Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

Short sermon today as it was the day of our Parish "Annual Meeting" and I gave a rather lengthy "Priest-in-charge" Report at that meeting. It was a surprisingly "easy" meeting with a wonderful sense of celebration of the Community and the work we do in this special place in God's Kindom.

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany (RCL) – Year B 2009
Deuteronomy 18: 15 – 20; Psalm 111; 1st Corinthians 8: 1 – 13; Mark 1: 21 – 28
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland OR
Sunday, February 1, 2009

AUTHORITY FROM GOD – NOT FROM HUMANITY

May the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight O God who is our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

My remarks this morning are probably better titled as a homily – and not as in your service leaflet as a sermon. A homily is defined by Miriam Webster Dictionary as “a usually short sermon”. The reason for a shortened rumination on the Gospel text from this mornings lectionary, is because I want to make sure that we can attend to the business of our faith community in our Annual Meeting after the 10:00 Service of Holy Eucharist – and that I will be speaking to the community in my report as your Priest-in-Charge and you hardly need to hear from me for much longer than that.

(SUNG) GOD OF GRACE AND GOD OF GLORY ON THY PEOPLE POUR
THY POWER. CROWN THINE ANCIENT CHURCH’S STORY
BRING HER BUD TO GLORIOUS FLOWER. GRANT US WISDOM
GRANT US COURAGE, FOR THE FACING OF THIS HOUR, FOR
THE FACING OF THIS HOUR.

The words of the Gospel text according to the author of Mark’s account are believed by scholars to be the first of the narratives we have in our Christian canon, and were penned sometime around the early to mid point of the sixth decade after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Mark’s words are the first to tell the world of the great good news or Gospel – and the other synoptic writers as well as the writer of John’s text will use the words written in this account as a source and support of their own attempts at telling the events of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The narrative in Mark’s account moves quickly and without much “embellishment” of story or character development getting in the way of the purpose of this Gospel which is to establish the claim that Jesus, from the town of Nazareth in the region of Galilee is the Son of God, promised by prophets of old to fulfill the purpose of God’s salvation for all of God’s people. We have only advanced about twenty verses into this Gospel text and already we know of the Baptism in the river Jordan by John, of the calling of the disciples and now of the first “healing” that will become a major piece of Jesus’ ministry and message. In our narrative this morning Jesus enters the synagogue at Capernaum and teaches as one having “authority” and not as one of the scribes who will become the major nemesis of Jesus and his band of followers.

What does the writer mean when speaking of “one having authority, not like the scribes”? The synagogue worship of the age would have included prayer followed by a reading of the Torah or great books of the Hebrew tradition and then an interpretation of that reading by the religious authorities of the Jewish people. The scribes, who commanded great respect and deference in that society, were the accustomed scriptural experts. The scribes would quote many older and more established “teachers” or “rabbis” and report their understandings of the meaning of the text and then end their comments by giving an interpretation of their own building on the ancient learned ones. Jesus, on the other hand, we are told simply interpreted the text and the crowd were “astounded” at his teaching. Jesus spoke with personal authority – an authority based not on learning credentials or the citing of other precedents in the explanation of the text; but based rather on the power of the Holy Spirit given at his baptism. What is the teaching? What was the text being explored that Sabbath? Mark’s author gives no clue – because the interpretation of the word is not important when the very embodiment of the Word is standing in front of them and exploring the text with them. Then Jesus performs the first of many healings that will mark his ministry and that healing involves the expulsion of an unclean spirit inhabiting a man in the crowd. Jesus again simply makes the authority of his ministry manifest by calling the unclean spirit out of the man and commanding it to come out, and with a convulsing scream the spirit obeys and departs. This spirit also recognizes Jesus and calls the savior by name – with the additional recognition that Jesus is “the holy one of God”.

(SUNG) LO THE HOSTS OF EVIL ‘ROUND US SCORN THY CHRIST
ASSAIL HIS WAYS. FROM THE FEARS THAT LONG HAVE
BOUND US, FREE OUR HEARTS TO FAITH AND PRAISE.
GRANT US WISDOM, GRANT US COURAGE, FOR THE
LIVING OF THESE DAYS, FOR THE LIVING OF THESE DAYS.

The crowd in the synagogue after witnessing the power of Jesus’ teaching and healing we are told is “amazed”. Can’t you just imagine the buzz passing from person to person as they try to grasp how this stranger who is not a scribe or a learned “rabbi” that they would recognize but rather an itinerant wanderer from Nazareth displays such power and wisdom enough to make the scriptures they knew come to life and the unclean spirits they witnessed in the suffering among them obey and depart? Perhaps those of us in our own time that have heard the stories and events so many times in so many different interpretations have lost that sense of amazement at the power of God made flesh and choosing to come into our very humanness and set us free from the evils that possess us. We would do well to heed the reactions to this first healing act of Jesus’ ministry and miracle – and be amazed at the power of God present in humble sanctuaries, in bread and wine at our altars – and in the very temples of God’s Holy Spirit – our own bodies and souls as unworthy as they are!

Amen.