6/25/06 Pentecost 3 Text: Mark 3:20-35 Title: Jesus the Exorcist

6/25/2006
Pentecost 3
Text: Mark 3:20-35
Title: Jesus the Exorcist

My fellow missionaries, please join me in prayer.
Eternal God, pour out your Spirit upon us that we might be aware of your presence in our midst, that we might be attentive to your Word, and that we might be faithful always to your way, through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen
This past week as I studied the Gospel text, one particular verse caught my attention. It was the verse where Jesus was being accused of being Beelzebub, which means, “King of the dung heap” a rather derogatory remark, even for Satan. This piqued (peaked) my interest which led me to write this sermon that I have titled “Jesus the Exorcist”.
Now, I have to admit that title is probably the strangest sermon title you have ever heard. For me to call Jesus an exorcist might even make you feel uncomfortable because you have never heard him called that before. But, whether you have heard him called that before or not, he is an exorcist.
We do not hear much about him being an exorcist because, well, it sounds kind of spooky. We would rather think of him as a great preacher, teacher, healer, and Savior.
I have to admit, I almost did not preach on the subject of Jesus being an exorcist this morning, because I was not sure how the topic would be received. It might sound just too weird, and people might think negatively of me for preaching on the subject. Sometimes, though, you have to take a chance and speak about important topics, such as the problem of evil and demon possession, for both of those things do exist in our world today. Satan is still hard at work, just as he was in the Garden of Eden, in Abraham’s time, King David’s time and Jesus’ time.
More and more pastors and spiritual leaders, myself included, believe that the Christian Church has virtually ignored the fact that demon possession exists. The main reason being that in this age of reason and science, most of society believes that most, if not all, forms of deviant behavior can be controlled with the right medication. In other words, our eyes are closed to the possibility of it being a spiritual condition.
Let me be clear before I go on. I am not saying that those people who have chemical imbalances and emotional problems are evil or demon-possessed. I am not saying that at all. In fact, I give thanks to God that science has discovered ways to help them to live better lives.
What I am saying is that evil surrounds us, and since evil surrounds us, there are people who are demon-possessed and thus, do evil things. Satan can take over someone in such a way that they do not become evil personified, but do his work as they blend in with others. He knows that the best way to get people into his home is not with a direct attack but to be subtle in his approach.
You might be struggling with the problem of evil, when God is supposed to be good. Why is there evil? Why does God not just get rid of it? If you are , you are not alone, for people have been struggling with that question, probably since Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Not to make it too simplistic, but evil comes from free will, our free will. God created his human creation so that they could choose to love him. It had to be that way; otherwise, it would not be true love, for you cannot force someone to love you.
And because he created his human creation with free will, they also had to have the ability to do evil, the opposite of love. When Adam and Eve chose evil over good, as they listened to the lies of Satan, they introduced evil into our human experience and so here we are today with the problem of evil that exists in our world. One thing is for sure, God did not create evil, that is our doing, as it has been from Adam and Eve.
We struggle with the problem of evil because evil seems to be winning. We find ourselves worrying about our future, the future of our children, grandchildren, and the rest of the world. It bothers us, but it should not, for as followers of Jesus we know that not only did he, and still does, drive out demons by the power of his word, but that he overcame Satan himself on the cross.
Earlier, I said that we can handle a teaching and preaching Jesus, Maybe even a healing Jesus, but a Jesus that performs exorcism, is well, how can I say it, old fashioned and it embarrasses us. People will laugh at us if we say demons are still active in the world today, for demons went out with the Middle Ages. People who begin to act like the world is overrun with evil spirits belong in institutions, and so we keep quiet and because of that, people by the thousands die an eternal death every day.
That is what we believe and do for the most part, and so we stuff Jesus the exorcist back between the covers of the Bible. The problem with stuffing Jesus, the exorcist, back into the Bible where he will not embarrass us, is that it still leaves us with the problem of evil and thus, no hope.
You cannot get rid of evil by ignoring it, or wishing it did not exist. Goodness gracious, all we have to do is look around and see that our world is full of examples that show that evil is alive and well. All you have to do is pick up a newspaper, click on the Internet, or listen to the news to know that evil exists.
I do not think it comes as a surprise that more and more people today, as they look at what is going on around them, are thinking more of the problem of evil and the possibility of demon possession. And as they think about it, they are wondering to whom they can turn, for evil appears to be winning.
I think we have acted prematurely in not thinking of Jesus as an exorcist. Maybe we do need Jesus the exorcist as much as we need Jesus the teacher, preacher, and healer. Maybe it is time to swallow our embarrassment with him and take a second look at him, so we can hear what he can tell us about our world, ourselves, the evil around us, and in doing so, give us comfort, and hope.
Jesus’ activity as an exorcist points to hidden spiritual dangers, a world of principalities and powers that are forever busy, as the old hymn puts it, “striving, tempting, luring, goading into sin.” Jesus the exorcist alerts Christians to the reality of a world of spiritual dangers.
“Go out there with your eyes open,” we hear him say. “Expect to be tempted. Realize that when bad things happen, evil powers may well have a hand in them. Do not naively suppose that life ought to be like a leisurely afternoon at the beach and then gasp in surprise when some sort of evil explodes into the middle of your existence. There are formidable evil powers out there, always on the prowl”.
Does that scare you? It should, that is if it were not for Jesus the exorcist. He tells us, “Don’t be afraid.” as he portrays himself as the robber tying up the strong man in our Gospel reading this morning. Jesus, a robber, now that does not fit our picture of Jesus, but when you really think about it, he is a robber, a robber of the souls Satan claims as his possessions.
Jesus has a plan as he ransacks Satan’s house taking away his prized human possessions. Just look at all the millions of people Jesus has taken from the household of the devil and brought safely into his Father’s house. He never could have done that if he had not first bound up the powers of evil in knots, knots formed on the cross as he died.
It is true, evil powers still haunt our world and they still do a great deal of damage. However, the parable of Jesus the exorcist in Mark 3 teaches us that our Lord has exerted his power over the powers of evil in our world. Jesus has tied up the devil and is busy robbing him of those Satan wants to claim as his own.
It is time for the Christian Church to wake up and start warning its people about demons and the evil they bring into our world, especially now, as evil forces make their presence more obvious at certain times and in certain places,
It is an evil world, so should we panic and hide? No, of course not, for we are a resurrection people who are joined with Jesus in our baptism. He is here as we are gathered together in his holy house. Listen to him tell those outside of the Christian church, just like he did in our Gospel reading this morning, “These are my brothers and sisters, for I have taken them out of the grip of the devil. And because of that, even as they walk through this evil world, they are doing the will of my Father. These people are my family. They belong to me now and I will take them to my Father’s house.”
Evil and demon possession do exit, but do not let the evil powers frighten you, for you are under the protection of God, for his Son through his death, has rescued you from Satan’s home. You are God’s chosen ones. Be glad and rejoice in that knowledge. Amen

Pentecost 2 6/18/06 Text:Mark 2:23-28 Title: Remember the Sabbath by keeping it Holy

Pentecost 2
6/18/06
Text: Mark 2:23-28
Title: Remember the Sabbath by keeping it Holy.
Please join me in prayer. Almighty God, we acknowledge our complete unworthiness to stand before you. We give you thanks for all things, especially your Word and Sacraments. We ask you to remove any obstacles from our minds that might keep us from understanding your words for us. Keep us steadfast and build in us a true spirit of unity as we approach your throne of grace. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen
On this, the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, we continue to celebrate the transformation of the church from law and legalism to gospel and grace. Not that law is not a part of the church now, or that grace was not present before. But rather, in the season of Pentecost, we see the power of the Gospel which reflects the great victory which is ours in Christ Jesus.
As people of the resurrection, we boldly approach the throne of grace with access to the most intimate gifts of God. How marvelous our Sunday morning worship time is!
Do you remember the old blue laws? I do not know if they had them in Mississippi, they did in Texas. Most stores closed on Sunday. If a store did happen to be open, like the H.E.B grocery store in my home town, many sections of the store would be roped off or covered over with sheets of cloth or paper to restrict purchases to only necessities. I never saw it happen, but the store could actually be fined if they sold non-necessity items.
Sundays were special back then. They were viewed as being similar to the Old Testament Jewish Sabbath Day. It was to be a day of worship, family time and rest. In many families, Sunday was observed with almost the same strictness that was present in Jesus’ day.
Today the pendulum has swung almost to the extreme in the opposite direction. Society and unfortunately in too many Christian homes there is almost no importance placed on the Lord's Day anymore. It is sort of considered old fashioned. If they even go to church, many people come only to see and be seen. Others come to catch up on what happened during the week with their friends. There is little or no emphasis on why they are there. Worship is just something that is done while doing the other.
As I have talked to people through the years, I have found that there are many people in churches today, and I do not think our congregation is exempt, that believe worship is what we do to please God. In other words, although they probably would not admit it, it is law, something that you must do to please God and well if you are honest about it, make a few points with God.
The problem is that when you believe that the worship service is more about what you do for God, rather than what God does for you, you have lost the reason for worship.
To show you how big the problem is, I received Saturday morning an email from synod announcing the formation of a task force on worship. Its purpose is to come up with a way to educate the membership of synod on what it means to worship.
They would not be doing this unless they thought that the meaning of worship has been lost in many of our churches today as they try to make their worship service conform to the tastes of society. I am sure this synod group will spend a lot of time, and probably money, addressing the problem when the answer can be found right in God’s Holy Word.
In fact, this morning’s Gospel message in Mark 2:23-28 tells us what worship is. Let me tell you what I mean. In our Gospel we see that Jesus and his disciples are getting into trouble again, for we are told that on one Sabbath they are walking through a grain field, and being hungry the disciples are gathering some grain from the field to eat, something perfectly legal to do at the time.
It almost looks like the teachers of the Law were hiding in the field as Jesus and the disciples came by. I can just picture them, swooping down, as they thought, “We have them now.” They probably ruined more grain than they were saving. They thought they had Jesus and his disciples, but as usual, they were wrong as Jesus pointed out when he told them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
They were wrong because for them pleasing God had become a formula. You had to do things a certain way for God to be happy with you. If you walked 30 paces on the Sabbath, he was happy, but if you walked 31 paces he was unhappy. God honored your worship if you knelt at the proper time, but unhappy if you remained standing. God was happy if you tithed, but angry if all you brought was a token of what you had. The list could on and on because in Jesus’ time there were a lot of rules on how to properly worship God on the Sabbath.
Jesus was not the first to try and get God’s people back on track, for in Isaiah 29:13 we read as Isaiah tells the people, “The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
You see even back in Isaiah’s time the rules of worship had pushed out true worship. The rules of worship had become more important than worship itself. People had a problem in understanding worship then, and people have a problem understanding worship now, for it seems that we still focus way too much of our attention on the form of worship rather than the function of worship.
Now I am not talking about individual preferences for worship. We all have them. I am talking about those who lay a burden on others by saying that you must worship God in a certain way to be truly worshiping him.
I am also not saying that forms of worship are bad. In fact, they are good, for God is a God of order. It really does not work well to have everyone doing his or her own thing at the same time. Can you imagine what it would be like if everyone did their own favorite form of confession or sang their favorite hymn at the same time? It would be chaos and thus not meaningful to anyone.
I am talking about what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel, the problem of making of rules and regulations that have to be obeyed if you are to truly worship God. It is a problem now just as it was then, because when rules and regulations become the focus of worship we are no longer focusing on what God is doing, but on what we are doing, how we are doing it, and whether those around us are doing it properly. And that is not what worship is about.
We come together on Sunday morning to worship God because during the week we have this tendency to forget that God is almighty and all knowing, that he is the creator and sustainer of all things, and that he needs nothing from us. We forget that we have nothing to offer him, including our worship, and that we depend entirely on his goodness toward us.
Worship is not about us, although it is for us. It is not about what we do or how well we do it. It is about God and what he has done and continues to do for us.
That is why Jesus tells us, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Jesus’ statement can be a little confusing, but what he means is that since he was at the creation, and since he took part in the creation, he is in charge of all things, including the Sabbath which in the Old Testament times marked the day he rested after creation. God did not have to rest after creation. He did it for us, to set an example, so that we would know that we need a day of rest, a day to spend at least part of the time in actively worshiping God and resting our bodies.
Nothing has changed since then, for we still need to come together once a week so that we will not forget our total dependence on God and his love for us shown in his words of forgiveness, his words of comfort and peace.
We hear God speak to us through his Word and Sacraments and then we respond with thankful hearts. Thankful for his forgiveness, thankful for his peace in the midst of a world in chaos, thankful for his supplying all we need in this life.
You see worship is not about how we worship, the form of it, but what is in our hearts as we worship God responding to his gifts of Word and Sacrament. Amen