Epiphany IV
We'll be hearing Duke Ellington's 'Come Sunday' after Communion -- here are some of the words Mahalia Jackson sings when she joins with the Duke:
"Lord, dear Lord above, God almighty,
God of love, please look down and see my people through.
I believe that God put sun and moon up in the sky.
I don't mind the gray skies
'Cause they're just clouds passing by.
Heaven is a goodness time.
A brighter light on high.
Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
And have a brighter by and by..."
We continue in Mark's Gospel, right where we had left off. Jesus has savvily called some fishermen to be fishers of people, and -- this week -- the first person they catch is someone in serious trouble. Someone possessed by demons. Someone I would probably shy away from if I met him in the subway.
How are we to understand this call to proclaim with Jesus that the kingdom of God is at hand? Is it the same words and deeds for everyone, all the time? 'Four spiritual laws,' and please sign here?
Jesus heals even this person. Come out of him and leave him alone. Be gone.
'What is this! A new teaching?" Power in speaking the truth to demons, it seems.
I have a few demons, even as I imagine you do. I have a few idols, as well. 'Idols' can acquire the power of the demonic over us and over others...
Our reading from Paul's letter to the little church in Corinth - so famous in other sections about love! - contains the statement that there are actually many gods and many idols, and that we all serve them, knowingly and unknowingly. Even though, Paul says, 'we' know that idols are not actually real gods like the One, Holy, and Living God whose reality we proclaim as this kingdom. What is the word of life to speak to actual people? Well, to this person who really believes in this idol without knowing it, they will need to hear and see the Good News in this way. And, this person over here? They will need to hear it like this, differently.
It was a fascinating fracas in Corinth -- a city full of temples to many gods (sound familiar?), worshiped in many ways. Food was a common offering to the various gods -- grain for the poor folk to offer, meat from sacrificed animals for the wealthier. Working in a temple, or hanging around near it, was a way to get fed in a time of great poverty.
But, if you eat that meat, it has been tainted by sitting near the statue of Isis!
Paul responds, no: it's just meat. 'We' know that Isis ain't really real. And, if you're hungry, eat it. Better yet: share it.
But, if being seen eating it would cause distress or stumbling-in-belief to someone with a very different relationship to Isis (or insert name of my own personal god) than you might possess: don't do it. Care for the 'little ones' in faith, and listen for what is good and rue in their faith and fan that spark -- do not take advantage of the personal liberty we have in Christ ('all things are lawful for me,' Paul writes elsewhere) to the disadvantage of those who would be fooled (in seeing this taking-liberties) into doing things that for them would be harmful.
Be aware of your context. Be aware of being part of a Body -- something Paul writes about a lot, elsewhere.
Casting out someone's demonic relationship to something unhealthy -- and we all have these things -- is sometimes something best left to Jesus, whose very presence is healing and truth. Oh, I may have the freedom to speak truth (which is our call, after all, in proclaiming the kingdom of God), and freedom to act 'truth' (eat that meat -- it's just meat!), but I still have the obligation to speak the truth in love, first and always.
That love casts out demons, not false pride in truthiness or supposed freedom and power in possessing the Good News like a trophy.
The psalmist writes: the fear of the Lord is the actual beginning of all wisdom and understanding. Let us always begin again, there, seeking this wisdom first.