“Jesus’ Message: You Are God’s Presence”
“Advocacy In The Spirit”
1 Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20
Mark 3:20-35
The good news of Jesus is that we do not need to be held captive by “the powers and principalities” of darkness. My friends, we live in a wonderful time in history right now. Yes, you have good news to share with people who are held captive by the powers of darkness rooted in ethnicity, patriarchy, wealth, division, gender identity, and war. These powers are dark in they are not just. Consider the following illustration of the powers of darkness that cause chaos:
While elaborating on loving one’s neighbor, apologist Michael Ramsden spoke of a colleague who while in Asia asked his audience to close their eyes and imagine peace. After a few seconds the audience was invited to share their mental pictures of peace. One person described a field with flowers and beautiful trees. Another person spoke of snow-capped mountains and an incredible alpine landscape. Still another described the scene of a beautiful, still lake. After everyone described their mental picture of peace there was one thing common in them all—there were no people in them. Ramsden commented, “Isn’t it interesting, when asked to imagine peace the first thing we do is to eliminate everyone else.”[1]
Like the audience imagining “peace,” we too see the locus of the chaos residing in others. We too shut people out in order to have peace.
The chaos others cause can make us angry. For example, it is not just for one group to believe they are superior to another “simply because of skin color or cultural heritage;” to use the power of patriarchy stating that “men should dominate women;” to motivate through the power of wealth, “which roars at us that money gives us life;” to foster through the power of division, “which promotes the binary conclusion of those who are ‘in’ and those who are ‘out’;” to exclude through the power of acknowledging and recognizing only one gender identity, “which claims that any gender identity other than being biologically male or female is not human;” or to flaunt the power of war which asserts that “weapons and killing bring about peace and harmony.”[2]
So much of the conflict in America now revolves around race, patriarchy, wealth, division, gender identity, and war. And people on both sides are angry. When anger takes root, we run the risk of committing blasphemy as followers of Jesus. What is blasphemy? Blasphemy is “Expressing through speech or writing that which is impious, mocking, or contemptuous toward God.”[3] Anger holds us captive with an unforgiving disposition, and behavior. What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is “pardoning or remitting sinful offenses. It restores a good relationship with God, others, or self after sin or alienation.”[4]
In Mark 3:20-35, Jesus entered a house, quite randomly, and a great crowd gathered outside. The scene must have been chaotic. Jesus’ family heard about the chaos, went to encourage and protect Jesus, but the people had concluded that he was out of his mind. Concluding that Jesus was “out of his mind”, is another way of saying, Jesus had an evil spirit. In Jesus’ time mental instability was generally attributed to demonic activity. The charges of the family and of the teachers of the law are designed to stop Jesus from continuing his activity. Jesus was charged with being demon possessed. They called him Beelzebub, which is a euphemism for the Devil.
In response, Jesus addresses the logic of the law of contradiction. He states what was self-evident: if Satan attacks himself, eventually there will be no more Satan left and he would become powerless. But this is not so, Jesus has power. The law of contradiction states that a person or institution cannot be divided against itself. Charged with possession by an evil spirit, Jesus claims to be working not with evil spirits, but with the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in Mark 3:28-29, “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” So, what is the unforgiveable sin? Not believing in God. [5]
At Grace, we aspire to be followers of Jesus who are about remembering, telling, and living the way of Jesus. We want to be the best Jesus someone sees. As followers of Jesus, we worship God not race; God not patriarchy; God not wealth; God not division; God not gender identity; God not war. As followers of Jesus, we are to demonstrate Jesus Christ to the world. In the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus spreads seeds of good news through your words and deeds.
As followers of Jesus, our lives parallel life as it was in the time of the reading in 1 Samuel 8:4-11, 16-20. The elders of Israel were losing confidence and faith in their governmental institutions. Fear and anxiety were at a high level. Samuel was growing old and neither of his sons had the moral or religious leadership of their father. So, the people clamored for what all other nations had, a king. The people thought a king would unify the people, provide a hierarchical structure to enforce the rule of law, and efficiently organize a military to defend Israel against other nations. There is something wrong in human nature that is only rectified in and through Jesus Christ. As John Rollefson notes, “It is not that the imago dei has been erased from our DNA but that deep within ourselves we are not fully what we are meant to be and, what is more, we know it.”[6]
Human choices have real consequences. And more often than not, they reveal who we really are. As Christians, the Holy Spirit advocates for us to take a counter-cultural perspective, one which rejects the transforming of familial love into a kinship loyalty. A kinship loyalty promotes exclusivist ethnic, doctrinal, and nationalist appeals. Familial love, a powerful fellowship with God and others rejects any exclusivist appeal.
In Christ, you are forgiven. Be awakened to God’s grace for yourself and others. You can live, right now, forgiving. Share in word and deed the good news that fellowship with God and one another advocates for the vanquishing of the powers of darkness rooted in exclusivist appeals to ethnicity, patriarchy, wealth, division, gender identity, and war. Amen.
This sermon was preached on the Third Sunday after Pentecost, 9 June 2024
by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh at Grace Presbyterian Church
in the Great Room and Sanctuary in Wichita, Kansas.
Copyright © 2024
Steven M. Marsh
All rights reserved.
[1]Provided by Van Morris in Michael Ramsden’s article “Is Christianity a Matter of Convenience?” (July 29, 2015) as found on www.keswickministries.org.
[2]Some ideas adapted from Nibs Stroupe in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 119.
[3]Donald K. McKim, Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), 31.
[4]Ibid., 107.
[5]In the two paragraphs of textual analysis above, I have benefited from the thinking of Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, J. Scott Hudgins, Eunjoo Mary Kim, Scot McKnight, Dan R. Dick, William Greenway, and David J. Schlafer in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year B, Volume 3 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020), 54-57, 57-58, 59-61, 62-64, 64-66, 67-69 and 69-71.
[6]John Rollefson in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year B, Volume 3, 102.
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