the work that Christ did. "Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him."
A few years ago, the movie "Sister Act" staring Whoopi Goldberg came out. The story in this movie demonstrates what it means to move from a survival church to a thriving church by rebirthing one's vision of mission.
Whoopi Goldberg character's is a woman who has been put in a witness protection program by hiding as a nun in a poor, urban, downtown core, church. She inspires the nuns that have been there for years to take down the chain-linked fence, open up the doors and work with the people who are in need right at their doorsteps. This fake nun gives birth to a new vision of mission and the surviving church becomes a thriving church.
Of course in the movies, it always looks easy. The transformation of a church takes place within a montage of clips during a hip, pop song. In real life a church that catches the missionary vision will have to pay a price.
A church that catches the missionary vision will have to pay the price of setting aside the concern for their own comfort, their favorite hymns, the coziness of a steady group of well-known friends. The church that catches the missionary vision takes the risk of trusting the paradox of the gospel. Jesus said, "Whoever would save one's life will lose it and whoever loses one's life for my sake and the gospel's will save it"
Churches bound by survival mentality strive to save their lives and hold onto what they value. But the result is that the churches will die and all will be lost anyway. How much better it is to lose it all by committing ourselves to Christ and the world of the gospel, to choose to give ourselves and our churches away. The paradox is that churches as well as individuals who sacrifice themselves, who serve others in love, will receive the rich fullness of God's blessings.
And as people in the congregation move out to take the Good News of Christ to our neighbours, we will discover much deep and profound human need. -We will discover who the lepers are in our culture and what we can do to help build the bridge between them and us so that we become one in Christ. Amen.
