Sermon for January 26

The reading

Mark 5:1-20

1 They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. 3 He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; 4 for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; 7 and he shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." 8 For he had said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" 9 Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion; for we are many." 10 He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; 12 and the unclean spirits begged him, "Send us into the swine; let us enter them." 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.

14 The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. 16 Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. 17 Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. 18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 But Jesus refused, and said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you." 20 And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

The message


We continue our journey to Easter through the Gospel of Mark. We are now in the center of Jesus public ministry. Word about what Jesus was teaching and doing, the authority, the faith, the healings, power, casting out demons and miracles was spreading quickly.  People all over the place where buzzing, talking and thinking about the kingdom of God, the healed were telling the others, the cleansed leper was telling the others, the paralyzed man who could now walk was telling the others, the one who received forgiveness was telling the others, the welcomed tax collector were telling the others, the successful fishermen were telling the others.  Right before today’s story, Jesus had calmed a massive, powerful storm at sea, an event showing Jesus’ power, not only over the religious authorities, evil and the possessed and sickness and health but over creation itself.    


Today’s story is probably the most powerful exorcism in the new testament. Everything in this encounter with evil is extreme.  There are the most demons in a person, the evil spirts identify themselves as legion, a roman military term for a unit of 6000 soldiers, a group that often inspired fear in conquered territories. There is the most damage, the most disruption of the community, the most helplessness of a community to do something about it, their inability to restrain, quiet or comfort this person, the most unclean, insane actions by the possessed (living amongst the dead, next to the pigs, self-mutilation).   


I have struggled with this text, for reasons you might too. In particular, I ask why do the pigs, just minding their own business and eating lunch, get destroyed. What about the people / communities that depended on this herd for their work, food and living.  Wasn’t there a different, kinder way Jesus could cast out this legion. I don’t have a great answer to that question but I wanted to share some reflections.  I trust that there is something I do not know in the story, in the world, that makes the loss of the herd necessary. 


People have suggested that since pigs were a banned food under the Jewish law and covenant, they didn’t really matter This casting out of the legion happens in a non-jewish, gentile area. Since the pigs are not food for Jews, the fate of the pigs is barely an afterthought. Later on, we see Jesus care enough about the people here to leave the healed man as a witness and missionary, to tell them the kingdom of God is here. If Jesus wants them to hear the good news, im sure he wants them to eat too. Two of the greatest Christian theological minds, Augustine, the early church bishop in Africa and the medieval scholar Thomas Aquanis have looked at this passage and determined it means animals do not really matter to God, well at least not nearly as much as people do. This story means one person’s life is worth much more than 2000 pigs.  I think there has to be more to it than that, this is a one time event, there is no other example of Jesus sending a cast out demons into an animal, if it was that easy and animals didn’t matter, why not do this all the time. It could be but isn’t a routine event.  It is never part of Jesus instructions to his followers, not even an option, This is a one time thing.  A little later on in the story, there will be another one time thing, a hard to understand death, an unfair, unnecessary death that takes evil out of the world, this time it will be Jesus on the cross, who takes out the power of sin and death itself.  


Now we go back to people. I look at this as a story of yes and no, paying attention to who says yes and no and the consequences of each decision.  The first big yes is when the unclean spirits begged Jesus, "Send us into the swine; let us enter them." And Jesus gave them permission.   I do not think the legion planned to commit suicide by pig, perhaps they were imagining the rampage of damage they could do, of how many people and animals they could hurt, how far their damage can go. The end of this is instant, legion goes from person to pig to death.  What is left is some really pissed off swine herders and a town anxious about their food supply.  There are a few lessons here.  First, this is what happens when you make a deal with evil, when it seems tame and innocuous, when you wonder what harm can come, when you assume it will be under control and better than before.   The death of the pigs with legion is also an exposure of evil, a display of what evil can do if left unconfronted, unchecked and unchallenged, to reveal the ultimate goal of these demons and evil forces.  We also see when evil leaves, it does not go gently.  

The big no in the story is when the man who is healed, inspired by the desire to share what happened, asks Jesus to follow him, to go on with the disciples and others, so he can be a witness to God’s power and help them in their work, Jesus says no, he refuses.  Instead Jesus tells the man, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you." Although not what he wanted to do, he says yes, he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

The Decapolis was a group of 10 (or maybe more) Greek then Roman cities. Today, the remains of these cities sit mostly in what is now Jordan, They were a center of Roman culture and religion.  I have been to one of them, Jeresh, even today, the massive stone and ruins of temples can inspire awe.  This area was not Jewish, they faithfully practiced the Greek and Roman religions. This means that the Gerssense deomoniac, the man disrupting an entire city from a cemetery on the outskirts of town,  a man struggling under the most extreme possession described in scripture, a person now healed and restored is the first disciple sent to the gentiles, to the non-jewish world.  This is a title usually given to Paul but as this man starts his ministry, by Jesus direct call and commission, Paul was known as Saul and might have still been in Pharisee school.  It is this man, whose name we do not even know, that goes to share the good news.  He goes to a familiar place, a culture and people he knows.  He has some story to tell, an event so powerful, that scares people so much, the first witnesses do not ask Jesus to heal, cure or teach, they ask Jesus to leave,  This is the first Christian example of a story of drastic change, still familiar and powerful today,  I used to be a drug dealer, criminal, sinner, atheist, hate church, exploiter now I am a pastor, believer, child of God, teacher, sharer of the gospel   


I hate to say no, sometimes you have to, for your own sake or for the sake of the kingdom of God.  I often say yes to too many things, which is not always the best thing to do.   This reading reminds us to think about our decisions, our work and ask “does this show the kingdom of God is here”

Sermon for January 19th

This morning I share most of a sermon from Rev. Martin Luther King: entitled A religion of Doing: this message was delivered at Dexter Baptist Church in 1954. It is based on a sermon from Henry Fosdick “faith is a force not a form”.   Although it is based on a passage from Matthew 7, this is Martin Luther King’s vision of Jesus parable of the sower, the lesson being the seeds that land in good soil are the people with an active faith, who let God’s word and God’s grace shape them and their actions.    

In the seventh chapter of Matthew's Gospel we find these pressing words flowing from the lips of our Lord and Master: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my father which is in Heaven.”² In these words Jesus is placing emphasis on a concrete practical religion rather than an abstract theoretical religion. In other words he is placing emphasis on an active religion of doing rather than a passive religion of talk. Religion to be real and genuine must not only be something that men talk about, but it must be something that men live about. Jesus recognized that there is always the danger of having a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. He was quite certain that the tree of religion becomes dry and even dead when it fails to produce the fruit of action.

Let us turn for the moment to some of the truths implicit in our text which must forever challenge us as christians. The first truth implied in our text is that the test of belief is action. This is just another way of saying that a man will do what he believes and in the final analysis he is what he does. There can be no true divorce between belief and action. There might be some divorce between intellectual assent and action. Intellectual assent is merely agreeing that a thing is true; real belief is acting like it is true. Belief always takes a flight into action. The ultimate test for what a man believes is not what he says, but what he does. Many people, for example, say that they believe in God, but their actions reveal the very denial of God's existence. Indeed the great danger confronting religion is not so much theoretical atheism as practical atheism; not so much denying God's existence with our lips as denying God's existence with our lives. How many of us so-called Christians affirm the existence of God with our mouths and deny his existence with our lives. It causes many to wonder if we believe in God after all. And there is warrant for such a wonder. If a man believes that there is a God that guides the destiny of the universe, and that this God has planted in the fiber of the universe an inexorable moral law that is as abiding as the physical laws, he will act like it. And if he doesn't act like it all of his impressive eloquence concerning his belief in God becomes as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.³ Belief is ultimately validated in action. The ultimate test of a man's sincerity in crying Lord, Lord, is found in his active doing of God's will.

A second truth implied in our text is that real religion is not a mere form but a dynamic force. Now there can be no doubt that this is one area in which we have failed miserably. Dr. Moffatt's translation of that familiar passage in the second letter to Timothy is a true description of much of our conventional christianity. It reads: “Though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force.  Certainly that describes many people. There are about 700,000,000 christians in the world today, and were Christ's faith and way of life a vital force in anything like that number, the condition of this world would be far better than it is. How much truth there is in the lines of a modern poet who speaks about our worshipping congregation: They do it every Sunday, They'll be all right on Monday; It's just a little habit they've acquired.

How much of our contemporary christianity can be described as a mere Sunday habit. To put it fugutively, christianity is not a garment that we wear in everyday life, but it is a Sunday suit which we put on on Sunday morning and hang up neatly in the closet on Sunday night never to be touched again until the next Sunday. We have a form of religion but have nothing to do with it as a force. As E. Stanley Jones put it, “innoculated with a mild form of christianity, we have become immune to the genuine article.”⁶ Yet if religion is to be real and genuine in our lives it must be experienced as a dynamic force. Religion must be effective in the political world, the economic world, and indeed the whole social situation. Religion should flow through the stream of the whole {of} life. The easygoing dicotymy between the sacred and the secular, the god of religion and the god of life, the god of Sunday and the god of Monday has wrought havoc in the portals of religion. We must come to see that the god of religion is the god of life and that the god of Sunday is the god of Monday.

One of the things that prevents the church from being the dynamic force that it could be is the deep division within. We argue endlessly over creeds and ritual and denominationalism while the forces of evil are marching on. My friends the forces of evil in the world today are too strong to be met by isolated denominations. We must come to see that we have a unity of purpose that transcends all of our differences and that the God whom we serve is not a denominational God. When we come to see this we will meet the forces of evil, not with a mere form, but with strong organized forces of good. Let it not be said that we have a form of religion but have nothing to do with it as a force. {Quote Shakespeare Othello}

A final truth implied in our text is that we must never substitute esthetics for ethics. As Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick has said, “There are two sets of faculities in (all of) us, the esthetic and the ethical—the sense of beauty and the sence of duty—and Christ appeals to both.”⁷ And there is the ever present danger that we will become so involved in singing our beautiful hymns about Christ and noticing our beautiful architecture and ritual, that our religion will end up in emotional adorations only, saying, “Lord, Lord!” What we are seeing in our world today is countless millions of people worshipping Christ emotionally but not morally. The white men who lynch Negroes worship Christ. The strongest advocators of segregation in America also worship Christ. Many of the greatest economic exploiters worship Christ. Much of the low, evil and degrading conditions existing in our society is perpetuated by people who worship Christ. The most disastrous events in the history of Christ's movement have not come from his opposers, but from his worshippers who said, “Lord, Lord!”

My friends may I say that a Christianity that worships Christ emotionally and does not follow him ethically is a conventional sham. Let us be well assured amid our beautiful churches, and our lovely architecture, that Christ is more concerned about our attitude towards racial prejudice and war than he is about our long processionals. He is more concerned with how we treat our neighbors than how loud we sing his praises. Christ is more concerned about our living a high ethical life than our most detailed knowledge of the creeds of christendom. Not every one, not anyone, who merely says, “Lord, Lord!” but he that doeth the Father's will!

The sermon ends with a story borrowed from Howard Thurmann of a fictious town where no one wears shoes, where everyone thinks shoes are great, where people powerfully and poetically talk about the greatness of shoes, where they have built giant factories to make shoes but no one does. When asked whats going on, everyone simply says “that’s just it, why don’t we”.

As we think about Jesus paraables of the sower, we get a clear image of what the seeds of faith that are thriving looks like and what the seeds of faith that are dying in the thorns looks like

Sermon for January 12

The reading

 Mark 2:1-22

1 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2 So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. 3 Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven." 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 "Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 8 At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, "Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, "Stand up and take your mat and walk'? 10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" — he said to the paralytic — 11 "I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home." 12 And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!" 

13 Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. 14 As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him. 15 And as he sat at dinner in Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him. 16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" 17 When Jesus heard this, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." 

18 Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" 19 Jesus said to them, "The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. 21 "No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins."

The message


Thursday night I went to Neir’s Tavern for the first and what I thought was the last time.  (It turns out after lots of visitors, viral social media and the mayor, other city officials getting involved, Neirs will remain open).  It is a historic bar in the Woodhaven area of Queens that has been operating for 190 years.  They reached some fame about 10 years ago when PBS ran a special on the place, granting them the award “the oldest bar no one has ever heard of”.  Some researchers consider it the oldest continuously operating bar in NYC.  (there are much older buildings and places like Francus Tavern but some of them shut down or stopped serving alcohol during prohibition, were used for other purposes, closed for years and then re-opened, the definition of a bar and what is means to be operating actually gets incredibly complicated and serving particular interests).


I have wanted, thought about, considered going to see Neirs for a few years.  It is not too far away but something always came up or I put it off to another time, made other plans.  What led me to finally go was a facebook message a friend shared.  After those 190 years, Neirs was to close its doors Sunday night (that’s today).  The owner posted a very honest and difficult message, after about 15 years of restoring, investing in and trying to revitalize the historic bar, they have been losing money, a lot of money every month for the past year.  The landlord has demanded a large rent increase and he could no longer afford to operate.  That combined with personal obligations and no interested buyers, no bailout, meant the end for Neirs.  The note was apologetic and I felt so sad, not that I had any particular connection to or memories of this place but it seemed like a piece of history would be lost and forgotten, this great effort to save something failed.  All of a sudden it was urgent that I go to that place I’d go to next week, next month, when the weather was better or when I happen to be in the area.


Urgency is a big part of Mark’s Gospel. The urgency that brought me to Neirs on Thursday night is how we should see the Gospel of Mark, the kingdom of God is here, the son of God is here, now is the time to listen and experience the kingdom.  Jesus does not stay put in one place too long. There is urgency in Jesus work and a mission to reach everyone and every city. The kingdom of God will be shared widely, everyone will have only a moment, which is great but it means Jesus may not walk through your town again.  That is why the 4 friends of the paralyzed man do not wait for the crowd to disperse, for things to quiet down, for an aisle to open up and get to Jesus. Sure they could have waited and maybe saw Jesus, maybe Jesus would stay another day or two or come back, maybe one of Jesus disciples could heal their friend, maybe a team of disciples could help, maybe he just needed a doctor or motivational pep talk or to eat a bag of herbs, maybe one of the religious authorities could help, but they had faith, they knew Jesus could heal their friend and now was the time to act. 


Instead of waiting, they carry the man to the roof, tear a hole through the roof and lower him down, interrupting Jesus teaching and I assume angering the owner who is in there yelling “what are you guys doing”, who is going to fix this, wait your turn, the house is going to fall down, I assume most of the crowd was thinking, this nobody is disturbing us, who cares about him, hes just some paralyzed beggar getting in the way, don’t stop for this guy.  (Jesus own disciples will later make the same claim about unimportant children getting in the way, after which Jesus scolds them and insists let the children come).


Jesus does stop, this paralyzed guy in everyone’s way matters to God, Jesus forgives the man’s sins and heals him.  Not only that but Jesus gives the restored man an odd command, "I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home." Stand up makes sense, show everyone you are new restored, go home makes sense, now that your life is back, go back to it.  “take your mat” is where things get odd, Jesus says this a few times, the narrator is sure to mention that the healed man immediately takes the mat and goes.   


I get a lot of people who ask me if we accept, collect, want or know anyone who needs used medical equipment, from canes, crutches and toilet seats to wheelchairs and hospital beds.  Part of this is the need for storage space, an authentic desire to help someone else (a lot of this stuff is very expensive, complicated to order, wait for and assemble). Another part goes beyond a practical “I don’t need it anymore, someone else could use it”, there can also be a get it out of my sight, I don’t want to remember those difficult weeks, months or even years, I don’t want to imagine needing it again, even I want to imagine I never needed any help.


The mat was this paralyzed man’s medical equipment, what he sat on, what he was carried around on, what he was lowered through the roof to Jesus on, what brought him some small amount of comfort and made life on the streets a little bit better.  I would think it was not in great shape, its torn, smelly, probably gross.  Since Jesus does not even blink about the torn roof debris all over the place, I doubt it’s a neatness issue.  The restored man will go forward knowing he was healed, God reached out to him, while he was sick.   Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."  


The healthy have a place in the kingdom of God, the sick have a place in the kingdom of God, the restored have a place in the kingdom of God.  This mix of new and old, the walking man still carrying his mat, comes out in the parables, the new wine in the old wineskins, the new patch on the torn cloak.  In both cases, the old is worth something, there is a concern about ripping the garment or bursting the old wineskin, we are called to remember we are sinners saved by grace, again and again.  As we go through Mark, we are reminded again and again, that the work of the church is urgent and messy

Sermon for January 5, 2020

Happy New Year 

The reading

Mark 1:21-45  

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 And 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. 29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed  with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. 32 That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. 35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." 38 He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." 39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons. 40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44 saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

The message: (no manuscript this week so here is a quick outline)


Last week I shared a lot of introductory material about the Gospel of Mark, it is a book written to bring people to faith in Jesus, to show he was the long expected messiah, savior and Son of God. The book has a sense of urgency and centers around escalating conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities.


Mark begins with the message of John the Baptist, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.  I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit


The message of Jesus begins right after John is arrested, Jesus starts with the good news of God, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Today, we see what happens when that person so much more powerful than John enters the world, when the kingdom of God has come near.


Jesus teaches with authority, he does not simply quote previous scholars or other teachers and agree or disagree. Jesus is not bound to any school, tradition or previous understanding,


Everything else that Jesus does, the signs of power, healing and restoring the sick and the casting out of demons, all serve as proof of Jesus authority, proof that the kingdom of God is here.


There is hospitality, the welcome into the home of Simon and Andrew


The kingdom of God has an immediate impact. There is restoration and reaction, a woman getting up to serve right after being healed of her fever, there is restoration and reaction, the cured leper immediately going and telling what had happened (despite being told directly, clearly by Jesus to not say anything)


There is the curing of the sick and suffering, all of them regardless of any social, economic or cultural factors.  


There is movement, going from place to place, entrusting the people who have seen, heard and experienced the kingdom of God to continue the work.  


There is confrontation with the authorities. Telling the leper to go and show himself to the priest, Jesus puts what is going on in the streets and towns and people, make the authorities see this, make them ignore the kingdom of God or welcome the kingdom of God.


What does it look like when the kingdom of God comes to our community? 


What happens when the kingdom of God comes near, People change, lives change, things change