Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany
Year B, RCL
January 31, 2021
North Fork Ministries
Gospel:
Mark 1:21-28
Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 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." But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 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." At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
One of the clearest memories I have of my mother, Lillian, (she would have been 102 last week) is of her taking refuge in her bedroom on Saturday evenings, where she would arrange her well-worn Bible, a study guide, and blue-lined notebook paper on the bedspread around her. And then, pencil in hand, she would “prepare her lesson” for the Sunday School class she taught every Sunday morning. For several decades she taught Bible classes to young adults, gradually transitioning to leading classes filled with church members a little closer to her age, until finally, approaching her 90’s, she finally gave up teaching. Although Lillian had little formal education beyond high school, I can say with confidence, that she, like Jesus in the synagogue at Capernaum, taught as one having authority.
Toward the end of her life, Lillian held court – receiving younger friends, students, and well-wishers who streamed into the assisted-living facility where she resided, in order to pay tribute to her. She had taken her teaching responsibility seriously, and I think the classes she taught were pretty good, but I don’t believe that the people who took the time to visit Mom each week did so because they remembered the erudite nature of her Biblical scholarship. She taught, as one having authority, because of who she was, not because of what she had to say.
Toward the end of her life, it was a little frustrating to have a telephone conversation with her, because she didn’t hear quite as well as she once did. And listening, really listening, listening with the ear of the heart, may have been her most remarkable attribute. She was one of those unusual people that can make you feel that when you are in her presence, you are the only person in the world. She instinctively knew how to be fully present to those around her -an attribute that in a world filled with technological distractions has become increasingly rare. Although she was happy to receive phone calls, if you called while she was engaged in an actual face-to-face conversation with someone else, she had a very polite way of allowing the phone conversation to drag on a bit, so that the perceptive caller would soon realize that Lillian needed to direct her full attention to the person in her physical presence.
Every single one of her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren were under the mistaken impression that they were her favorite. I’m pretty sure they were wrong. It’s obvious to me that I was really her favorite.
Mom wasn’t a part of a religious tradition that emphasized social justice issues. Her’s was a quieter, more personal kind of faith. Yet, when important concerns were brought close to home, she wasn’t afraid to take a stand. When my oldest brother’s son, Jeff, went to college, he came home after the first year and announced to the family that he was gay. Jeff’s parents, taking the advice of their fundamentalist pastor, determined that the most loving course of action would be to “shun” their first-born son, until he saw the error in his ways. They asked my mother to go along with their plan and pretend as if Jeff were no longer part of the family. And although Lillian shared the faith of her fundamentalist eldest son, and always respected his point of view, she couldn’t go along with the plan to ignore her grandson. Through the misguided 3-year-long “shunning experiment”, Lillian continued to welcome every call and visit from her grandson and offer Jeff love, compassion and her gift of being fully present.
Mom continued to teach right up to the end of her life, but toward the end, her formal instruction was limited to tutoring her fellow residents in the finer points of dominoes and various card games. Although she was almost infinitely patient with most everyone, she did express to me some slight exasperation with her students, who, getting on in years, arrived at the card table often having completely forgotten everything that Mom taught them the day before.
This past week I’ve been trying to put my finger on just what it was about Jesus that astounded the scribes in the Temple. What it was about him that convinced them that he taught with authority. And beyond that, what it was about Jesus that convinced the demons within the man with an unclean spirit, that before them stood, “the Holy One of God.” Jesus probably possessed no more knowledge of scripture than the average observant Jew. Scholars debate whether or not Jesus was even literate.
Yet on that day in the temple in Capernaum, Jesus taught with authority. On that day in the temple in Capernaum Jesus healed the affliction of a man with an unclean spirit. On that day in Capernaum Jesus confronted evil head on. And Mark tells us, “At once his fame began to spread…” But, at the time in history, teachers, healers, miracle workers and prophets of every description abounded in the land. Yet he was recognized by the demons and eventually by followers throughout history as the Holy One of God because of the unique way in which he was present in the Divine and, consequently, remained present to those he encountered.
We worship a God that is fully present to us – perfectly present. But it is a two-way street, if we don’t open our eyes, if we don’t cultivate a practice of awareness of the perfect presence of God, then we miss out on all the joy, the fulfillment, the peace that comes with living a godly life, a life in Christ.
I am hopeful, that in a few months, we will begin baptizing children again. One of the things that I enjoy the most about being with infants and young children, is that they know nothing except how to live in the present moment. They reside in the perfect presence of God. My prayer for them, and for us, as we learn how to live into this world, is that we will never lose the capacity, that Divine attribute, of awareness of the present moment.
For a while, I watched a rather grim and disturbing British television series called, “Black Mirror.” The name refers to the screens on our smart phone and tablets when they are powered down. In one episode of the series, which is slightly reminiscent of the old Twilight Zone series, people have surgically implanted a memory chip, called a grain, behind an ear. The grain enables people to record and recall memories upon demand. Consequently, very few people live in the present – preferring, instead, to rewind and relive their past lives. It’s an especially frightening scenario that I now think of whenever I allow my electronic devices to take me away from the gift of the present moment. That prospect seems a little too close to home, most every morning, whenever Facebook sends me a message like this, “Roger, we care about you and the memories you share here. We thought you would like to look back on this post from 4 years ago.”
Many of you remember and have read Marcus Borg. Borg was the progressive Christian theologian whose perspective on the Bible revealed a path that allowed many “thinking” Christians to reconcile their faith with the reality of modernity. In his book, The God We Never Knew, Borg wrote, “The Christian life is not about pleasing God the finger-shaker and judge. It is not about believing now or being good now for the sake of heaven later. It is about entering a relationship in the present that begins to change everything now. Spirituality is about this process: the opening of the heart to the God who is already here.”