The Demon of Fear

 Looking at the Gospel reading for today,

            it’s one that may be off putting, raise questions 

                        or simply be dismissed as arcane –

            this business of demon possession and exorcism. 

But it needs to be addressed,

            and don’t you want to know how this passage might relate to us?

 

But before I can open the Gospel for you,

            we have to start with the passage from Deuteronomy.

 

This Deuteronomy lesson for today is about making sure 

            that there will be a prophet 

                                    who can bring the revelation of God to the people,

                                    but also someone who will stand between God and them.

Quoting from the passage:

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 any more, 

or ever again see this great fire, I will die.”

 

The people were afraid of getting too close to God.

God is too risky.

 

So the prophet standing between the people and God

            could mediate the risk,

            and could deliver the words but one step removed from direct contact.

 

Such is the typical human response whenever we have an encounter with God.

God is so far beyond us, so much bigger, so much more powerful

            Omniscient, almighty, omnipresent, eternal, transcendent.

Before God we are exposed, so fully known that we are frightened

            because we know that the thoughts of our hearts 

                        are not all sweetness and light,

                        not fully loving 

                        mixed with jealousy, anger, covetousness, striving…

                                    shall I go on?

If there wasn’t a Moses or a prophet standing between us and God,

            we would faint in sheer terror.

 

So the human tendency is to find something to be a protective barrier, 

            a shield between week human flesh and the Divine Presence.

 

For Moses and the Children of Israel it was to build the Tent of Meeting,

            the Tabernacle to hold the Ark of the Covenant 

                containing the stone tablets with the Torah, the Law carved into them

                                                                                                by God’s own finger. 

As the decades and centuries passed,

            the Tent of Meeting was replaced with the Temple in Jerusalem.

As one entered the Temple complex 

            one went from one holy area, the Court of the Gentiles,

                        encircling an even holier space 

                                                where only Jews could enter

                        and this space in turn encircled the holy Temple

                                                where only the men could enter

                                    and housed within this space was the Holy of Holies

                                                where only the High Priest could enter.

 

Do you get the picture?            The way the religion was practiced

            ensured a safe distance between oneself and God through architecture.

 

This is a familiar pattern in all religions, our own included.

 

We design the church building with space between the people and the altar,

            and we put a fence around the altar.

I remember well as a child being told that I dare not go beyond the altar rail,

            for only the priest and the acolyte and the altar guild could go there.

 

Amazing as it may sound 

            how we do church can be a barrier between the soul hungry for God

                        and an encounter with the Holy.

 

So Jesus and his newly minted disciples 

                        - Peter and Andrew, James and John - (from last Sunday’s reading)

            went to Capernaum and as it was the Sabbath went to the synagogue.

 

And Jesus taught in the synagogue,

            and the text says that the people were astonished.

Well, the Greek word here was significantly stronger.

            They were astounded, amazed, overwhelmed –

                        and specifically overwhelmed with fright.

            It is a word that means they were struck out of their wits.

 

If Jesus were the prophet Moses said that God would raise up from among them, 

            then this prophet was no barrier standing between them and God.

This prophet was in effect removing the veil of the Temple

                        that separated the Holy of Holies from before them.

 

So they were talking among themselves about the way Jesus taught,

            that he had an authority of his own,

                        not like the attributed authority of the scribes 

                        that came from their study and their scholarly credentials,

            but an authority that exuded from him and his obvious integrity of being.

 

Now one person in that synagogue, one of the regular “church goers,”

                        a member of the congregation,

            suddenly is yelling at the top of his lungs,

                        “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.” 

This man, unrestrained by the social niceties and norms,

            is saying aloud what is in the dark recesses of every human heart – 

                        the terror of direct encounter with God.

So Jesus liberates this man from that spirit of terror,

                                    that sees its destruction in the presence of the God.

            It must have been quite a scene.            Imagine the gossip afterwards.

 

Here they all were, coming to synagogue week after week,

            and then Jesus shows up and the Kingdom of God has come near,

and their old, familiar, next door neighbor sitting with them in church

            explodes in a screaming fit because Jesus isn’t talking like the rabbis;

                        Jesus is bringing God much too close for comfort.

And Jesus handles it all with such authority

                        that their fellow parishioner,

            whom they probably never would have suspected as possessed by the devil,                                     is relieved of his demon by a word.

 

The people of Capernaum are amazed.

And again that’s another Greek word here that means more than simply amazed.

            Again, they were astonished, awestruck, and, yes, terrified.

 

A new teaching – this time not a teaching of words, 

            rather a teaching that flowed out Jesus, out of his very self,

                        not from the tradition and lineage of the scribes and rabbis,

            but a teaching that removed barriers, 

a teaching that brought them face to face with God.

 

So what is the lesson for us here today?

What are the barriers between us and an encounter with God?

We may even have to ask ourselves,

            what in the way I carry out my religion

                        is actually a protective curtain between me and God

            so that I don’t feel so naked and exposed                 and so fearful?

 

Jesus was not someone people could feel neutral around.

            And if we are not reacting one way or another about him now,

                        we need to check what veil we have put up.

 

My spiritual director once said,

            “We don’t know the extent of our own demons until Jesus shows up.

            Then you know that the love is there in both of you,

            but in Jesus it is free flowing, and in you it is all bound up.”

 

One thing I do know with all my being,

            I know what it is to have that encounter with God

                        deeply personal, yet also beyond personal,

            to realize that I am totally known through and through, nothing hidden,

and at the same time to realize that I am totally loved through and through.

 

This is the Epiphany moment – being known

                                                            and being loved in spite of what is known.

This is the Light event for this Sunday in the Epiphany season.

This Light requires of us a willingness to look directly at that Light.

This Light requires us to face and move into our fears,

            for if we don’t, that slows up this whole healing and reconciliation

                                    that this Light would bring us.

Called to Be Light in the World

 Here on this January day in the Season of Epiphany                                                                    when the liturgical emphasis is on increasing light,

and having affirmed our baptisms last Sunday

            with an intention to live out our baptisms in ministry and service

we have much set before us.

 

I am not just referring to the Annual Meeting coming up next Sunday,

            or to diligently following the steps through the calling process

                        for a new priest for Nativity.

I am also referring to our Christian witness in the world,

            being examples of the light that serves to guide others

                        in the way of love.

We are to be contributing to life for the world around us.

We, as a congregation, are not a closed society, 

                        turned inward to our own needs,

            but in following the words and example of Jesus

                        servants  who, like Jesus, are willing to wash feet,

            as evidence that our salvation with Jesus took.

The world needs Christians like that.

 

The Epiphany theme of increasing light in our scripture readings each week                     starts with a star shining over the baby Jesus

and progresses in increasing brightness to the last Sunday in the season

            with the blinding white brilliance of light in the Transfiguration.

 

First today let us consider for a moment the Old Testament reading,

                        the Hebrew Bible reading .

 

It is the calling of Samuel – and note this: 

            the child did not get to decide his own course.

            It was chosen for him.

Samuel was called to be a servant of God, a prophet to convey God’s message:

            first to Eli, the priest,

            then to Saul chosen as the first king,

            and later to David, the man after God’s own heart.

God called Samuel to be God’s servant and prophet.

 

Maybe we think that we have chosen to be associated with this church,

            that we claim Nativity as our spiritual home

                        and where we so earnestly want to be back together again.

We labor under the illusion of our own autonomy.

There is nothing like a pandemic to disavow us of that notion,

            and stand in the way of our choice to be here today.

So let’s reframe this.

It is because we are drawn by God through Jesus 

            that our hearts are in anguish.

We haven’t recognized that the Holy Place for our Sunday worship

            is first and foremost in the Holy Place of our heart.

The building is a support to our worship

            but not a necessity for worship.

 

On the other hand, like Samuel attending the tabernacle keeping the lamp lit

            where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, 

            where under that holy influence he was open to hearing God’s call,

we also have had the privilege of being in a holy place

            where the reserve sacrament, the consecrated bread and wine,

                         in the tabernacle, like Samuel’s, 

            has its own perpetual light that indicates the Holy Presence.

Coming here puts under the influence of not just architecture, 

            but more importantly under the influence of holy words in the liturgy.

We, like Samuel, have been in a vulnerable place 

            in which we may hear God’s call.

The point is to discern the call and follow,

            not just to occupy the pew, to take the nourishment 

                        but neglect applying that spiritual nourishment to our lives

            so that we can be of use to God.

 

Let’s now turn our attention to the Gospel reading.

 

This is John’s account of the calling of the first disciples,

            and it is far different from the Synoptic Gospel accounts:

                        accounts in which Jesus calls Peter and Andrew, James and John,

            which you will hear next Sunday from the Gospel of Mark.

 

In the Gospel reading for today we are coming in at the middle of a story.

It starts with two disciples of John the Baptist.

            John had pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God,”

and they had headed right off after him,

            drawn by their curiosity or whatever – they are drawn to him.

Jesus asks them what they seek.

            They want to know where he is coming from, what he is about,

            and he says to them, “Come and see.

After spending a short time with him, mere hours

            they are irresistibly drawn in.                        They have been called.

 

Andrew, one of the two, went and got his brother Peter.

Then Philip gets called directly by Jesus.

Philip tells Nathaniel, 

            and Nathaniel has his encounter with Jesus.

 

Note this:  each of them had their own title for Jesus, what they saw in him – 

            Messiah, Christ, Prophet, Son of God, King of Israel.

We are led to believe that these are their Epiphanies of Jesus,

            using that common usage of the word, meaning insight.

But more accurately Epiphany means a shining forth, a manifestation,

            the light of Revelation.

 

Careful reading of the passage shows 

            that Jesus doesn’t respond to any of those titles they give him.

Instead he presents to Nathaniel a whole new image and concept of himself,

                        a new way of manifesting God,

            as a connecting point, between earth and heaven – as a ladder,

a ladder between the created, physical environment we live in 

            and the divine Presence of God.

Jesus reveals himself as “axis mundi,” the point where it all comes together,

            where God and humanity are joined in perfect union,

            where others can then access God through Jesus.

That is the Epiphany moment in this Sunday’s readings.

 

But Jesus had a different title for himself than what everyone else

            was trying to peg on him: his self designation was Son of Man,

                        son of humanity, son of human being,

                                    who then manifests what it means to be fully human.

 

This puts those first called by him on the line – and all the rest of us too,

            because we also are all human beings.

The purpose of discipleship is to fulfill this human being,

            and to become, to live into, to be

                        the manifestation, the epiphany, the shining forth of God.

 

What does fulfilling our humanity look like?

            It is to realize, like Jesus, a perfect self offering to the Creator.

That is fulfilling the discipleship – 

            like Jesus, to become a living sacrifice.

Then the followers of Jesus become a light to the nations.

 

Let me share with you a little of my own calling 

            which eventually led me to the priesthood.

My parents brought my sister and me to church every Sunday.

I was placed under the influence of the Holy –

            the sacraments, the liturgy, the prayer book,

            and a particular stained glass window above the altar

                        depicting Matthew 25, the parable in which Jesus says,

“Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me.”

 

At age 16 I had my Samuel experience of being called.

Like Samuel I found it confusing at first.

            (You remember, Samuel thought Eli was calling him.)

My confusion was that the call I was experiencing 

                                                was like a call to the priesthood,

            but this was 1963 and I was female, not male.

It would be 14 years before the Church caught up with the Holy Spirit

            and opened the way for women’s ordination.

 

The call of God is irresistible.

We have much less of a choice in the matter than we think.

Even your membership at Nativity is not entirely of your own volition,

            and you didn’t come here by accident,

because everyone is potentially a candidate for a discipleship calling

            that can produce a servant useful for being a light to the world.

God is working with each one of us.

 

There is one key ingredient to calling,

            to becoming the shining forth of God in your humanity – the Holy Spirit.

 

Those first called by Jesus followed him throughout all he said and did,

            then went through profound loss and confusion at the Crucifixion,

            and then went through profound confusion and joy at the Resurrection.

But they didn’t fully get it until the Day of Pentecost            

            when the Resurrection Presence of Jesus as Holy Spirit

became an extension of the Epiphany, the revelation and shining forth,

            from the fulfilled humanity of Jesus

            into the Apostles and all those called from then on –

the grace of God working in us to realize our potential as human beings.

 

One might quip, this gives cosmic scope to the expression, “be all that you can be.”

 

But the point is, it is the Holy Spirit at work in us, 

            not our own self-generated efforts,  that makes it possible,

and thank God.

 

The calling is too important to leave it all up to our own efforts.

            God has seen to it, has provided for what is needed.

If you dare, ask for the Holy Spirit to be active in your life, 

            and see what happens.

 

You are called, if you are open to hear it, to be a light bearer,

                        very much needed right now,

            to be like Jesus, each in our own unique ways,

for the sake of the world and to the glory of God.                                    

Think about it.