Fourth Sunday After Epiphany - B

February 1, 2009

The Very Rev. Peter Swarr

The Gospel of Mark is a fast paced, action filled story. Today is no exception to Mark’s rapid-fire telling of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Just last week, a mere six verses ago Jesus announced that “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. (Mark 1:15a)” Immediately following that somewhat puzzling announcement, Mark’s listeners begin to see what it looks like for God’s kingdom to come amidst humanity. Jesus speaks a mere eight words and he suddenly has a following of four disciples. Literally one verse after calling Simon, Andrew, James, and John Jesus is in the midst of a religious gathering teaching with words that electrify the congregation. In Mark, and in the life of the disciples, following Jesus, hearing his Word is something that is filled with surprises and non-stop action.

Mark presents the ministry of Jesus in this radical, action-packed, way to show us, those who listen, that Jesus is someone very different from an everyday preacher, teacher, or prophet. In Jesus humanity is able to see the Kingdom of God coming near them. In Jesus the image of a restored and healed humanity, a humanity no longer scarred by sin, death and fear, is visible to all. In the presence of Jesus what is broken is made whole, what is wrong is made right.

In Mark, we see Jesus as the incarnation of God’s healing reality. A reality for which humanity desperately longs. St. Augustine claimed that within every human there is a part of us which is made to receive God, there is a part of us which needs the wholeness of God. For this reason we see disciples jump up and leave behind family, friends, co-workers, and jobs to follow an unknown stranger. For this reason we see a congregation buzzing with excitement just at the sermon of Jesus. According to Eugene Peterson’s The Message, the crowd hears in Jesus’ words “a new teaching that does what it says.” In place of empty words, in place of tired analogies, Jesus’ Word actually does what it says, freeing even one who is possessed. As a result, instead of thinking about the big game today (by the way, I’ll take the Steelers by a touchdown…), this congregation would be thinking about the words of this unknown man which fill our hearts, minds, and souls with a longing and amazement which is beyond description. Jesus is the very Kingdom of God, Jesus embodies wholeness and life as humanity is meant to know it.

Time and again throughout Mark Jesus, the incarnation of God’s kingdom, frees humanity. He frees us from addiction, he frees us from illness, he frees us from wrong desires, he frees humanity from that which possesses and dominates us just as he does for that man possessed by an evil spirit. Time and again Jesus frees humanity from that which separates us from God and from true life.

As strange as the idea of possession seems to most modern Americans, I believe we actually know quite a bit about it in our own lives. We know about being possessed by that which is life-denying and life-draining. Many of us can think of anger or resentment towards a family member which continues to eat at our very beings for years on end. Many of us can understand possession by fear, fear of death, fear of illness, fear of the economy. Time and again in working with youth I see people who are deeply possessed by a desperate need to be accepted and loved, no matter what the cost, no matter what the consequences. As strange and foreign as Mark’s idea of possession may seem at first blush, I firmly believe that we know something of possession, and many of us know something of the power of Christ to free us from possession. You see, when Jesus comes near us, when we open ourselves to his liberating, powerful, and sometimes terrifying presence we too begin to experience freedom from that which has held dominion over us.

I was an excellent student. In high school I didn’t always apply myself, but I still managed to be selected for a local honors program which enabled me to take all my senior year course work at a local university. In college I obsessed about grades and as a result excelled in my chosen field of study, being among the top students at my alma mater, Wheaton College. Grades and achievement were incredibly important for me for a number of reasons, but the deepest and most profound reason was that I needed to be a great student so I might feel valuable and worth-while. For me, an A was more than simply a good grade, it was an outward and visible sign that I was good, that I deserved love and acceptance. This desperate need to excel drove me to only seriously consider one seminary, Yale. If I was to be worthwhile, if I was to prove that I was worth anything, I needed to go to the best academic seminary around. I needed my degree to come from an Ivy League School just like my father’s medical degree came from Harvard.

That said, one of the incredible blessings of the Episcopal Church when one is in the ordination process is that you need to submit to the authority and oversight of the Church. That meant when my former Bishop, Chilton Knudsen told me to visit Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA, I had to listen to her, no matter how ridiculous I thought her suggestion was. So I took a flight to DC, and for nearly the entire flight I prayed, telling God that there was no way I would go to an academic backwater like VTS. Little did I know, I was about to experience the Kingdom of God coming near me on that Holy Hill. As I walked, somewhat defiantly among the ancient Oaks of VTS I did all I could to shut out the voice of God which spoke to me through VTS staff, students, and faculty. I cried out in defiance as I walked amidst the campus, telling God that he was simply confused and outright wrong about the growing sense I felt in my soul that I was called to study, not at prestigious Yale but at lowly Virginia. I sat in my guest room feeling defeated and yet awed when I finally began to let go of the deep and broken need within me to excel, even if it was against the will of God. In that five day visit to VTS I experienced the Kingdom of God beginning to free me from a power which had possessed, dominated, and separated me from God and my true-self for years on end. The Kingdom of God in Christ called out to me, seeking to free me from fear and separation, and even in the midst of defiance which rivaled that of the demon in our reading from Mark, I began to be released from that which possessed me.

On this day, Mark is very clear, the Kingdom of God is coming near us. In the words and actions of Jesus God is coming to set us free, to liberate us, to reshape us into the free and joyful humanity which we are meant to be. I know that I am not alone in my struggle to be free. I know that others in this parish have experienced the calling of Christ and the fear and defiance of a broken and proud self. I know that others here have gone further on the path of freedom than I. But I also know that Jesus stands in our midst beckoning each and every one of us. Jesus stands in our midst, just as he did in that Synagogue in Capernaum, embodying the kingdom of God which brings release, freedom, wholeness, and joy.

I pray that your hearts might be open to the One who seeks to bring healing and wholeness to you. I pray that your ears might be open to his powerful and transformative Word. I pray that in the midst of a time of chaos, confusion and fear we all might be willing to be released of that which possesses, controls and separates us from God’s powerful love for which we were made, for which we all long.