“There, Sitting in the Pew”

Mark 1:21-28

Sunday, February 2, 2003

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

I wonder if you have had experiences with darkness in your lives? Growing up as a young boy, I had two big fears. One was monsters, and the other was the dark. I was confident that in my bedroom, there were monsters that lived in my closet and under my bed. My little daughter, who will soon be two years old, loves the movie Monsters Incorporated. Have you seen that movie? Annie will point to the television in our den and say, “Sully.” Sully is one of the movie’s main characters. When Annie Grace points to the movie and says that, it is our clue that she would like to watch her favorite video. When she does that, I say to her, “Annie Grace, you are supposed to be afraid of monsters!” She must have gotten her courage genes from her mother.

The other thing that I was afraid of, and still am is darkness. When I was growing up, I could not sleep unless there was a light on in the hallway or in my closet. One of the darkest places in my house was our upstairs. We had a two-story house. My brother lived in the bedroom at the top of the stairs, but the back part of the upstairs was usually dark. There were two attics upstairs. One was on one end of the house and the other was on the other end of the house. I was sure that there were things that creped and crawled in those attics. So, when my mother wanted me to go upstairs to do something for her, I would refuse. I would say, “No way!” No way did I want to do that. I can remember my mother’s usual response, “Don’t be silly. There is nothing up there that will hurt you.” I knew better. I knew that when you flipped on the light that flooded the upstairs, things scurried away. Those things were mice and spiders, goblins and those sorts of things. I did not like going up there, but because I was an obedient child, I did it. But I did it very quickly. I ran up the stairs, did what I was supposed to, and ran back down the stairs. My mother would say to me, “You just go up there! There is nothing up there to fear!” I would obey because these orders were from my mom. There is nothing up there to fear, right? Darkness is not so terrible these days, right? Most of us have grown up. Some of us have come of age and know that there are no monsters around. We are able to fend for ourselves, aren’t we? There is nothing lurking just beyond the light that can hurt us, is there? Right?

Our scripture lesson for this morning, from Mark’s gospel, might have a word or two to say about that. We are in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel. Last week, if you were here, you heard the story of how Jesus called his first disciples. The Bible tells us that the disciples dropped everything and immediately followed him. So far, in Mark’s Gospel, there have been no miraculous healings and no great miracles.

Our scene, the synagogue in Capernaum, is the first thing that Jesus and his disciples do together. Mark tells us that they came to the temple, in Capernaum, and Jesus began to teach. The congregation was amazed at the words of Jesus. Mark tells us that they were astonished because his teaching was powerful. In fact, this gospel writer tells us that those in the synagogue were dazed because his teaching came with authority, and not like the teaching of others. Jesus must have been in the middle of this teaching, or maybe near the end of it, when he looked out in the congregation. There, sitting with everyone else, was a man with an unclean spirit. Other versions of the Bible call this spirit an evil spirit and some even call it a demon. It does not really matter what you call it. There, sitting in the pews with everyone else, was a man who had this spirit. After Jesus taught, the spirit recognizes Jesus and cries out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” To me, that is just amazing. It is amazing. These words say to us that the demons of this world know who Jesus is. His disciples, according to Mark, do not even know him. In fact, if you will read Mark’s gospel this afternoon, you will see that it takes the disciples all sixteen chapters and at the end of it, they still are not sure who Jesus is. From the get go, the demons know Jesus. They call him by name and ask, “Have you come to destroy us?” I do not mind telling you that I love that line. Hold on to it. We will come back to it a little later in our sermon.

I think that I understand what Mark is doing here. From the very start, he is letting us know that Jesus is stronger than the demons of this world. They are terrified of him. They see him and scurry away. They look mean. They have a bad reputation. They talk terrible, but when they are confronted, they run for cover. They ask Jesus, “Have you come to destroy us?” Beloved, I believe that that is exactly what Jesus came to do, to defeat the demons of this world.

With that, Jesus rebukes the spirit, tells him to come out of him and to go away quietly. That is not what happens. Mark tells us that the spirit came out of the man alright, but not quietly. The unclean spirit made the man convulse. Then he came out of the man, screaming all the time. I want you to see this. Jesus teaches with authority and the people are amazed. the spirit recognizes him, names him, asks what he has to do with him, wants to know if he has come to destroy him, and the means by which he heals the man and restores his life is simply words. I want you to see this. Jesus teaches with authority. Did you hear the first part of that? He teaches with authority and the word that heals this man. I like it when Jesus comes upon somebody and puts His hands on him for healing purposes. I like that when He puts His hands on him and says, “Get out of him.” I like that. I like physically picturing that. Then there are those times when Jesus simply says words and the words heal those who are afflicted. In our lesson, Jesus tells the spirit to come out of the man, and the spirit does.

Have you discovered that words have the power to free us? They also have the power to imprison us. Do you know that if you tell your children that they are no good, that they are not worth anything and that they always mess up, after a while they will believe only that. A word can also bless. If you tell a child that they are blessings, that even though make mistakes, it is all right, because God loves them, then they will embrace that. I have started doing something every night. When I put my daughter down for the night, I put a blanket on her back and rub her back. Margaret and her staff at our Child Care Center started doing that. I learned to do that by watching them put her to sleep. Susie and I have picked up on it, and that is the way that Annie Grace goes to sleep. Before Annie Grace drifts off to sleep, I tell her that I love her. Then, I give her a blessing. Words are powerful. Jesus, here, heals with words.

In the Bible, Jesus encounters people and he heals them. The Bible is full of miraculous healing stories. There is story after story of times when Jesus laid his hands on people and he healed them. Plain and simple, the compassionate savior touches someone and their sight is restored or their bleeding is stopped. These people are freed. Then there are those stories where Jesus simply says a word, and the word heals. Words do have the power to heal. “What is this, a new teaching - with authority? He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him? A new teaching has come into the world that will rid the world of power that possess us and hold us in bondage and keep us from the kind of life that God intended us to have all along. How does John 10:10 put it? Jesus says, “I have come so that you can have life and have it how?” Abundantly!

So, what are we supposed to do with these words today? How can these words speak to us today? I do not mind telling you that as late as Friday morning, I wanted to retreat from these words. I struggled with them. I did not want to preach them. I wanted to get out an old sermon, dust it off, and use it. I just knew that our Music Director could help me. There are benefits to having a Catholic Priest on your staff. Bryan and I meet on Tuesday afternoons and plan Sunday’s worship. Tuesday, I said to Bryan, “I am struggling with these words.” I was looking for a word of encouragement. In the past, he had helped me. Do you know what Bryan said to me? He said, “I’m just glad that you are preaching and not me!” I said, “Bryan, that doesn’t help. That doesn’t help.”

I wanted to dust off an old sermon, but then it occurred to me. Maybe we all have some kind of a demon. There you are, sitting in the pews, struggling with something. Do we believe in demons in the twenty-first century? This biblical story took place two thousand years ago. Do we still believe in this sort of thing? I will speak for myself when I say that I do believe in this sort of thing. I believe in evil. I believe that demons can grab a hold of people and won’t let go. I do not think that demons necessarily sit on our shoulders or get into our hearts and tell us to do bad things, though I suppose that they could. I think that there is something more than that! I think that there is something there. There is something in our lives, in all of our lives, that now and then and every once and a while, threatens to overwhelm us. We have seen it. We have all seen it. We have seen it in people that we know and love. We have seen it in people who are possessed by something that is greater than themselves. So we had better not be naive about it. It is demonic. That is to say, it has reached a point where it is stronger than we are. Our reason and our good intentions and our best motivations (Oh, I hate to tell you this) cannot get a hold of it. Our good intentions and best motivations cannot control these demons.

You could name the demons and the evil spirits of these days. You probably know them pretty well. It could be the demon of despair that overwhelms you; despair will do that, you know. It is a tough demon. It is hard to deal with. Maybe it is the spirit of low confidence. People can tell us how great we are and how well we are doing, but the spirit just seems to linger and lurk in the dark places of our souls. It could be the demon of doubt or un-forgiveness. There are demons and spirits all over the place. Do you remember what the spirit in Capernaum asked Jesus? They asked, “Have you come to destroy us?” That is exactly what Jesus has come to do! My job as your preacher is to tell you that there is nothing up there to fear. And so if there is nothing up there to fear, nothing over which we have no control, then why are we afraid just most of the time?

Friends, I think that we still need a God who intrudes and heals and helps. It would have been nice if my mother had climbed the stairs with me. I was thirty before I knew for sure that my mother was wrong and that I was right, that there are things to be scared of! So what is the answer? Where is the light? Listen again to the words of our lesson. A Sunday in Capernaum. The congregation was seated and settled and secure in their bolted down pews. Then there was a cry, shout, an unclean spirit. What do you have to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know you, you are the Holy One of God. Be silent and come out of him. What is this. He commands and even the unclean spirits obey.

It’s a parable, a vignette, a picture of our salvation. Jesus intrudes, enters our hurts, embraces our darkness and rebukes it, commands it to leave, stills our troubled souls, our confused spirits, calms us and blesses us. He is the Holy One of God who is among us, entering our pain, confronting our evils and saying, “Peace, be still.” Let us pray.