BBQ and Unclean Spirits!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark the 1^st Chapter

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 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.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They 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.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Just about a million years ago now, I was a volunteer firefighter.  One night we went to a fire out in the country… snow on the ground, middle of the night, no moon and it was DARK!  The front yard of this place was filled with old washing machines and cars and who knows what, all overgrown with weeds and bushes and covered with snow… we'll just call it lawn art.  I’m sure their art was nice too, but it did make pulling hose across their yard a bit of a challenge.  We tripped on it, the hose got snagged on it and even though I’m sure they didn’t INTEND to make putting “the wet stuff on the red stuff” hard for us, their “lawn art” did get in the way.  

Both the letter to the Corinthians and this Gospel are about the things that can and do, get in the way of people being able to hear the Good News about Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.  In the Gospel, Jesus was teaching.  We don’t know exactly what, but we know it was some really good stuff because the people were ASTOUNDED!  It was probably the same kind of stuff that he talked about in the rest of Mark’s Gospel… that the Kingdom of God had come near, that God was doing a new thing and that God’s love would change the world into the world God intended it to be AND that we were being called to be a part of that transformation.   In the middle of Jesus’ teaching he got interrupted by a man with an unclean spirit.  That unclean spirit was just like a broken down washing machine between a fire truck and a burning house.  It was in the way.  So it had to be moved.  

In the second lesson Paul was dealing with a different kind of junk in a different kind of front yard, but in the end it too was simply stuff getting in the way of people being able to hear and believe in the same Good News.  Paul, you need to remember, believed he was under a serious time crunch.  He just KNEW every day he woke up that tomorrow... literally TOMORROW... Jesus would be back, and so that meant doing whatever needed to be done today to get that message to as many people as possible.  In this story, the Christians were eating meat that had been used in sacrifices to idols.  For the Christians and for Paul, it didn’t make any difference.  They knew the idols weren’t real, so to them, the meat wasn’t magical, it was just barbecue.  

The trouble though, was that people OUTSIDE the church saw these Christians eating that meat and got confused.  They were thinking that these Christians were BOTH worshiping God AND these idols.  Paul, feeling pressed for time, stepped in and told the Christians that even though YOU know and I know this is just barbecue and not idol worship, for the sake of the Message, for the sake of making things clear to the others who have yet to know God's love for them, the Christians needed to be the ones to bend… they needed to get rid of any junk that might get in the way of people being able to hear the Good News.  Paul wasn't worried about his comfort or about the comfort of the church members who were already followers, it was all about doing whatever was necessary so that NEW people could hear how much God loved them.  Paul didn't think he had time to work on equality and justice issues and nuance… Jesus, he believed would be here TOMORROW, so nothing else was as important or as urgent as getting the Message out TODAY at any cost!

Meat sacrificed to idols wasn’t the only thing that got in Paul's way of delivering that urgent message.  In some places he went, women's head coverings got in the way.  For others it was the idea that men had to become Jewish first (if you know what I mean) before they could become Christian.  For some, women in leadership got in the way and there were many other things as well.   In each case Paul knew the junk people obsessed about didn’t REALLY matter... after all he wrote to the Galatians that, “There is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave nor free, there is no longer male nor female; for all of you are one in Christ.”  So Paul KNEW God didn’t care what you wore on your head BUT, for Paul, if putting on a hat would allow one more person to stop obsessing about hats for a second and focus on the Message... then get a hat!  Because in Paul's mind there just wasn't enough time to have a long discussion about hats first!  If buying your brisket at Hannaford market instead of the idol market allowed one more person to hear about God’s love then shop at Hannaford!  For Paul, it was all about doing whatever needed to be done TODAY because today was all the time they had!

Paul had the right idea… we, inside the Church, need to be the ones to bend for the sake of the Gospel… but he was off a bit when it comes to the timing of Jesus's return.  Because he had the timing a bit wrong, we now know that we can take a little extra time today to confront cultural inequalities instead of giving into them in the fear of running out of time.  We also know today that the specific things that got in the way of the Message in Paul's time aren't the same things that get in the way of people hearing that message today. Where we buy our barbecue will not help or hinder the message for anyone in Augusta today.  Nobody in Augusta today will hear or not hear the Good News based on our choice to wear a hat or not.  Those things aren’t what gets in the way anymore.  Today, though, there are other things that DO get in the way of people being able to hear the message of the abundant life God created us to live.  

Our job as Christians today, isn’t to worry about the specific pieces of junk Paul worried about in his time and in his culture.  Our job as Christians today is to take a REAL, HONEST look at what it might be in OUR time and in OUR culture that right now might be getting in the way of the people of our area really hearing they are loved unconditionally by God.  What junk do our neighbors today trip on... what structures, practices, customs or attitudes make it hard for people out there to hear that they too are included in God's infinite love and God's eternal and abundant life?  What’s the unclean spirit we have that keeps Jesus’ message from being heard out there by all the people we know very well are spiritually hungry?  

You and I have heard Jesus’s teaching with authority.  You and I have been assured in the waters of Baptism of God’s endless love already, so now, like the Corinthians, we are being called to bend so that others might have a chance to hear as well. What can we do? What do we need to stop doing?  How do we need to bend so that someone else can, for the very first time, hear the Good News and KNOW they are loved and accepted by God and by us here in this place?  Amen.