Notes for message based on 1 Corinthians 8:7-13 and Mark 1:21-28; “B”–Epiphany 4; January 29, 2012

This week’s Scriptures are: Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28

You can read these Scriptures here: NIV // NRSV // CEV // The Message

Liturgical Color: GREEN

As a medical chaplain I interacted with men, women and children during the most difficult and trying times of their lives. During that time I learned that the emotions faced in a cancer ward of an “adult” hospital are very different from the emotions faced in a cancer ward of a children’s hospital. I met many patients (in the case of the children’s hospital, the parents and grandparents of patients), whose world was shattered in a million different pieces and everything that they thought and believed to be right, true and beautiful was challenged to the core. In such stressful times we tend to question our relationship with God and what it means to be a Christian, or a Jew, or a Muslim, or an agnostic. I also learned that periods of acute grief are not a time to deconstruct anyone’s beliefs, or to argue about the fine points of theology; it is a time to let God be God, it is a time to be a conduit of God’s grace and mercy, to suggest coping mechanisms and to provide encouragement. As a chaplain I was there to help my sisters and brothers recognize the presence of God in their pain, sorrow, grief AND LIFE with all of its complexity, joys, and unexpected twists and turns.

Paul reminds us that even though our behaviors and words may be innocent and harmless, they make an impact. Paul reminds us that the Spirit of God is blessing us so we may be a blessing to others. Paul reminds us that our actions affect everybody and everything around us and radiate across the universe.

NIV2010, 1 Cor 8:⁷ … Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, [in their mind] it [that food] is defiled. ⁸ But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

⁹ Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰ For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols [and possibly worship the idols]? ¹¹ So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. ¹² When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat [that] meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

Illustration: The easiest application of that principle in my life is that although I enjoy a glass of wine once in a while, most of the time I choose to abstain from alcohol because I never know whether someone around me is a recovering alcoholic.

Application: Paul teaches us that faith is not a matter of absolutes or unbending principles; faith is about the impact on our neighbors in front of us. When our interactions harm or alienate our neighbors, then our principles are actually harmful to the communities in which we live. As we live our lives in 2012, most of our communities have somehow grown too inflexible and obstinate in preserving “OUR WAY” and we do not allow those outside to come inside; we refuse to hear them or to recognize their faith and their spirituality. And then we complain that our churches are nearly empty.

Today’s readings are about our responsibility for the way our actions shape our communities, our lives and the lives of those around us.

This brings us to today’s Gospel reading. It is a story of Jesus healing a man possessed by an evil spirit. It is difficult for us to relate to this story because we do not know anyone possessed by an evil spirit. OR SO WE THINK….

Has anyone here been so angry with something or someone that we said or did something that we regretted later? Has anyone here ever been so jealous or envious that we used our resources and energies to hinder the lives of other persons? Do you know anyone possessed by addictions (drugs, alcohol, gambling, workaholism, affluenza, greed)?

All of these are examples of being driven by something that is clearly NOT the Spirit of God blessing us to be a blessing to others. At the time we even know that the “spirits” possessing us are not of God. Has anyone ever heard something like, “I know I should come to church but my child has to go to a little league game… I have to go shopping… I have to do laundry…” That is our way of saying, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? We know who you are – the Holy One of God! Leave us alone…” (Mark 1:24). Has anyone here said something like that? We have said it so many times that we are to the point that many schools have security and metal detectors, and our country seems to be spiraling from bad to worse: prayer in public places is considered offensive while using expletives on the public square is protected by the freedom of speech.

At one time or another all of us are possessed by an “unclean spirit.” Isn’t it just like Jesus to meet us where we are – be it pain, sorrow, grief, and self-satisfaction preoccupied with our own feeling, emotions, self-deprication and self-importance, hiding behind an “unclean spirit” – to offer us God’s Grace and a way to be free from everything that robs us of all God’s hopes and intentions for us.

Jesus offers God’s grace, mercy and renewal to all of us. God gave us each other and organized us into a church to help each other and to reach out to our neighbors so that we may glorify God. God is at work in many ways to free us from the unclean spirits that still possess us.

Will you allow God into your heart? How will you change your lives and behaviors?

{Open the altar}