sermon – epiphany 4B

Revd Dr Lance Stone, Minister, Emmanuel United Reformed Church, Cambridge

Psalm 111
Mark 1: 21-28
1 Corinthians 8: 1-13

A Space with a Different Spirit

‘Now there was a man in the synagogue possessed of an unclean spirit…’ That is a verse that stops us dead in our tracks, brings us to a halt, for that is exactly what happens to Jesus in this passage. Here he is brought up short by the forces that oppose and resist and counter him, and perhaps we should not be surprised by this confrontation. After all Jesus was a man baptized and anointed by the Spirit of God. The Spirit has descended upon him at his baptism earlier, in chapter 1, and the Spirit has then immediately driven him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. And that seems to be the pattern. The one supremely anointed with the Spirit of God inevitably encounters the spirit which is opposed to God, that which resists God and that seeks to quell the Spirit of life.

So, as in the wilderness, now in the synagogue. Jesus enters and teaches with authority and suddenly this one who is invested with a different spirit, a counter spirit, a spirit of evil and death is stirred and provoked. ‘What do you want with me, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are!’ And it is clear at once what this man is seeking to do. In ancient times to know someone’s name meant to hold power over them. It was to have access to their true selves – hence God’s reluctance to disclose God’s own name. But the evil spirit boasts of his knowledge of Jesus’ name. He is seeking to overpower Jesus and to dominate him. But Jesus silences him. He silences the uttering of his name and casts the spirit out. The same authority that had amazed people in Jesus’ teaching is now demonstrated in action. And in this clash of spirits, the Spirit of God that animates Jesus overpowers this false spirit, this unclean spirit, and people are left amazed.

And I want to focus more closely on this man with the unclean spirit because it seems to me that he is more significant than might first appear. The question is, what is he doing here in the synagogue? Where did he come from? How did he get here? Interestingly, Mark does not refer to the demoniac entering the synagogue, barging his way in. We do not read of him bursting open the doors, forcing entry. No. In fact this is the sixth time in this first chapter that we have this wonderful Markan word ‘immediately’: at once. At once there is a man in their synagogue possessed with a spirit of evil. It’s as if he suddenly just appears from within, provoked and exposed by the presence of Jesus. The evil spirit does not come in from outside, but emerges from inside. He is, if you like, the spirit of the synagogue, a spirit that manifests itself through this poor man the minute Jesus appears and opens his mouth and teaches. Jesus here is provoking and exposing the spirit that is at work in the synagogue, and he is overcoming it. And we are catching a glimpse of one aim of the whole of Jesus’ ministry.

You see, the synagogue was one exceedingly powerful institution. It was extremely influential, holding sway over the lives of people. It was the seat of the scribes, those learned men entrusted with the Torah, the Law of God. Here people came to receive instruction. Here people came to be directed in the ways of God. This is the space of the religious authorities, the religious establishment, and it is powerful – one of the major powers at work in people’s lives. Our reading from the Psalms, from Psalm 111, ends with the words, ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and they who live by it grow in understanding’, and the scribes were associated with wisdom. In their hands the Law of God became the source of wise living. Hence the importance of the synagogue. But just look at what is happening. With the arrival of Jesus the synagogue with all its devotion to God’s Law is being exposed as possessed of the power of death rather than the power of life, the power of darkness rather than the power of light. It had become the power of oppression rather than liberation, a power that constrained and the life of ordinary people was diminished as a result. And the God portrayed in Psalm 111, a God who is gracious and compassionate and whose precepts are trustworthy was a God obscured and inaccessible in the synagogue at whose heart dwelt this unclean spirit.

And it’s just the same story throughout Mark. In Chapter 2 we find the scribes hounding Jesus for the company he keeps, eating with outcasts and with sinners. In Chapter 3 we find Jesus again in the synagogue and the scribes are waiting to pounce if he dares to heal a man with a withered hand. And indeed in that chapter the scribes accuse Jesus of being possessed not just by demons but by the prince of demons. ‘He is possessed by Beelzebul and by the prince of demons he casts out demons’. And what greater testimony could there be that these people are animated by a false, anti-Christ spirit than that they throw that accusation at Jesus? And you may recall another incident in another Gospel where Jesus comes and preaches to his own home synagogue in Nazareth and what is the effect? The people drive him out and expel him from the synagogue and the town and would have thrown him off a cliff if they could. Such was the reaction of the synagogue to Jesus’ preaching. Such was the level of provocation.

What we see here is a vivid illustration of how something good and beautiful, something liberating and life-giving, can so easily turn and become ugly and deeply oppressive. That was the story of the synagogue, and is it not all too often the story of religion generally? Believers are under something of an onslaught at the moment by those who portray religion as unremittingly harmful – ‘religion poisons everything’, as Christopher Hitchins puts it. And indeed enough horrors have been perpetuated by religion and continue to be. It so easily becomes harmful and oppressive. But is that not just the problem? When the things of God turn, they become the instruments of the devil. No wonder the mythology of Lucifer portrays him as a fallen angel, cast down from the very heights to the very depths. C.S. Lewis used to say that demons are not made from fleas but from angels. The  higher they are the lower they fall. And there is always that ambiguity about religion. It’s always two-edged, capable of the highest and the lowest.

But Jesus expels the demon and just look at what Jesus is doing here. Just look at his confrontation of this institution which cast such a shadow over people’s lives. Here we see disclosed Jesus’ mission, which is to create space for a different spirit: the Spirit of life. Here we see Jesus’ mission, which is to create a space where God’s Law, God’s Torah, could be taught once again. Here we see Jesus mission: to create a space, an arena, where false, destructive spirits that blight and overshadow life are resisted and dethroned and where a different Spirit operates.

And is that not exactly what the church is all about – to be such a space? Is that not a vision for the church? That is what Paul is working at in his 1^st letter to the Corinthians that we read from. The issue he addresses is a rather complicated one, all about eating meat that has been offered to idols. But the underlying issue is simple and straight-forward. Some people had scruples about certain practices that others felt freed by Christ to engage in.. And Paul insists that those who felt freed by Christ should defer to those who had scruples. At root he is telling people not to act on the basis of their liberty but on the basis of consideration of others and their well-being. In the world we might act according to our rights and our liberties, but here, in this space, a different spirit is at work. Here we defer to one another. Here the spirit of love and graciousness operates and these other spirits are banished. That is what the church is all about.

And does that not make you feel just a little bit excited about belonging to the church, to this community? The church is the place where powers and spirits that are at work in the world and that diminish life are named and challenged and resisted. And we all know those forces. We are all too familiar with them. There is the spirit of mammon and consumption that creates such abject poverty and disproportionate wealth and that ravages the planet. There is the spirit of eros and sex that bursts its bounds and fuels mammon and that pervades everything. There is the spirit of the survival of the strongest by which the weak are excluded and crushed. There is the spirit of violence and fanaticism… and we could go on and on. And in the face of these spirits of the 21^st century world, despite all our staggering technology and know-how, we are every bit as powerless as that poor man in that synagogue all those years ago. And God’s gift to the world is this space where such spirits are exposed and confronted and resisted in the name of the One who overcomes them. Is that a description of the church as we know it? Is it recognisable in our church?

The world needs such a place as much as ever it did. The unclean spirits have not gone away. They are as violent and life-destroying as ever – and as vocal as ever. And Jesus says, ‘Be silent! Come out!’ And he entrusts us here in this place with a different spirit to live by.

Amen.

Tagged as: 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13, emmanuel united reformed church, food sacrificed to idols, jesus and the demons, Lawrence Moore, Mark 1: 21-28, psalm 111, Revd Dr Lance Stone, the church as the alternative community, the man with the unclean spirit, the synagogue, the united refomred church, The Windermere Centre