Remembering the Past...
        Planning the Future

    Park Christian Church
                                                                    (Disciples of Christ)

February 1, 2009

Scripture:         Mark 1:21-28

Sermon:           “A Commotion in the Church”

            Boy, I was really preaching one Sunday morning.  It was, for me, one of those sermons that just came together and seemed to flow without effort into the ears of my congregation.  A different congregation.  This was a church that I served before moving here.  But, I was really preaching.

            I had these inflated images of Peter at Pentecost.  You know what happened that day.  He launched into this exquisite exegesis of scripture to show all of these people how the man Jesus was the fulfillment of all that had come before.  Something else to behold.  The Bible says that about three thousand people were added to the church that day.  Now, that’s a sermon.

            And this sermon I was preaching, I thought, might just rival Peter.  It was a small church in a small town.  Three thousand people weren’t going to get baptized that day.  But, I was holding out hope for a few.

            Now, you go back to Midway, Kentucky some day.  And you ask them about the sermon on that particular Sunday.  And do you know what they’re going to recall?  They won’t say a word about what the preacher said.  Instead, they’ll say, “Oh, that’s the day that there was a bat loose in the sanctuary!”  Did you hear that?  There was a little rat with wings flying all over the place right as the deacons were marching down the center aisle for the Lord’s Supper.

            It fluttered in from the attic.  And you know how bats fly.  It’s a disorganized thing.  Probably has something to do with bats being blind.  I don’t know.  But, it dove down in a bombing run over widow’s row.  It circled over the choir with a menacing maneuver.  People were jumping up like they do in Pentecostal churches.  And over in Midway this church is the kind where nobody ever said “Amen” or clapped their hands.

            That’s what they’ll remember from that day.  I promise you that.  Eventually, by the way, somebody got a broom to shepherd the poor bat out the door.

            You get a commotion in the church every now and again.

            I’ve heard a story about a preacher catching the sleeve of his robe on fire.  Standing right there at the Lord’s Table, breaking the bread and whatnot, reciting the holy words of the institution, when his sleeve got too close to the candle.  Suddenly there was smoke and fire and words that a preacher should avoid speaking in church.  He was flapping his arm all around frantically, you know, and the flame just kept getting bigger.  The pianist had a glass of water next to her bench and she came over rather calmly and doused it.

            Do you think anybody remembers that sermon, either?

            Jesus had one of those days, too.  Nobody remembers what he said.  Probably had a good sermon prepared, too.  That’s the way it goes.  But, he was right there in worship, opening up the word of God for the gathered faithful, when somebody up and disturbed the whole thing.  It’s right there in Mark’s gospel, in the first chapter.  Says he was preaching.  But, it doesn’t say a word about what he said.  Read it with me.  It’s on page 47 in the New Testament.  Verses 21 through 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.

            Even Mark couldn’t tell you what Jesus was preaching about that day!  It was quite a commotion in church that morning.

            You’ve got this man standing up, yelling and screaming and such.  I guess that would cause quite a stir.  And Jesus was really in a groove, too.  Said that folks were astounded at whatever it was that he was teaching.  They probably don’t remember.  But at the time they were astounded.  Much better than the scribes.  A good guest preacher will do that, you know.  She’ll make you forget about all the other weeks when you are fighting to keep your eyes open.

            But, there was a commotion in the church that morning.  Had this man carrying on in the aisle.  And it wasn’t like somebody was there visiting for the first time and just didn’t know what this place was all about.  Every now then, you know, you’ll get somebody who’s used to worshiping in one way wind up in a place where they worship in another way.  And they’re ready to respond to the word of the Lord, but that’s not the way it goes in that place.

            I grew up in one of those cathedral kind of churches.  Marble and hard wood everywhere.  Big, booming organ.  And the routine was generally to arrive in your Sunday best, sit down for awhile, stand at the appropriate moments, sit back down, and listen.  It was kind of a spectator sport, I guess.  But, being in the heart of the city meant that we’d have visitors wandering in pretty often.

            One morning there was this woman who’d clearly not received the memo about being respectable in that place.  She kept standing up and waving her hands while we sang.  And then there was this one man, rather unkempt to be honest.  And he kept saying things like “Yessir!” and “Preach it, brother!”

            Being from the South, you might think this was commonplace.  It wasn’t.

            But, that’s not exactly what happened to Jesus.  It wasn’t some out-of-place but courteous expression of worship.  Oh, no.  This was a disaster.  And the good folks of Capernaum were at a loss to deal with it.  I mean the ushers didn’t even budge from their seats in the back.  They were frozen stiff!

            This man had a demon.

            What do you make of that?  He was controlled by an unclean spirit, as Mark puts it.  Something had control of his mind and his body.

            Here’s what this demon made happen—right there in the middle of the sermon.  Don’t any of you get any ideas, either.  He cried out!  I don’t know if Mark means that the demon cried out or if it was the man.  But, that’s what happens when something’s got a hold of a man like that.  He cried out.  And he cried out right at Jesus.  In the middle of the sermon.  “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?”  And he’s got this finger stretched out in the air, pointing towards Jesus.  “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”

            You could’ve heard a pin drop in that place.

            Now, it strikes me that all of these folks in church that day were wondering just who this man Jesus was.  The local boy made good, the son of the carpenter from Nazareth.  Sure, they knew all of this.  But, they didn’t have a clue what it all meant.  They were astounded at his teaching, but they couldn’t connect the dots and see that God Almighty was making a visit to them in this man.

            It strikes me that the demon knew.  Good folks in church?  They didn’t know.  The demon knew.  The demon said, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”

            And doesn’t it happen that way?  A whole lot of folks outside of the church know better what the church is supposed to be about than we do inside sometimes.  What a mess.  Folks outside know that God’s supposed to help people in a church.  Sometimes the people in the church don’t know that.  Folks outside the church know that God’s teaching about peace, and compassion, and respecting the creation God has made.  But, you know.  Not everybody in the church is aware of it all of the time.

            Sometimes there’s somebody who’s so messed up and under the control of God-knows-what that the only place they can imagine will give them some kind of healing is the church.  And we’re concerned with what folks look like when they get here.

            The demon was the one that recognized Jesus.  Folks in the place that day?  The good church-going folks?  They didn’t see it.

            Maybe it’s tricky business to have the Holy One of God around.  I’ve heard all kinds of things about the sort of folks that seek him out.  And if we’ve got this Jesus of Nazareth around here, chances are they might show up, too.

            This one man had AIDS, or leprosy, or something terrible like that.  The story goes that he came seeking him out.  And he was begging Jesus, pleading with the man.  “If you choose, you can make me clean.”  Keep reading the story.  You’ll read it.  And Jesus did choose.

            Another one was paralyzed.  Had all of his friends carry him to a house where they cut open the roof of the place so that they could lower him down in there where Jesus was.  They came looking for him.  Outside the church, they know what it’s supposed to be about.  And there he was inside this house with a hole in the roof.  You know that didn’t go over too well.  And when Jesus told the man his sins were forgiven, folks inside scoffed and howled.  So, Jesus did them all one better and told this paralyzed man, who’d broken a big hole in the roof, to get up and walk.

            They remember that day, I tell you.  The man walked out on his own.  Keep reading the story.  You’ll see.

            Oh, all kinds come looking for the Holy One of God.  You wouldn’t believe it.  The kind of folks that come looking for healing where Jesus is has others saying the most terrible things.  He’s a glutton.  He drinks with alcoholics.  He’s possessed by a demon himself.

            I mean you ever heard what folks say about a church with an Alcoholics Anonymous group meeting there?  Goodness.

            Folks who’ve been pushed aside, beaten up, cheated on.  They know something about this Jesus, too.  More than some of us right here.  And sometimes they’ll come looking for him.  And some of them aren’t victims.  Some of them take advantage of others, you know.  Bad reputations.  But, they come looking for him.  We who are inside the church don’t always know what to do when it happens.

            Worst seemed to be this one Easter Sunday.  Of all days, you know.  Easter Sunday.  And everybody’s there all dressed up.  New dresses.  New hats.  Some women in white gloves.  Little boys wearing clip-on ties.  The choir is rehearsed.  The sermon is polished.  Lilies are blooming all over the chancel.  And somewhere during the pastoral prayer this fellow wandered in.  Came right down the center aisle.

            He was a mess.  He had this hair, you know, that was some unnatural color sticking all up in the air.  Had piercings in his ears, his lip, his eyebrows.  That’s all I could see.  And tattoos, I tell you.  Tattoos down his arm like he had on long sleeves.  Big, colorful tattoos.  Hearts.  Daggers.  Skulls.  Snakes.  Just remarkable.

            And heads kept popping up during the prayer to get a load of this guy.  He made his way all the way to the front where there were some empty seats in front of the pulpit.  That’s the place I call the strike zone.  Right in front of the preacher where people are afraid to sit.  But, there, everybody could see him.

            And, then, during the next hymn, this big, burly usher came slowly down the front aisle.  We called him Ike, which sounded tough.  Big man.  Straight-laced.  Served in the Marines.  And nobody ever crossed Ike.  He had one of those jarhead haircuts, you know.  Served decades ago, but still had the hair.  And Ike walked with purpose all the way down to where that young man had taken a seat.

            And you wouldn’t believe this.  Big ‘ole Ike stood over this guy for a couple of seconds.  And then he plopped right down beside him.  Just the two of them sitting there in the strike zone.  And Ike was opening the hymnal for him, showing him where the song was.  Later, he was opening up the pew bible so that they could read it together.

            And you know after the service, down in fellowship hall where everyone was having coffee, I saw Ike standing there with that guy, his sleeve all rolled up.  And Ike was showing off his tattoos.  One of those Marine-style bulldogs.  The Marine insignia.  Semper Fi.  All of that, and a few you would quite believe.

            You never know who’s gonna show up, I guess.  Not when the Holy One of God is in the place.

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)