A Gospel Sandwich

Mark 1:21-28

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. 

This Gospel lesson is called an “inclusio” in Biblical studies.  I just call it a Gospel sandwich.  It’s got two slices of “teaching with authority” bread, on either side of an “unclean spirit exorcism” filling.  Mark’s trying to get us to understand that we need to eat it all together… that you can’t take out the filling and just eat the bread and you can’t tear off the bread and just have the filling. 

When I first read this lesson I tore off the bread and just had the filling.  I zeroed in on the unclean spirit stuff and started making my list and checking it twice writing down everyone I knew who was naughty and not at all nice!  I wanted my unclean spirits to cry out “are you here to destroy us” and I wanted to say them “damn straight I am!”  But this lesson is not just about the filling.  Jesus tells us we must eat this sandwich as a whole. 

There’s a popular little quote going around by Rev. Benjamin Cremer that says, “The moment we Christians start looking for an authoritarian “strongman” to lead us is the moment we stop looking for the One who leads by washing feet, who rides a donkey instead of a warhorse, and who tells his followers to put away their swords and take up their crosses instead.”  Right on... but I think he's beating around the bush so he comes across as being as obsessed with the bread as I was with the filling.  Again Jesus insists, we must eat this sandwich as a whole. 

When Mark made this Gospel Sandwich to explain what Jesus was all about, he was letting us know FIRST that from the very top of the sandwich, from the beginning of everything we do… down to the very bottom of the sandwich, to the very end of all we do… Jesus’ teachings hold it all together.  Jesus' teachings are that God’s love is for all of humanity and all of creation… that everyone, from every race, creed, and country has been, and is, being wrapped in a Divine loving embrace that can’t be undone.  That’s the bread, and to be a whole sandwich, we obviously MUST have the bread.  

But this sandwich also teaches that there will inevitably be times when the unclean spirit jumps up and yells, “What have you to do with us?”  This lessons teaches us that those are NOT the times for subtlety or gentleness.  So, “when Christians start looking for an authoritarian strongman to lead us”… that’s not the time to beat around the bush... it's the time to say clearly and strongly that those people have STOPPED BEING CHRISTIAN!  That’s the middle of this Gospel sandwich and to be a whole sandwich… we must have that middle as well. 

By making this lesson into a Gospel Sandwich Jesus is showing us that real, solid, clear boundaries… standing up to, and calling out evil… saying out loud and with clarity that “This behavior is Christian and This behavior is simply NOT”… Those things are NOT outside the realm of love; they are actually an essential part of the realm of love… you guessed it… like a sandwich made of both bread and filling!  This Gospel Sandwich teaches us that dealing clearly and firmly with unclean spirits… calling out a thing for what it actually is with clarity and without hesitation, IS just as critical a part of our calling as followers of Jesus as surrounding everyone we meet (including those with unclean spirits) with God’s Divine love.  Jesus is again calling us to eat the whole Sandwich!  

In my lifetime, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a time where hearing, digesting, and putting into daily practice the lessons of this Gospel sandwich were more crucial.  We are surrounded by men and women whose words and actions end up frankly being best described as those of unclean spirits!  I’m a science guy, as you know, but things are so far gone that the best way I’ve found to describe what they are doing, even in this modern age, is to call it the work of unclean spirits and that makes this Gospel Sandwich a sandwich for 2024!  It calls us to confront the words, actions, and policies of those with evil spirits directly and clearly.  It calls us to remember that Jesus himself calls us in this lesson to use clear and firm boundaries IN ORDER TO love our neighbors.  AND this Gospel Sandwich also calls us to remember, that even those with evil spirits, are also surrounded by God’s unconditional love.

This Gospel Sandwich calls us to practice a kind of love that is not at all watered down.  It is both a love that surrounds all things in this world unconditionally.  And it is also a love that cares so much about our neighbors that, in that love, we will find ourselves compelled to call out their evil spirits for what they are.  To not rely on subtlety to get the message across to them because in love, we want them to be free!

 

Mark built this Gospel Sandwich to help all of us understand those two drastically different looking facets of love, see how they are used by Jesus, AND how they are inseparably intertwined with one another.  Mark built this Gospel Sandwich to then teach us that as we eat, digest, and practice this Sandwich as a whole, we are walking Jesus’ Way.  He built this Gospel Sandwich so that as we eat it as a whole, each day we will find that it becomes easier to reflect God’s love, both in the way that tells the evil spirits to just “shut it” AND in the way that draws those same evil spirits into a love wide enough, even for the likes of them… and therefore, even for the likes of us!  Amen.  

Good News Begins in Baptism NOT in Fear

Mark 1:4-11

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Here we are at the beginning of the year and here we are at what Mark calls, “The Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.  The beginning for Mark happens as Jesus comes up out of the water, and God says “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  For Mark it didn’t start with the manger, shepherds or any angels heard on high.  It starts, with Baptism.  It starts with God saying to Jesus, “With you I am well pleased.”  But well pleased about what?  I mean, up to this point Jesus hadn’t done… well anything!   No healings, no miracles, no walking on water, no water into wine, nothing!  He’s maybe been helping out his step dad with the Goldstein kitchen remodel but that’s not really heaven-opening stuff.  So what has Jesus DONE to make God so pleased with him?  The answer is… NOTHING!  Jesus has done absolutely NOTHING to make God well pleased with him!  And THAT, my non-fundamentalist, Lutherpalian friends, is the WHOLE point!  THAT is what makes this GOOD news!

God is not just pleased, but WELL pleased, simply and only because Jesus is God’s Child… simply and only because they are forever bound together in love.  And here’s why Jesus’ Baptism is not just the Beginning of the Good News for Jesus, but is the Beginning of the Good News for you and me as well… YOUR BAPTISM IS NO DIFFERENT THAN JESUS’ BAPTISM!

When any of us come up out of the water, whether sprinkled, poured, dunked, or hosed down from head to toe… each and every one of us pleases God… not for anything that we’ve done or anything we will or won’t do in the future, but simply because we are, like Jesus, God’s child!  God declares here on earth what has already and always been true in heaven… That God is not just “regular” pleased with you, but “Well Pleased” with you… WELL PLEASED that you and God are bound up together in an infinite and unbreakable love beyond all human understanding. 

Now I know that the “unlimited and unbreakable Divine love” sort of Christianity (a.k.a. genuine Christianity) isn’t the sort that the LOUD and ANGRY people like.  They would rather you live in constant fear that God will be disappointed in you, smite you, or abandon you to hell for all eternity if you poke even one pinky toe outside the lines they’ve drawn.  They want you live paralyzed by worry that “If I fail, if I go the wrong way, if I’m misled somewhere, if anything leads me off the path, then God won’t like me anymore.”  

BUT Mark’s Gospel makes it clear, GOOD NEWS does not begin in FEAR!  GOOD NEWS begins in Baptism and that Good News is that you JUST CAN’T MESS UP BAD ENOUGH FOR GOD TO EVER STOP LOVING YOU!  That GOOD NEWS is that you have been set FREE!  FREE from the worry and fear that God could ever be disappointed in you, smite you, or abandon you to hell for all eternity for poking a pinky toe outside the lines.

Remembering that GOOD NEWS is an excellent place to begin 2024.  A year where fundamentalists, Christian Nationalists, and all the other merchants of fear (who are Legion) will be raising their already loud, angry, and relentless sales pitch to never before imagined levels in this country.  They will be hard-selling their product of “paralyzing fear” to us and our neighbors with whatever it takes:  confusion, hatred, bait and switch, bombast, threats of violence and actual violence as well.  They will be selling this paralyzing fear falsely labeled as “christianity” and trying to get you and your neighbors to believe that the best thing… the faithful thing… for us all to do this year is to stay home, lock the door, keep our heads down, keep quiet, and toe whatever line they draw.  

They are selling it but I’m telling you, “DON’T BUY IT!”  It’s a load of manure!  It’s actually not anywhere near as good as a load of manure.  Manure you can at least compost and put on your garden.  What they’re selling is a toxic sludge no one needs!  They will be selling it loudly and relentlessly this year BUT YOU DON’T NEED IT!  Why?  Because you are Baptized!  Because your Baptism has set you free from all they're selling!  Instead, let us all begin this year with a relentless determination to live into the GOOD NEWS that begins in Baptism and not in Fear!  

What’s that look like?  Well in that department, I think the loud and angry people can actually be quite helpful.  They have become almost perfectly anti-Christ in their positions.  So, if you listen to what they say (and they’re so dang loud you can’t help but here them) and then live into your Baptism by trying different ways to do the opposite, you'll be off to a good start.  When they loudly proclaim hatred, we’ll dream up new ways to be about love.  When they call people vermin, we’ll know exactly the people we need to reach out to in welcome.  When they promote violence, we’ll embrace non-violence.  When they want us to be exhausted, stay home alone, and out of the way, we’ll know we need to get up, gather here, recharge one another for the week ahead and live in the world like the fearless, bold, forever loved, baptized children of God we are!  Let us not make this a year where we are held captive by fear!  Let us make 2024 a year where we live powerfully into the GOOD NEWS of God’s infinite and unbreakable love for all of creation!  After all... WE ARE BAPTIZED!  Amen.