January 28, 2024 – Epiphany 4B
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Peoria, Illinois
Deut. 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Cor. 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28
Rev. Ann Schwartz, Lead Presbyter, Great Rivers Presbytery
Deuteronomy 18.15-20
15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. 16 This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “If I hear the voice of the Lord my God anymore, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.” 17 Then the Lord replied to me: “They are right in what they have said. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. 19 Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. 20 But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.”
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge, 3 but anyone who loves God is known by him. 4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth==as in fact there are many gods and many lords— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? 11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. 12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.
Mark 1.21-28
21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 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.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 The unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 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.” 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
The first words Jesus speaks in Mark’s Gospel are: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news.” There is nothing indecisive or tentative about Mark’s Jesus. He is resolute, direct, and serious. His understanding of his mission is clear—to invite folks to the kingdom of God, particularly those who do not belong in other kingdoms of the world—and he wastes no time getting to it.
As a narrator, Mark reinforces that at every turn. Everything is urgent in Mark. The transitions between stories are abrupt. Vivid imagery throughout represents clashes between the authority and power of God and the authority and power of the world. But if we consider the original audience for whom he wrote, it all makes sense. Some 40 years after Jesus’ death, that mostly Gentile community of believers experienced persecution at the hands of the Roman empire. Their very survival was at stake. They wanted deliverance from their suffering, and they wanted it without delay.
Today’s story comes on the heels of Jesus’ baptism, when the heavens are torn apart, the Spirit descends upon him like a dove, and God empowers him. Next come his 40 days in the wilderness, where he is tempted by Satan, served by angels, and accompanied by wild beasts. Then, after inviting a few disciples to join him on the road—who immediately drop their nets and follow, Jesus begins his ministry by taking center stage in the synagogue. Considering his lack of formal training as a rabbi and the inevitable confrontation that will result with the religious “experts” who typically had center stage there, it is bold move on Jesus’s part.
According to Mark’s timeline, the confrontation takes no time at all. Teaching in that holy space brings Jesus into direct conflict with the scribes, the professional interpreters of the Law. He barely opens his mouth, and the crowd instantly notices a difference between him and the scribes. The people are astounded. There is an authenticity about him, as he grounds his teaching not in book learning but in his lived experience with God. And, as they quickly observe, there is congruence between Jesus’s words and actions.
Among the crowd in the synagogue that day is an unnamed man possessed with an impure or unclean spirit. He causes chaos, breaking the spell of awe and wonder and reverence in the room. In the midst of his disruption, he challenges Jesus. “What have you to do with us? Have you come to destroy us?” he shouts. And then, “I know you who you are, the Holy One of God.”
In that instant, Jesus redirects his attention on the man, silences the spirit, and exorcises it from him. It is not a quiet and painless process. The spirit resists. The man writhes and convulses. But in the end, Jesus liberates him from the spirit’s control, demonstrating publicly that the power of evil is no match for the power of God. No wonder the people leave the synagogue extolling Jesus’s amazing capacity to command unclean spirits and to heal.
We are thoroughly modern people, you and I. Few of us—I’m guessing—are conversant in the language of the demonic. Unlike some Christian traditions, Presbyterian theology does not put much emphasis on the torments of evil spirits or therapeutic exorcisms.
Yet, we know what it is to be possessed, which is simply to be influenced or controlled by something. Individually or within our families, who among us has not been witnessed to or struggled with, or been damaged by addictions to any number of substances or behaviors? Had our lives been turned upside down by illness—physical or mental? We have seen with our own eyes and experienced in our own hearts what it is to be in the grips of rage, hatred, bigotry, abusive power, or greed. On a communal scale, nationally and globally, humanity seems absolutely possessed by the scourges of violence, racism, nationalism, misogyny, and homophobia that have damaged so many humans and that limit our capacity for compassion, connection, and community.
An unclean spirit is anything—attitude, action, policy, program, law, religious teaching—that tears people down; that oppresses them; that limits their God-given agency for self-determination; that wounds; that ridicules, diminishes, or demeans the humanity of others. They may not be of demons, but they are demonic systems.
And to be clear, the church is not immune to any of it. It is no coincidence that the unclean spirit in the story makes itself known in the sanctuary. There is no evil out there (in the world) that is not in the church. We all bring with us our inspired intentions and our destructive tendencies. As the spirit in Mark’s Gospel recognizes and resists Jesus, knowing that he has the power of transformation, so too do our own demons resist what God in Christ is attempting to do in and through us. As scholar Debie Thomas writes: “Unclean spirits always fight the hardest when their time is up” (Journey with Jesus).
But the really good news is that Jesus models for us how to challenge the unclean spirits that threaten our integrity and our authority. We look at them. We name them. We oppose them. We do we all we can to liberate the ones who are possessed by them. We draw from the healing power of Christ to be healers within—and beyond—the church.
Matthew Myer Boulton writes: “In Mark, Jesus’ idea of salvation isn’t to give us a ticket to a heavenly land in the sweet by-and-by, but rather to bring new health into our lives and communities today. For the sake of all people and the whole of creation, the death-dealing forces around us must be confronted and, ultimately, overcome. To follow Jesus is to join him in just this kind of confrontation, to speak and act with boldness and clarity, to heal and liberate with our words and at the same time with our deeds. As Mark tells it, when Jesus says to the disciples, ‘Follow me,’ he means follow him into the fray, into the shadows, into the menace itself. He means follow him into the work of building up from the ruins, of freeing the captives, of salvation (health!) in that sweet by-and-by, sure, but also and especially ‘immediately,’ right here and right now” (SALT).
As we see in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t simply teach and preach about healing and liberation. He heals. He liberates.
Sometimes we in the church take ourselves too seriously. But sometimes we don’t take ourselves seriously enough. We are too decent and orderly to look evil in the eye and rebuke it. We fancy ourselves too nice to and polite to call out the hatred that is spewed in the name of Christ. We don’t want to make waves or tick people off or scare people folks. So we say nothing, do nothing even when the spirits of evil disrupt the peace and health within our sanctuaries and neighborhoods and the world.
Without hesitation or apology, Jesus uses his God-given authority to free, heal, serve, empower, and transform others. What does that mean for us—21st century followers of Jesus in the mainline church, struggling to keep the doors open and buildings standing as fewer people attend worship, resources dwindle, and we grow ever more weary of trying to slow the progression of decline?
In my role as Lead Presbyter, I have daily conversations with church leaders about these very questions, and I hear the frustration. We cannot force people into our pews. We cannot snap our fingers and miraculously reverse the decline that’s been happening for decades. We cannot change the culture around us. So in a world possessed by fear, anxiety, hatred, and pain, what are we as a church willing to risk to embody Jesus’s healing authority?
Having read your annual report this week, I can see clearly that the Westminster Infant Care Center and the Westmark Food Pantry seem to be two intentional expressions of that authority taken on by this congregation. You looked at the evils of hunger and family instability, declared those conditions to be inconsistent with God’s desires for God’s people, and committed to do what you can, providing food and a safe, nurturing place for vulnerable children. Rather than simply teaching and preaching about healing and liberation, you all have opted to heal and to liberate.
As you continue to discern where God is leading you, I pray that you will continue to devote yourselves to that work. Every church cannot address every ill, but you can focus on the particular needs of your own community and then you can love your neighbors as Jesus calls us to do—in word and in deed. You can continue to confront the evils in your midst with the compassion and care of Christ, and be a beacon of justice and shalom—right here, right now.
May it be so. Amen.
© Rev. Ann Schwartz, 2024, All Rights Reserved
Westminster Presbyterian Church | 1420 W. Moss Ave. | Peoria, Illinois 61606
WestminsterPeoria.org | 309.673.8501
“What goes through your mind as you sit in the sanctuary and look around?
As I sit in my pew and look up at the cross with the wonderful light illuminating it, I am reminded of why I am at Westminster on this particular day. The cross reminds me that Christ died for me and, in a sense, I am to do the same in my daily life. The brightness of the cross illustrates for me the brightness of living my life in the way of Christ.”