4 Epiphany B 2012

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
January 29, 2012

4 Epiphany B

Our son Slocomb spent a year living and working in Ecuador after he graduated from college. We found that the quickest, most effective means of international communication was the text message. For 20 cents, a message of up to 140 characters can be sent from a cell phone in Springfield, Ohio to a cell phone in Cuenca, Ecuador in a few brief seconds. For another 20 cents, a 140 character response could be received. One hundred and forty characters does not sound like a lot, but we were amazed by how much information could be shared in that amount of space. Since I am a mom, the text messages I initiated were usually a variation on "Are you okay?"or "Where are you?" And the response was usually something like "Traveling. No Internet. Home soon. Love you." Text messages Slocomb initiated said things like "bring cash when you come." The messages may not have provided any detail, but they got the basic message across. Photos would convey more information, and we would eventually hear the stories when we were together. Once we heard the stories, we would have the more complete picture of Slocomb’s experience in South America. But the text messages gave us the basic message that he was okay and gave us tantalizing clues about his adventures.

Mark’s gospel can read a bit like a series of text messages-tantalizing clues but not enough detail to fill out the story. Last week, we heard Jesus say "The Kingdom of God has come near," but we did not get a clear grasp of what the Kingdom of God is, other than that the good news of the Kingdom is so compelling that Simon, Andrew, James and John got out of their boats and followed Jesus leaving everything behind. This morning, we hear that Jesus entered the synagogue at Capernaum and taught. The people were astounded at Jesus’ teaching, for he taught as one with authority, but we are not told what Jesus taught. Wouldn’t you think that would be something important for us to know? The two verses that describe Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue would practically fit in one single text message!

The truth is, Mark has no intention of telling us what the good news is at this point in the gospel. While Mark’s gospel is written with an economy of words that can be frustrating, what the gospel is actually out to do is show us the good news. Since we don’t hear the content of Jesus’ teaching, we have to look at what Jesus does to figure out what Jesus is about. While we are told nothing about the content of Jesus’ teaching, we are told a nice bit about Jesus’ encounter with the man with an unclean spirit. We hear the questions the unclean spirit poses to Jesus. "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." And Jesus says "Be silent and come out of him." And the spirit convulses and departs from the man. Not surprisingly, we are told that Jesus’ fame begins to spread through out Galilee.

Now we have something to work with! From this story, we learn that Jesus engages people that other people, even people of faith, may avoid. We learn that Jesus has power over all that is broken within us. We learn that Jesus’ very words have power-we are not told that Jesus ever touched the man with an unclean spirit. We are told that, somehow, the unclean spirit knew exactly who Jesus was, even if we do not know yet what that means. And we are given a clue that this story is about to take off as Jesus’ fame spreads. In this gospel, Jesus’ actions tell us more about who Jesus is than Jesus’ words do.

In the reading from 1 Corinthians this morning, Paul also gives us some phrases worthy of text messaging. "Knowledge puffs up, but loves builds up." "No idol in the world really exists." "There is no God but one." These are true statements, just as "The kingdom of God has arrived" and "Jesus taught as one having authority" are true statements. Paul’s concern, however, is not that we memorize these as true statements, but that we know how to show them with our lives. In Paul’s case, there is the issue of food sacrificed to idols. How does a community live and eat together when some people believe that they cannot eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols, as most meat was in those days, and others understand that, since idols have no real existence, there is no problem with eating the meat that has been sacrificed to them. That particular issue is not our issue, but Paul’s real point is not about meat. Paul’s real point is how we live together in such a way that people around us experience "love builds up" and "no idol in the world really exists" and "there is no God but one." We may not worry about food that has been sacrificed to idols, but there are no lack of idols available for us to worship rather than God and there are no lack of issues to divide us if we let them.

Jesus came into Galilee and said "The Kingdom of God has come near," then spends the rest of his earthly life showing us what that means. Paul tells us that gospel "sound bites" are nice, but they are not enough. Our lives and our life together tell the real story. Both of these reading call us to think about the way in which our own lives tell the story of what we believe. The question is not whether we can distill our beliefs into a mere 140 character text message. The question is how someone else would describe our beliefs in 140 characters if the only evidence they have is our lives.
Amen.