THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS
The Rev’d Dn Alberta Brown Buller
The 28th of January 2018, the 4th Sunday after the Epiphany
Based on Mark 1. 21 – 28

Holy Spirit, take my words and speak to each of us according to our need. Amen.

We Episcopalians are accustomed to a certain order in the way we worship. After my ordination, I decided it would be a good time to experience other churches. I did what Dorothy called, “a church crawl.” For three months I visited Episcopal churches in other states and  some with services in other languages. One time, Dave and I worshipped in a beautiful outdoor chapel at Lake Tahoe that even had coffee cup holders built right into the pews. Another time, I visited The Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Oakland. Upon entering, I held my hand out to the usher for a bulletin. He had a look of surprise on his face as he said to me, “You know this service is in Mandarin, right?” 

When I visited St. Gregory of Nyssa in San Francisco and spoke with the Priest, just before the service, he said, “Oh, you’re a Deacon. Why don’t you proclaim the Gospel today?” It can be very spur of the moment there. If you’ve never experienced worship at St Gregory’s, I recommend you take a field trip there at least once. It’s like nothing I’d ever seen before. There is even a rotunda of dancing saints above your head and there is dancing built right into the worship. But with all these experiences and different ways of doing things, I felt always at ease. I knew right where we were in the bulletin. 

But that’s the thing about us. We can travel to almost any Episcopal church on a Sunday morning and know where we are in the service. We know when we are to stand. We know when we are to sit or kneel. We know that when the Gospel is proclaimed that this is such and important part of the service, we are to stand and face the Deacon or Priest to honor and to hear God’s holy word. We know the clergy wear different colored vestments and the altar is dressed in the colors of the liturgical season we are in. Oh, yes. We know there’ll be a coffee hour, following the service. Well, at Our Saviour in Oakland, they have tea hour with wonderful Chinese sweets. 

Well, those worshippers in the temple on that day in Capernaum, were also used to things being a certain way. But it appears two things happened to put an end to any semblance of the type worship they’d been accustomed to. “Jesus and His disciples went into Capernaum. He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath and taught. And He taught with authority, not as the scribes.” Those words stood out for me and I wanted to put myself there to really understand this Gospel. So, I thought I’d take you along with me. Travel back to ancient Capernaum. Try to picture it. Capernaum was a city, of around 1500 souls, located along the northwestern shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Most people made their living by fishing, farming or trade. It was near the road to Damascus, a vital link for commercial trade with northern and southern regions.The Jordan River flowed into it. Peter and his brother Andrew, who as you remember were fishermen, lived there. There was a customs house from where Jesus called Matthew to give up tax collecting and follow Him. Jesus also found the sons of Zebedee there: John and James, “the sons of thunder”. And it was Jesus’s home base during His three years of ministry on earth. Despite all those beautiful images, Capernaum was also a garrison for Roman soldiers under a centurion. These were people living in an occupied land.

During this time, the synagogue would have been a very important gathering place, an important center for the community. It is the place where the Jewish people would come to study and pray. Central to this worship was the reading of the Torah. Traveling scribes and rabbis were invited in to teach or interpret the lesson the people heard.

Now, scribes of that day were not  only professional writers, as we think when we hear the word scribe, but were also officially sanctioned teachers of the Torah. The scribes and rabbis would read a section of the Torah. They would analyze the text and there would be discussion and debate about  what the experts of the day thought about the passage. Maybe Rabbi Rabinowitz thought this but Rabbi Levin disagreed and taught that. From these teachings and discussion, the rules that the Jewish people were to follow were created.

Listen again to Paul’s words today: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; but anyone who loves God is known by him.” Paul reminds us, knowledge is not the absolute goal. It must coexist with love.

I picture a lot of people, puffed up with self importance, at the synagogue that day. But right away, we are told Jesus was different. Why? Because Jesus taught as one with authority and not as the scribes. We don’t know what he taught, on that day, but if you recall in Matthew’s sermon on the mount, Jesus says over and over: “You have heard that it was said, but I tell you.”

Jesus is telling the people — You’ve heard what these rabbis and scribes have been teaching you. You’ve heard the what the Pharisees and the Sadducees have been teaching you. But I want you to hear what God is teaching you. Jesus was challenging the smartest and most influential people in their culture by telling them they don’t have a clue as to what they’re talking about.  

You might imagine how well this went over. I picture a crowded synagogue with everyone commenting on what they are hearing with looks of shock on their faces. This is not at all what they’ve experienced in the past. Not at all what they’re used to. And the words used were, “they were astounded at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority.” As Presiding Bishop Michael Curry often says, “Jesus came to turn the world upside down which is actually right side up.”

In the midst of this astonishment and confusion comes the man with an unclean spirit. The worshippers have had their routine disrupted again. The man was probably know to them. Likely people didn’t want anything to do with him. They might’ve gone out of their way to avoid him in the streets. The belief of the day would have been that this man has sinned somewhere along the line, that’s why he suffers from the unclean spirits. In their understanding, it’s his own fault.

The unclean spirit calls out to Jesus. “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” The worshippers that day may not have known who Jesus was but these spirits know exactly who He is and where He came from. Jesus uses his authority to free the man from the demons that possess him. 

Jesus’ authority is not about my nuclear button is bigger than yours. Jesus’ authority is not about creating systems that do great harm and oppress people. It is not about denigrating anyone because of who they are and their country of origin. No, the foundation of Jesus’ authority is love. And this love comes from God who came among us, to help us know how much we are loved. And we are called to do the same for one another. His authority is divine. It comes from God and that is why those in power feel so threatened by it.  

Author Anne Lamott says, “This is a hard planet to live on.” It’s not easy to live in these times. I don’t remember a time of more confusion and fear. There is hatred and suspicion which welcomes their good friend prejudice to rear its ugly head. There is talk of building walls to separate and divide — dismissing how tragic that was for the people of Germany and Ireland and the inhumanity of it in Israel and Korea.

But, Jesus was inclusive and welcomed those who had been marginalized and excluded. And no matter how much the world changes, the words of Jesus and God’s love for us will always remain unchanged. We were commanded then and are commanded now to love and care for one another. To see Christ in each person we encounter.  To see each person as God does. And for some of us that means, to love those who are hard to love. Even those who disrupt the order we’ve become accustomed to.

I ask you to carry the words of Julian of Norwich with you into the New Year: “Christ has no body now but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”

There is much work ahead of us, as Christians. We live in a time where we must fight against hatred and bigotry becoming the new normal. We can’t fix it all over night but we are called, each one of us, to live into our baptismal covenant and not sit idly by. We can work together to heal our corner of the world, bit by bit. That’s how we start. So, please join me along with the members of Christ Church, Sausalito, to work together to be the body of Christ here in Southern Marin. This is a unique way of ministry that I’ve been called by Bishop Marc to do with your help.

We can do this together. I know it. How? Well, as Paul says love builds up and  when I look out at all of you, I see a group of people loved by God. A congregation of people highly favored by God and known by God. A group of people who can look outside these walls with eyes of compassion. A group of people well qualified to serve. It is no longer fine to just be good, we are all called to be good for something. 

God loves you. God sees who you are and looks beyond all else.  

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.