Unclean Spirits

In Mark 1:21-28, we read about the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. The first thing he does is call into question the authority of the scribes. We don’t know what Jesus taught that day but it was something that called into question whether the scribes interpretation of the law and prophets is correct. This upsets the scribes—understandably. It also creates an environment where people who spent their whole lives listening to the scribes can now question what they’ve been taught. Everyone at the synagogue who heard Jesus’ teaching has had their world view called into question.

For some, that might be a relief. It might be a breath of fresh air. But for those who have had power and authority, like the scribes, having their opinions, knowledge and status questioned shakes the foundation of their privilege as leaders and teachers in their community.

Into this moment, an “unclean spirit” speaks. There are many ways to interpret the unclean spirit. Some might say this is an actual demonic possession. Some might say this is a mental illness. Some might say the whole story is simply a metaphor. Whatever this unclean spirit it is, it attempts to shore up the authority of the scribes. “What do we have to do with you? Have you come to destroy us?” This unclean spirit speaks to Jesus on behalf of the scribes.

And then the unclean spirit tries to name Jesus. In antiquity, naming someone by their true name was thought to give that person power over the person they were naming. The unclean spirit says, “Jesus, you Nazarene….the Holy one of God.” Using these names is an attempt by the unclean spirit to name Jesus and gain control over him on behalf of the scribes. But Jesus didn’t even have to name the unclean spirit in order have authority over the unclean spirit. Jesus simply says, “be quiet and come out.”

Jesus was so firm in his authority from God that he simply spoke. Without any convincing, the unclean spirit simply gives up and leaves. This story isn’t just about Jesus casting out an unclean spirit. This is a story of Jesus taking on structures of religion and government that harm people in his community and keep them oppressed and in their place. This story sets the stage for Jesus’ ministry of unsettling powerful people, speaking against established authorities and claiming his own authority on behalf of God.

This passage calls into question who or what has authority in our lives. It creates space for us to question what we think we know and then speak with authority to change the world.

For example, the Truth and Reconciliation commission, forced many of us to question what we knew about the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada and the role of Residential Schools in that history. We heard stories that were painful and we had to confront our role and complicity in a system that continues to oppress Indigenous peoples. In this sense we might see ourselves as the scribes. We told a particular version of history that was to our benefit. Many of us were blind to the ways this version of history harmed Indigenous peoples, ourselves and our country. There have been many attempts to silence the stories, or perhaps spin them to soften the blow for the settler peoples or even justify the oppression. We might think of these attempts as the unclean spirit…the voice that wants to silent dissent and maintain the status quo. And then there are the voices that speak with authority…real authority. The voices that speak from the conviction of lived experience. The voices that risk conflict in order to be heard. The voices that will not allow the unclean spirits of the world to have the last word.

I’ve offered the example of our relationship with Indigenous peoples but we could also talk about homophobia, Black Lives Matter, poverty, racism, climate change …The list goes on and on…

Imagine yourself standing in the synagogue on the day that Jesus arrives. It’s a normal day and there are people gathered to hear the scribes teach. They have opened their books and are telling everyone what the books say. You’ve heard it all before. But then there’s another sound. Someone else is teaching, except this person is interpreting the scripture in a way you haven’t heard before.

And then there is the jarring sound of screaming as someone attacks this new preacher in order to defend the old teachings. The new teacher simply speaks…orders the spirit to be quiet and leave.

Which teachings seem more powerful to you now? The ones that have never been questioned and just passed from one generation to the next or the ones that force you to question what you know? Even though old teachings have the weight of generations behind them, they might not be the ones we need for this time.

Jesus is creating space for us to question everything we think we know about ourselves and the world. Jesus is giving us the opportunity to stand firm in the face of the unclean spirits that hold us and our world captive. But before we can speak with authority, we have to choose whether we will be like the scribes who want to hold onto their power at all costs or will risk everything to speak with God’s authority?

Called…even in Challenge

Last week I was reflecting on Samuel’s call. This week we read the story of Jesus calling the first disciples Mark 1:14-20. Call is an important part of our relationship with God. God calls and we respond. God doesn’t wait until we are ready. God doesn’t wait until we have our lives in order and are prepared. God doesn’t wait until we have learned or trained enough. God calls and we are invited to respond. God doesn’t just call once and then give up on us. We saw this last week with Samuel. It took multiple calls from God, before Samuel heard and responded.  

Today, we heard Jesus calling. He didn’t just call one person. He called many people. Jesus’ call to the disciples feels pretty random. He just happened to be passing by, saw Simon and Andrew. He keeps walking and sees James and John. All four responded to his call. As his ministry continues, Jesus continues to call various people that he encounters.   According to the stories, they dropped everything and followed Jesus.

The story doesn’t tell us how difficult it was for them to give up everything they had known. The story doesn’t tell us about the difficult days when they didn’t get what Jesus was saying. It doesn’t tell us about the days they felt like it was all going wrong. God calls us. I feel a strong call to Diaconal ministry within the United Church of Canada and I continue to feel a strong call to be in ministry with this community of faith. The last few months have been challenging for me and suspect challenging for many of you. There are many things that contribute to these challenges. I know that God doesn’t just call us and everything will be smooth sailing. I wish it were that simple.

What’s becoming more of a lived reality for me is that God calls us even when life is really hard. Psalm 62:5-8 reminds me that on challenging days, it God who shows up for me. It is God who is my rock and my fortress even when I feel like my faith, my hope, my call have been shaken.

The disciples didn’t know anything about Jesus or what they were getting into when he called them. I suspect there were really difficult days and that on those days they questioned why Jesus had called them. What good were they? They didn’t have the ability to heal like Jesus. They couldn’t speak with his authority. They couldn’t see the potential in people that Jesus could see. They weren’t prepared to take on the Jewish authorities or the Roman Empire. I suspect there were days when they just wanted to go home and go back to their old lives and leave all the discipleship behind.  

God calls us over and over again. We might try turning off the call or ignoring it, but God keeps calling until we respond. I have a specific call to Diaconal ministry, but I believe that God calls each person into their own ministries within their family, community and world.   Call is not something reserved for a privileged few. Jesus called ordinary people. He brought them along with him as he offered his ministry. He taught them how to heal, how to see, how to respond to people in need. He called them even when they wanted to give up.

Jesus reminded them in those challenging moments to pray and to place their trust in God. God doesn’t call us and then let us go off on our own. God calls us and then walks with us through everything that being faithful offers us. God walks with us when life is comfortable and easy.   God walks with us when everything feels topsy-turvy and uncertain. I invite you to consider your call. How is God calling you? How has God supported you in your call when it has been challenging? How do you experience God as your rock and your fortress?  

God Knows Us

Psalm 139:1-6,13-18 and 1 Samuel 3:1-20 speak to me of the ways in which God knows us even when we lose sight of ourselves. Psalm 139 reminds us God searches us. God knows what is deep in our hearts even when we don’t know or can’t express it in an outward way. The psalm reminds us that we are formed by God and God knows us before we are born. God knows us at every moment in our lives. God knows us when we are at our best and when we are at our worst.

God knows our desires, our secrets…even the secrets we keep hidden from ourselves. There are moments in our lives when we want to hide from others… We can find ways of doing this….moving away, disconnecting, changing appearance. There are moments in our lives when we want to hide from God….but we cannot. Even when we hide from other people, we have not succeeded in hiding from God.

In Samuel, we read the story of Samuel’s call. A little background to Samuel. …
Samuel’s mother desperately wanted a child. Several years prior to this passage she had travelled to Shiloh, a city where the Ark of the covenanted stayed and where the Hebrew community gathered. She talked with the priest, Eli, and she prayed for a child.

She became pregnant with Samuel and when Samuel was a bit older, she took him to Shiloh and dedicated him to God. Samuel stayed there as Eli’s servant and protégé. Each year when Hannah visited Samuel, Eli would say, “Samuel was born in answer to your prayers.” (1 Samuel 2:20) God formed this child. Samuel was knit by God in Hannah’s womb and God’s eyes saw him before he was born.

Samuel doesn’t know or recognize God, but God knows him. This brings us to the part of the story we heard this morning. Samuel is growing up and he continues to serve Eli. One night, Samuel and Eli have settled down for the night. Samuel heard a voice call his name. He jumped up and ran to Eli. Of course, it was Eli calling him. Who else would call him in the middle of the night? Maybe Eli needed a drink of water, maybe he wasn’t feeling well. Samuel heard his name being called and was ready to serve Eli however he needed.

Except that when he arrived at Eli’s bedside, Eli is still asleep. When Samuel rouses him, he’s a bit groggy and confused. Eli assures Samuel that he’s ok and sends him back to bed. They both drift off into a peaceful sleep. Then the voice comes again to Samuel: “Samuel.” Samuel jumps up again and runs to Eli….Again he finds Eli fast asleep. Samuel rouses Eli. Eli assures him he’s fine and needs nothing and sends him back to bed.

Again, they both fall back to sleep. The voice come to Samuel again. He is sure he hears his name. He jumps up and runs to Eli. Eli finally gets an inkling of what’s going on. He tells Samuel to go back to bed and that it is God who is calling him.

I imagine Samuel being somewhat perplexed. Wouldn’t most of us wonder at a direct message from God? But he goes back to bed and waits….This time Samuel is prepared and responds… “Speak, your servant is listening.”

God proceeds to give Samuel a message to pass on to Eli. It’s a message of destruction for Eli and his whole family. I can imagine Samuel sitting awake the rest of the night, trying to figure out what do with this message. Should he tell Eli? Should he keep it to himself? How should he tell it? When should he tell it…Before or after breakfast? Maybe there’s someone else who could take the message to Eli….I imagine Samuel trying to find a way out of delivering the message.

In the morning, Samuel gets up and carries on as though nothing has happened. He opens the doors of the temple and carries on with his morning tasks. It might be his way of trying to hide from Eli and hide from God.

But Eli is perceptive and knows something is up. He questions Samuel and wants to know what God had to say. I’m sure Samuel wishes the earth would open and swallow him up so he wouldn’t have to say this difficult thing.

There’s no hiding for Samuel. God doesn’t let him hide and neither does Eli. When things are difficult, I prefer to hide. It is easier to carry on and go through usual routines. But the Psalm reminds us that God searches and knows us. God knows what we are thinking and feeling. God goes ahead of us through life. God comes behind us in life. We are always…no matter what, surrounded by God. Our relationship with God is something that is a thing of wonder and beauty and something mysterious and inexplicable. Acts 17:28 describes it this way “In God we live and move and have our being.” We are immersed in God throughout our lives. It is God who gives us breath and spirit. It is God who shapes us and forms us. We remember that we are not alone but held forever in God’s love.

The Power Within

Isn’t Matthew 2:1-12 a lovely scripture? The magi travel from far away and come to see the baby Jesus. They follow a star—which gives us a lovely image for the season. The magi bring their gifts and worship Jesus.

But there’s another story woven in. This is a not so pleasant story. It is a story of intrigue, violence and abuse of power.

It begins with outsiders—people who don’t know how things work in the country they are visiting. They make an assumption that the king will be helpful and benevolent. Instead they find a king who is afraid. He pulls the people around him into his fear and anxiety. He wants to maintain his power so badly that he is willing to have others kill children on his behalf.

The story tells us that Herod was troubled, “and all Jerusalem with him.” It suggests that EVERYONE was upset and afraid…not just his supporters, not just those who benefit from his power. The story tells us that the whole city was troubled.

Herod, by virtue of his position as king, has the loudest and most powerful voice. He has the ability to order murder. Perhaps when the story tells us that the whole city was troubled what it really means is that there were a group around Herod concerned for their power, privilege and status. The rest of the city may also have been troubled but for very different reasons: they could see violence and murder on the horizon.

We live in a time when there are many voices. Some are louder than others. Some voices hold power by virtue of office. There are those who feel their power and privilege slipping away and so use violence to try and sustain the status quo. As we watch the events happening in the United States this week, we might distinguish a pattern similar to the one the Magi found.

We all hold varying degrees of power in our personal and professional lives. There are times when we hold lots of power and times when hold less power and are more vulnerable. At times we feel like the king, or those surrounding the king. At other times, we might feel like those in the city waiting for the murders to start. Both the king and the people of the city are afraid but for different reasons. One is afraid of losing power. One is afraid that the power will turn violent.

Power is something neutral. By itself it is neither good nor bad. When power is used for selfish purposes it creates “trouble” and fear in everyone it touches. Power used for the common good creates a sense of safety and compassion.

The Magi come with the power of knowledge, knowing what the star represents, knowing whom they seek. They are not seeking power. They already hold the power within them, and they know it. They hold the light of the Christ child within their very being. We hold that same power, knowledge and light within our being.

When we find the place of the Christ child’s light, we are open to God’s messages. Just like the Magi and Mary and Joseph, we listen for God within. Sometimes, the messages set us on a different path. The Magi went home a different way. Mary and Joseph took Jesus and fled to Egypt. They used their power to protect Jesus, a vulnerable child. I’m sure that the journey home for the magi and the journey to Egypt for Mary, Joseph and Jesus were filled with challenges. But they went with the conviction of God’s presence in their lives and the Christ child’s power filling them.

I often struggle with insecurity and question my own sense of power. This is an area of on-going personal growth for me. The story raises questions for me: How do I find the Christ child’s light and power that is already within me? How do I see and hold that light when I am surrounded by fear and anxiety? How do I use my power for safety and compassion? When my power and authority is questioned, how do I hold the light and power without being drawn into fear and reacting with fear and creating trouble for those around me?

We have the benefit of knowing how the story ends. When Jesus grew up, he continued to shine the light of God into the world around him. Jesus used his power to create safety and compassion wherever he went. He used his power to invite people out of their fear and join him in using their own power to support his ministry of love. Many joined their own power with his. Some chose to remain locked in their own fear. Jesus invites us to join the power that is within us to his own power to create places of safety and compassion for all God’s people.