Mark 1:21-28
Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 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.” 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. 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.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
The Gospel of the Lord.
People Praise to you, Lord Christ
The Sermon
Often when I preach, I miss the old days of doing messages for the teenagers at youth group. They weren’t afraid to interrupt me and ask questions or call me out when they thought I was wrong about something. In fact, I encouraged it, really. I didn’t want them to just accept the things I said at face value, I wanted them to discover for themselves if I was right in what I was saying.
Sometimes I wish they had interrupted me more, especially in the beginning. When I think of the things I told them I am amazed they made it through. Though I think some of them probably grew up to vote Republican. Sorry about that.
Anyway, occasionally, kids would just interrupt just to interrupt and be a nuisance. Not very often though. In over 10 years, I only had to kick out two kids for being too distracting. Preaching in church is so different. Its too quiet most of the time.
At any rate, in today’s reading, we find Jesus teaching at the synagogue and, much like most of my youth ministry experiences, those that heard him were astounded at what they were hearing. But then comes the distraction. Someone with an “unclean spirit” gets up and starts making trouble. There are different opinions on what exactly was wrong with this guy. Some say that Jesus stepped on his toes a little bit.
From time to time when preaching, a preacher will say things that people don’t like. Not that its wrong or anything, but sometimes the message can hit too close to home.
People will do mental gymnastics to convince themselves that they are generally good people. “Hey, I never murdered nobody or robbed a bank – I just like to do a little heroin from time to time and kick puppies” Then the preacher tells them that they really shouldn’t kick puppies and this makes them upset. They’re like “Hey – what do you have to do with us?” and they get really defensive, like the guy in this story with Jesus.
Except, in this story, Mark tells us that the man had an unclean spirit.
An unclean spirit – what does that mean? Well, some people think that he was possessed by a demon. And it kind of sounds like it – Jesus in this story comes across like an Exorcist from a movie or something and the person convulses and cries out as the unclean spirit leaves him. And lets face it – it probably was pretty dramatic.
But what does it mean for us today? Lets face it, most of us aren’t demon possessed, and though I do believe that it can happen, I also believe its pretty rare for it to manifest this way.
I do, however, think that we can carry around “unclean spirits” – not little demons living in us, but things we like to keep hidden. Tucked away. Shut up in our psyche, closed off from the world. Things we don’t want people to know about because we would be embarrassed by them. It could be an old sin, it could be a secret habit, a hidden life or something that happened to us that we don’t want to think about.
The #metoo movement comes to mind when I think of this. I have mixed feelings it. On the one hand, I’m glad that these people who were abused are speaking up and that hopefully they are helping to break the cycle of abuse. That others will be inspired to also speak up and get out of the cycle of abuse. On the other hand, its scary to know that an accusation is all it takes most of the time to ruin someone’s life, whether they really did anything or not. The potential for abuse and false judgments is pretty high.
But here’s the thing. That “unclean spirit” we have within us – that thing we’d prefer to keep hidden? It wants to stay hidden, because it’s like a fungus that grows and thrives in the dark. And like the man that Jesus rebukes, sometimes when someone tries to pull that part of us out into the light we can react badly. We can get angry, defensive, depressed… It can be embarrassing to pull out the things we’d like to stay hidden or the things we’d rather just not think about and expose it to the light.
What we can find out, though is that, once the unclean spirit is out in the light, often we discover that it wasn’t really as big a deal as we thought. Exposing it makes it lose its power and the more we expose it, the less it hurts.
Sometimes it can hurt up front, like setting a broken bone, but its worth it in the end.
I had a conversation with a couple of co-workers recently about confession. One reacted very negatively about the idea of it. He didn’t see the use in confessing his sins to “any man”. Because that’s all the priest is, just a man. And, while I disagree with him fundamentally, I can understand his hesitation. I am just a man, a man who screws up too. And Yes, you can confess directly to God, but sometimes in doing so, we tend to hang on to those things inside us anyway.
Another co-worker saw it differently, how talking to someone else in the flesh could lift the burdens of whatever it is you’re carrying around off of you. And he’s right. Confessing to another person seems to drag those things out into the light in a much more effective way.
Does it need to be to a priest? Well, maybe. There’s a saying in the Anglican Church regarding confession – “All May, None Must, Some Should”. I see confession on a deeper level – a sacramental level. I think that it not only can help psychologically by voicing your inner struggles, but that something supernatural happens in the absolution and that God can take that thing from you, just like Jesus did to the guy in today’s story. Jesus called himself the Light of the World, and exposing those things that thrive in the dark to this light can destroy them for good.
So may we learn to walk in the light, unafraid of what shadows may be cast and may we learn to trust in His astounding words.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Comments