Authorized
Chaos, fear, uncertain times; just a few of the things we huddle together on Sunday mornings to avoid – or at least keep safely outside the door. Instead of an answer to all life’s anxieties, Jesus Christ can get reduced to nothing more than a sanctuary. Somehow the “Good News” gets lost in the never ending bad news out there. And worse, with the darkness everywhere we fear there may not be any place we can go to escape. Is there really Good News anywhere?
This Gospel has our answer. In Mark’s story Jesus appears with a new message, “The Good News is here, it’s real, believe it and act on it.” Jesus calls his first students, apprentices in the way of God acting in the world, and class is in session. Jesus’ classroom is the sanctuary of the local Jewish house of worship. Immediately his presence creates a disruptive scene. When things get testy in this sanctuary, what do we do? We ignore it, of course. We’re nice, polite Midwestern folks. We never cause a fuss, especially in public. What did Jesus do? He stood up, confronted the chaos and sent it packing. Jesus wasn’t unkind, but he challenged what needed challenging; and he did it with love.
“The light (of Christ) is greater than the darkness is dark.” And we cheer, and say, “Way to go Jesus!” But, joining with Jesus into the hard places in our lives, the places where chaos and fear dwell; no thanks. It’s far easier to avoid what’s unpleasant and hard, and leave the heavy lifting to Jesus. But, we’ve seen what happens when we take the easy way out.
Jesus went to the local synagogue for a reason. The vast majority of people were poor, and the Temple church, if not responsible for putting them there, was at least not helping get them out. An evil spirit existed within the temple communities of the first century. It’s no surprise Jesus came face-to-face with one there in Capernaum. Jesus came to rid the world of the control and chaos of fear, anxiety, and greed. Jesus’ power destroys the bad stuff and the Good News is through Jesus we can too.
The world always does its best to layer on rules, requirements, and authority so God has a hard time getting through. Jesus taught and acted with his own authority because he took his marching orders not from men, but straight from God. Following Jesus’ lead, the United Church of Christ encourages the fullness of democracy so each local congregation can hear and act on the Gospel in their place. Still, even with so much teaching to guide us, it’s striking how many local UCC churches side step the freedom of following Jesus and layer on so much red tape God’s changing Word can’t find a way inside.
The freedom to follow Christ is Good News. “Turn to me,’ says Jesus. “Turn and be healed.” The demons feeding on our insecurities and shackling us to their rules must be overcome. When the evil spirit’s cry out at Jesus, “Have you come to destroy us,” Jesus didn’t answer, but his actions said, “Yes! Be gone. Stop cluttering my Father’s house. Free my people Israel!” Later, Jesus will chase the evil spirits of greed out of God’s house with a whip of rope. But, today, words are enough. It’s no coincidence Jesus calls his students, his disciples, before he acts. The Good News in action is what God’s about. As followers of this “new teaching,” we must learn to act as well. Polite resignation, hunkering down, or holding tight to what we’ve got invites the evil spirits to move in and take over. Jesus models a new way; stand up, face’em down and fight back! “Don’t be afraid of the unknown,” Jesus tells us. “I am with you.”
We can free ourselves from all the bad stuff out there, if we want to. But, to do it we’ve got to go head on into the chaos; the unpleasant choices, the public disagreements and all the other hard stuff. It’s time to shake off “Wisconsin-nice.” The Good News, we can have power like Jesus, but first stop avoiding the pain, grief and suffering and choose to take a stand. Jesus didn’t avoid bad things, he sought them out. He embraced the challenge, walked right up and stood his ground. The way to Christ is through the bad stuff, not around it.
If we choose to follow Jesus, we too can get through anything standing in our way. Jesus taught with authority. It’s time we stood up and get authorized too.