February 1, 2009 Sermon
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Epiphany 4 - B
February 1, 2009 Emmanuel, San Angelo
Just months after beginning his public ministry at the banks of the Jordan River Jesus shows he "has the power" over the forces of evil. In a passage that heightens our awareness of this season of Epiphany, Jesus shows himself to be an agent of God and a miracle worker. Pair this with Moses' (OT) promise made a thousand years before:
"The Lord you God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet",
and you get an idea of what made Jesus so different in the eyes of early believers. Here was the fulfillment of the hopes and dreams of an entire nation, indeed the entire world.
The dictionary defines authority as "the right and power to command; to enforce laws, to exact obedience, to determine or judge." One who has been given authority has authorization to behave in a certain way or demand something from others.
That day when people witnessed Jesus first hand, heard him teach, saw him heal, a new authority was manifest. If we jump ahead a few decades to the time when Mark's Gospel was written we can see how this question of authority would have special power and importance.
Mark is believed to have been composed somewhere between 60 and 70 AD. The audience was the Jewish Christian community, not in Palestine but in Rome. If scholars are correct in their dating then Mark's Gospel coincides with the first major Roman persecution of Christians in Rome. Nero, the Emperor, singled out the Christians in Rome for serious persecution. This began a trend that ultimately resulted in the Empire-wide persecution during the reign of Diocletian.
Imagine, if you will, that you were a Christian in Rome in 63 AD. Nero has begun to persecute Christians. For you the question of authority is immediate and personal. So too is the demonic. The Roman authorities might at any time come and get you. You could be executed in some terrible way, possibly fed to the lions. Imagine then, hearing this account from the Mark's Gospel: Two of your serious anxieties are plainly faced. It is not Rome. It is not Nero, nor any worldly power who wields the ultimate authority. Jesus is the one with the authority. Jesus is the one who casts down the forces of evil. This would have been a source of hope and strength to Christian in Rome in 63 AD. But what does this mean in our time?
A priest tells this story:
Once he was spiritual director for retreat weekend. One of the attendees was a woman working on her Ph.D. at a university. At a quiet point in the retreat she asked if she might receive some spiritual guidance. The woman's story was one of great achievements. She told about academic, athletic, and artistic success, and still she felt empty. She said it was as if she were trying to fill a hole in her life because she felt so empty. She had worked hard to have all of her successes, but they had not made her feel better about herself. Now, she was finding herself at a turning point in life, and she was amazed.
The priest shared with her his own story of attempting to cure himself from his personal broken life. While different, it had similar themes. He told her how he had learned to accept Christ as his only hope for life and joy in living. He told her how he thought he was going crazy, and then realized in fact he was going sane! Afterward the woman said, "Only God has the authority to give meaning to life and to heal the broken."
You and I are called today to walk in the light of the Gospel. At every moment we are invited to accept that divine authority over our lives. At the same time we are also given authority to be healers and reconcilers. Not in feats of show--casting out unclean spirits. Nor through any kind of false piety or arrogance; but in our lives, by the things we say and do. You and I are to be as beacons of light to a dark and broken world. We are to welcome the stranger among us, opening up our hearts and this church to let God do the work of healing.
Not surprisingly we will face opposition in our pursuit of the truth. It is always easier to accept the authority of lesser gods. Yet by Gods grace all can be made new. New life begins when Christ enters the temple of our heart and begins to show us a better way.
"Thou
are the Way, the Truth, the Life:
grant us that way to know,
that truth to keep,
that life to win,
whose joys eternal flow." (Hymn
457)
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Revised: 02/10/09