SCRIPTURE READINGS
God, open us to hear and receive your scriptures today as you would have us hear them, understand them as you would have us understand them, and to act upon them as you would have us act upon them.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
*Scriptures this morning are from the NRSV.
Deuteronomy 18:15-20
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.
This is what you requested of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the LORD my God anymore, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.”
Then the LORD replied to me: “They are right in what they have said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.
Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.
But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak–that prophet shall die.”
Psalm 111
Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.
Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.
He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the LORD is gracious and merciful.
He provides food for those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant.
He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.
They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.
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.
L: The scriptures of God for the people of God.
A: Thanks be to God.
Message – We the People*
Rev. Val
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer, and may you see fit to use me as a vessel from which you pour out your Divine Word.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
I’m not sure if y’all have noticed, but we’ve spent the last three years and seven months really focused on what it means to follow Jesus, what he taught in his three years of ministry, and how we can put all he taught us to work in the world today. We’ve survived some struggles that would have caused many small congregations like ours to give up and close their churches.
And yet, here we still are … three years and seven months later. Together, we’ve taken this beautiful old church that had been left in disrepair and abandoned by her previous congregation and, through your faithfulness, your resourcefulness, your creativity, and God’s gracious blessings, we’ve put her back together and begun to build something so incredibly special here.
I took advantage of being snowed and iced in to do some reading and studying. One of the books I’m currently reading is The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1, by Justo Gonzalez. I’m not going to bore you with a lot of details other than Vol. 1 covers the period from the first century up through the beginning of the Great Reformation. I’m only about 60% of the way through Vol. 1, but I’ve noticed a couple things I want to share with you.
Throughout the history I’ve read so far, there have been numerous disagreements on beliefs to such a degree that the author suggests we should refer to early “ChristianiTIES” … plural. Different areas under different church leaders did things in different ways. Throughout the history I’ve read so far, and I am up to around the 11th century, there have been power struggles within the larger church and between the church and the various empires. Throughout the history I’ve read so far, there have been periods of persecution, often of Christians by others, but also of others and even other Christians by Christians. In other words, the things we’re experiencing today … nationalism, Zionism, dominionism, differing theologies and doctrines … these are not at all something new. They are things we’ve always gone through in some form or another. Even violence and persecution of or by Christians is nothing new.
The other thing I’ve noticed is what, or rather who, was responsible for pulling the church back when it faltered and for holding it together in times of duress or division, sometimes even stepping in and calming entire empires down. Every single time it was someone who was adamantly dedicated to following the teachings of Jesus with as little dogma as possible. Every single time the person who managed to reign in the problems was someone who would remind the larger church both through their words and through their own actions what the Old Testament prophets and Jesus had repeatedly stressed to the Hebrew people. To not build up riches on earth, but to use what you have to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, the stranger. To treat all with justice and fairness. To love God, love others and to teach the true gospel of Christ. The ones who were able to rescue the church and stabilize empires were firm and steadfast in their faith, supporting and helping to improve the lives of the people in the communities around them.
One might call them disciples of Christ. As I read the history, I believe some of them also deserve to be called prophets as most of them didn’t hesitate a lick to call out the ways the church or empires were getting off track, and most of them were reluctant to be put into the positions they found themselves in. Just like the prophets in the Old Testament.
One of the many tasks and opportunities before a community like ours who is working to become the people of God is discernment. As we meet together for worship and fellowship and for learning, we should be listening for the call of God. God will be working within each of us to cultivate gifts and inclinations that lead us into certain roles within the life of the church and our community here. As Paul wrote, “Some are gifted to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). These are roles that the church needs. More than that, they are roles that God has determined are necessary for the church to fulfill its mission.
In our passage today from Deuteronomy, God promises to raise up a prophet from “among your own people,” and one might wonder how that would happen, how they would’ve known who really that prophet was. Or how we would know today.
Does a light go off over someone’s head? Is there a special delivery from the angel Amazoniel with robes of office, complete with staff that turns into a snake? How are these prophets or any leaders identified within the body?
We know from Jesus’ own experience recorded in the gospels that taking a leadership role while among the people who know you best is a difficult proposition at best.
Cries of “Who does he think he is” would ring out or be whispered in small groups of the disgruntled. Glaring looks might be given to the one who dares to rise to the top. Snorts of derision and “anyone but her” might be mumbled here and there. Remember what happened in the synagogue right there in Nazareth? They called him a heretic and threatened to throw him off a cliff!
At least that is what we fear would happen if we dared to respond to the call that is rising within us. Or perhaps we should say that this is the stereotype of what happens. But the truth is often something quite different.
A community of faith can be a supportive incubator for those who discern a call to leadership or ministry of various kinds. Even more, the community can be the means through which some individuals can begin to understand that God is at work within them. When we hear affirmation for speaking out or taking leadership, when we are given encouragement for our attitudes or empathy, when voices tell us that we are good at that or we see your heart in this, one can feel a call from God being confirmed in the life of the individual and in the life of the congregation. I can confirm for you that you seriously feel that when someone you know, you’ve spent time with, you’ve worshipped with rises up to answer a call.
God says, “I will raise up a prophet like Moses from among the people;” this is how it happens in the life of the church. We value the work of outside experts or consultants. They often provide a valuable service and a sometimes-overlooked perspective. But when one of our own … one of We the People stands up to lead or proclaim or to follow a call to ministry, we feel pride and connection – as if all of us have been called to cultivate and train this new leader.
I know that it was the community of faith at my home church that raised me up to the point that I actually let myself hear God’s call on my life. And it’s kind of odd. Done well, done with faith and commitment to treat and love one another as Jesus taught, a community might not even realize the they’ve done with regard to raising up leaders until it actually happens.
I chuckle now and then at my home church, some of whom are struggling with their first ever woman pastor and not quite sure what to think about it, so every now and then I remind one or two of them that, “Why is a woman pastor an issue? You raised two women pastors yourselves, remember?” They usually pause and then nod. “Oh, yeah!” My response to their “oh yeah” is, “Well, you must do good work because they haven’t fired me yet.” And then we all have a good laugh.
It is the work of We the People of God to cultivate God’s call from within.
Of course, it isn’t easy. There are struggles in both discerning and following that call. The Deuteronomy text warns of the latter. You’ve got to get it right. The message you proclaim needs to be the one that gives life and not death. It needs to represent the God we’ve come to know in Jesus, or there will be hell to pay.
And there are those in leadership positions who can and do cause damage with their power and place in the life of the community. Sometimes a leader might speak of another kind of god – like a god of power or wealth, a god of ego or lust – to advance that leader’s own ends. We see it happen all too frequently. And death and destruction are often the result—sometimes after considerable damage is done to the people of God.
We see this kind of adversarial approach in the passage from Mark when the demon asks, “What have you to do with us, Jesus?” It’s that demonic influence that is often behind the failure of a community to follow the authority and teachings of the Christ who calls us to make disciples and, instead, begins to worship false gods.
The encounter with the man with the unclean spirit is certainly the most dramatic part of the passage from Mark. But notice that it begins with amazement about the authority of the teaching of Jesus. “It’s not like the scribes,” the people note.
Jesus’ teachings that day had not been the usual. He didn’t simply recite the traditional teachings of the people of God and various teachers throughout history. This was something new, something immediate. This was a now moment, a responsive moment that Jesus presented to them.
As if that wasn’t astonishing enough, he then shows them what he means in what he’s taught them by healing the man who challenges him, the man with an unclean spirit.
We ascribe the title “demonic” to an incomprehensible evil. And we sometimes use it to avoid responsibility, which is why many of us are reluctant to use a word like “demonic” when speaking of human actions. But it also reminds us that there are “powers and principalities” that are beyond our understanding. It reminds us that there is evil in the world greater than the totality of evil that resides in human hearts.
Our response to such a realization is either to live in fear and suspicion of everyone and everything or to stand against such evil with the power of our Savior wrapped up in the community of faith. One of the questions in the baptism ritual asks parents and sponsors, as well as the candidates for baptism when they are able to answer for themselves, “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?” It is a part of the nature of our faith that we stand against the demonic both in our society and in ourselves.
Sometimes our call is to silence those demonic voices. And the best way to do that is to present a better narrative. We are to tell a better story about how the world can work in God’s kingdom, how the church can represent a better way of being the kin-dom of God. Because shouting and pointing fingers just raises everyone’s blood pressure, it is usually better to bring healing to a broken world with kindness and gentleness. It’s not avoiding confrontation with evil but refusing to play the same games. We do so by standing in the authority of Jesus.
Those individuals in the book I told you I’m reading … the ones who were able to make sense of the chaos, pull the church back from the edge, stabilize the empires? Very few of them started out shouting and finger pointing. The vast majority simply told a better story … rhetoric they often called it … than the ones causing the problem. And they did so by standing in the authority of Jesus. Since it seems to have worked over a couple of millennia, it would make sense it should work now, right?
Like the prophet who comes from within the people of God, sometimes the demonic does as well. We ought to be as quick to call out what is wrong within us and among us as we are to point out how bad things are “out there.”
It has been said that the best advantage we have in our task of evangelism is the church, and, at the same time, the biggest handicap we have thwarting our evangelism is … you’ve got it … the church. We are the kingdom’s greatest asset and worst enemy —at the same time. We are constantly called to, but we are also looking outward, caring for our wider community, inviting, including, and making yet more disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people …” The Lord God will raise up for us a prophet from among We the People. And trust me, folks … prophets never declare themselves such. In fact, they tend to deny it. It’s important to remember that in order to recognize false prophets and, trust me, there are always more false prophets than the one the Lord your God raises up. But we also need to listen with a faithful ear for the real prophets and heed what they say.
Let’s pray:
“God, we trust you will raise up a prophet when you need a courageous word spoken.
Like Moses, and Mama and Auntie and Uncle
You will raise up a prophet from among We the People, your people
Prophets like coaches who care and teachers who pray
For athletes and students like they would their own.
Like barbers and beauticians who
Ask the right question at the right time
Prophets who pull us back to safety before we commit some transgression.
Yes, God, we trust you raise up a prophet to speak your word to us.
We trust that anyone who doesn’t listen will have to deal with You.
And we pray we will have the good sense you gave us to listen!”
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Credits:
- Unless listed below, all works cited within the text above.
- *Adapted in part or full from Preaching Notes, Discipleship Ministries Worship Planning Series.
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