Chris Taylor’s Sermon –2/1/09
Divine Encounter
Mark 1:21-28
You may have heard about the guy who decided to visit church all over the country. In the very first church he went to, out in San Francisco, he saw a golden phone on the wall with a sign overhead that read: "Calls: $10,000 a minute.” Curious, he asked the pastor about it and discovered that the phone offered a direct line to heaven – pay the price, and he could talk directly to God.
Well as he visited other churches around the country – in places like Houston, Topeka, Omaha, and Miami – he found that same golden phone and the same sign posted above it. But when he came to Pittsburgh something different happened. There was the golden phone, but this time the sign read $.035. He figured there must be some mistake or perhaps it was a different kind of phone. He asked the pastor about it, “How come everywhere else I’ve been a call costs $10,000 a minute, but here your sign says $0.35?”
The pastor smiled. “Son, you’re in Pittsburgh now, the home of the five time Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers. We’ve got three great rivers, a beautiful downtown, the best hospitals, neighborhoods and people anywhere in the world. This is God’s Country. It’s a local call.”
Certainly, by the end of today we hope it is going to be the six time Super Bowl Champs!
Here in our text, this morning we encounter Jesus’ first miracle in the Gospel according to Mark. It is the Sabbath, and Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. The very first thing the people notice is the authority, the power, with which he speaks. It is unlike anything they’ve ever seen before. And then, as if to underline that authority, Jesus casts out an unclean spirit; synonymous in this Gospel with a demon or an evil spirit. Here, then, is someone not only with the right to speak, but with an underlying power to back up those words – a power that speaks of God’s very presence.
It is the exorcism that often captures our attention. That’s the miracle here, and indeed, there is a certain irony in the fact that it is the demonic which is first to recognize Jesus’ true nature; the demonic which first submits to his will.
But the miracle isn’t meant to stand alone. It needs to be held side by side with the teaching itself. The point here isn’t that Jesus could cast out demons. The point is his authority and his power. It is the two of these things held together that serve as the outward confirmation of his unique nature. It is the two together that offer the visible evidence that in him the Kingdom of God has broken into this world. The miracle is God’s simply way of saying, “Listen to him. This is my Son. What’s he telling you is true!”
And where did all this happen? It took place right in the middle of the community of faith – in the synagogue there in Capernaum. It was, in other words, as part of a worshipping community that people there first encountered Jesus; that they first began to sense that he was far more than just another teacher or prophet. Scripture tells us they were astounded by what they heard, amazed by what they saw. And it all happened when they were together.
People today sometimes assume that we don’t need the church. They assume we can do just as well out there on our own; just us and God and that’s all we need.
Jesus, the Son of God, never made that assumption. He grew up as part of a faith community; circumcised at eight days; making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem each year to celebrate Passover; the synagogue in Nazareth an enormous part of his life and his self-understanding. And so, we are told, as an adult he sought out the local synagogue wherever he happened to be.
Jesus had no illusions about its nature. He knew, firsthand, how hurtful and disappointing the faith community could be. He saw the corruption in its leadership; he saw all the ways in which the community had strayed from God’s intent. But he never gave up on it. He never said, “That’s it, I’ve had enough!” Just the opposite. The community of faith was always a part of Jesus’ life and ministry. He knew it as part of God’s plan for our lives. He knew the central role that it would play in God’s plan of salvation.
When Jesus ascended into heaven he entrusted everything to a bunch of very ordinary people; people not all that unlike you and me. What would have happened if they had dropped the ball? What would have happened if those first apostles had simply turned away from the faith when the going got too rough?
There would be no church today. There would be no Christian faith. Scripture is very clear about just how deeply flawed those early leaders were, but somehow in the midst of all their mistakes, all their misunderstandings, and all the controversies that tore at the early church, the message survived.
That’s the miracle of the Church: that in spite of all its imperfections this is the instrument that God has chosen to further his work in this world. It is here that Christ has promised to be present. It is here that God’s own Spirit is moving; touching lives and reaching out to change the world.
I will be the first to say that our capacity to get it wrong seems, at times, to be almost unlimited. There is no question that the church can drive you crazy – just look at Paul and everything that he had to endure. There’s nothing new about that. It’s been going on for two thousand years.
Yet even though the church is far from perfect, still, there’s nothing like it in all the world. Not because of us. Not because we are so great. But because of God; because God is so great. And the same Jesus who met that faith community in Capernaum (a community, it should be noted, that included a person possessed) – that same Jesus meets us right here, week after week, as we gather together in his name.
Who needs the church? We all do. That’s part of the message of Jesus’ life. We need the church because ultimately it is about something so much bigger than us and our own struggles. It is because of the Church’s witness down through the centuries that we’ve come to know Jesus Christ today. It is because of the Church’s presence that each one of us has had the chance to grow in our faith. This community is the place where we are encouraged, comforted, strengthened and challenged in our own journeys of faith. We need the church because it is right here that by God’s grace you and I continue to encounter the divine.