Fourth Sunday After Epiphany Year B 2009

04 Epiphany B 09

February 1, 2009

Deuteronomy 18:15-20
15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. 16 This is what you requested of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: "If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die." 17 Then the LORD replied to me: "They are right in what they have said. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. 19 Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. 20 But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak--that prophet shall die."

Psalm 111
1 Praise the LORD!
I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
2 Great are the works of the LORD,
studied by all who delight in them.
3 Full of honor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.
4 He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds;
the LORD is gracious and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who fear him;
he is ever mindful of his covenant.
6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
in giving them the heritage of the nations.
7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.
8 They are established forever and ever,
to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
9 He sent redemption to his people;
he has commanded his covenant forever.
Holy and awesome is his name.
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever.

1 Corinthians 8:1-13
1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that "all of us possess knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; 3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.

4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that "no idol in the world really exists," and that "there is no God but one." 5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords-- 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 "Food will not bring us close to God." We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? 11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. 12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

Mark 1:21-28
21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried 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." 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, "What is this? A new teaching--with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

A Friend in the Highest Places

Is there anyone here who can tell me a story about changing someone’s mind? How about healing someone who was sick? How about purging someone of some demon that torments them?

I suspect there are stories out there. I believe these things happen. I have seen them happen in my own life and ministry many times.

And yet I think a lot of us are accustomed to thinking we don’t have much power over anything in this world. As much as we’d like to change things, we throw up our hands and say, “well, that’s beyond me.”

I know I’ve had lots of frustrations, particularly with those closest to me. I know a lot of Christians who have similar problems, members of their own family they feel like they can’t do a thing with.

And yet the great message of Jesus is that the kingdom of God is very near, that the power of God is close by, ready to chisel away the things that are wrong and reveal the magnificent thing the world was always meant to be. And perhaps the most awe-inspiring idea that Jesus brings to us is that God will use people as his agents.

People. That would be you and me. He really expects us to wield his power, his awesome, world-creating, life-giving power. He really wants to put that power in our hands. And he really expects to transform the world through us.

Now there are other powers in the world, as Paul tells us today. Other forces. These forces are immensely powerful. The power of violence for example. The power of judgment and punishment and retribution and threat. These forces seem much more powerful in accomplishing goals than love or mercy or grace, which feel weak and ineffective and naïve. We even tell ourselves that we can use evil to accomplish good. The famously corrupt but very well-loved politician Huey Long was fond of saying, “if you’re going to clean things up, you have to get your hands dirty.”
But Jesus went to the cross instead of using violence to resist the evil forces arrayed against him. He trusted God to do what God alone has the right to do. And because he was able to do that, God raised him from the dead in a spectacular display of victory.

But how, how, how in the world can something as weak and spineless as love be truly powerful?

Tell me a story about someone you love.

When I minister to people who are grieving, I invariably ask them to tell me stories. Almost always, they come spilling forth with hardly any prompting from me. Important moments, funny events, characteristic sayings.

Because I love my daughter, I know everything about her, I can tell you all the stories. I can remember all the conversations. I can speak with authority about my daughter. I have often predicted her reaction to others and they are amazed at how accurately I can do this. I had to work hard at this, but the work didn’t seem hard. I spent days and days with my daughter, playing with her, talking to her, listening to her. But it didn’t seem hard at the time. It seemed easy. I was delighted by her. I love her.

Jesus loves God the way we love our parents, our children, our spouses. Jesus took as much interest in God as we take in our most intimate loved ones, the kind of passionate loving interest the psalmist takes in God when he sings:

2 Great are the works of the LORD,
studied by all who delight in them.
3 Full of honor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.

When you love someone, really love them, you become an expert on them. You know everything they ever did, or at least want to know it. You will tell anyone the story of the person you love with little or no invitation to do so. You’ll be listing off the trials and tribulations and the way the loved one overcame them. You’ll be whipping out the wallet to show people the pictures. You’ll know all about your loved one’s goals, and you will do everything in your power to help him or her achieve them. And if you ever lost him or her, well, you think you might just die.
Jesus loved God that way, and because Jesus loved God that way, God knew Jesus. And because God knew Jesus, all the powers and principalities hidden underneath the brokenness of the world knew Jesus as well, so that the unclean spirit in our story this morning could say “I know who you are, the Holy One of God!”

In the book of Acts there is a compelling story of an attempt by the seven sons of Sceva to exorcize a demon. The demon says, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?”

What if we spoke to our friends about God with the same passionate interest we tell stories about our children or about our sainted parents and our wonderful childhoods? What if the stories of God’s mighty deeds in history were as interesting to us as the stories of our child’s athletic achievements?

There is a saying in the twelve step fellowships about the spiritual program of recovery they propose for addicts: “Whatever I put ahead of my recovery, I will probably lose. When I put my recovery first, everything else is first class.”

I have found this to be true about all the things and people I care about. If I don’t put God above them all in my heart of hearts, then I am likely to lose them anyway. But if I put God first above them all, God will care for them just as he cares for me. And I can say that with authority, because God knows me. I have a friend in high places.

The power of God to change the world is offered to you. The power of God is also able to remove all your fear, all your doubts, all your suspicion about love and its power. It will not be easy to have these things removed. There may be some convulsing, some crying out. But when you are ready, God is ready to give you his Holy Spirit, which is nothing more and nothing less than a passionate and intimate love for him, a love not very different from the love you have for your most beloved friend or family member. When you come to love God that way, the knowledge of him will come to you because you will seek it with pleasure and delight, and more importantly, God will know you. You will have a friend in the highest places.

Amen.