"A New Teaching"
a condensed version of the sermon delivered by Rev. Kirk Moore on Sunday, February 1, 2009 at Union Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Somonauk, Illinois.

PODCAST of "A New Teaching"

This Morning's Scripture reading is:

Mark 1:21-28

On tour

Every so often I play a concert for a group of children or a group of youth. It’s wonderful fun for me, and, I hope, the audience. And whenever I have a "gig" booked, I update my Facebook music calendar and the ‘iLike’ application that lists me as an ‘artist." When I list an upcoming concert, the iLike calendar shows that I am "on tour." Though I perform very few times in a year, it’s fun to see that I’m ‘on tour’ every so often.

But me being "on tour" isn’t anything, I don’t believe, like it is for ‘real’ recording artists on tour. I think I’d be pretty out of sorts if I had to take off each night and be in a new place most every morning.

I wonder if the first disciples were out of sorts as they were called, immediately followed, and then were out ‘on tour’ with Jesus. They saw him teaching with authority, astounding those listening. They saw him rebuking unclean spirits and casting them out. And more and more they saw that this rabbi they were following was gaining fame every moment.

I think that any measure of fame goes to our heads. I imagine that following Jesus and his growing ‘rock star’ status in the region went, at least a little bit, to the disciples’ heads.

Maybe you heard this morning’s Bible reading and you had no thought of Jesus’ fame at all.

Here are some other things you may have thought about:

The people in the synagogue were astounded at Jesus – he spoke with authority – not like the scribes. Or

Jesus talked to, yelled at and commanded an unclean spirit and it listened to him! Or maybe even

Jesus went to Capernaum.

That last one might be if you only remembered the first sentence of the Bible reading because you drifted off quickly into "what else can I think about?" land.

Let’s – by a show of hands, identify what we thought

Jesus fame?

Jesus speaking with authority?

Jesus and an unclean spirit?

Jesus went to Capernaum?

OK then – we’ve talked about Jesus’ fame . . . and asked these questions:

If you want – think about those questions for the rest of the sermon – tune the rest out. Or – let’s look at this "Speaking with authority" stuff.

In some ways, the ‘Speaking with authority" has some elitist overtones. Jesus – from Nazareth – a town with less reputation than Capernaum – would have been thought to be a simpleton. But when he spoke in the Synagogue, folks noticed and said things like, "Listen to how articulate he is!"

Less than two years ago, then senator Joe Biden said this about a new presidential candidate in the field: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Some took offense, thinking that Senator Biden was talking from an elitist position about someone who should really be perceived as a simpleton from Chicago . . .

This week’s Bible reading shows at least a bit of that elitist –ness as it was directed at Jesus. Folks couldn’t believe someone with Jesus pedigree would be able to say such profound things.

There’s another piece of the "speaks with authority" idea, too. It says "he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."

The scribes would have simply relayed what the true teachers of the day would have said. The scribes, in discussing a religious issue, would have said "Rabbi Hillel says . . . . while Rabbi hammai says . . ." Jesus read the scriptures and then said what he thought. That took authority –or at least a fearless spirit.

If you want – think about those questions for the rest of the sermon – tune the rest out. Or – let’s look at this "unclean spirit" stuff.

The ‘unclean spirit’ places in the Bible make me uncomfortable. In the time of Jesus, folks who were mentally ill were thought to be possessed by unclean spirits. That idea has carried through in religious circles long after medicine has identified mental illness and found ways to treat many forms of it. The "pray away the demon" theology is harmful to folks who suffer from mental illness. I believe that God is capable of healing any illness – and that God has given us the ability to continually find more effective treatments to disease. Merely "praying away the demon" ignores God’s presence in medicine as well as prayer.

What doesn’t make me uncomfortable about this instance of Jesus casting out an unclean spirit is that he did it without any fancy rituals – as the healers of the day would have done – and that when the man was healed the folks "got" that Jesus was something way outside what they’d ever experienced – he was the real thing while others were just pretenders.

So many questions today.

Jesus came and turned the world upside-down. He came challenging his followers to love God and neighbor. He upset the establishment and offered restoration and justice to the outcast.

To us -- all of this is what Jesus calls us to do – but let’s do it with the energy and excitement of a group of followers who have just been inspired with a new teaching.

Close with prayer.

© 2009 Union Congregational Church, All Rights Reserved