Today’s Deuteronomy reading describes how God will replace Moses as spiritual leader of the people. Leading up to this Moses has told them that they are not to indulge in magic of the Canaanites; God demands complete loyalty and will not permit occult practices. Now God, through Moses, promises: to help them remain loyal, he will “raise prophets (like Moses) from among the people.”
In our reading from 1st Corinthians Paul is dealing with a major controversy about wether eating meat offered to a pagan god is ok. Paul’s view is that since no other god exists but Jesus and his Father, how can one be upset by foods offered to idols. But, one is not to let this knowledge make them arrogant, that would be sinful. They are not to let this insight become a scandal for people of “weaker” hearts. You gain noting by eating such food and loose noting by abstaining from it. The point being, members of a Christian community need to extend support to each other not cause one another to fall.
Today’s gospel story has many layers to it. Capernaum was a prosperous town on the Sea of Galilee. A synagogue was the place people met to worship and study the Jewish faith. Anyone with sufficient knowledge could teach so an invitation opened to a new comer was common. Most Rabbis would quote scripture and even other teachers as a support for their teaching. Jesus impressed the people with his independent teachings. Jesus speaks directly, confident of his own “authority.”
The “man with an unclean spirit” brings in one of Mark’s themes that will continue though out his gospel. The secret or hidden Messiah. The devil, speaking through the man he has possessed recognizes Jesus true identity and challenges his meddling in the domain of evil. He recognizes that Jesus’ coming spells the end of the devil’s power. Jesus silences him before he can reveal the secret. Wonder-workers of the day healed using ritual or magic, but Jesus preforms the exorcism simply through verbal commands.
Do we recognize his power for healing in our lives? Or is that something that only happed back in the bible days. Could he intervene in the natural order today and work mysterious things for us? Dare we reach out for such miracles and still trust that God will do right by us even if our prayers are not answered the way we expected or wanted?.....
Personally I believe that the power of modern medicine, which removed the prostate cancer from me, is one of God’s miraculous healing gifts to humanity. Perhaps the mysterious hand of God has been behind amazing moments of healing in your life as well.....
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You can find a collection of my past preaching efforts on the web site of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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