A different way...

Imagine yourself inside a church building anywhere…

The preacher is uninspiring and we find our minds wandering. He seems to be going on and on and on, and we wish he would shut up because the pew is hard and we want our dinner. There is no spiritual nourishment in the experience. Have you been there?  

 The sermon seems to last three hours, and when you get home, you can’t remember a word that was said. So boring! I wish he/she wasn’t planned here so often! I love that old story of the preacher who, in the middle of his sermon suddenly stopped. He looked out at the congregation and said to a man at the back,

“ Would you mind waking up that woman asleep next to  you? ”

“ No, ” said the man, “ you put her to sleep, you wake her up! ”

 We have heard an account in the Gospel about Jesus’ work in the synagogue. His teaching was compared with that of the scribes, people folk heard week in and week out. They spoke about keeping rules, and perhaps were uninspiring.

 We note that people there were amazed at Jesus’ teaching, as he spoke with a note of authority.

The scribes perhaps gave opinions about God’s way, whereas Jesus brought them the word of God directly.

 Imagine being in his audience. Imagine suddenly after years of being bored rigid, someone lively comes along, imagine after Sabbath after Sabbath of do nots, suddenly here is a man claiming to be God doing positive things!  

We heard today about an encounter with evil in our reading. In Jesus’ day, there was a belief that Satan had control of the present age having gained temporary control of the earth, and held sway over its Kingdoms. People believed that unclean and evil spirits that took up residence inside a person caused much illness; both physical and mental, and professional exorcists used various ways to cast them out.

 But what did Jesus do? Just one sentence came from his mouth.  “ Be silent, ” he said to the spirit, “ and come out of him! ” and the spirit was banished. Mark recorded before this, his call to the disciples by the lakeside. His words of “follow me ” were powerful and inviting for them to leave everything and go with him: words of invitation. The demoniac, however, saw Jesus’ words as a threat, he reacted violently, and he knew as Jesus spoke, the days of the evil within him were numbered.

Who we would have been within it had we been there? 

Would I be among the scribes  --- accustomed to and pretty good at talking about holy things --- but suddenly thrust aside by this new one who 'speaks with authority?

 Or am I most like the man with the unclean spirit -- the one who calls out Jesus for who he is --- and in that calling out demonstrates how profoundly threatened I am by this one who would 'destroy me' and so much of what I have come to at least take for granted if not actually count on?

 Would I be among the crowd --- those so astounded by what they have heard and seen --- that I could not help but join in as they spread the news?

 Would I have gone home and talked about his teaching for ages. Because the message he shared was not mere legalism, ways to please God by being good, but heralded an exciting event, God’s Kingdom, long awaited, was near.

 This is still the church’s task today – God’s word to his people is to be proclaimed and its relevance to today worked out. People need to hear it in a fresh and invigorating way.

 The word of God is not something that sends us to sleep, but should renew us and challenge us. Of course, how we receive that word is important. We might be unreceptive or not want him to challenge us, despite the best efforts of those who bring his word to us. We may have come to worship today expecting very little to happen. It may be a nice service and that’s all we expect. But God may want to say something wonderful or something revolutionary to us in this service. The authority of his word to his people.

Jesus, of course, did not come to bring just words, but words in action. He showed God to people and how God can act in any situation. His word was life changing: he brought an authoritative word to the world.

 As I read the Gospel, it seems to me the intention of the Gospel writer here is to say something of the power of Jesus in the world. 

He was sent by God to do something about the mess humanity had got into, to defeat evil, to have a struggle against all the bad things contrary to the will of God, indeed a struggle unto death, but ending in his victory over it in rising again, showing us that all the dark things, the evil of the world can never have the final say.

 It was Holocaust Memorial Day yesterday, and its theme this year is the power of words. Tonight if you come to our bible study service we’ll look at what happens when evil words or selfish words are believed and how things turn very ugly very quickly.   Words are all around us, we’ve bombarded with instant news on the television, on news apps on a tablet or phone, instant sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp.  Authoritative words provoke a reaction in us or should do.

 I am a sad individual and will watch President Trump in conversation for an hour with Piers Morgan, I don’t like either of them but it may give us some insight into this President who just retweets stuff without thinking.

 Pope Francis preached on Fake News on Wednesday this week and ended his homily like this:   

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.

Help us to recognize the evil latent in a communication that does not build communion.

Help us to remove the venom from our judgements.

Help us to speak about others as our brothers and sisters.

 You are faithful and trustworthy; may our words be seeds of goodness for the world:  where there is shouting, let us practise listening;  where there is confusion, let us inspire harmony;  where there is ambiguity, let us bring clarity;

where there is exclusion, let us offer solidarity;

where there is sensationalism, let us use sobriety;

where there is superficiality, let us raise real questions;

where there is prejudice, let us awaken trust;

where there is hostility, let us bring respect;

where there is falsehood, let us bring truth.

 How do we react to authoritative words?

Well, three little scenarios.

 I went to the national launch of the Holy Habits resource material in Birmingham yesterday. I nearly didn’t get there. I arrived on Euston station to see carnage, hundreds of people standing motionless staring at information boards saying “delayed” “delayed” “cancelled” “delayed” then a voice said “services north are severely disrupted because of an earlier derailed freight train in Kings Langley.” Some people started to give up and go home as it all looked pretty desperate and I was tempted to do the same. But then came another message “the train that was due to leave an hour ago is now on platform  3.”

There was a mighty crush and several elbows in the face to get to platform 3 but it was a train and it was going north. Had I not waited for the second message my whole trip would not have happened. We easily hear the bad and we don’t expect the good. God has a plan for us, to defeat the bad and embrace us with good. Even the Psalmist knew that – he has trouble in today’s Psalm: who will deliver me from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man? He prays God will not cast him off and he has hope that one day it will be sorted. That can be hard but we are called to trust.

Then I think we easily forget the word spoken to us. Husbands do that, don’t we, husbands? It is just me then! We’re told things and we do other things and well, we drive our wives up the wall. How often we are told, and then we forget. Today we make our Covenant.

God reminds us he is here, through good and bad, uncertainty and assurance, and we promise in our response we can be his people and we will remember that promise every day, but then we forget, and we need reminding again and again. No wonder Wesley described the covenant like a marriage. We need to keep working at it, and God like a faithful partner, stays with us. The words of the Covenant prayer are a new teaching, God is with us in a new and exciting way, it takes some getting and we’ll make mistakes but let’s try hard and when we get it wrong and forget let’s say sorry and try harder.

 Then this. I was coming home on the Underground yesterday afternoon, and at Angel station two men and two women got on. One of the men had a trumpet, one of the ladies had a tambourine. The other man shouted “Musica!” and they began to blast out when the saints go marching in at top volume. I was next to the man with the trumpet! People could not help smiling and joining in with it.

 They got out at the next stop, and they shouted “have a nice day.” For a while, for about three minutes, people forgot their problems, looked up from their phones, and there was lightness and laughter.       

 And you know what? I think that’s what the Church should be offering. .. Hope out of despair, divine stick ability when we make mistakes, and laughter and lightness and a different way opposite of the all the other words we hear around us.       

To live in the shadow of death, which is the normal human experience, is to submit to ever decreasing possibilities. To take Jesus seriously is to believe in a world of ever increasing possibilities. It is a simple step of faith which says, I know, or at least, I will live as if I know, that something more is possible.

Because the reign of God has begun, all sorts of amazing things are happening. 

There is amazing news friends! Think of the worst thing you face at the moment. Then know this.   Power, specifically no demonic power, has authority over Jesus.  The unclean spirit recognizes Jesus' authority immediately and begs to be spared, but Jesus shows his authority by casting the spirit out.  This is the good news of Jesus Christ, the heart of the Covenant, the raison d’etre of the Church, and the foundation for us travelling on together worshipping, witnessing and transforming for another year.  What is this? A new kind of teaching. May we, Jesus people speak with authority, may we be centred on him, and believing his way, who knows where that might take us.