|
February 1, 2009 Astonished & AmazedMany of the Gospel readings we’ll hear this year are from the Gospel according to Mark. One of the distinctive qualities of Mark’s Gospel is that it is the shortest of the four Gospels… with very little detail about much of anything. In Matthew, Jesus sits down and explains things to his disciples. In Luke, Jesus tells some marvelous and subtle stories. Mark has much less explicit content. In today’s Gospel, for example, we are told that Jesus teaches, but we aren’t told anything about what he taught. We are simply told that whatever it was Jesus said… and the way he said it… caused astonishment on the part of many, and conflict on the part of one man with an unclean spirit. Now there are times when Jesus’ teaching causes conflict with the authorities and those who are in religious and political power. Here, Jesus causes conflict with the deep, dark demonic powers. Here we learn that Jesus is not simply about doing good to suffering people, as important as that is in his ministry, he is about going head-to-head with the powers-that-be. He is not simply teaching the people at the synagogue about the righteous ways of God; he is also making war on all those powers that contest God’s power. It’s one thing for him to teach with doctrinal authority, as someone who knows correct theology backward and forward. It’s one thing to speak as a very wise person who has wisdom to offer us. It’s another thing to speak with divine authority to those spirits who try to act like gods among us. Note that the man with the unclean spirit cries out, addressing Jesus not only as “Jesus of Nazareth,” but also as “the Holy One of God.” Jesus is a teacher. That is one of Mark’s favorite terms for him. But he is more than that, or at least he is a very special sort of teacher. He is “the Holy One of God.” He was, he is, as much of God as we ever hope to see. When we pause to think about what that means for us… about what is really at the heart of our Christian faith… it is rather astonishing. One evening in the 17th Century, John Wesley, an Anglican priest and scholar,“went reluctantly” to a meeting at Aldersgate Street in London. Wesley had led an exhausting life up to this point, journeying to America as a missionary, working day and night for the good of others, preaching until he was almost spent. At Aldersgate Street someone was reading from Luther’s lecture on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. It couldn’t have been all that engaging… certainly nothing new. And yet,Wesley said that night he came to a belief that “Christ has died for my sins, even mine.” And thus the Wesleyan revival was ignited. It was a revival that was stoked by Wesley’s astonishment that God’s grace was for him. Likewise, Blaise Pascal was one of France’s greatest minds, a great mathematician and philosopher. He had spent his whole adult life trying to make sense of the Bible and its witness. Then, late in the night, November 23, 1654, Pascal wrote in his diary,“Fire! God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. Certitude. Joy. Peace. God of Jesus Christ.” Can you hear the astonishment in his words? We don’t always leave much room for astonishment in our lives today. ..in our worship today. Yet, even Albert Einstein once said,“He who can no longer pause to wonder, is as good as dead.” The last line of today’s psalm says basically the same thing. Verse 11 says,“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding.” Remember, when the Old Testament uses the word “fear” as it does here, it doesn’t mean “afraid,” it means “awe” or “astonishment” or “wonder.” The “awe” of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Those of you who are like I am don’t always appreciate being astonished. We like to have our ducks in a row… be on task… be prepared. While there is some merit to that way of operating, if I do say so myself, there are times when leaving a little room for awe and wonder would serve us well. If astonishment is part of the Christian faith… well, then… we all need to be astonished every now and again. Last week, when I’m thinking about Wesley, and Pascal, the astonishment of the crowd in Mark 1, and the last verse of Psalm 111, I met Tom. Tom is one of the construction crew working on our elevator. One day I very innocently joked with him about wearing his mask in the midst of all the dust. I said,“Just pretend I’m your wife.” (I almost said mother, but I figured he’s as old as I am.) I left that conversation with the feeling that Tom didn’t take this as innocently as I meant it. So the next day, when I saw him in the hallway, I asked him if I offended him, saying that I was only concerned about his well-being. That’s when Tom shared his story with me. Part of his story is that his wife is dead. When she became ill and eventually died,Tom said that his whole life fell apart. He became so depressed that there seemed to be only one way out of his misery. Then,Tom said, something amazing happened. He started having dreams. He would wake up in the middle of the night and words would come to him… words he didn’t use every day… words he had to look up in the dictionary to figure out how to spell, much less what they meant. He said it took him a long time to find the word “countenance” because he kept looking under “c… o… n” instead of “c… o… u… n.” Now he has published seven poems… or we might call them psalms. He has published seven psalms. When the time is right he frames them and gives them away. “I have one in my truck right now for you,” he said. “I’ll get it.” This is what he gave me. (READ IT) There… in the hallway… surrounded by dust… I was astonished. So may it be for all of us. Even as we go about our daily tasks, may we leave at least a little room for awe and wonder. May we, in our dealings with one another and in our worship together, meet Jesus, the Christ, the Holy One of God. And may we be astonished. Gracious God, catch us off guard. Come to us when we least expect it. Allow us to experience your awesome presence, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. |
St. Paul's Lutheran Church § 824 N. Lewis § Waukegan IL |
