“Words, Words, Words”

Matthew Sloan - 28/01/20204

Readings - Deut 18: 15-20, Psalm 111, 1 Cor 8: 1-13, Mark 1: 21-28

The Man with an Unclean Spirit

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and 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.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He[m] commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo. I love words and word games. Who enjoys playing Wordle … Quordle … Blossom? Sometimes these games introduce us to a word we have never heard before. Hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo.

Sometimes language can be very confusing. We were reminded of this with a recent trip to the Fringe Festival, when a stand up comedian from India was talking about the confusing nature of the English language. It had to do with the word ‘muggy’. TELL STORY.

The same applies to ‘unclean spirit’. What does this mean? When I was reading different commentators comments on the Mark passage about the unclean spirit, Pastor Dawn refers to some aspects of the bible as being hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo. Hocus pocus is “meaningless talk or activity, often designed to draw attention away from and disguise what is actually happening.

According to the dictionary, mumbo jumbo is defined as: “language or ritual causing or intended to cause confusion or bewilderment.”
Or: “words or activities that are unnecessarily complicated or mysterious and seem meaningless”

Let’s rise to the challenge and consider what ‘unclean spirit’ refers to. To help guide my reflections I have drawn on the work of three people: Pastor Dawn, who has her ‘Beyond Church’ website, Bill Loader and Nathan Nettleton, from the South Yarra Community Baptist Church and their Laughing Bird website.

Unclean spirits are referred to a number of times in the bible. While some understand an ‘unclean spirit’ the same as a ‘demon’ and suggest that people with an unclean spirit are ‘possessed’ and in need of exorcism, this is something that we in the 21st century find hard to relate to. Pastor Dawn suggests that this was not a mental illness, but is a way of expressing something more universal that involves and affects all of us. Sometimes we all become fragmented and at war with ourselves, sticking to bad habits that don’t build others up but pull others down. We hold on to rigid understandings of who is acceptable and who is unacceptable. We judge and stereotype and reject and exclude. We apply our own understandings of who is clean and unclean. The church has been good at this binary thinking over the years. At times, we may have fallen into the grip of forces that overpower us. They stifle us and turn us into angry, fearful, repressive, intolerant, oppositional people. In a way, we all have our unclean spirits. But in spite of this, God still loves us and reaches out the hand of friendship and forgiveness and offers to set us free and welcome us back into God’s family.

The passage in Mark, along with the whole of Mark’s gospel, focuses on Jesus as a teacher. Not any old teacher, but one who transforms! We have a lot of teachers in our congregation. I’m a teacher, a reasonably good teacher – and I even have the mugs to prove it! World’s best teacher, you put the cool in school, but even the world’s best teachers are nothing compared to Jesus!

Teaching is a noble profession. It has you working closely with students, be they children or adults, as they learn and grow in their understanding of different concepts. But it is far more than our words or knowledge – it is the integrity of how we relate to others that forms the deepest impressions and contributes most to the way we shape and guide those who are in our care. If we reject, exclude or disregard people, we won’t be effective. We won’t have an impact. But on the other hand, if what students and others mostly see and experience in us is welcome and love and compassion and inclusion, that can have a real impact.

In this passage, we need to ask, as Marcus Borg encourages us, why did the writer tell this story this way? This story opens Jesus’ teaching ministry and we learn that those who were there were astounded at Jesus’ teaching. Astounded can be translated as ‘amazed and in a state of panic’. I can only recall one subject that causes students to be in a state of panic and it is health, when we teach about puberty. One boy a few years ago found it so confronting that he had his head in his hands on the desk, refusing to look at the slide on the PowerPoint.

But what did Jesus teach? The author of Mark does not specify, although we need to remember that he wrote the book looking back over the whole of Jesus’s ministry and what he taught over a number of years. Bill Loader points out that we can only guess what he must have taught, but the main point is to look at the effects of his teaching. It amazed and put people in a state of panic. Amazement I can understand, what what could both amaze and put people in a state of panic? A message that disturbs the status quo. A message that challenges our lives and our lifestyles but that frees people from what enslaves them. A message that turns our world upside down and rids us of our unclean spirits and liberates us.

The challenge we face, Pastor Dawn asserts, is that our way of life is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. “Love your neighbour as you love yourself” is one thing, but loving our enemies? Really? If someone asks for your coat, give them your shirt also?  Really? Non-violent resistance in the face of violent oppression?  Really? The realm of God is at hand; the first shall be last and the last shall be first?  Seriously?

If we seriously look at the teachings of Jesus, life as we know it changes radically. There is something to panic about.  Our whole way of life is turned upside down. The kind of love that Jesus talked about is not the sweetness and light that we desire. Radical love is astounding, terrifying, panic inducing.

Jesus’ life and teachings, if we listen and take heed, are radical. If we really know who Jesus is, if we really believe that Jesus is a holy man, and we have the courage to take his teachings seriously, then we ought to panic. Radical LOVE, the kind of LOVE that Jesus talked about is not the sweetness and light that we desire. Radical LOVE is astounding, terrifying, panic inducing stuff.

According to the author of Mark, Jesus responds to our panic but not in a comforting way. His response: “Be quiet!” Pastor Dawn states that the Greek is clear , it is more accurately “Shut up!” “Be quiet” just doesn’t capture the mood. “Shut up!”

Shut up and come out of yourself. Come out of your selfishness, come out of your obsessive fixation on your own needs. Come out of the madness that threatens the planet. Come out of your insistence that violence is the only answer. Come out of your endless greedy obsessions that perpetrate injustice. This is all insane! Come out of your insanity.

Is this actually possible? Jesus managed it. Jesus loved so greatly and taught so clearly and courageously that he was able to set people free. In Jesus we have seen a glimpse of what is possible. Jesus was LOVE in the world.

“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” Everything. We need to be courageous and come out of ourselves to become LOVE in the world, living and teaching in word and deed all Jesus has taught us. Because when we do this, amazing things happen.