Epiphany 4, Jan 28, 2018 -- St Paul’s

Epiphany 4, Jan. 28, 2018 – St. Paul’s

lectionary

Deuteronomy 18:15–20
1 Corinthians 8:1–13
Mark 1:21–28

Opening

It was last year nearly 2 months ago that I stood in this place and announced that we were going to begin to listen to the gospel of Mark in this the year of Mark. We have worked our way through Advent Christmas and now a good way through epiphany and we’re all the way to the 21st verse in chapter 1. Wow.

Mark the gospel writer who is so spare with his language. the gospel writer who gets right to the point and moves on with a narrative that is fast paced. And in 2 months we’ve still just begun.

• This is the gospel of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God
• John the Baptist came preparing the way
• John baptized Jesus and immediately Jesus headed off into the wilderness for an intense retreat
• After that intense time of prayer and exercise, Jesus was ready to begin his ministry
• He called some folk to accompany him and share in his work (as we hear today)
• He went to Capernaum, preached, and healed.

In some real way Mark’s gospel portrays Jesus ministry beginning with today’s account of him going before the folks at Capernaum preaching with authority and healing the man with unclean spirits. Really the rest of Mark’s gospel is going to continue with that theme: Jesus teaches with authority and he performs Miracles with power and he does it over and over again until finally He was in such trouble with the authorities – Jewish and Roman – that there was nothing left to do but get rid of him.

Often when I am talking about the gospel of Mark I emphasize that his gospel was written with one primary purpose in mind and that is to bring about a change of heart, a change of life, in the people he met so that they would put their whole life and trust into the hands of this Jesus, the Messiah the Son of God. The gospel was written down so that everyone who hears the gospel will be challenged to change their life, to repent and follow the Messiah.

It is as if with each episode we hear in the gospel Mark is behind the scenes asking the question of us, are you ready now? Are you ready now to give it all to Jesus?

change with grace and power ?

I once had an exchange with a priest that was rather heated. In later years we became good friends and minister to one another. but at this point early in our relationship I made the claim that the heart of the Christian Life is to bring about change, conversion, in our life.

I later realized that the priest I was speaking to imagined that what I meant was the same thing as the common message of Protestant evangelical Christians. She thought she knew what I meant by conversion.

What I had in mind and what I believe to this day is that the gospel calls each and everyone of us from the place where we are to a new place that goes by many names. I’ll call it today the place where there is a peace which passeth all understanding.

The fact is that none of us is in that place now. all of us long to be in that place. And in order to get there each one of us has to give up the person we have been and become a new person. To make a change in our life. To become more and more like this one who calls us to conversion.

Only say the word, Lord, and I shall be healed

As a part of my own personal devotions as I celebrate Eucharist, I include a prayer that used to be part of the Catholic liturgy. The words were changed in 2011 – the Vatican was imposing it’s view of what the prayer ought to be so that all 1 billion catholics would be praying the same thing. At the point at which one is prepared to come forward for communion the old liturgy said, “ Lord I am not worthy to come before you but only say the word and I shall be healed.”

The overhaul had been in the works for a decade, and was “aimed at unifying the more than 1 billion Catholics worldwide with a translation that is as close as possible to the original Latin version.”

The new words became, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” The words themselves are based on a passage from the gospel of Matthew (8:8) in which Jesus entered a man’s home and healed his servant. blog

And I of course have no need to say the words from the Roman liturgy in any case. I say them to myself as I am preparing and washing my hands before the Eucharistic prayer begins because they have spoken to me of my need for healing and Christ’s power to heal whatever it is in me that needs to change, to be healed.

Maybe I’m a curmudgeon. Maybe I’m just rigidly conservative. Though I don’t think I’m either one of those things. But I think the effort to unify the text across all languages for Catholics results in a much weaker prayer. Sometimes I need to be healed of my headache. Sometimes it is the wandering mind, focused more on what I am going to do later in the day or on our cruise in the spring. Sometimes I need to be healed of body, mind, and spirit. Sometimes in ways I can’t even articulate.

So I pray, Only say the word, Lord, and I shall be healed. In whatever way I need to be healed right at this moment. If it’s an unclean spirit that needs to be cashed out do it. I am ready to be changed. I am ready to be healed. Even when I’m not ready I pray the words and trust that God will do the work.

Paul’s admonition

The words we hear from Paul this morning were in fact spoken many years before the gospel of Mark was written. they were written as Paul and his fellow workers we’re planting the seeds of what would become the church to which Mark and Matthew and Luke and John would write their Gospels. Paul’s words were spoken to people who had experienced the profound healing of which the gospel speaks.

Paul’s passage sounds like it’s about fasting, being a vegan or not, whether we eat at a fancy restaurant or McDonalds, or about idols.

It’s really about the broader subject of caring for our fellow pilgrims. Being unwilling to knowingly cause scandal or offense. Being united in spirit and body.

The nature of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist has famously been argued over almost throughout the life of the church. Over the centuries and millenia there has scarcely been a controversy as passionate and long-lasting as the nature of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.

It has divided Protestants and Catholics, conservatives and progressives, Orthodox and heterodox.

Paul’s words to us urge us to give up controversy for the sake of the well-being of the community. as if to say, Is Christ present by what used to be called transubstantiation? Is Christ present symbolically? Is Christ present in the community and not just in the bread and the wine?

I had a teacher in seminary who when he was teaching us about these debates within the life of the church said something I have never forgotten. And it has been a light for me ever since. He said, you know, no one has ever argued for the Divine absence in the Eucharist. What we have all argued over is the nature of Christ’s presence.

How crazy is that? Jesus the son of God the Messiah is right here in our midst. And we argue over such unimportant things. every conflict over non-essentials weakens the witness of the church.

To the point

Our reading from Mark’s gospel takes us directly to the point. it is not whether or not we are filled with an unclean spirit. it is that each of us needs to be healed in some way or another. It is that each of us comes in need of change in order to be like Jesus himself. Each of us comes with the need to give ourselves completely to this one who Mark calls the Son of God.

It is not ours to say that it needs to be done this way and not that way. What is ours is to say I am yours, my Lord and my God.

Conversion