Lesson: Mark 1:21-28

   Things happen in a rush in Mark’s Gospel.  We’re barely halfway through Chapter 1, and Jesus has already been baptized, called a handful of disciples, spent forty days in the wilderness, and John the Baptist has been arrested.  Now it’s the Sabbath, and Jesus is teaching in the synagogue.  Mark says the people “were astounded” because Jesus taught “with authority.”  What does “with authority” mean?  That he was confident, persuasive, or charismatic?  We don’t know for sure, but I bet there was something authentic about him. 

   No sooner do they get a whiff of this authority when there’s a disturbance.  A man is suffering from possession by an “unclean spirit.”  Some commentators guess the man was mentally ill, but we don’t really know.  It’s probably more fruitful to imagine the impact of this condition on the man’s life.  He’s probably a danger to himself and others.  He’s probably excluded from social interactions with “normal” people.  His family is probably afraid and ashamed.

   Jesus confronts the unclean spirit and restores the man to himself, his loved ones, and his community.  In Mark, it’s the very first major event in Jesus’ ministry.  Matthew, Luke, and John began with different stories.  This tells us what Mark thinks is most important, perhaps even what he believes is the heart of Jesus’ ministry and mission.  Jesus confronts and opposes this unclean spirit, this whatever-it-is that robs the man, his family, and his community of life.  Jesus has just been teaching that the kingdom of God is at hand, and he shows us what that means.  First and foremost, it means that God in Jesus will oppose anything that stands against God’s desire that all of God’s children enjoy health and life in the love and safety of community. 

   A few years ago, North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz wrote a blog for the Huffington Post called, “If I Have Gay Children: Four Promises from a Christian Pastor/Parent.”  It was picked up by CNN and major newspapers.  He described the blog as a “preemptive love letter” to his two young kids in the event that, one day, he finds out they are LGBTQ+.  After two decades in ministry to students and seeing firsthand the incredible damage being done to so many young gay people and their families in the name of God, he felt he needed to speak directly to the faith community; to confront it, if you will.  Here are a couple of excerpts:

   “If I have gay children, you’ll all know it.  My children won’t be our family’s best-kept secret. … Childhood is difficult enough. …  I’m not going to put mine through any more unnecessary discomfort, just to make Thanksgiving dinner a little easier for a third cousin with misplaced anger issues.”

   “If I have gay children, I’ll pray for them.  I won’t pray for them to be made ‘normal.’  I’ve lived long enough to know that if my children are gay, that is their normal.  I won’t pray that God will heal or change or fix them.  I will pray for God to protect them from the ignorance and hatred and violence that the world will throw at them, simply because of who they are.”

   Pavlovitz was inundated with responses.  There was vile profanity and utter contempt from people who called themselves Christians.  There were affirmations as well, but what moved Pavlovitz most were the responses from “the trenches.”  “Sometimes,” he writes, “you read words and they aren’t words; they are more like wounds.” 

   As a result, Pavlovitz felt called to take up a ministry committed to a more healing, more inclusive church.  He writes, “You may need to speak first, so that others who may not have the strength or the opportunity to speak can find their voices.  You and I have no idea of the goodness out there until we seek and speak our truest truth.  Once we do, God lets you see things you’d never see any other way.”

   We may need to speak first.  As Jesus’ followers, we are called to confront anything that stands against God’s desire that all of God’s children enjoy health and life.  How and where we do this is a matter of opportunity and calling, but it certainly includes confronting the larger Church’s ongoing obsession with what’s “clean” or “unclean.” We need to speak so that others who may not have the strength or the opportunity to speak can find their voices.  That is what Jesus did in these verses.  The very first thing, on the Sabbath, in the synagogue.  “You and I have no idea of the goodness out there until we seek and speak our truest truth.  Once we do, God lets you see things you’d never see any other way.”

© Joanne Whitt 2024 all rights reserved.