February 1, 2009

Mark 1:21-28

What have you to do with us? 

            Jesus’ first day of ministry in the Kingdom of God is here in the synagogue where he literally goes to work on the Sabbath. For Jesus it is not a day of rest. He encounters two oppositional forces as he teaches. One is the scribes who control what is read in worship and who proscribes the behavior of the people. (After all, it is against the law to heal on the Sabbath and he does so in the synagogue?) The other is the demon world present in a man with an unclean spirit that confronts Jesus -- can you believe -- in the house of God? The religious authorities and the demon world both enslave and oppress the people. The conflict is, on and it will continue through Jesus’ teaching and ministry days ending on the cross.  

[The sermon is interrupted with the entrance of a loud mouth, belligerent stranger who begins making his way down the aisle talking often times incoherently. I ask him to please come down front to me and I tell him that he has interrupted the people of God at worship.

He responds “What has God to do with you? All of you have lives that work so perfectly. You don’t know what it is like to be a victim like me.”

I ask him how we can help him. 

He responds, “You can’t! I have lost my job, they have taken away my home, and my wife is leaving me because I am such a loser. I am so filled with anger and hopelessness. I can’t think clearly.”

“What is your name?” I ask.

“Nate”, he responds.

“Nate, you are driving yourself crazy. You have worked your way up into a dither where you can’t begin to find any answers. Slow down. Take a deep breath. You are at the right place. Why don’t you sit beside me on the steps and just be silent for awhile and let us all talk about this. OK?”] 

You think everyone here lives perfect lives and have no troubles like you? We all have troubles. Some of us have been where you are now, and perhaps a few of us will be where you are in the future. There are folks here who have experienced grief like you could not imagine with the loss of their spouse or children or brothers and sisters. From these losses come loneliness, fear, and anger. Isn’t that right? Help me here. But for the grace of God you could be here in this man’s shoes, right?  

I remember our beloved Mary and Bob Graves who one afternoon were sitting on their couch crying together because they might not see one another again after they go into separate hospitals. Their caregiver told them to quit their crying because that was not going to happen. But it did happen; Bob died in one hospital while Mary was in another. Mary lost touch with reality, and we did not know if she would ever recover. With the love of family and friends ministering to her, she did.  

There is no such thing as a perfect life, Nate. All of us mess up and make wrong decisions or at times go down the wrong path in life.  Unclean spirits come into our lives like uncontrolled anger that make us abuse our spouses or children. There are those of us who turn to alcohol or drugs or food or sex to comfort us in our woes, and they take over our lives and possess us. We tell God to leave us alone, that we like what we are doing – even if it hurts our loved ones All of us have demons of some sort. There are demons that control our use of money and time, demons that enable us to see others as inferior to us, and demons that give us a sense of self-righteousness that we can’t even feel the emotions and pain of others. Some of us are possessed by the demons of guilt and shame and are imprisoned by them and make us crazy. I think that is perhaps where you are now, Nate. You feel so guilty of not being able to provide for your family during these hard times, and the shame is eating you up. 

Nate, do you know that almost everyone believes in God? Are you one of those, Nate? Even our demons believe in God. But we say to God, you stay over there; what have you to do with us?  

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has the authority and the power to free you of your demons if you but turn to him and let him guide you in your choices you make from now on. Give him your shame and guilt, and he will liberate you and take them away.   

Then use the life and teachings of Jesus as your guidepost for these future decisions. Let God into your life and ask Him to enable you to make a decision for courage, instead of fear and anger; for forgiveness, instead of self-loathing and shame; for love and compassion, instead of isolation and hate. I am glad you came in today to share your pain with us. Please leave this place knowing that you do have God’s strength to draw upon with every step and decision you make. Go back to your wife who, too, is full of fear just like you were.  Look at her directly in the eyes, smile, and tell her “I am now OK and together, with God at our side, we will get through this setback; and I am up to the challenge”.

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