In the community of the Church, Christ comes to us and brings healing and life, through the grace we are with each other, and even directly in healing hearts and minds; let’s let this news get out so more and more can know!

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
   The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, year B
   text:  Mark 1:21-28

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

That must have been some day in the synagogue.

Into the place of prayer and learning came a man possessed of an unclean spirit.  Challenging the young rabbi who was teaching there, he shouted all sorts of things at him, including calling him the Holy One of God.  Then the rabbi, Jesus, commanded the spirit to be silent, and drove it out. It was quite a day in the synagogue.  The conversations over dinner afterward must have been animated.

Many of us know exactly what it was like.  A couple years ago this happened in our worship.  A woman came in from the streets, and during the offering walked to the front.  She splashed herself with water from the font, which was on the chancel steps.  Then she began bathing her head in the font.  A couple members stood with her, and let her do this for a while, until the offering was concluded.  When they then tried to help her move to a seat, she became agitated, shouting, kicking, falling to the floor.  She eventually was helped out, continuing to scream and kick.  We also had a Gospel reading concerned with possession that day; many were struck by the connection.  Conversations at our dinner tables that noon were also pretty animated.

We could have used Jesus’ authority, his power to heal, that day.  That poor sister left here and was taken to a psychiatric ward, but there was no immediate healing we’re aware of.  Does this story in Capernaum offer any hope for us today, or is it irrelevant to our modern concerns and reality?

To start with, we aren’t sure about this talk of spirits, if it’s even something we can believe.

When we look at the stories of Jesus’ healing, some of the things ascribed to “demons” or “unclean spirits” look an awful lot like things we describe medically today.  Epilepsy, depression, addiction, anxiety, even schizophrenia and others.  We can see how people of Jesus’ day would call these demons.  We even use that word at times.  These afflictions are real, and many struggle with them.

But there is this: even without a clinical diagnosis we can feel as if there are thoughts bothering us that come from outside.  It’s human reality that we all can have these negative voices in our heads telling us we’re not good enough, raising our anxieties, causing us to fear, lots of unhelpful messages.  When they become so strong we can’t cope, we seek diagnosis and help from doctors.  But in a very real sense these can feel like outsiders, even if we don’t call them “unclean spirits.”  They may very well be spirits.  They may not.  But we can’t easily rid ourselves of them.

Every single one of us is at one place or another in need of spiritual and mental healing.  There really isn’t any such thing as normal.  That’s our connection to this story.

Our problem is that Jesus was able to heal this man with a word, immediately.  That isn’t something we often see today.  But it’s what we wish we could experience.

The good news is, we already know part of Christ’s answer to this problem.  It’s why we’re here.

When that woman went to the font, she was not alone.  From the one, then two who initially stood with her, to the health professionals who came forward to help, to those who helped her in the lounge area after she left, this community surrounded her, even in the anxiety she raised in us.  Afterward, every single person I heard ask or speak of this was concerned about her, how she was, hoping and praying she would be OK.  Some tried to visit her in the hospital, but weren’t permitted.  She experienced a community in Christ who wanted to love her.

That’s what we all come here to find as well.  That community of faith is part of the authoritative teaching that so astonished the synagogue.  Mark doesn’t tell us here what Jesus taught.  Matthew, however, inserts three chapters of Jesus’ teaching between Mark’s verses 21 and 22 (the first and second verses we heard today); we call these chapters the “Sermon on the Mount.”

Powerfully, in those teachings Jesus describes a new community of faith based on trusting God to provide all things, and setting aside anxiety.  A community that prays for and loves enemies, instead of seeking revenge.  A community shaped by humility and peacemaking, that looks out for the meek and lowly.  A community that considers anger and hate as destructive as murder.  A community so shaped to love, people would refrain from worship if they had something outstanding against another, and go and repair what was broken first.

That’s what Jesus taught with authority.  That’s the gift of community he gives to his followers, and it’s central to the healing he offers us today.

When we see each other with the same concern and compassion we had for that woman who came among us, pray for each other in the same love, we find the power of Christ’s healing.

When we understand that each of us is broken, each has pain and suffering, be it spiritual, mental, or physical, and that our greatest gift is that we are with each other to love each other through it, we find the power, the authority, of Christ’s healing.

In Christ we are made into a community that doesn’t fear depression or anxiety, addiction or post-traumatic stress, any more than we fear headaches, so we can help each other face such pain.  In Christ we are made into a community that doesn’t fear cancer anymore than we fear a broken leg, so we can help each other in our fears.  In Christ we are made into a community that isn’t afraid of spiritual emptiness or heavy guilt, but sees them as other things, like all the rest, that we can support each other in and bring to our God for healing.

That’s the authority, the power Jesus has as Son of God: he declares what it is to be together as his Church, what it looks like, and empowers us to do it.  And so gives us healing.

But deeper healing is also possible through the authority and power of Christ Jesus.

What happened to the man in the synagogue is also happening today, even if we don’t see it as dramatically.  It might take decades, but God is constantly working in us to bring wholeness.  We might not see the completion of it in this life, but God is constantly working in us to heal.  Opening our eyes to see that all of us are broken and struggling opens our eyes to the ways in which God brings healing.  People do get better.  Sometimes we need the perspective of thirty, forty years, but we can see it if we look.  Healing of the spirit and heart does come.  We even have therapies and medicines that can help mental illness in powerful ways.

Even if the thing we think is the main problem doesn’t get healed as we hope, we still find healing from the grace of God, so we cope better, so we see the joy of abundance from God even in our pain.  That’s healing, too.  Because Jesus has risen from the dead, even the final illness, death itself, cannot harm us, which changes how we live in this life and see everything.

Best of all, in Word and Sacrament we worship the Triune God who loves and forgives and restores us, and are fed and blessed to find abundant rich life no matter our circumstances, a healing we receive each and every time we gather together.

“What is this?” they asked in Capernaum.  “A new teaching – with authority,” they answered.

This is why we gather each week, why we hope in this life: the Triune God has come into this world as one of us in Jesus the Christ, with the authority and power to heal all that ails us, everything.  In this community we are given each other to help in our journey of faith, to pray in times of need, to love us through whatever we’re facing, and in this community we are healed.

Like those first believers in Capernaum, this is astonishing to us.  But we’ve seen it.  We know it is so.  And so we are sent to proclaim this Good News to everyone we can, to embody Christ’s healing in this community, to welcome others always into it, so that more and more can know the same hope and healing we know.

It’s too astonishing, to good, to keep to ourselves.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

In the community of the Church, Christ comes to us and brings healing and life, through the grace we are with each other, and even directly in healing hearts and minds; let’s let this news get out so more and more can know!

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
   The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, year B
   text:  Mark 1:21-28

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

That must have been some day in the synagogue.

Into the place of prayer and learning came a man possessed of an unclean spirit.  Challenging the young rabbi who was teaching there, he shouted all sorts of things at him, including calling him the Holy One of God.  Then the rabbi, Jesus, commanded the spirit to be silent, and drove it out. It was quite a day in the synagogue.  The conversations over dinner afterward must have been animated.

Many of us know exactly what it was like.  A couple years ago this happened in our worship.  A woman came in from the streets, and during the offering walked to the front.  She splashed herself with water from the font, which was on the chancel steps.  Then she began bathing her head in the font.  A couple members stood with her, and let her do this for a while, until the offering was concluded.  When they then tried to help her move to a seat, she became agitated, shouting, kicking, falling to the floor.  She eventually was helped out, continuing to scream and kick.  We also had a Gospel reading concerned with possession that day; many were struck by the connection.  Conversations at our dinner tables that noon were also pretty animated.

We could have used Jesus’ authority, his power to heal, that day.  That poor sister left here and was taken to a psychiatric ward, but there was no immediate healing we’re aware of.  Does this story in Capernaum offer any hope for us today, or is it irrelevant to our modern concerns and reality?

To start with, we aren’t sure about this talk of spirits, if it’s even something we can believe.

When we look at the stories of Jesus’ healing, some of the things ascribed to “demons” or “unclean spirits” look an awful lot like things we describe medically today.  Epilepsy, depression, addiction, anxiety, even schizophrenia and others.  We can see how people of Jesus’ day would call these demons.  We even use that word at times.  These afflictions are real, and many struggle with them.

But there is this: even without a clinical diagnosis we can feel as if there are thoughts bothering us that come from outside.  It’s human reality that we all can have these negative voices in our heads telling us we’re not good enough, raising our anxieties, causing us to fear, lots of unhelpful messages.  When they become so strong we can’t cope, we seek diagnosis and help from doctors.  But in a very real sense these can feel like outsiders, even if we don’t call them “unclean spirits.”  They may very well be spirits.  They may not.  But we can’t easily rid ourselves of them.

Every single one of us is at one place or another in need of spiritual and mental healing.  There really isn’t any such thing as normal.  That’s our connection to this story.

Our problem is that Jesus was able to heal this man with a word, immediately.  That isn’t something we often see today.  But it’s what we wish we could experience.

The good news is, we already know part of Christ’s answer to this problem.  It’s why we’re here.

When that woman went to the font, she was not alone.  From the one, then two who initially stood with her, to the health professionals who came forward to help, to those who helped her in the lounge area after she left, this community surrounded her, even in the anxiety she raised in us.  Afterward, every single person I heard ask or speak of this was concerned about her, how she was, hoping and praying she would be OK.  Some tried to visit her in the hospital, but weren’t permitted.  She experienced a community in Christ who wanted to love her.

That’s what we all come here to find as well.  That community of faith is part of the authoritative teaching that so astonished the synagogue.  Mark doesn’t tell us here what Jesus taught.  Matthew, however, inserts three chapters of Jesus’ teaching between Mark’s verses 21 and 22 (the first and second verses we heard today); we call these chapters the “Sermon on the Mount.”

Powerfully, in those teachings Jesus describes a new community of faith based on trusting God to provide all things, and setting aside anxiety.  A community that prays for and loves enemies, instead of seeking revenge.  A community shaped by humility and peacemaking, that looks out for the meek and lowly.  A community that considers anger and hate as destructive as murder.  A community so shaped to love, people would refrain from worship if they had something outstanding against another, and go and repair what was broken first.

That’s what Jesus taught with authority.  That’s the gift of community he gives to his followers, and it’s central to the healing he offers us today.

When we see each other with the same concern and compassion we had for that woman who came among us, pray for each other in the same love, we find the power of Christ’s healing.

When we understand that each of us is broken, each has pain and suffering, be it spiritual, mental, or physical, and that our greatest gift is that we are with each other to love each other through it, we find the power, the authority, of Christ’s healing.

In Christ we are made into a community that doesn’t fear depression or anxiety, addiction or post-traumatic stress, any more than we fear headaches, so we can help each other face such pain.  In Christ we are made into a community that doesn’t fear cancer anymore than we fear a broken leg, so we can help each other in our fears.  In Christ we are made into a community that isn’t afraid of spiritual emptiness or heavy guilt, but sees them as other things, like all the rest, that we can support each other in and bring to our God for healing.

That’s the authority, the power Jesus has as Son of God: he declares what it is to be together as his Church, what it looks like, and empowers us to do it.  And so gives us healing.

But deeper healing is also possible through the authority and power of Christ Jesus.

What happened to the man in the synagogue is also happening today, even if we don’t see it as dramatically.  It might take decades, but God is constantly working in us to bring wholeness.  We might not see the completion of it in this life, but God is constantly working in us to heal.  Opening our eyes to see that all of us are broken and struggling opens our eyes to the ways in which God brings healing.  People do get better.  Sometimes we need the perspective of thirty, forty years, but we can see it if we look.  Healing of the spirit and heart does come.  We even have therapies and medicines that can help mental illness in powerful ways.

Even if the thing we think is the main problem doesn’t get healed as we hope, we still find healing from the grace of God, so we cope better, so we see the joy of abundance from God even in our pain.  That’s healing, too.  Because Jesus has risen from the dead, even the final illness, death itself, cannot harm us, which changes how we live in this life and see everything.

Best of all, in Word and Sacrament we worship the Triune God who loves and forgives and restores us, and are fed and blessed to find abundant rich life no matter our circumstances, a healing we receive each and every time we gather together.

“What is this?” they asked in Capernaum.  “A new teaching – with authority,” they answered.

This is why we gather each week, why we hope in this life: the Triune God has come into this world as one of us in Jesus the Christ, with the authority and power to heal all that ails us, everything.  In this community we are given each other to help in our journey of faith, to pray in times of need, to love us through whatever we’re facing, and in this community we are healed.

Like those first believers in Capernaum, this is astonishing to us.  But we’ve seen it.  We know it is so.  And so we are sent to proclaim this Good News to everyone we can, to embody Christ’s healing in this community, to welcome others always into it, so that more and more can know the same hope and healing we know.

It’s too astonishing, to good, to keep to ourselves.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

Saul had spent his life persecuting Jews who believed in Jesus, and so was the unlikeliest of disciples. He experienced Jesus, and everything changed. We are all unlikely disciples in need of conversion so we can live out our faith, and through the grace of God this becomes our way of life.

Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
   The Conversion of St. Paul
   Texts: Acts 9:1-22, Psalm 67, Galatians 1:11-24, Luke 21:10-19

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

By all counts, Saul was the last person anyone would have expected to carry the news of Jesus. Of course, God has always been inclined to call unlikely people to be prophets and leaders. Look at Moses–he murdered someone and ran away, and then God called him in the burning bush to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. Esther was a young, unknown Jewish girl called to save her people from a plot to kill them. And Jesus called fishermen and tax collectors to be his disciples, not exactly people of means and authority and high reputation. But Saul. Saul, unlike Moses or Esther or the disciples, was not merely unknown or disreputable, he was far worse. He had put all of his passion and energy into seeking out, torturing, and killing the People of the Way, Jews who believed in Jesus. It kind of makes you wonder, what was God thinking, calling Saul to be a disciple?

Ananias certainly wondered, and he asked God if he was really being sent to Saul, the one who killed followers of Jesus. He must have felt that he was being sent into the lion’s den. Saul was said to have been breathing murder as he walked the road to Damascus, and Ananias was, after all, one of the troublemakers Saul was planning to arrest! It was an incredible act of grace, going to proclaim forgiveness and healing to someone who wanted to kill him.

So, why Saul? Well, why not Saul? Because here’s the thing: Saul wasn’t really evil, although he certainly did some evil things. He did not set out to fight God, or torture people for his own benefit. The truth is, in all the time before Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus, he was absolutely, passionately convinced that everything he was doing was essential to preserve the Jewish faith that he loved. Saul believed he was right, and was doing exactly what God wanted him to do, and he had no idea how wrong he was.

Saul needed conversion. He was heading the wrong way, and needed to be turned in the right direction. When Jesus came to Saul on the road to Damascus, he showed him the truth of his own sin and his need for forgiveness. Jesus changed his direction, telling him exactly where he had gone wrong, and what he needed to do next. Saul needed to follow Jesus, and just to make his point perfectly clear, Jesus struck Saul blind so he would understand that without God, he would never find his way.

We all need conversion. No matter how sure we may feel that we are on the right path, every one of us have our blind spots, and in that blindness we move away from God and hurt those around us. We serve meals to those who are hungry, and leave people in our family starving for attention and love. We treat co-workers with respect all day, and cut off the driver next to us on the way home. We come to worship on Sunday and pray for peace in our community, and ignore the web of violence, fear, and unjust treatment that is a part of daily life for so many. We really aren’t so different from Saul. We all need conversion. In the end, we are all unlikely disciples.

If conversion were as simple as making a statement of faith or belief, that would be easy. But conversion is more than that. Conversion, as Saul experienced it, is a process of seeing the truth, changing direction, and following Jesus. And, because we are human and will never be perfect, conversion is not a one-time deal. Seeing the truth, changing direction, and following Jesus needs to become a way of life, and it is not easy.

God told Ananias that Saul would learn that conversion involves suffering. Oscar Romero describes sin as sore spots that hurt when someone touches them, and tells us, “You have to treat that. You have to get rid of that. Believe in Christ. Be converted.”  We see the truth, and it hurts. But as long as we stay in our blindness, refusing to see the truth and change, we will continue on the same path Saul was on before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, hurting ourselves and others without ever realizing it.

The invitation of Jesus is a call to believe that change, even though it is hard and painful, is possible. No matter how far off the path we may fall, God can show us our sin and bring us back. God does this work through this community of faith. Hearing the word of God in scripture and preaching and music in our worship can help us see where we have gone wrong, call us to follow Jesus, and remind us of the grace and love of God. We can share the joys and struggles of our lives with one another, and learn to be humble, acknowledging that we are all human and none of us are perfect. We can practice conversion as a way of life, admitting when we have harmed someone and becoming willing to change. And, as Ananias showed us, we can be supportive of one another, offering truth, forgiveness, and grace when others struggle.

Conversion, then, is not a “way into the church.” It is a way of life that makes it possible for unlikely disciples like us to live out our faith in all areas of our lives. The faith that we share propels us into the community, calling for us to see the truth of how we have supported racism, poverty, and other forms of oppression, even if it is only by our silence. We are called to see the truth, hear the stories, and become willing to change and act so oppression ends.

As we go through our day, our faith opens our eyes to those that are too often invisible to us—the people in line with us at the grocery store, the server at the restaurant, the person checking us in at the doctor’s office. We see how easy it is to look through or past them, and offer only our frustrations and judgments, while never knowing their name. We respond to the call of our faith to treat everyone we encounter as children of God, first.

Our faith guides how we treat our parents, our siblings, our partners, our children. We open our hearts to see the truth of the ways we fall short in our relationships with the people we are closest to, and grow in our ability to love, support and forgive.

Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus changed everything for him, because it called him to act in new ways. As unlikely as it was that Saul should become a believer in Jesus, God made it possible. Our experience of Jesus should change us, too. It is not easy to see our weaknesses and acknowledge how we have hurt others, and become willing to follow God more closely, but this is what our faith is all about. We are not so different from Saul, after all. We all need conversion, so we can fulfill our call to live out our faith. The message of God’s grace, love, and forgiveness is much greater than our weaknesses, and in order to share that with the world, God uses even the unlikeliest of disciples.

Thanks be to God!

Saul had spent his life persecuting Jews who believed in Jesus, and so was the unlikeliest of disciples. He experienced Jesus, and everything changed. We are all unlikely disciples in need of conversion so we can live out our faith, and through the grace of God this becomes our way of life.

Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
   The Conversion of St. Paul
   Texts: Acts 9:1-22, Psalm 67, Galatians 1:11-24, Luke 21:10-19

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

By all counts, Saul was the last person anyone would have expected to carry the news of Jesus. Of course, God has always been inclined to call unlikely people to be prophets and leaders. Look at Moses–he murdered someone and ran away, and then God called him in the burning bush to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. Esther was a young, unknown Jewish girl called to save her people from a plot to kill them. And Jesus called fishermen and tax collectors to be his disciples, not exactly people of means and authority and high reputation. But Saul. Saul, unlike Moses or Esther or the disciples, was not merely unknown or disreputable, he was far worse. He had put all of his passion and energy into seeking out, torturing, and killing the People of the Way, Jews who believed in Jesus. It kind of makes you wonder, what was God thinking, calling Saul to be a disciple?

Ananias certainly wondered, and he asked God if he was really being sent to Saul, the one who killed followers of Jesus. He must have felt that he was being sent into the lion’s den. Saul was said to have been breathing murder as he walked the road to Damascus, and Ananias was, after all, one of the troublemakers Saul was planning to arrest! It was an incredible act of grace, going to proclaim forgiveness and healing to someone who wanted to kill him.

So, why Saul? Well, why not Saul? Because here’s the thing: Saul wasn’t really evil, although he certainly did some evil things. He did not set out to fight God, or torture people for his own benefit. The truth is, in all the time before Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus, he was absolutely, passionately convinced that everything he was doing was essential to preserve the Jewish faith that he loved. Saul believed he was right, and was doing exactly what God wanted him to do, and he had no idea how wrong he was.

Saul needed conversion. He was heading the wrong way, and needed to be turned in the right direction. When Jesus came to Saul on the road to Damascus, he showed him the truth of his own sin and his need for forgiveness. Jesus changed his direction, telling him exactly where he had gone wrong, and what he needed to do next. Saul needed to follow Jesus, and just to make his point perfectly clear, Jesus struck Saul blind so he would understand that without God, he would never find his way.

We all need conversion. No matter how sure we may feel that we are on the right path, every one of us have our blind spots, and in that blindness we move away from God and hurt those around us. We serve meals to those who are hungry, and leave people in our family starving for attention and love. We treat co-workers with respect all day, and cut off the driver next to us on the way home. We come to worship on Sunday and pray for peace in our community, and ignore the web of violence, fear, and unjust treatment that is a part of daily life for so many. We really aren’t so different from Saul. We all need conversion. In the end, we are all unlikely disciples.

If conversion were as simple as making a statement of faith or belief, that would be easy. But conversion is more than that. Conversion, as Saul experienced it, is a process of seeing the truth, changing direction, and following Jesus. And, because we are human and will never be perfect, conversion is not a one-time deal. Seeing the truth, changing direction, and following Jesus needs to become a way of life, and it is not easy.

God told Ananias that Saul would learn that conversion involves suffering. Oscar Romero describes sin as sore spots that hurt when someone touches them, and tells us, “You have to treat that. You have to get rid of that. Believe in Christ. Be converted.”  We see the truth, and it hurts. But as long as we stay in our blindness, refusing to see the truth and change, we will continue on the same path Saul was on before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, hurting ourselves and others without ever realizing it.

The invitation of Jesus is a call to believe that change, even though it is hard and painful, is possible. No matter how far off the path we may fall, God can show us our sin and bring us back. God does this work through this community of faith. Hearing the word of God in scripture and preaching and music in our worship can help us see where we have gone wrong, call us to follow Jesus, and remind us of the grace and love of God. We can share the joys and struggles of our lives with one another, and learn to be humble, acknowledging that we are all human and none of us are perfect. We can practice conversion as a way of life, admitting when we have harmed someone and becoming willing to change. And, as Ananias showed us, we can be supportive of one another, offering truth, forgiveness, and grace when others struggle.

Conversion, then, is not a “way into the church.” It is a way of life that makes it possible for unlikely disciples like us to live out our faith in all areas of our lives. The faith that we share propels us into the community, calling for us to see the truth of how we have supported racism, poverty, and other forms of oppression, even if it is only by our silence. We are called to see the truth, hear the stories, and become willing to change and act so oppression ends.

As we go through our day, our faith opens our eyes to those that are too often invisible to us—the people in line with us at the grocery store, the server at the restaurant, the person checking us in at the doctor’s office. We see how easy it is to look through or past them, and offer only our frustrations and judgments, while never knowing their name. We respond to the call of our faith to treat everyone we encounter as children of God, first.

Our faith guides how we treat our parents, our siblings, our partners, our children. We open our hearts to see the truth of the ways we fall short in our relationships with the people we are closest to, and grow in our ability to love, support and forgive.

Saul’s experience on the road to Damascus changed everything for him, because it called him to act in new ways. As unlikely as it was that Saul should become a believer in Jesus, God made it possible. Our experience of Jesus should change us, too. It is not easy to see our weaknesses and acknowledge how we have hurt others, and become willing to follow God more closely, but this is what our faith is all about. We are not so different from Saul, after all. We all need conversion, so we can fulfill our call to live out our faith. The message of God’s grace, love, and forgiveness is much greater than our weaknesses, and in order to share that with the world, God uses even the unlikeliest of disciples.

Thanks be to God!