GOSPEL READING: Mark 1:21-28
21They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24and 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.” 25But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27They 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.” 28At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

SERMON: The Anxiety Master

A boy was in bed one Sunday Morning with the covers pulled up over his head. His mom came in and said you must get up and get ready for church. “I’m not going,” said the boy, “and I can give you two good reasons why. They don’t like me much in the church, and I don’t like them.” The mother thought about it for a moment. “And I can give you two good reasons why you’re going. You’re 50 years old. And you’re still the pastor.”

You know I told you that joke more than three years ago to begin a sermon entitled “Who’s your partner?” – when we looked at God’s Holy Spirit who is a comforter to each of us. And here I stand before you once again telling this joke about not wanting to come to church. I was tired and weary then. Now I am anxious. Anxious because I don’t know what to say or what to expect as we prepare say goodbye to each other. As we prepare to end our relationship as pastor and congregation member, as pastor and friend.

If only it were that simple, if only I could just pull the covers over my head. If only it were that simple that I didn’t much like the church, that you didn’t much like me.

So here we are looking ahead, staring into the complexity of what we feel. This is what those of us who are members and friends of Knox bring into our sanctuary this morning. There is sadness, perhaps even anger and a sense of rejection and loss.

So here I stand in front of you, wondering does our gospel passage from Mark 1:21-28 have anything to say to us, to our present circumstances? Does this gospel passage that is being read in churches all over the world that follow the lectionary have anything to say to us about the anxiety we feel?

I am using the anxiety word intentionally – for in anxiety is pain, fear, apprehension, and self-doubt – all of these come when one is facing sudden loss. In the very nature of loss is knowledge that it will never be same, for something new (change) is coming.

Jesus steps into the sanctuary and begins to teach. Immediately those listening are astonished. Jesus is not like anything they are used to. How he taught – we don’t have any idea what he said – carried authority. As if the love and care of God were present, to those gathered in the moment.
And then just as suddenly…chaos. A man with an unclean spirit “JESUS, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Have you come to destroy us?”

Isn’t that an interesting choice of words? Have you come to destroy us? Imagine if that were to happen here in our sanctuary this morning? Imagine if someone were to shout out words that give voice to some of those conflicting emotions that are within us? Notice what happens in our story. Jesus doesn’t speak to the person per say, but to something that is within the person.

This is what I want to get at… even though this story of Jesus confronting this unclean spirit within a man in the sanctuary seems so out of place to our understanding (in the Greek the word for unclean is conveying a sense that’s one thoughts and one’s life are not integrated in God’s love and care) I think if we look more closely this scripture does have something to say to us today.
Jesus says to what is inside of this man that would want destroy him, (ironically the man thinks it is God who wants to destroy him) “Be still. Come out.”

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if it were that simple? If Jesus would just say to all that is swirling around us this morning, “Be still. Come out. Be gone.” Our inner voices clamor the loudest when there is sadness or anger, a sense of rejection and loss, suggesting that we won’t make it, that we will go back to the way we were. Isn’t that crazy, the kind of thoughts that come to us – or at least to me – at 4 in the morning?

Perhaps in the complexity of it all, there is a truth that emerges. Jesus has authority over those things in our lives that we think, or feel will destroy us. We are in God’s love and care, and because we have experienced this together in these past three and half years, we will never be the same.

I encourage you to continue to recognize that you are connected with God through Jesus Christ. Continue to live fully in relationship with the One who loves you, and discover strength that is always present to you in your inner life.

Continue to become all that God intended, individually and together, for our sake, and for the sake our world, for the sake of those around us, here in this place, and in our daily lives where God is calling us.

May the comfort of God’s Holy Spirit and the presence of Jesus be near us, as God continues to move us along on this journey of life – love – together.