Sermons for the Month
We are a Fellowship of Believers
DATE: February 2nd, 2003
SERVICE: The 4th Sunday After Epiphany
TEXT: Mark 1:21-28“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
When I was a teenager in the 70's the word authority was a nasty word. People who had authority were not to be trusted. Of course, the country had just experienced the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, the Vietnam War, Watergate and the resignation of President Nixon. It was an uneasy time to be a person in authority. I suppose that, to greater or lesser degrees, this is true in every generation. Authority can be abused. So, to find the word authority used in a positive way may be somewhat unusual. Yet, that's what occurs in today's Gospel lesson. The ministry of Jesus is beginning. He has been baptized, faced temptation in the wilderness, called the first disciples and now has gone to Capernaum where he preaches in the synagogue on the Sabbath. The people are astounded at what they hear and the text says, "for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. This is a very odd statement for first century Palestine. After all, the scribes were the ones who had authority. They were scholars who interpreted and taught the Torah and who rendered binding judgments regarding its application. So, people would come to the scribes - much as a person would go before a judge today - for a decision about who was right, who was wrong, how one should behave, etc…. Often the scribes' decisions were based on precedent, and they would quote judgments made by authorities that had gone before them. This text looses its impact unless we realize that the scribes were indeed viewed as people of authority. People rose to their feet when they entered a room; they are powerful. Yet, the crowd says of Jesus, "for he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes." How can that be? There's something different about Jesus; he teaches with personal authority; we might say with Holy Spirit authority. His statements are not based on credentials nor on his ability to site precedents. His authority comes from God. This is obvious in his words alone. At this point in the Gospel of Mark he has not performed miracles nor preached to large crowds. He's doing an ordinary thing for a rabbi as he comments on scripture that Sabbath. And, yet, there is something about that voice, those words. He was not like the scribes who simply relied on what they had already been taught. Instead, Jesus was offering new insight, he was presenting another view of God, and he was opening doors that had remained closed until that moment. The people are astounded. When is the last time that anything astounded you? Is that word even a part of our vocabulary? For that matter, when is the last time the teaching of Jesus astounded us? Jesus is the one with true, recognizable authority; the people realize that immediately. Perhaps that's why people dropped everything to follow him. All this is significant, but it's not the end of the story. As if to add an exclamation point to what he has said, Jesus then lives out his God-given authority. You see, there was one in the synagogue who was more frightened than astounded at the words of Jesus. In that holy place, on that holy day, there was one who, in the view of the worshippers, ought not have been there - a man with an unclean spirit. This spirit - who represents all that is evil in the world - recognizes Jesus. It confirms that Jesus is more than an innovative and intriguing teacher. He is the "Holy One of God", which is another way of saying that Jesus is not only God's messenger, but is the Messiah, God's Son. The power of evil fears for its life, as it should. Do you realize that his may be one of the most significant passages of all scripture? This isn't just a simple story about an unclean spirit being cast out of some poor soul. There is much more here than meets the eye. When Jesus told that unclean spirit to shut up and leave, he was illustrating what would ultimately be true. And that is this: that which is evil in this world will be divested of authority by the one who has true authority. It will be deprived of power. On that Sabbath day, as his ministry was just beginning, Jesus conveyed the whole story. He is the ultimate authority, he speaks the word of God and he will conquer sin, death and ultimately the power of evil in this world. And we are his followers. How often does that really sink in? We are his followers, which means we have the authority of the universe behind us. Please, let's not turn Jesus into a sweet man who pats children on the head and spouts platitudes about love. Let's not view coming to worship as social time or something we are "supposed" to do. We come here to worship God, to grow in faith and commitment and to be empowered to take the authority of Jesus into the world. Let's not act like we are a part of the fellowship of unbelievers. Did you know there is such a thing? Pastor Deborah Wissner, who served here at Faith as interim pastor, alerted me to a website for The North Texas Church of Free Thought: A Fellowship of Unbelievers. According to their introduction, this is a church for atheists, agnostics, humanists, skeptics who have found themselves excluded from traditional church life in America. This is the place for those who, to quote the materials, "…feel unsupported in their conscientiously declining to accept belief in the supernatural while faith-based churches have enjoyed a near-monopoly in providing their members with a sense of community and a ready source of personal, emotional and social enrichment and support." So, the Fellowship of Unbelievers is a "church" of individuals and families among whom there is a consensus about the relationship between human beings to one another and to the larger world. Their Sunday services are designed to be educational entertaining and thought provoking. Then they have lunch. I guess I can't say that's all negative. After all, our goal is to have inviting and interesting services, and we like to eat. The big difference is, though, that we believe in God as creator of all that exists. We acknowledge Jesus as THE authority in the world. And while none of us have perfect faith, and we struggle with our own doubts and unanswered questions, we rely on the Holy Spirit to give us faith and empower us to live it out. We are not a social club or a support group. The church can never loose track of that reality. We are a Fellowship of Believers, and the fact that there is a need for a Fellowship of Unbelievers tells us that we must draw more and more on the authority that backs us to proclaim the Good News of Jesus. It is the true authority, the one we can trust. AMEN