Mark 1:21-28

They 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.

A friend of mine from college had an interesting way of filling his free time: he would climb up the exteriors of various buildings on campus. This all happened at Valparaiso University, so one of his climbing adventures took place on this building: the 60’-high Chapel of the Resurrection (see image below).

His attitude towards life was engaging, fresh, and often quite different from mine. I rode a bike, always with a helmet firmly attached; he had a skateboard. I played cards and video games; he came up with crazy pranks to pull off on campus. I was concerned about following the rules; he pushed boundaries. I kept my feet firmly on the ground; he...did not. Well, I kept my feet firmly on the ground until the day I finally went with him to climb a building on campus. I didn’t attempt it until our senior year. In all reality, it was little more than an attempt to impress the girl I had recently started dating. We all made it up to the roof and back down without falling and breaking any bones. And she must have been impressed because we kept dating and eventually married.

I asked my friend if he was ok with me talking about him and his campus climbing adventures for my sermon illustration. He joked that he wasn’t aware of the story of Jesus climbing the temple. However, I reminded him there is a story about Jesus climbing the temple. It’s found in Luke 4:9, which reads: “The devil...placed [Jesus] on the pinnacle of the temple.” It all makes sense now...the devil made him do it!

I’m not advocating for anyone to go scale the facades of buildings. That’s not exactly what inspires me about him. I am inspired by his impulse to push against rules, norms, and expectations in order to serve others. This same friend graduated and went down to Guatemala to work with people who lived in landfills. That takes a serious boundary-pushing impulse.

I hope you are blessed with a friend like this; someone who helps you see new possibilities. A friend like this keeps you on your toes. A friend like this helps you understand that some rules are made to be broken.

In this way, my friend modeled an aspect of Jesus’ life that is often overlooked by Christian churches in the West today: Jesus was ornery. This is evident in the miracles he performed, the wisdom he taught, the friends he made, the freedom with which he lived his life, and the way he understood and related to God. All of it clashed against the customs and rules of his time.

Ornery Jesus reserved his most radical and controversial actions for the Sabbath day–the day no work was to be done. I imagine Jesus was pretty low key throughout the week, but as soon as the sun goes down on a Friday night, Jesus would get a look in his eye that suggested he was ready to break some rules...because some rules are made to be broken.

In the gospel story for today, Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath. He’s not teaching like everyone else teaches...this guy is impressive! He’s engaging, authoritative, and exciting. He’s pushing boundaries. He’s the skateboard-riding, thrill-seeking, excels-at-everything guy captivating a room full of rule-followers wearing safety glasses, pocket protectors, and bike helmets...or whatever the equivalent was 2,000 years ago.

He is addressing an assembly of people whose power is perfectly preserved by the rules they impose and enforce. But here they are, eating up Jesus’ every word. They begin to see that the rules should ensure that all people thrive. Maybe someone other than a priest can forgive someone’s sins in God’s name. Maybe people should be allowed to be healed on a Sabbath day. Maybe sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes are worthy companions with whom to sit down and break bread.

And then someone in the assembly recognizes what Jesus is doing and calls him out on it. “I know who you are. You will destroy us!” Scripture says this is the voice of an “unclean spirit.”

The unclean spirit has found a compatible host in this religious man preoccupied with his own power. This unclean spirit is threatened by anyone suggesting there is a life to be lived beyond the rules, regulations, and structures that preserve the power and privilege of the elite. The voice insists what matters in life is to follow the rules so that you can keep your cupboards and treasure chests full, even if those same rules mean others are denied their fair share.

Jesus does not sit quietly and listen to the concerns of the unclean spirit. He does not allow the voice of lies, deceit, and unbelief to utter another single word. He has no time to waste rationalizing with such narrow-mindedness. Instead, Jesus commands this unclean spirit to be silenced and remove itself from the man. It does. All are amazed.

I like to think that all those who witnessed this event in the synagogue that Sabbath day left feeling free and emboldened to push the limits of society, ready to treat people with more respect and compassion than they had before. However, there were some whose hearts were hardened against the new gospel they were hearing and witnessing with their own eyes. They saw Jesus as an ornery rule-breaker. And when your identity, value, and salvation is tied up in maintaining the rules even if those rules oppress others, then ornery rule-breakers must be stopped at any cost. These men would conspire with other powerful people to rid themselves of this rebellious Jesus once and for all. They would, of course, fail.

Fortunately for human civilization, history is full of examples of people who have been in touch with the rebellious nature of the universal Christ and have gotten into “good trouble,” as the late Georgia Representative John Lewis liked to refer to it. John Lewis, leading the crowd of black southerners across the Edmund Pettus bridge to register to vote. Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, raising the world’s awareness of the sin of apartheid in South Africa. Malala Yousafzai, shot in the head for demanding girls be given the right to be educated in Taliban-occupied Pakistan, only to survive and find an even louder voice. These are just a few of the stories most of us know well. But each day there are people who challenge rules and assumptions that only serve to preserve the power of the privileged. They get into good trouble.

God did not send Jesus into the world to sanction our worldly preoccupation with preserving our sense of power and privilege. God sent Jesus into the world to expose the sin of humankind, teach us a more beautiful way for all people, and remind us that we are forgiven even when we fail to follow that more beautiful way. In the coming days and weeks, I encourage you to get to know ornery Jesus. Ornery Jesus calls out injustice. Ornery Jesus calls out the unclean spirits that tell us our salvation lies in our power and privilege. Ornery Jesus looks at an obstacle as intimidating as a 60’ brick wall and says, “We can make it up there.”

Amen.

Matthew 10:24-39

"A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

"So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

"Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's foes will be members of one's own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

There are any number of directions to take a message based on today’s gospel text, but what I felt most compelled to address are Jesus’ words about fear.

The concept of fear was present to my family in several instances over a 12-hour period this week. The first example happened as I read to my children before bed. We are reading the book Woodsong by Gary Paulsen, about his experiences with sled dogs and the Iditarod race. The first couple chapters include several accounts of fear, particularly his account of a doe being chased by a pack of wolves and his story about the time he threw a stick at a bear and nearly lost his life when that bear attacked him. His writing on fear is gripping and palpable.

Next there was the case of my child who could not fall asleep. By midnight a sobbing boy was admitting to us that the reason he could not sleep was that he was afraid of something. Perhaps out of shame or embarrassment, he initially didn’t want to tell us what he was afraid of. I tried to explain to him that the way our fears get out of control is when we fail to put words to them and keep them locked inside us. Eventually he told us what he was afraid of...and no, it wasn’t anything to do with the Gary Paulsen book we had read together (which was my first assumption). His specific fear is not important to the story, but suffice to say I think it helped for him to tell us about his fear.

The next morning, during a family walk through the woods at Southeastway Park, my other son jumped over a large stick stretched across the path and screamed as he landed on the other side. What he noticed, while in mid-air, was that the large stick he was jumping over was actually a large snake! Not only was he terrified and shocked from the sight of a snake (an experience I know all too well and have struggled with my whole life), but now that snake was separating him from the safety of his family, as he was not about to jump over the snake again.

In some respects, these experiences with fear are minor. Certainly there are other things in the world more terrifying than snakes or the thoughts that pop in our heads as we try to sleep. But on the other hand, fear is fear. You can’t experience only a little bit of fear. There isn’t a spectrum to fear as we feel it pulse through our bodies. And we cannot look objectively or rationalize our fear in the moment. The work of teaching ourselves how to overcome fear has to be done preemptively.

It is tempting to think that the way to deal with fear is to avoid the experiences about which we know we are afraid. For example, my family could stop walking through the woods to avoid more snakes; much the same way that I have avoided swimming or surfing in the ocean because I’m terrified (and convinced) I would get attacked by a shark. This is far from an ideal solution. Not only does it end up limiting one’s life experiences but it’s entirely impractical to most situations. For example, I don’t think it would be in anyone’s interest for my son to avoid going to sleep ever again!

Jesus never taught his disciples the ways of fear-avoidance. He did not comfort them with the words, “Do only what makes you comfortable, for as long as you follow me you will have a safe life.” Instead, Jesus warned his disciples that to follow him meant to make the same enemies as him, to endure the same afflictions and punishments as him, and to ultimately lose their life like him. Jesus’ command for his disciples to not be afraid is less an invitation to avoid fear than it is to run headlong into the things they think would be terrifying and have faith that God’s ultimate goodness will prevail through it all.

Jesus instructs his followers that the ones who profess to have power in the world have only the illusion of power. These illusions of power will be uncovered and exposed in the light of the gospel. Jesus says it would be right to fear only one thing: the one who wields absolute power over our soul and our body--that is, God; but even God is not to be feared because the one who wields absolute power over our soul and body will never harm us. Never ever...for we are too valuable. God is not in the business of destroying what God has created and redeemed.

The quote “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” doesn’t belong to Jesus, but it is a Christ-affirmed conviction nonetheless. Only fear will prevent us from following in the footsteps of the Christ. Only fear will prevent us from sharing the good news of God’s redemption of all creation. Only fear will prevent us from seeing our diverse brothers and sisters as God’s children. Only fear will prevent us from critiquing the systems and structures that diminish peoples’ livelihoods and claim their very lives. Those systems and structures do not have ultimate divinely-ordained power and therefore we should not fear them.

The three examples of fear I mentioned earlier are not the only ways in which I have learned about fear lately. I have also gleaned much from the work of African-American professor, author, activist, and theologian Howard Thurman and his book published in 1949 titled Jesus and the Disinherited.

In his chapter on the topic of fear, he posits that fear prevents us from having a meaningful and formative answer to the question at the core of each person’s life, which is: “Who am I?” He explains,

“There are few things more devastating than to have it burned into you that you do not count and that no provisions are made for the literal protection of your person. The threat of violence is ever present, and there is no way to determine precisely when it may come crashing down upon you...The underprivileged in any society are the victims of a perpetual war of nerves” (29).

I don’t know what it is like to be underprivileged in society. My answer to the question “Who am I?” has not been shaped by the fear of violence against me or my people. But even for the underprivileged who live assaulted by the perpetual war of nerves, Howard Thurman insists The answer to “Who am I?” has to point to God. His grandmother, who was enslaved in Florida, would recount to him the constant message from the preacher of secret religious meetings who would triumphantly proclaim, “You–you are not slaves. You are God’s children.”

Howard Thurman goes on to write, “This [identity in God] established for them the ground of personal dignity, so that a profound sense of personal worth could absorb the fear reaction. This alone is not enough, but without it, nothing else is of value” (39-40). In other words, only after a person understands they are inherently valued and cared for by God, can they then demand, bravely, in the face of oppression, to be treated by others as a child of God…which is exactly what is happening throughout the world right now.

My friends, God commissions you to be the beautiful hands and feet of Christ that bear the good news for all people that they are God’s beloved children. As we see throughout history, and still today, too many people stand in direct opposition of this inclusive message. But do not fear in your proclamation of the good news. Nothing is more important for God’s followers today, than to be fearless. To borrow the words of Howard Thurman once more, “Nothing less than a great daring in the face of overwhelming odds can achieve the inner security in which fear cannot possibly survive” (45).

May you be fearless in your proclamation of the good news. Amen.