Text: Mark 1:21-28
Theme: “Amazed”
4th Sunday
After the Epiphany
February 1, 2015
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau
+In
the Name of Jesus+
21 They
went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and
began to teach. 22 The
people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had
authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just
then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of
Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be
quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The
impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The
people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new
teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they
obey him.” 28 News
about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
As Lyell Bremser, the late great broadcaster of Nebraska
Cornhusker football, used to say: “Hold
on to your hat, mother! We’re ready to
go!” So here goes: we’ve put men on the moon, split the atom
produced the microchip. We’ve come up with medicines and vaccines that keep us
healthy; we’ve moved from “party line” telephones to being able to speak with
another person on the other side of the world as if he/she were sitting right
next to us. We’ve been ready to go: to envision, to plan, to engineer, to
build. I talked to a man last week that was
there – on the front line! – at the birth of the modern GPS (Global Positioning
Satellite). Without that thing, many of
us would be lost. How did we manage
before – with maps we bought at the gas station or with directions we scribbled
on a piece of paper?
We used to cut a check, now we have a barcode scanned. We’ve gone from the internal combustion
engine, in our vehicle of choice, to an electric option. Last
year, I rode in a Tesla for the first time.
Never before have I been in a car that accelerated so fast so quietly. We’ve been from Kitty Hawk and the Wright
Brothers to the Concorde and breaking the speed of sound. We don’t
quite experience what George Jetson did on the old Saturday morning cartoon,
but we’re closer than ever. We’ve come a
long way since Al Gore invented the internet.
All of it is amazing – amazing in it’s time. But now it’s just yesterday’s news. You don’t have to hold on to your hat
anymore, mother! Amazing isn’t as
amazing anymore. There are many reasons
for this – way too many to address this morning.
While we’re at it, it’s big business to try and amaze
people. Consider the 30 second Super
Bowl commercial. Do you have $150,000.00
of petty cash lying around? That will
buy you ONE SECOND of airtime. For
thirty seconds, you’re going to dish out a cool 4.5 million. The price went up a half million this
year. Amazing – in a staggering sort of
way!
Now, come away with me to a different time and quieter
place. It’s a tiny little fishing
village on the northern shore of a large body of water called the Sea of
Galilee. Maybe it’s like the “Sneaky
Pete”’s of the holy land! Archaeologists
are excavating a multi-family dwelling there today. Literally, right across the street from the
home is a first-century Jewish synagogue.
The geographic area, I’m told, has not yet succumbed to the billboards,
advertisements, and general trend toward commercialism and tourism. That by
itself is amazing.
Of course, we’re not 100% sure that this synagogue and this
home are the actual locations where Jesus was, as reported in today’s Gospel,
but I think it’s a safer bet that your choice to win the Super Bowl.
Jesus did “go to”, as we say today, “church”? Actually, church was synagogue. Why did He go? Holy Scripture/the Bible gives a simple
answer. Luke 4:16 declares: “(He) went to the synagogue on the Sabbath
day as was His custom.” Another word for “custom” was/is “habit.” It was a natural as breathing for
Him. His reasoning for going to church
was simple and not convoluted. These
days, that’s nothing short of amazing. People
go to church today because it’s large – and they can be invisible in it. They go to church because it’s small – and
they can develop vital relationships.
They go because they like the minister or the programming that includes
their kids. That’s all fine and dandy,
but the Jesus way of going to church is to find one that enables you to form a
good habit. Simple. Amazing!
Most amazing on that day in at the synagogue in Capernaum is
what this young rabbi, Jesus, had to say.
Interestingly enough, we don’t know what He said. He got up to teach – which is what visiting
rabbis were allowed to do. What was His
text? What was His topic? We don’t know. What we are told is that people were amazed
at His teaching. They were amazed
because His teaching was different. Week
after week, Sabbath after Sabbath went by, and it was one apple rabbi after
another. Jesus was an orange. There was no “apple to apple” comparison, to
use a popular phrase. What he said was
amazing to them because, as Mark says, it had “authority” (or “power”). They didn’t get regurgitated pious platitudes
that were heavy on the law. They were on
the receiving end of a message of power, or authority. It got to them; it got under their skin; it
hit them where they lived. It was like
the cirque de soleil of teaching; it held them spellbound.
There was a heckler in the crowd. It turns out a poor soul was possessed with
an “impure spirit”, as the NIV translation has it. This individual, Mark suggests, knew who
Jesus really was. He was more than a
rabbi. He was the “holy One of
God.” Jesus uttered to short
commands: “Be quiet” and “Come out of
him”. What an economy of words! Amazing!
More power. More authority. More amazement.
This time, the crowd started asking questions of one
another. “Who is this guy?” Folks, that, among other things, is the kind
of church I want. First, I want a church
that enables me to form a good habit(s), and, second, I want a church where
people feel free to ask questions. Would you help me in trying to provide
that? I’m convinced that more people
than we know are looking for a church precisely like that. Amazing!
Most amazing is how this Jesus went forth from there to
continue to share His message. Some
received it. Others did not. Some were amazed. Others tried to kick him out of town. Eventually, amazingly, He went on to suffer
and die not just to die a martyr’s death.
That may be amazing, but to die for the sins of the whole world – including
yours and mine – is the ultimate amazement.
That’s why they call it amazing grace!
Finally, as the Scriptures teach and the Apostles’ Creed
declares, he “rose again from the dead.”
It just gets more amazing. We are
about to be strengthened in that amazement at the table where such simple
elements combine to offer such simple, quite, amazing blessing.
The little amazements come to – like when you watch cancer
survivors dance happily across a stage at an event that you’ve helped to
coordinate! Deep in heart and soul, you
are amazed! God grant to you all such
moments which can start for you this very morning: “This is my body broken and my blood shed for
the forgiveness of your sins.”
Amen.
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